What is the church called to do, or rather what is the mission of the church? Is it discipleship or good deeds? As Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert resolve these two issues, they also want to make sense of the terms social justice, shalom and the great commission. DeYoung and Gilbert are both pastors, authors of different books and involved in mercy ministries.
This book has been written for all Christians who may be asking themselves this question. Christians either involved in the life of the church directly by serving as a pastor, church staff or are Christian business men or stay at home mums who are equally eager to understand what they have been called to do as the church.
Kevin and Greg write that the Gospel (Christ’s death for sin and his subsequent resurrection) should be of uttermost importance. They would want to release Christians from the false guilt of the church being responsible for the problems in the world or fixing the world’s problem. They make it clear that the goal of the church is to make disciples for Christ, help Christians understand and appreciate the Bible story-line, thinking critically about the specific text and lastly for Christians to remember that there is something worse than death and better than human flourishing.
This book is relevant as it addresses the many problems, we see in many churches today, some think they have a specific mission which is different to the church next door. This book has helped me appreciate the main mission of the church which is the making of disciples for Christ which also tags along the taking care of their immediate needs which we ought to do, first to our immediate context as it flows outwardly depending on our resources.
This book has challenged me to hold the church responsible to its first mission more than the other goals it can set, if the church doesn’t make disciples for Christ then it fails in its central mission even if it achieves all the other goals such as building schools and helping the poor in the world. You may also take the challenge and read this book, see what you think about these opinions after reading this mind-reforming, and heart-changing book.
This book review has been written by Eugene Omukala. Eugene is a second year apprentice serving in GracePoint Church, Kikuyu.