ReJesus A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church
ReJesus A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church
ReJesus asks the following questions:
* What ongoing role does Jesus the Messiah play in shaping the ethos and self understanding of the movement that originated in him?
* How is the Christian religion informed and shaped by the Jesus that we meet in the Gospels?
* How do we assess the continuity required between the life and example of Jesus and the subsequent religion called Christianity?
* In how many ways do we domesticate the radical Revolutionary in order to sustain our religion and religiosity?
* How can a rediscovery of Jesus renew our discipleship, the Christian community, and the ongoing mission of the church?
These questions take us to the core of what the church is all about. Rather than reformation, the authors call their task re-founding the church because it raises the issue of the Church's true Founder or Foundation. This theme is of particular importance at the dawn of the twenty-first century as many attempt to address Christianity's endemic and long trended decline in the West. The authors feel that a spiritual, theological, missional, and existential crisis looms in the West.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars A great read for those trying to live in the ways of Jesus
This morning I finished reading ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. To start with, I want to thank Hendrickson Publishers for sending me a copy of this book. It was very kind of you and I pray the best for you and your business.
I figure the best way to do book reviews is to write excerpts from the book that stood out to me. I am not sure what you the reader likes to read, so I will just put parts of this book that I like to read and that caused me to think. The following are excerpts from ReJesus that I hope inspire you to move and to order this book.
"How can we call ourselves Christian unless what we are doing is built squarely on the rock of Jesus and takes it's direct agenda (and direct cues for its organizations and lifestyle) from him." Pg. 65
"Observers should be able to encounter Jesus in and though the life and community of his followers. People observing us aught to be able to discern the elements of Jesus' ways in out ways. If they cannot find authentic signals of the historical Jesus through the life of his people, then as far as we are concerned they have the full right to question out legitimacy." Pg. 79
"Jesus reveals God to us. God does not reveal Jesus to us. We cannot deduce anything about jesus from what we think w know about God; we must deduce everything about Godfrom what we know about Jesus." Pg. 132
"We need to pickle ourselves in the gospels. They must become out primary stories and reference point. There is no truer way to encounter Jesus afresh than prayerfully cycling through the Gospels and asking God to give us fresh insight into the remarkable person we find there. We must give our hearts, minds, souls, to the one around whom history turns." Pg. 162
"To be sure, we do not like gatherings (speaking of church services), of strangers who never meet or know each other outside of Sundays, who sit passively while virtual strangers preach and lead singing, who put up with second rate pseudo-community under the guise of connection with each other, who live different lives from Monday to Saturday than they do on Sunday, whose sole expression of worship is pop-style praise and worship, who rarely laugh together, fight injustice together, eat together, pray together, raise each others Children together, serve the poor together, or share Jesus with those who have not been set free." Pg. 172-173
As you can see, this book is about ReJesusing the church of Christ. It is a challenging look at how we are living out our faith in Jesus in our daily lives. I really liked this book. It is a bit technical, but it will carry you and open your eyes to the Church that Jesus prayed for and died for. I hope you enjoy.
5 Stars Let's "ReJesus" the Church!
ReJesus, by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, is a book about seriously studying the Gospels in order to reform the Church into the image of Jesus Christ. Too often, especially in the USA, the Church has been made into the image of predominant culture. The same can be said of Jesus Himself. We create God in our image. in ReJesus Frost and Hirsch confront us with the Jesus of the Gospels, who is wilder than our Judeo-Christian culture would like. The Jesus of the Gospel means business.
I recommend this book. The illustrations and comparative studies in the lives of radical Jesus followers are also to be commended.
5 Stars A Much Needed Book
The church is much like a jet airplane. There is an enigmatic power about a jet as it roars across the sky using its power to accomplish its mission, to reach its destination. Now imagine that jet, with all of its power, suddenly void of its instruments, void of its compass. In that scenario, not only does the jet become useless, it becomes dangerous. The church minus Jesus is like the jet minus its instruments. Sadly, this is the state of much of the church today–useless and dangerous. The church, as strange as it may sound, is in need of Jesus. In ReJesus, Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch provide the church with exactly what it needs…Jesus.
In a quick two hundred pages, Frost & Hirsch weave together theory, stories, examples, and diagrams that cause you to think, listen, dream, and pray. Above all, they cause you to question the place of Jesus in your ministry. Is Jesus the center of all that you do? Is he the source of mission? Is he the life of your community, or has Jesus been pushed to the margins in favor of other lords, such as religion or Christ-less theology? Having read previous books by both authors, I'm convinced that this book is the most important because it is about the most important topic of all. For those interested in missional church, this book serves as a welcome reminder that apart from Jesus there is no mission nor church. I will be using this book for years to come as we train leaders and church planters for mission.
4 Stars Moving to Missional Through the Restoration of a Wild Jesus
This book is from the authors of "The Shaping of Things to Come." "The Shaping" dealt with the practical methodology of missional outreach. "ReJesus" builds on this foundation with more of a theological framework. The major premise of the book was the need to "reJesus" the community or the world. The authors mean by this that a restoration of the true image of Christ must be presented to people. The authors feel that culture has made Jesus into a weak figure, and the missional church must reclaim the forceful Jesus of the Gospel. The chapters are interesting, especially the section about the development of artwork portraying Jesus throughout the centuries. There was also great insight into the nature of Jesus in regards to the nature of man. A person's concept of Christ is often tied to baggage from the past or misconceptions of the nature of God. A great quote is "Tell me about your Jesus, and I can tell you about yourself." There is a lot of truth to this. We too often make Jesus in support of whatever we deem important. This book might not give more ideas on doing missional evangelism, but it will provide great material and support for some of the missional projects within the congregation. An interesting read.
4 Stars Great Book, Wrong Subtitle
Like everything by Frost and Hirsch, this is a great book, and well worth reading. However, I didn't give it five stars for one tiny reason – the subtitle was misleading.
Maybe it's just me, but the subtitle of the book "A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church" led me to believe that the book would show the wild side of Jesus in the Gospels, and how we, as followers of Jesus, can live more like Him in our world.
The book did a great job explaining why we should study the gospels and learn to live like Jesus, but didn't do a great job explaining how Jesus was wild, or how we could study the gospels to discover the wild Jesus.
Glimpes of the wild Jesus did come through. On pages 109-110, for example, they retold the story of Jesus confronting the demoniac near Gadara. It got my blood racing as I realized how wild Jesus really was in that situation! This is what I thought the book was going to contain.
Once I realized what the book was really about, I really enjoyed it, and would highly recommend it. The message it contains is sorely needed in Christianity today.
And who knows? Maybe Frost and Hirsch will come out with another volume entitled "ReJesus: reReading the Gospels for a Missional Church."
Related posts:
- Confessions of a Reformission Rev – Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church, The Leadership Network Innovation
- Wild Goose Chase – Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God
- Wild at Heart Discovering the Secret of a Mans Soul
- Wild at Heart – Discovering the Secret of a Mans Soul
- Finding Organic Church – A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Sustaining Authentic Christian Communities
- A Generous Orthodoxy- Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post-Protestant Liberal Conservative
- Lets Get Biblical – Why Doesn't Judaism Accept the Christian Messiah
- Gardening at the Dragons Gate – At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World
- The Messiah Before Jesus
- The Externally Focused Church
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