How can Christians effectively engage today's world while staying true to Scripture? Calling us to listen well to both the Word and the world, John Stott shows how Christianity can preserve its authentic identity and remain relevant to current realities. With the God's Word for Today series, pastor Tim Chester has updated Stott's classic book The Contemporary Christian and made it accessible to new generations of readers.
In The Church, Stott presents a biblical portrait of the church as a covenant community at the center of God's purposes. Keeping in view both the ideal of what God intends and how we fall short, Stott considers how the church can be sensitive to current needs and societal issues, mobilize people for mission, seek holistic renewal, and promote healthy leadership. Each chapter includes stories, practical suggestions, and questions for reflection or discussion.
People are hungry for transcendence, significance, and community. This is the great challenge and opportunity facing the church—will we cooperate with the Spirit so that others can find what they seek in Christ and his people?
"Vintage Stott, with all that that implies. In it, as usual, we find him digesting and deploying a wide range of material with a symmetry matching that of Mozart, a didactic force like that of J. C. Ryle, and a down-to-earth common sense that reminds us of G. K. Chesterton. It is really a pastoral essay, a sermon on paper aimed at changing people . . . an outstandingly good book." J. I. Packer, in Christianity Today
John R. W. Stott (1921–2011) served many years as rector of All Souls Church in London, where he carried out an effective urban pastoral ministry. A leader among evangelicals in Britain and the United States and around the world, Stott was a principal framer of the landmark Lausanne Covenant (1974). Stott's many books have sold millions of copies around the world and in dozens of languages. His best-known work, Basic Christianity, has sold two million copies and has been translated into more than sixty languages. He has also written eight volumes in The Bible Speaks Today series of New Testament expositions.
