Thursday, February 15, 2007
- NTS Connection
Something is changing. Experienced pastors recognize that things are different when compared with their start in ministry. Women and men just entering pastoral ministry struggle to know how they might function in a church culture which seems out-of-sync with their own identity as the first postmodern generation. Many people in both groups have found helpful insights in the emerging church conversation.
The emerging church is a broad term which describes those who are exploring what it means to be the church in a postmodern culture. Administrators and faculty at NTS have been in dialogue with denominational leaders on the subject. Through the NTS Center for Lifelong Learning, a group of 14 Nazarene pastors, professors, and denominational leaders are involved in an online discussion this summer with the intent that a book manuscript will result. They are exploring such issues as Christology and what it means to be incarnational in our culture.
NTS will host a conference October 24-26, 2006— Missional Leaders in an Emerging Culture—to provide a venue where people can explore important issues facing the church.
NTS recognizes that the context in which many of our graduates and students serve is changing. We will continue "to prepare women and men to be faithful and effective ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ" as they proclaim the good news to a world in transition.
Are you curious to learn more about the ideas and concepts that are part of the emerging church dialogue? Below are a few suggested resources.
Hendrikus Berkof, Christ and the Powers (Herald Press, 1977)
Thomas Cahill, The Desire of the Everlasting Hills (Random House, 1999)
Paul Wesley Chilcote, Recapturing the Wesleys’ Vision: An Introduction to the Faith of John and Charles Wesley (InterVarsity Press, 2004)
Rodney Clapp, Peculiar People (InterVarsity Press, 1996)
Tim Conder, The Church in Transition: The Journey of Existing Churches into the Emerging Culture (Zondervan, 2006)
Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005)
Eddie Gibbs & Ryan Bolger, Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures (Baker, 2005)
Joel B. Green, Beginning with Jesus: Christ in Scripture, The Church and Discipleship (Abingdon Press, 2004)
Darrell Guder, ed. The Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America (Wm B. Eerdmans, 1998)
Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, Resident Aliens (Abingdon Press, 1996)
Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations (Zondervan, 2003)
Mark A. McIntosh, Discernment and Truth: The Spirituality and Theology of Knowledge (Crossroads Publishing Company, 2004)
Brian McLaren, A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey (Jossey-Bass, 2001)
Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus (W Publishing Group, 2006)
Reggie McNeal, The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church (John Wiley and Sons, 2003)
Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus (Crossroads Publishing Company, 1993)
Alan Roxburgh, The Missionary Congregation, Leadership and Liminality (Trinity Press International, 1997)
Alan Roxburgh, The Sky is Falling !?! Leaders Lost in Transition (ACI Publishing, 2005)
N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is (InterVarsity Press, 1999)
John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1994)