Product Overview
The nucleus of the church’s vocation is to join the Spirit in giving
communion in Christ to others, in the form of new Christian communities,
for the benefit of the world. But can the church be a welcome gift?”
In Giving the Church leading ecclesiologist Michael Moynagh draws
together recent thinking from the worlds of ecclesiology and missiology
with significant sociological work on the idea of ‘gift’, to provide a
much-needed theological rationale for some of the key missiological and
ecclesiological movements in today’s church.
Part 1 reworks some of the big themes in ecclesiology from this giving
perspective - the nature of the church, the four marks, the
visible/hidden church and inclusion/exclusion. Part 2, meanwhile, draws
on the extensive literature on gifts to offer an ethical framework for
giving the church to others, and uses this framework to provide fresh
readings of liberationist, herald and eucharistic models of the church.
It concludes by arguing that giving the church away can be a route to
making the church a more attractive gift.
Revd Dr Michael Moynagh is a
nationally recognised missiologist and ecclesiologist. He has an
international speaking and consulting ministry on new forms of church,
which includes being a consultant to the Church of England’s Greenhouse
initiative. Associated with Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, he is author of
numerous books including Church for Every Context and Church in Life.