A long time ago Avery Dulles wrote a book: Models of the Church. In more recent years Aubrey Malphurs wrote a book: A New Kind of Church: Understanding Models of Ministry for the 21st Century.
Do you see the difference in the two titles? Models of the church versus models of ministry. When I first read Dulles' book it was intriguing and helped me to figure out if I approached the church as institution, mystical communion, sacrament, herald or servant. What I appreciate now about Malphurs' book is his use of models for ministry. It sounds so much more active and relevant. When I think about model of the church I can't help but think about a building.
Even more important is when you actually read Malphurs book he lays it all out for the church in this day and age. The world does not understand what the church is about and has a host of negative images of us. We are dying and unless we make some dramatic changes in how we do ministry the end is near.
I highly recommend this book as a good read for those who are struggling to be in ministry in 2011 when the church is stuck in the modern world and the rest of the world has moved on to postmodern. The beginning is a bit of a downer with all the statistics but he has some good things to think about.
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