James V. Brownson, Inagrace T. Dietterich, Barry A. Harvey, and Charles C. West, StormFront: The Good News of God. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003.
Referenced in:
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
StormFront is part of the Gospel and Our Culture Series. It offers a discerning analysis of the features of contemporary American culture that are at odds with the radical reorientation of the gospel, and discusses the challenges this presents for Christians as they seek an authentic and transformative witness in this context. The authors express these challenges in five threads, which also form the organizational pattern for the chapters:
1. We live in an ever-swirling storm. The coming reign of God, now entered into our affairs in the person of Jesus, sets in motion the collision of systems of rule and authority. It is along such a storm front as this that the church finds itself called into being and implicated on the side of what God is still steadily and faithfully intending for the world, a world in which there is “more at work than the force of evil.” And that is an encouraging thought.
2. We live in a contest of allegiance. Decision. That is the critical matter put before everyone we meet in the Gospels when they come face to face with Jesus. Not a decision about what might be in one’s rational self-interest. But a decision about what now must be done “with the time that is given to us.”
3. We live in a life and death communion. The ordinary path of life for Christ-followers is one of deep inner rootedness in the life and death of Jesus. It is the good news of God that we are welcomed into the dying and rising of Jesus, by which he faced the evil and defeated even the final enemy, death. That sharing in Christ is what carves out the shape of the calling, the mission, the sending of the church.
4. We live at the intersection of powers. Subtle or not so subtle, direct or indirect, overt or covered with layers of pretense, the powers of our world represent profound patterns of resistance to the power of God, coming as it has in the form of a cross. Cross-bearing resistance comes in the form of pity, not vengeance; mercy, not violence; life-giving in place of death-dealing.
5. We live in a crucible of practices. Christian practices, churchly practices, are the implication of all this for the life of the church. But not merely practices in the sense of organizational activities. Rather, radical, even subversive, practices are called for, practices that Jesus anticipates in what have been called the Beatitudes. “Stray but a little…. Hope remains while the Company is true.” (ix-x)
The final chapter presents an excellent application of the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount as they
“turn a spotlight on those who are the special objects of God’s determined action, those who will participate in the wholeness and goodness of life within the reign of God. They present a portrait of a disciple community living within – performing the gospel, a community committed to basing its life on the promise of God’s kingdom. This is what the life of those who stand in the salvation time of God is like, of those who are freed from the power of Satan, and in whom the wonder of discipleship is consummated.” (108-109)
StormFront holds an appreciate audience among missionals. The authors come from Catholic and mainline Protestant groups, aligned with organizations such as the Center for Parish Development, the Gospel and Our Culture Network, and Allelon, many of them having been at the forefront of the missional conversation from its inception.
From the Publisher
How does one authentically hear and live out the gospel in North America? This new book attempts to answer this question in a way that reveals much about the nature of Christian faith today and its relation to contemporary culture.
In keeping with the aims of the acclaimed Gospel and Our Culture series, “StormFront” investigates how the gospel intersects American culture and seeks to reorient the church to its full and proper missional vocation. Four authors noted for their understanding of modern church life offer a sober yet hopeful critique of American culture that focuses on consumerism and the privatization of religion, and they challenge the Christian church to embrace its corporate task to be salt and light to the world.
Amid the many books on the subject, this one is distinctive in its concern for application. By constrasting contemporary life with a thoroughgoing reading of the biblical narrative, the authors help American Christians discern how our cultural location makes it difficult to live out the transformative message of the gospel. Few readers will fail to be engaged by the lessons offered here.
***For additional information on this resource, including reviews, click the bookstore links. Check the reference at page top or the links below for resource guides on related topics.***
See Resource Guides on Related Areas:
- Missional Perspectives, Introduction
- Missional Church Resources, Introduction and Index
- Church Leadership and Renewal, Index to Resources
See Resources on Over 100 Areas of Ministry Leadership: