From the Ground Up: New Testament Foundations for the 21st-Century Church [Paperback]

J. Scott Horrell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2004

A back-to-the-basics look at what it means to be the church—defined by the New Testament rather than by culture or tradition. Suggests that the customs, patterns, and structures of our churches may actually be barriers to God's purposes. (20050501)

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Ground Up offers a compelling challenge to local churches to measure all programs and structures in light of God's blueprint for ekklesia in Scripture. Its practical insights bring a much-needed focus on the scriptural foundation and church structures that will enliven and liberate both members and leaders. (Shirley Updyke What's New on the Bookshelf )

From the Back Cover

Special performances, attractive worship centers, and professional clergy are important to the success of churches today. But as the rush of activities continues to grow and the corresponding crush of administration consumes more time and energy, pastors, church leaders, and ministry students find themselves asking, “Why do we do what we do? Why does ‘church’ have to be a burden?”

From the Ground Up offers a compelling challenge to local churches to measure all programs and structures in light of God’s blueprint for ekklesia in Scripture. Its practical insights bring a much-needed focus on the scriptural foundation and church structures that will enliven and liberate both members and leaders.

“This is must reading for pastors in general and church planters in particular.”

—Aubrey Malphurs
President, Vision Ministries International
Chairman, Field Education Department at Dallas Theological Seminary

“It is quite amazing how a small book like this can carry such big ideas, powerful enough to make a significant impact in today’s church.”

—Dr. Imad Shehadeh
President and Professor of Theology
Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary

“From the Ground Up can serve as a refreshing checkup for leaders to assess vital signs of church life or as a foundations checklist for church planters.”

—Klaus Issler
Professor of Christian Education and Theology
Talbot School of Theology, Biola University

J. Scott Horrell is professor of theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. He has pastored five churches and taught at seminaries and pastors’ seminars around the world, having served with YWAM, TEAM, InterVarsity, the Baptist General Conference, and especially World Team. In Brazil, he was coordinator of graduate studies at the Faculdade Teológica Batista de São Paulo and cofounder/editor of Vox Scripturae, which became the largest protestant theological journal in Latin America. He edited two popular volumes on overcoming barriers in the church.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Kregel Academic & Professional (November 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0825428912
• ISBN-13: 978-0825428913
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,292,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required for Church Planting, May 13, 2005

By 

Mary E. DeMuth "Author, A Slow Burn, Thin Places" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From the Ground Up: New Testament Foundations for the 21st-Century Church (Paperback)

This work is tremendously helpful for the present day church planter. With all of the planning, praying, and advice out there, this book provides focus to what really matters. The theology behind every church plant must have the solid foundation built on Scripture and history. As church planter's in France, My team and I will be reading this book every year when we evaluate whether we have inadvertently moved off of our "ecclesiological moorings." Thank you, Scott, for this important and timely book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book to Take Us Back to a Right Understanding, December 15, 2009

By 

David F. Kendall (Knoxville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: From the Ground Up: New Testament Foundations for the 21st-Century Church (Paperback)

Horrell's book is a very short "primer" on the New Testament model for doing church. It is simple in its overtones, well grounded in Scripture, and convicting as we think about how the churches we see today don't necessarily draw all their practices from New Testament teaching. Horrell adequately makes the point that we tend to draw much of what we do from tradition and even an Old Testament way of doing things. I would like to have seen a little less repetition - he makes the main points several times - and more concrete examples of how a return to this vision might play out. There are some, including a fascinating look at how one church does communion, but I would love to see Dr. Horrell apply his prodigious intelligence to the topic of extended application. (I have had Dr. Horrell's class in seminary, and he is very credible with experience internationally, in various church settings, and at the seminary level.) This book, I think, will blow some doors off the reader's understanding and really get him/her thinking. For that, I think it is a brilliant, short "essay" on how we could think differently about how we "do church."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Timely Book, February 16, 2008

By 

W. Mark Farrell "markfarrell22" (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From the Ground Up: New Testament Foundations for the 21st-Century Church (Paperback)

This is a great book that challenges the cultural traditions of today's western churches. Not that all cultural traditions are necessarily bad, but when these traditions become understood and taught by many to be absolute doctrine, we get very close to becoming modern day Pharisees.

Dr. Horrell floats a notiion that our churches of today model the Old Testament temples much more than the early New Testament church. This premise is well supported by many examples. Great work.

Oh, how the world needs the church to function as the body of Christ.