Customer Reviews

Intelligent Church: A Journey Towards Christ-Centred Community

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Steve Chalke, with Anthony Watkis, Intelligent Church: A Journey towards Christ-Centred Community (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006)

Chalke is founding director of Oasis and leads the church.co.uk network. He passionately communicates about immersing church and communication of the gospel in an understanding of God's love and grace, and understanding people as made in the image of God (not just or primarily as sinners). He points to marks of an intelligent church such as inclusiveness, honesty, messiness and diversity, and at the end of each chapter includes some practical suggestions and questions to prompt action. His mission experience and reading of the radical and political message of Jesus in the gospels informs the book throughout. He stresses the importance of letting our concept of God as Trinity and our Christology shape the way we do mission and church: `An intelligent church is a church where Christology drives its missiology, which in turn shapes its ecclesiology. All that we believe about God as revealed in Christ (his nature and style) must shape all that we believe about our mission (its nature and style), and the way that we do church should simply be the best way to encapsulate, express and achieve that goal. We must confront the tendency for the process to end up reversed. The shape of the way we do church - our traditions, our meetings, our buildings, our liturgies, our governance, our dress and countless more of our cultural preferences - can no longer be allowed to determine the shape and style of our mission and so limit what our communities and our society as a whole can see or know of Christ.' (p.173)

Originally reviewed for D Cronshaw "The Emerging Church: Pioneering Leadership and Innovation Reading Guide", Zadok Paper (Forthcoming 2010).

Chalke writes from proven experience. The format of essays followed by questions provides for discussion-beginning. Asks basic questions about the purpose of the local church and suggests some unconventional approaches.