Letters to a Future Church: Words of Encouragement and Prophetic Appeals [Paperback]

Chris Lewis (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 29, 2012

Exiled on the island of Patmos, the apostle John found himself one day in the presence of the Son of God. As he fell down to worship, the apostle was commanded to write what he saw and heard, and to record and send messages to seven churches, encouraging them and challenging them in the way of the Lord.

That was then; this is now. What might the Spirit say to our churches today? What might the Spirit be saying to you?

Chris Lewis and the Epiphaneia Network put that question to their friends. This book includes some of the responses they got. With contributions from such significant voices as



and others, paints a portrait of the world as we have it and the mission we have in it. You may find your calling in this book; you may even find your own voice.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"My contributon to @ivpbooks 'Letters to a Future Church' sums up my work from past 3 years in 1 essay." (David E. Fitch, B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary, on Twitter)

About the Author

Chris Lewis is cofounder of the Epiphaneia Network, a movement in Canada to equip and inspire Jesus followers in kingdom ministry. They have organized a variety of influential gatherings of thought leaders and ministry activists, including the Evolving Church Conference and the Eighth Letter Conference.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: IVP Books (February 29, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830836381
• ISBN-13: 978-0830836383
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #729,970 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Dear Church: Read these letters! February 3, 2012

By Joseph M

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was searching for something that was up-to-date and relevant to the Church in N. America when I came across this book for the Kindle. My technological critique is only that the formatting could be better. Some of the page headers show up in strange places on the Kindle. But this is a minor annoyance in light of what this book has to say. Letters to a Future Church is a compilation of thoughtful letters written by people who are diverse in age, interests, and their Christian backgounds or traditions. As the title implies, they are written to the 'future church'.

The letters, taken together, are haunting, troubling, critical, beautiful, and hopeful. While there is diversity of opinion and specific concerns, clearly the letter writers love the church. But don't get too prepared for a love-fest just yet. These writers are trying to inform, move, and cajole the church to be what it is supposed to be. You will find sharp critique here, but not condemnation. The writers are ever hopeful. At the (still) beginning of the 21st century, these writers decry standard church practices that undermine the very gospel the church claims to stand on. They demand that the church should actually live as a community where faith and practice are truly united in the Christian life.

In making their case, the writers point out many areas where the church has (unwittingly I hope) failed to live out its faith as a people that truly bring salt and light to the world. With agony they lament that on the whole, the measure of Christian morality is little different than their secular counterparts. Moreover, actual concern for justice and mercy, both in word and deed has been in short supply. 'Conservatives' will squirm- but so will 'Liberals'.... These writers want to erase these worldly monikers and exchange them for Biblical ones.

If you are looking for precise theology, you will not find it here. Its not that the writers eschew theology,(there are several calls for 'good theology' or orthodoxy)they just want the church to actually live it. They write in broader strokes like loving your neighbor with the novel idea that we actually need to know them. What's more, they have the crazy idea that we could actually serve the poor better (and learn from them) if we knew them- personally. These people are Christ-saturated wackos. I want to be like them. They speak of redemptive suffering as a privelege. Yes, they see a victorious Christ, but also one who suffered.

The writing is not only compelling for its content, but also its literary beauty. Some of the letters are essay style, while others are poetic and playful. If you are wondering what's going on in the North American church and especially what young believers are thinking, you should get this book. Read it, Talk about it. Dear Church: Read these letters. Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Letters To The Church That Must Be Read April 11, 2012

By Harold Cameron

Format:Paperback

"Words of Encouragement And Prophetic Appeals"

The question was asked of church leaders from around the world, "If you could write a letter to the North American church today what would it say?" Well, in the fall of 2010, over twenty-five of today's leading Christian thinkers gathered at the Eighth Letter Conference in Toronto to answer the question posed above. As a result of that conference and the letters that were written, the book, Letters To A Future Church was born.

The book Letters To A Future Church edited by Chris Lewis, the cofounder of the Epiphaneia Network in Canada and one of the organizers of the Eighth Letter Conference is a book of letters written by a number of church leaders as well as others who are a part of the church offering words of encouragement as well as heart-felt prophetic appeals.

Letters To A Future Church is composed of 4 distinct sections: Mission, Truth, Art and Hope with 20 different Chapters, a part of the book that is referred to as a "reprise" and then concludes with four letters written to "the future church from the end of a millennium." Included in the book are letters written to the church by Tim Challies, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Shane Claiborne, Eugene Peterson, John Ortberg and others. Some of the names and people included in the book you might not recognize; however, who they are what they do and their letter to the church is as equally important as those of the more established and recognized lovers and leaders of Christ's church such as Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and John Ortberg....

After a fitting introduction written by author Andy Crouch you will find the first letters to the church that are written by Janelle Anema and are placed under the heading "You Had Me At Hello," which are three different letters written at three different ages in her life. Her letters are a very poignant and appropriate way to begin the book. After her letters you have section one of the book referred to as "Mission" a section of letters written to the church that in some way address that issue...for example, the first letter in the Mission section is "Forsake Your Purified Space," written by Kester Brewin in which he lovingly exhorts the church in these days and the days ahead to practice love and allow all who desire to follow Christ and enter his body to do so, regardless of who they are or what the have done in their past. In Chapter 2 Sarah Lance has written her letter "On No Longer Counting The Cost," which is a deeply heart-felt and passionate appeal to a church that she writes, "know the cost of everything and the value of nothing."(Quoted from Oscar Wilde). In her letter she asks the church to reach out and minister to the poorest of poor, the least of our brethren and people living in our world who desperately are longing for love, human connection, compassion and having their needs met. And the measure of needs that exists in our world today are staggering. The two other letters in section one are "The Ideologizing Of the Church by David Fitch" and "An Unanxious Presence" by Walter Brueggemann. The chapter then concludes with an "Interlude" written by Janell Anema when she was 16.

In section two titled Truth there are seven letters and another interlude by Janell written when she was between the ages of 21 and 22. Although all of the letters in this section are significant and share an important message from the author, "The Gospel Of The Bible" by Tim Challies and "Actually Living The Truth" by Kathy Escobar really resonated with my spirit.

In sections three and four titled Art and Hope there are nine more letters written by nine very different people with messages that the church desperately needs not only to hear but also to act upon...messages about zeal, rest, dreams, and finally the letter by Shane Claiborne with words of warning as well as words of encouragement. This section ends as all of the sections do with more thoughts expressed in a letter form from Janell Anema.

The four letters contained in the appendix are letters that are written to four different types of churches that exist in North America: "The Church Which Seeks Seekers," "The Church Called Mainline" "The Inner-City Pastor and Church" and finally "The Suburban Church." Each letter contains its own unique message of encouragement as well as a "prophetic appeal" to the church.

Letters To A Future Church is a convicting, encouraging and appealing book - appealing in the sense that it communicates a sense of urgency that should appeal to our hearts, cause us to pause and think about that is written in the letters in the book, and then prayerfully seek to know how it all applies to us as individuals in our lives and to the church we attend. In other words, after having read the book we should then ask ourselves, "How shall we then live?" and "what shall we then do?" for if we only do the reading part and neglect the greater part which is applying what we have read then we are guilty of the same sin that James writes to believers about in his letter to persecuted Christians in the Epistle of James...we are just hearers of the words only and not doers which is really quite sinful and pointless. And so as it is expressed in the book, "Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches" in regards to the encouragements, exhortations and prophetic appeals presented to us in the book.

I have received a complimentary copy of the book, Letters To A Future Church from the publisher, Likewise Books, an imprint of InterVarsity Press, for reviewing it. Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Picture of and Challenge to the North American Church March 31, 2012

By JR. Forasteros

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Sometime at the end of the first century, a Christian prophet named John, who lived in the Roman province of Asia (modern-day Turkey) was exiled to a nasty little rock of an island called Patmos. Despite his exile, John continued to worship with his larger Church community on the Lord's Day (Sunday). One of these Sundays, John received a series of visions that became our book of Revelation. John's Revelation begins with Jesus dictating messages to the seven churches in Asia.

John's experience begs an interesting question: What might an eighth letter to the Church of North America say?

This is the question a group of Canadian believers posed to Christians all over North America. The responses they received became first the "Eighth Letter" conference and now this book, Letters to a Future Church. This is a collection of love letters written to the North American Church from a spectrum of North American Christians.

As you might expect from such a variety of worshippers, the letters range in style, content and quality. Some short, clear and poignant, like Rachel Held Evans' plea for bigger banquet tables. Some demand to be read a few times through and digested slowly, like Walter Brueggemann and Shane Claiborne's contributions.

The topics range, though a few themes emerge over and over: a call for unity instead of fighting, true community instead of paternalistic aid, and a vision for the Church to return to the forefront of culture.

Not all of the letters are excellent. But this only lends credibility to the project - the book embraces an actually diverse cultural and theological church.

I found some of the letters pretentious. Some I don't want to read again because they were too challenging.... One in particular, by Tim Challis, I found enraging - a typical reductionist presentation of the Gospel filled with the usual theological pitfalls that tend to arise from the New Calvinist camp of which Challis is a part.

But by the end of the book, it's clear this is a good, accurate picture of the North American Church. And while daring to walk in the shoes of John the Revelator is a daunting task - one most of the authors approached with appropriate humility and self-awareness, if we listen closely, what the Spirit is saying to the Church in North America comes through loud and clear.

Like all true love letters, these letters not only encourage, they admonish and exhort.

Consider some of these personal favorites from various letters in the book:

You must abandon your pursuit of paradise if you are ever to see the kingdom of heaven... For your Savior was never a Puritan. Abandon your purified, sterile churches. Nothing can live in a sterilized environment. Come join God in the dirt. -- Kester Brewin

In the last century the American Dream has been transposed into an unbridled pursuit of power as empire and into an insatiable hunger for more commodities in pursuit of an extravagant "good life" ...The outcome is a projection of hubris, arrogance and self-serving power that is, on the face of it, contradictory to a gospel way of life. -- Walter Brueggemann

The sin of abstraction refers to the act of blaming of an individual part without taking into consideration the wider context they were immersed in. -- Peter Rollins

Artists have insight into the invisible qualities of reality, but you have forced them to serve only the visible, the utilitarian and the pragmatic. -- Makoto Fujimura

Jesus used all this delicious imagery because he knew that there is a difference between feeding people and dining with people. -- Rachel Held Evans

We complain we aren't being fed when we get solid biblical teaching in many ways each week. The problem isn't so much that we aren't being fed; it's that we're not working off those calories! We're not actually exercising our faith ... just running our mouths. -- Cyril Guerette

Never set limits on where God is at work. Yes, the church is God's primary instrument for the kingdom, but this doesn't mean God is not at work in others. We should be the best collaborators in the world. -- Shane Claiborne

Bottom Line: A short, easy read that will challenge and inspire you. Let all with ears hear what the Spirit says to the Church! Read more ›