Shalom Church: The Body of Christ as Ministering Community

While many manuals advise clergy and congregants on tactics for church survival or thriving, few address the deepest identity, shape, and imperatives of the church in its identity in Christ and the tradition of discipling that stems from his life, work, death, and resurrection.

As compelling as it is clear, Craig Nessan's important new work retrieves biblical metaphors of the body of Christ and, following Dietrich Bonhoeffer, sees church today as "Christ existing as community." To theologica...