Driscoll Mark - Vintage church : timeless truths and timely methods

Driscoll and Breshears have teamed up to provide a new generation of pastors and Christian leaders with a biblically sound, tartly relevant, and crisply practical guide to understanding the church. This book lives up to its subtitle, Timeless Truths and Timely Methods. The authors wit, grit, and gravitas combine to make it an enjoyable and thought provoking must-read for twenty-first-century spiritual leadership.

Having treated us to Vintage Jesus and Death by Love, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears team up again to provide a third installment that addresses the nature, life, and missional character of the church of Jesus Christ. Pastors, church members, and those who are just wondering about Jesus and his church will find this book to be very helpful. The expected topicschurch leadership, preaching, baptism, the Lords Supperare covered clearly and practically. What I especially appreciate is the discussion of often overlooked topics such as church unity, discipline, and love, and the attention given to new topics such as multi-site campuses and the use of technology. Timeless and timely are apt descriptions of this book on the church that is must reading!

Vintage Church is a remarkable book. Mark and Gerry seek to be rigorously biblical and theologically faithful as they address the doctrine of the church. However, the real uniqueness to this book is its personal and practical insights. Remaining faithful to the gospel of Jesus, the authors help us think and see how to do church in a twenty-first-century context that presents both challenges and opportunities to the body of Christ. Timeless truths and timely methods indeed are woven together in a beautiful tapestry. This is a valuable work.

Gerry Breshears and Mark Driscoll combine the thinking of a theologian with the experience of an innovative church leader to bring us fresh approaches to ministry that are more relevant without being less biblical. This book is an inspiring application of what it means for the body of Christ to be in the world but not of it.

Clarity and biblical fidelity on what church is in relation to culture is harder and harder to find in our consumer-dominated culture. Vintage Church stands out as a book willing to tackle the difficult issues and willing to keep flexible within the constraints of cultureboth without losing a fervent commitment to the Scriptures as our unshakable foundation. May God give all of us the grace to live out what Driscoll and Breshears exemplify.

Vintage Church is full of ideas on how to do church. But it really is a story of a pastor who struggles to live what he preaches in the crucible that is spiritual leadership. What a glorious day it is when we understand that our character is our influence. Mark Driscoll not only owns his influence in a gutsy way, but in humility he also offers his church the very best he hashis example. It is easy to follow a man who follows Christ in humility, submission, obedience, and sacrifice.

Carefully reasoned, clearly-written volumes on the nature of the church are indeed rare. Here, the overall impression is that of decades of research being condensed into a highly readable form. Treading through so many difficult and delicate waters is seldom done so succinctly, with key issues being discussed concisely, buttressed by multiple explanations. This is an exceptional text that should be digested by anyone who cares about this subject. Once again, Crossway has added to their fine collection of solid books.

Of all the established entities and organizations on earth, none has enjoyed as much glory, faced as much scrutiny, or endured as much persecution as the church. Even today, questions and doubts abound when it comes to explaining the only thing Jesus himself instituted. But here Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears continue the tradition they began in Vintage Jesus of providing clarity and direction to something many people approach with caution and confusion. And as they point us to answers about the church, such as its role, purpose, and potential, they help us all realize the true essence of the church today and the eternal influence it can have in our lives.

Vintage Church

Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods

Copyright 2008 by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Patrick Mahoney

Cover photo: Jerad Knudson

First printing 2008

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version , copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture have been added by the authors.

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-0569-0

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-0570-6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Driscoll, Mark, 1970
Vintage church : timeless truths and timely methods / Mark
Driscoll and Gerry Breshears.
p. cm. (Re:Lit theology series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4335-0130-2 (hc)
1. Church. I. Breshears, Gerry, 1947 . II. Title. III. Series.
BV600.3.D74 2009

262dc22

2008028615

LB 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08
15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

This book is about the church of Jesus Christ. Thus, before examining his church we must exalt him by explaining his relationship to the church.

Jesus died and rose to reconcile sinners to God as Christians and to one another as the church.

During his earthly ministry, Jesus ministered as prophet, priest, and king. Following his ascension back into heaven after his death and resurrection, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to enable and empower Christians to continue his ministry on the earth, which is an overriding theme of this entire book. To be absolutely clear, the people who make up the church must have a living connection to the true Jesus rather than to one of the many popular idols that litter our cultural landscape under the name God or even Jesus. The real Jesus of Scripture is the virgin-born incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, the Word come in the flesh and the gift given to the church.