Rent Biblical Foundations for the Cell-Based Church: New Testament Insights for the 21st Century Church

Synopsis

Why cell church? Is it because David Cho's church is a cell church and happens to be the largest church in the history of Christianity? Is it because cell church is the strategy that many "great" churches are using? Ralph Neighbour repeatedly says, "Theology must breed methodology."Joel Comiskey has arrived at the same conclusion. Biblical truth is the only firm foundation for anything we do. Without a biblical base, we don't have a strong under-pinning upon which we can hang our ministry and philosophy. We can plod through most anything when we know that God is stirring us to behave biblically. In the first section of this book, Comiskey establishes why the Bible is the only true foundation for small group ministry. He then looks at how the Trinity is our example for community. He covers the family in the Old Testament and how the most prominent image of the church is God's family. He then explore how Jesus called out a new family and utilized houses to establish this new family. In section two, Comiskey explains why and how the early church met in homes and gathered those house churches together to celebrate. He discusses relational evangelism, and how leaders developed naturally through the house church strategy. In the third section, the author applies the theology of the first two sections to the church today, attempting to give practical examples about how the New Testament Church can inform and instruct the 21st Century Church today. "Joel Comiskey effectively draws upon the skills of a careful interpreter, the heart of a pastor, and a background in cross-cultural missions to craft this thoughtful and informative treatment of cell-group ministry. An attentive reading of Biblical Foundations for the Cell-Based Church will challenge—in the most positive sense of the word—traditional church models and approaches to ministry driven by consumer-oriented pragmatism. I warmly commend Joel's book to pastors and others who long to enjoy the kind of relationships experienced by the early Christians, and who wish to base their understanding of community on the theological bedrock of biblical truth." (Joe Hellerman, Ph.D., Professor of NT Language and Literature, Talbot School of Theology, Team Pastor at Oceanside Christian Fellowship) "Just when it seems that everything has been written that could be said about the church, its nature and its expansion, when all the cliched formulas have been reshuffled ad infinitum, all the accusations dispensed and the mea culpas chanted, suddenly appears a book that can be ignored only to the Kingdom's detriment. This passionate appeal for the rediscovery of the dynamic of the early church that conquered the pagan world within a couple of centuries begins with an unimpeachable Trinitarian theological grounding for the definition of the church. It continues with a careful consideration of the historical and cultural factors that contributed to the shaping of its life and worship, and it culminates with pertinent advice for the transposition of the author's findings to the contemporary church scene. Required reading for pastors and other leaders of static, moribund and/or dysfunctional congregations." (Gilbert Bilezikian, Professor emeritus, Wheaton College, Willow Creek Community Church)

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