Hope from the Margins

by Stuart Murray

24 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2000

About the author

Stuart Murray Williams works as a trainer and consultant under the auspices of the Anabaptist Network. Based in Bristol, he travels widely in the UK and overseas and works with local churches, mission agencies, denominational leaders, conferences and individuals. He has worked with at least 25 denominations in recent years. His particular areas of expertise are in:
•Church planting
•Emerging church
•Urban mission
•Mission in post-Christendom
•Anabaptist history and theology

Under the name Stuart Murray, he has written books on a number of topics, including:

The Challenge of the City
published by Sovereign World in 1994

Explaining Church Discipline
published by Sovereign World in 1995

Church Planting: Laying Foundations
published by Paternoster Press in 1998

Hope from the Margins
(jointly with Anne Wilkinson-Hayes) published by Grove Books in 2000

Biblical Interpretation in the Anabaptist Tradition
published by Pandora Press in 2000

Beyond Tithing
published by Paternoster Press in 2000

Coming Home: Stories of Anabaptists in Britain and Ireland
(jointly with Alan Kreider) published by Pandora Press in 2000

Church Planting: Past, Present and Future
(jointly with George Lings) published by Grove Books in 2003

Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World
published by Paternoster in 2004

Church after Christendom
published by Paternoster in 2005

Changing Mission: Learning from the Newer Churches
published by Churches Together in Britain & Ireland (CTBI) in 2006

Church Planting in the Inner City
(with Juliet Kilpin) published by Grove books in 2007

Planting Churches: A Framework for Practitioners
published by Paternoster in 2008

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stuart Murray-Williams was my pastoral tutor at Bible College. I found his teaching interesting, comprehensive and challenging. This book followes in the same vein. he and his co-author Ann Wilkinson-Hayes acknowledge the decade of evangelism achieved negligible results and rather than growing the church exposed the church's weakness and vulnerability. They share stories of different groups who have sought to answer the question, what is church?, in unique ways. Most of the expressions are small in number and tend to be experimental. One point the authors are keen to make is that the expressions of church cited also involve and engage unbelievers. One of the many refreshing elements of the book is the idea that some expressions of church - including institutions - have passed theri sell-by date and would benefit from closing and starting again. Nothing of what they present indicates a new model of church, just some interesting possibilities ...