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Embodying Our Faith: Becoming a Living, Sharing, Practicing Church
"Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Mohandas Gandhi famously critiqued the contemporary church with this pithy phrase. The challenge ever since has been for the church to look more like Christ. Tim Morey had this challenge in mind as he oversaw the planting of Life Covenant Church in Torrance, California, and he keeps it in mind as he coaches other church planters in the Evangelical Covenant Church. In this book he brings his experience, combined with research and theological reflection, to help your church cultivate the irreducible qualities of an embodied a community that is revealed by its faithful to be experiential, communal and enacted.
- GenresEcclesiology
197 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 14, 2010
Morey's book does a great job of explaining the importance of having an embodied faith... that is, that our faith is not just words but that our faith must cause us to act in ways that reflect the ways of Jesus! By caring and loving those around us in tangible ways, the lives we live allow people to consider the Good News that we want to share with them. Plus, for me as a pastor, this book puts very clearly into words what I have become convinced is important ministry. Morey gives great examples from his experience as a church planter how our churches can function in ways that assist people to meet and become disciples of Jesus!
June 6, 2010
I just (finally) finished reading Tim Morey’s book, Embodying Our Faith: Becoming a Living, Sharing, Practicing Church. Since I’m a working-mom, it takes me a while to get through books as this one did, but it was well worth the time it took. Time was actually helpful in this case because I found I needed just that to really savor and let Tim’s words sink in to my brain so I could process them and even take an inventory on how we (and me personally) are doing as a Christ-follower attempting to live out what we believe.
Tim has a wonderful way of taking the Scriptures and showing us through the lenses of history and the current culture that God’s hope for the Church and the World remain the same. Jesus built His Church to bring hope and joy to a lost and dying world as part of “his intentions to redeem the world and undo the damage that the Fall has wreaked on His creation (Gen. 3:15).” Tim gracefully and Biblically builds a bridge between the post-modern/emergent church movement and more modern/traditional expressions of the evangelical Christian faith. More importantly, guided by the words of Christ, Tim takes the heart of the reader and gently reminds us of what it means to live out our faith in a way that points others to the true Jesus.
My favorite parts of the book were right in the middle where he takes the Great Commission (Matthew 28) and shows us how our traditional view of “evangelism” must become more holistic to include disciplemaking and spiritual formation. He is well aware of and understands this culture correctly by pointing out that people are not going to be drawn to Jesus simply by a logical understanding, but rather through authentic relationships and experiences that are met through the kindness, the compassion and hospitality of God’s people.
This book did not disappoint as Tim paints a beautiful picture of what Church is intended to be. A worshipful, loving, authentic, deeply engaging, serving and growing community that pours inward so that it can pour outward.
I highly recommend this book to any believer and community of believers who desire a better understanding of how to daily live out their faith in such a way that they may actually bear the image of Christ.
Tim has a wonderful way of taking the Scriptures and showing us through the lenses of history and the current culture that God’s hope for the Church and the World remain the same. Jesus built His Church to bring hope and joy to a lost and dying world as part of “his intentions to redeem the world and undo the damage that the Fall has wreaked on His creation (Gen. 3:15).” Tim gracefully and Biblically builds a bridge between the post-modern/emergent church movement and more modern/traditional expressions of the evangelical Christian faith. More importantly, guided by the words of Christ, Tim takes the heart of the reader and gently reminds us of what it means to live out our faith in a way that points others to the true Jesus.
My favorite parts of the book were right in the middle where he takes the Great Commission (Matthew 28) and shows us how our traditional view of “evangelism” must become more holistic to include disciplemaking and spiritual formation. He is well aware of and understands this culture correctly by pointing out that people are not going to be drawn to Jesus simply by a logical understanding, but rather through authentic relationships and experiences that are met through the kindness, the compassion and hospitality of God’s people.
This book did not disappoint as Tim paints a beautiful picture of what Church is intended to be. A worshipful, loving, authentic, deeply engaging, serving and growing community that pours inward so that it can pour outward.
I highly recommend this book to any believer and community of believers who desire a better understanding of how to daily live out their faith in such a way that they may actually bear the image of Christ.
August 11, 2011
If I were to give the award today for the book that most exceeded the low expectations I'd placed on it, Embodying Our Faith by Tim Morey would certainly win (of course, I can't give that award out until the end of the year). The marked presence of such names as McClaren, Pagitt and McManus in the reference notes at the back of the book set me on high alert for anything "too Emergent" (don't ask for a definition, I have none).
However my fears were ill-founded. Tim Morey pleads with a generation of Christians who were largely won and schooled by a modernist apologetic, as many of these same Christians are at a loss as to why the same apologetic is ineffective with a postmodern crowd. After defining our postmodern climate as one that is characterized by deconstruction, moral relativism and religious pluralism, Morey poses his big question this way:
"How do we bring the message of Jesus to a culture that is deeply skeptical about truth claims, rejects metanarratives (such as the gospel), considers the church a suspect institution, takes offense at moral judgments and believes any religion will lead them to God?"
His answer in a phrase is the embodied apologetic. He suggests that our postmodern culture is hungry for transcendence, community and purpose. Of course, we have all experienced these to varying degrees within the walls of our churches, but seldom do we consider those our strongest cases for Christianity when reaching out.
For all the reading I have done on the postmodern mindset and philosophy, I had not considered—at least on the level Tim Morey has—how this should impact our apologetics and evangelism. I was completely thrilled by this book and the approach Tim Morey has offered—in largely orthodox fashion it seemed to me.
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars
Recommended for: Church leaders and those interested in evangelism and apologetics.
This book was a free review copy provided by InterVarsity Press.
However my fears were ill-founded. Tim Morey pleads with a generation of Christians who were largely won and schooled by a modernist apologetic, as many of these same Christians are at a loss as to why the same apologetic is ineffective with a postmodern crowd. After defining our postmodern climate as one that is characterized by deconstruction, moral relativism and religious pluralism, Morey poses his big question this way:
"How do we bring the message of Jesus to a culture that is deeply skeptical about truth claims, rejects metanarratives (such as the gospel), considers the church a suspect institution, takes offense at moral judgments and believes any religion will lead them to God?"
His answer in a phrase is the embodied apologetic. He suggests that our postmodern culture is hungry for transcendence, community and purpose. Of course, we have all experienced these to varying degrees within the walls of our churches, but seldom do we consider those our strongest cases for Christianity when reaching out.
For all the reading I have done on the postmodern mindset and philosophy, I had not considered—at least on the level Tim Morey has—how this should impact our apologetics and evangelism. I was completely thrilled by this book and the approach Tim Morey has offered—in largely orthodox fashion it seemed to me.
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars
Recommended for: Church leaders and those interested in evangelism and apologetics.
This book was a free review copy provided by InterVarsity Press.
January 22, 2013
Once in a great while you come across a book the resonates with your faith and beliefs. This book deeply resounded with me. Once in a great while, you find yourself nodding your head in vigorous agreement with an author. I found myself doing this repeatedly. Once in a great while, you find yourself in stunned silence because someone has succinctly expressed through the written word what you have long believed to be true, but not found a way to express it concisely. Tim Morey has done that for me? Once in a blue moon, you come across a book that combines all these wonderful facets. "Embodying Your Faith" has left me wanting more. This will continue to be a resource for me for years to come! The Lord knows that I couldn't sell it (because of all the underlinings and comments written in the margins)!!!
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews