Released in the UK January 2022
Released in the US January 2022
Large trade paperback | 448 Pages
9781527107762 • £14.99 $19.99
BISAC – REL067050
The Primary Mission of the Church
Engaging or Transforming the World?
Bryan D. Estelle
Latest in the REDS series
Spiritual vs social responsibilities of the church
Primary mission of the church is spiritual
Today we hear that silence in the church on certain social issues is equivalent to complicity in social evils in culture. Estelle argues this claim is too binary. Rather, the corporate church of the Lord Jesus Christ is given a very specific job description. A third way may exist in which the corporate church pursues her God–given duties while individual Christians in their civic capacities and duties may address the social evils of the common kingdom. Not recognizing this specific God–given biblical, historical, and theological mission of the church may create confusing fuzzy boundaries in the minds of Christians.
Bryan D. Estelle
Bryan D. Estelle (PhD. Catholic University of America) is professor of Old Testament at Westminster Seminary California, where he has served since 2000. He was ordained as a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1996.
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Mentor
In this timely book Bryan Estelle offers a fresh restatement of the classical doctrine of the church: it is a spiritual kingdom with spiritual weapons for a spiritual calling. Citing important voices in the Reformed tradition, The Primary Mission of the Church is a careful and irenic engagement with recent challenges to the church’s spirituality. Estelle demonstrates how this doctrine, rightly understood, liberates the church from false hopes and alien agendas even while it equips believers faithfully to fulfill their callings in the world.
John R. Muether
Dean of Libraries and Professor of Church History, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando
The church and her engagement with society and contemporary issues, particularly questions of justice, is the source of much division and realignment within many local congregations. Dr. Estelle engages both historical and contemporary writers on the topic, as well as offering a thorough Biblical and Theological walk through key Old Testament passages in order to make his case. I warmly commend this much needed addition to the contemporary conversation.
Phil Proctor
Pastor, Sterling Presbyterian Church, Sterling, Virginia