Ephesians—Recovering the Vision of a Sustainable Church in Christ
...a much-needed diagnosis of what is ailing the Church...
Written in 2012, published in 2013, 417 pgs. The purpose of Ephesians—Reecovering the Vision of a Sustainable Church in Christ is neither dogmatic nor academic, but is systemic in that it endeavors to provide a reading of Ephesians and a biblical perspective that issue out of the wholeness of the Bible. It labors to hold various themes, lessons, and aspects together in order to display the Bible’s sustainable depth and breadth in the light of Christ in the twenty-first century.
The kingdom of God is the environment in which Christ’s church exists. It is the environment in which humanity exists, and Christ’s church is manifest in God’s kingdom, in the environment, as the body of Christ. The Bible is actually a very Green book.
Green became the color of a number of European political parties in the 1980s that were organized around environmental issues. The color green was chosen because of its association with nature, health, and growth. Green Parties are concerned about ecology, health, wholeness, grassroots democracy, nonviolence, and social justice; and are found in over one hundred countries.
However, in the current political landscape the Green Movement and Christianity, broadly conceived, both believe themselves to be in opposition to one another. Thus, contrary to popular opinion, to say that the Bible is Green means that the human environment or habitat is a central biblical concern. The concerns of the Green Movement are, in fact, central to the Bible’s concerns about salvation. Making this argument is the intention of this book.
The burden of proof is the responsibility of the greater truth to edify the lesser truths, if only because a lesser truth cannot successfully persuade a greater truth that its perspective is superior. And in every case, the greater truth is always God’s truth. As much as I’d like to persuade the Green community about the environmental perspective of the Bible, this is more an effort to persuade the Christian community about God’s reality and the reality of Christ’s salvation in the twenty-first century. The argument is that Christian salvation is God’s effort toward human sustainability on earth, as it is in heaven.
It is not an argument that the twenty-first century has suddenly discovered some lost biblical truth that has been obscured in previous centuries. Rather, it is the argument that human sustainability has always been God’s central concern, and the failure to receive God’s message of salvation by too many people is coming to a head in the twenty-first century. The argument here is that God’s message of salvation is not opposed to science or technology, but that science and technology are part of God’s gifts to humanity, and as such they have an important role to play in God’s kingdom. The effort of this book is to reignite the Bible’s grand vision of the role of humanity through the body of Christ in the world, and in the world’s environment—the universe. Indeed, the scope, scale, and vision of the Bible are necessarily grand, and that vision must be freed from its captivity by the narrow-minded and self-centered perspective of modern individualism that infects too many Christians and their churches.
“Ephesians–Recovering the Vision of a Sustainable Church In Christ is a much-needed diagnosis of what is ailing the Church (universal), an illness brought about by not being self-consciously Christ-centric in our theology or our social engagement. Ross doesn’t deliver a commentary (nor does he intent the book to be one); he supplies a corrective in the form of a narrative about the Christian life and our intersection with a world that refuses to understand.” –Barry Sheets, Executive Director, Institute for Principled Policy
“…the best work is your coverage of Ephesians 4:11-14. Getting back to what is the real definition and calling of a Pastor is a problem in the American church. I have encountered this over and over as I have traveled from church to church. I find you spot on in your treatment of the text. I also think you capture a great picture in your explanation of the place of each member of the church as an attendant of Jesus.” –Rev. Tim Lyzenga
Order Ephesians—Reecovering the Vision of a Sustainable Church in Christ today! Get a copy for a friend who is concerned about the environment, and read it together. An interesting discuss is guaranteed.