Outward Bound

Here is what may well be the most readable - and yet the most radically thought-provoking - critique of the contemporary church available today. To put the matter simply (as Vernard Eller invariably succeeds in doing), the problem with today's congregations is that they are usually far more concerned to 'be' somewhere than to 'get' somewhere; to establish and consolidate a secure position, rather than to push on toward a goal. But according to the New Testament, observes Eller, stability and security are precisely 'not' what God intended for the church. Instead, Eller believes, the church should be a do-it-yourself, de-institutionalized, de-professionalized people in a caravan - a community of the outward bound. Eller devotes most of his time in this volume to providing concrete guidelines for achieving that goal. Addressing individual members and congregations rather than church hierarchies, 'The Outward Bound' is a lively and challenging summons to a richer and more biblical community life.