This provocatively titled book comes at the perfect time in the North American evangelical church and NEEDS to be read by pretty much everyone. Author John H. Armstrong, an adjunct professor at Wheaton College (jokingly refered to as the Vatican of evangelicalism) has provided us with a very strong argument for the need for Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox churches and non-affiliated churches to begin working toward serious unity. The subtitle of the book provides much of the thesis: Why Unity in Christ’s Mission is Vital to the Future of the Church. Armstrong argues in compelling fashion what many of us have known but been afraid to talk about – the church universal is about as far from unity as it has ever been and this is in direct contravention of the wishes of her founder Jesus Christ as well as the Apostles and Scripture itself all summed up, says Armstrong, in The Apostle’s Creed.

 

The book is a brilliant blend of strong Biblical history and Armstrong’s personal journey from self-described inflexible conservative evangelical to a person open to not simply speaking with but forging strong relationships across the great church divides.

 

Working on the premise that we must capture the heart of ancient Christian biblical understanding in order to move faithfully into the future Armstrong seems to have captured a vision for the church that is neither the broken denominational conservativism of the past nor the disconnected and unaffiliated liberalism that seems to be sweeping into the future. Rather he presents a compelling vision of a church united by a common evangelistic mission and ministry.

 

There is so much to recommend this book it is hard to narrow it down to one feature-set. Loaded with brilliant quotes from leading Christian thinkers across history Armstrong presents his argument in three primary parts: Past, Present and Future. While much of what is presented here has been presented in bits and pieces elsewhere it should be noted that having it all together as a cohesive argument for real unity across the church is an invaluable resource.

 

The text is a challenge for Christians and Christian leaders everywhere. It seeks to bring the church past it’s polite but fairly ineffective surface friendships to serious biblical unity that strives to achieve what we were called to achieve in the first place – preaching the gospel to all nations. I highly recommend this book to church leaders and people in every stripe of Christianity be they Orthodox, Protestant, unaffiliated or Catholic…everyone should read this book and put its principles into action.