by Tod E. Bolsinger

It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian challenges Christians to embrace trinitarian spirituality as the basis for exceptional Christian community. Focusing on daily living, the book engages the ideas of writers such as John Calvin and Henri Nouwen in a discussion of how living in light of the Trinity can transform communal life. Critiquing the myth of American individualism, Tod Bolsinger claims that a relationship-centered, sacramental life--receiving the presence of God revealed in the ordinary--will transform communal worship and witness.

Finally, Bolsinger observes that in a world full of spiritual seekers, Christianity is simply not as creditable as we might hope. To draw hungry seekers to Christian community, we must be conduits of divine love and ever-hospitable hosts. The author's message is clear: "the exceptional life is the very life the triune God enacted and made visible through the communal life of the people of God."

It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian is designed for pastors, clergy, worship leaders, evangelists, church leaders, vestry, and deacons. It is important reading for all Christianscthose who are called to embrace the communitarian life of the triune God.

It's not often that a writer combines in equal measure a practical theologian's expertise, a pastor's ministry experience, and a prophet's insight into contemporary culture. It's more unusual when he can blend all three with a style that is both absorbing and challenging. In this book, however, Tod Bolsinger has done it, and on a topic that should be of interest to us all--how, for the sake of the world, the church can more compellingly reflect the life, interrelationships, and energy of God in all his fullness. - Robert Banks

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Brazos Press (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1587430894
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches