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Looking Back, Leaning Forward: Wrestling with a Church’s Story
Through a collection of essays and responses, Looking Back, Leaning Forward explores the context of a Canadian church by wrestling with the past story in light of the current realities.
On one hand, this book is for a denomination. It is structured in two parts First, it revisits issues related to the “fourfold gospel” and then it offers a look at crucial conversations in this specific context. At another level, this book is for more than just a denomination. It is for those in (or on the margins of) other churches across Canada, and even for eavesdroppers beyond. The gospel is universal in scope, but this universality is not mediated by abstract principles. It is mediated by a living Lord Jesus Christ who engages with us in context.Afterword by David E. FitchContributions by Ray Aldred, Christina Conroy, Christopher Smith, Cynthia Tam, Jon Coutts, Heather Morgan, Alexandra Meek, Wendy Lowe, Mardi Dolfo-Smith, Frances Kim, Joanne Beach, Ric Strangway, and Colleen Jantzen.“Canada, an increasingly secularized country in the West, is a field of mission. The writers of this book are extending the fourfold gospel of the Christian and Missionary Alliance into the changing contexts of Canada – and by so doing they help us all discern how we might do similar work. I believe God has been at work in the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada – the church of my heritage – for over a century. We do not simply leave all of that behind. We bring it forward into dialogue with the many challenges that the current cultures present. We take these distinctives that have shaped our lives and we extend We listen to the challenges of our cultures, and in an act of dialogue we seek to faithfully extend, deepen, and translate these beliefs in a way that expands them into the places we find ourselves.”
Afterword, David Fitch, author of Faithful Presence, B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary.“When these academic essays offer insight, they do so with one foot in the church and one foot in the theological academy. Many of the authors are multivocational, serving in active ministry, and if not in paid congregational ministry, they are engaged leaders who love their local church.”
Foreword, Amy Bratton, Director of Operations & Publishing, New Leaf Network“As a missional movement, the Alliance has always tried to engage whatever culture it found itself in, and with some success. It is possible to continue to do so? Jon Coutts and other writers challenge Alliance leaders to once again mine the depths of the Alliance theological heritage and think through what being a church means in today's world.”
Franklin Pyles, Former President of the Alliance in Canada, 2000-2012“I am deeply grateful for the way these conversations guide us to think deeply in community - as the Alliance Canada and as Canadian Christian leaders. We need more spaces that open up dialogue outside of our formal institutional devices as we wrestle out our faith together with respect, love, thoughtfulness and grace, and this collection of essays is one way to start.”
Rebekah Hagan Ahenda, Associate Pastor Victoria Alliance Church “Looking Back, Leaning Forward demonstrates the importance of denominations in a way that is not exclusive of those outside the Alliance church while remaining faithful to an Alliance ecclesiology.
On one hand, this book is for a denomination. It is structured in two parts First, it revisits issues related to the “fourfold gospel” and then it offers a look at crucial conversations in this specific context. At another level, this book is for more than just a denomination. It is for those in (or on the margins of) other churches across Canada, and even for eavesdroppers beyond. The gospel is universal in scope, but this universality is not mediated by abstract principles. It is mediated by a living Lord Jesus Christ who engages with us in context.Afterword by David E. FitchContributions by Ray Aldred, Christina Conroy, Christopher Smith, Cynthia Tam, Jon Coutts, Heather Morgan, Alexandra Meek, Wendy Lowe, Mardi Dolfo-Smith, Frances Kim, Joanne Beach, Ric Strangway, and Colleen Jantzen.“Canada, an increasingly secularized country in the West, is a field of mission. The writers of this book are extending the fourfold gospel of the Christian and Missionary Alliance into the changing contexts of Canada – and by so doing they help us all discern how we might do similar work. I believe God has been at work in the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada – the church of my heritage – for over a century. We do not simply leave all of that behind. We bring it forward into dialogue with the many challenges that the current cultures present. We take these distinctives that have shaped our lives and we extend We listen to the challenges of our cultures, and in an act of dialogue we seek to faithfully extend, deepen, and translate these beliefs in a way that expands them into the places we find ourselves.”
Afterword, David Fitch, author of Faithful Presence, B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary.“When these academic essays offer insight, they do so with one foot in the church and one foot in the theological academy. Many of the authors are multivocational, serving in active ministry, and if not in paid congregational ministry, they are engaged leaders who love their local church.”
Foreword, Amy Bratton, Director of Operations & Publishing, New Leaf Network“As a missional movement, the Alliance has always tried to engage whatever culture it found itself in, and with some success. It is possible to continue to do so? Jon Coutts and other writers challenge Alliance leaders to once again mine the depths of the Alliance theological heritage and think through what being a church means in today's world.”
Franklin Pyles, Former President of the Alliance in Canada, 2000-2012“I am deeply grateful for the way these conversations guide us to think deeply in community - as the Alliance Canada and as Canadian Christian leaders. We need more spaces that open up dialogue outside of our formal institutional devices as we wrestle out our faith together with respect, love, thoughtfulness and grace, and this collection of essays is one way to start.”
Rebekah Hagan Ahenda, Associate Pastor Victoria Alliance Church “Looking Back, Leaning Forward demonstrates the importance of denominations in a way that is not exclusive of those outside the Alliance church while remaining faithful to an Alliance ecclesiology.
147 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 9, 2024
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September 6, 2024
I was gifted this book after my graduation by my professors of my program. This book is enlightening and also challenging into the great strengths but also many of the weaknesses and positions the alliance denomination has put itself within. The Denomination has its roots in its founder, A.B Simpson, and this book values his work and misnitry. But this book does not just simply thank him and his theology and work, rather it breaks down the helpful pieces of the Denomination history, and then pushes, investigates and seeks to explain the places where Simpson and the Alliance has struggled to slow down, listen and rely on the Spirit instead of tradition.
What was clear throughout all the multiply well written essays is that these authors love the Church and its purpose. The book is not seeking to discredit such a denomination, but rather asks, "where have we served Jesus well, and where can we serve Jesus better and in more holistic ways?" It is essentially asking the reader, Jesus includes all people, in all places, in all its beauty, uniqueness and diversity, but is the denomination truly seeking Jesus in this way?
I am thankful for this book and deeply hope to see more books written like this for other Canadian and worldwide denominations.
As David Fitch says in the afterword, "Denominations must shift. They must now become mission organizations to the very cultures they find themselves in." This book dives deep into the culture and realities of the Alliance Church, and pushes the reader to ask, how will we become Spirit led in the reality of our Canadian context?
What was clear throughout all the multiply well written essays is that these authors love the Church and its purpose. The book is not seeking to discredit such a denomination, but rather asks, "where have we served Jesus well, and where can we serve Jesus better and in more holistic ways?" It is essentially asking the reader, Jesus includes all people, in all places, in all its beauty, uniqueness and diversity, but is the denomination truly seeking Jesus in this way?
I am thankful for this book and deeply hope to see more books written like this for other Canadian and worldwide denominations.
As David Fitch says in the afterword, "Denominations must shift. They must now become mission organizations to the very cultures they find themselves in." This book dives deep into the culture and realities of the Alliance Church, and pushes the reader to ask, how will we become Spirit led in the reality of our Canadian context?
Displaying 1 of 1 review