What do you think?
Rate this book
StormFront: The Good News of God
Foreword by George R. Hunsberger
How does one authentically hear and live out the gospel in North America? This new book attempts to answer this question in a way that reveals much about the nature of Christian faith today and its relation to contemporary culture.
In keeping with the aims of the acclaimed Gospel and Our Culture series, StormFront investigates how the gospel intersects American culture and seeks to reorient the church to its full and proper missional vocation. Four authors noted for their understanding of modern church life offer a sober yet hopeful critique of American culture that focuses on consumerism and the privatization of religion, and they challenge the Christian church to embrace its corporate task to be salt and light to the world.
Amid the many books on the subject, this one is distinctive in its concern for application. By constrasting contemporary life with a thoroughgoing reading of the biblical narrative, the authors help American Christians discern how our cultural location makes it difficult to live out the transformative message of the gospel. Few readers will fail to be engaged by the lessons offered here.
How does one authentically hear and live out the gospel in North America? This new book attempts to answer this question in a way that reveals much about the nature of Christian faith today and its relation to contemporary culture.
In keeping with the aims of the acclaimed Gospel and Our Culture series, StormFront investigates how the gospel intersects American culture and seeks to reorient the church to its full and proper missional vocation. Four authors noted for their understanding of modern church life offer a sober yet hopeful critique of American culture that focuses on consumerism and the privatization of religion, and they challenge the Christian church to embrace its corporate task to be salt and light to the world.
Amid the many books on the subject, this one is distinctive in its concern for application. By constrasting contemporary life with a thoroughgoing reading of the biblical narrative, the authors help American Christians discern how our cultural location makes it difficult to live out the transformative message of the gospel. Few readers will fail to be engaged by the lessons offered here.
- GenresChurch
141 pages, Paperback
First published October 13, 2003
2 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 19, 2015
Some thoughts:
1. George Hunsberger, a contributing member of the “Gospel and Our Culture Network,” outlines the “storm” by alluding to Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings” in Gandalf’s words to Frodo, saying “There is more at work in this world than the force of Evil.” Frodo says, “I wish the ring had never come to me.” “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” (ix) This exchange drew me in, however I later found little reference to that “storm” as Tolkein depicted it. Never again was I stirred with a sense in this book with the gospel’s force or that this is a “story that chooses us.”
2. There is a singlular over-riding message about which the four contributing authors, Brownson, Dietterich, Harvey, and West, seem to agree; “The gospel has less to do with the alleged benefits that might come with believing in God and more with what God plans to do with those who answer Jesus’ call to give up all and follow him.” (2) Too many Western Christians “no longer consume to live; we live to consume.” (3) We have failed to find our higher purpose in a society that is in the habit of consuming. Too often the Church in the USA looks to the culture for her identity and purpose. This book brings this major problem into light and calls the Church to “face our idolatry,” be reformed, and be transformed.
3. Our identity as a Church must be about things of “weighty glory.” Jeremiah asks, “Is this not what it means to know me?” (Jer 22:15) To find our identity outside our culture, we need to be set free. We need to ask the difficult questions, the weighty questions. We need to stop doing church with the modern consumption oriented “meeting needs” methodology. To accomplish this change, we may need to flatten the model of church that we have practiced in the West for 1500 years. The Church became pastoral, meeting needs, because she found herself in a symbiotic relationship with the surrounding culture. The Church lost her cutting edge as an apostolic organization, living on the edge of the mission field as a community witness of the kingdom. She found a “home” in Western culture and lost her apostolic calling and identity. Mission became something outside the West, not a witness to the surrounding community. The witness was reduced to a list of affirmations to be believed, rather than a global community connected by her identity in Christ and her calling to be a witness.
4. The Modern Enlightenment reduced the gospel to a needs based proposition. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (33) implies there are needs which are not met. The Church is then asking, “What is lacking?” The purpose that may be implied for the Church is to meet those needs. This implies that God started something and stepped away from participation in the story of his people. This deist view reduces the purposes of God in the community of believers to “meeting needs.”
5. The call to participate in God’s saving purpose and plan for the world is, to put it simply, the same call to salvation. One does not go without the other. Our purpose is to live beyond ourselves, beyond gratifying our own needs. Both views of gratifying needs, “within my heart” and “the needy of the world.” This push and pull dichotomy leaves the modern follower of Christ easily diverted, distracted, and even diluded. The gospel comes “as an invitation to participate in God’s life.” It’s not simply a need fulfilling religion, but a relationship with the One who comes into His-story and calls us to be representatives of his goodness.
6. I have an inheritance in Christ. That inheritance is something I can ask for, as it says in Ps. 2. Paul prays for us asking that the “eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” (Eph 1:18) Our consumerist mindset encourages us to think of material gain in our relationship in Christ. But that inheritance is “in the saints” – becoming an heir means to be included as a family member, one of the saints. This is good news, but our Modern materialist mindset robs us of this glorious inheritance.
7. The “Storm” is mentioned again as the “apocalyptic storm front.” Our participation in God’s intentions as representatives of the good news brings a “dynamic reality,” a “social reality, energized by God’s presence…distinguishing the present age from the age to come.” This storm is the work of God between our identity and our destiny in Him. The storm is the announcing of God’s reign.
8. Cultivating a “stereoscopic vision” having an eye to who Jesus is, conformed to his ways, and communing with him, sharing in his death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus is our source of grace. “To the extent that the church…conformed to Christ, it also experienced the power of Christ in its life and witness.” (55) Thank God that this communion is not one of ranking; there “are no privileged few who have greater access to God than others - no priestly class, no clerical elite.” (56)
9. Our participation in Christ’s death is a radical message implied by our orientation to abide in Christ, with our source in Him energized by the Holy Spirit. That message calls into question the status quo of everything in and around us. Anything that does not conform to His image, is confronted by the reality of the “storm” the resurrection power of Christ. The Church, by its very nature, resists the ways in which the “dominant in our world crush the weak.” (64)
10. This book, like several others in the “Gospel and Our Culture Network,” points our the spiritual warfare surrounding many of the issues raised in being the Church in culture. This book, like several others that have spawned off of Lesslie Newbigin’s work, points out the principalities and powers and the destructive forces that resist the presence of the Church in the world. The powers “are intimately related to human systems and structures…Today we speak of the ‘spirit of an organization’.” (73) In response to the powers that would destroy the Church, as a human institution, the local congregation and community will be self-protective. This book rightly points out that “apart from God, all human efforts are dominated first and foremost by the need for self-preservation at all costs.” (74) But as we participate in the resurrection life of Jesus, we are no longer ruled by the fear of death and therefore are empowered to confront the powers of darkness and fulfill our God-given purpose.
The resurrection frees us to live our lives grounded in profound trust toward God. I must honestly say I struggle with this. Self-preservation is a very difficult thing to overcome. I’ve climbed old wooden ladders on steep pitched roofs for painting or repair with what I have considered a reasonable fear. If I act foolishly or fail to properly care for my own safety or that of my co-workers, I will be guilty of neglect and whatever harm comes as a result. Is this not also true in the case of providing reasonable protection for my family if an intruder invades our home and threatens harm? Do I not have a responsibility in God’s eyes to protect them from harm? Are we to say that germs are not to be resisted with the deadly force of anti-biotic medicine? What of a country whose borders are threatened by a malicious force, whether it be a national force or a terrorist cell? Shouldn’t force be used to protect? This question was not adequately answered with “Stormfront.” Instead, I was left with bigger questions about the powers and principalities. I’m left with the deep questions of the forces of darkness as they attempt to “teach the nations” their version of truth designed to destroy us and divert our attention from Jesus. This book will raise many questions, but it is worth reading.
1. George Hunsberger, a contributing member of the “Gospel and Our Culture Network,” outlines the “storm” by alluding to Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings” in Gandalf’s words to Frodo, saying “There is more at work in this world than the force of Evil.” Frodo says, “I wish the ring had never come to me.” “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” (ix) This exchange drew me in, however I later found little reference to that “storm” as Tolkein depicted it. Never again was I stirred with a sense in this book with the gospel’s force or that this is a “story that chooses us.”
2. There is a singlular over-riding message about which the four contributing authors, Brownson, Dietterich, Harvey, and West, seem to agree; “The gospel has less to do with the alleged benefits that might come with believing in God and more with what God plans to do with those who answer Jesus’ call to give up all and follow him.” (2) Too many Western Christians “no longer consume to live; we live to consume.” (3) We have failed to find our higher purpose in a society that is in the habit of consuming. Too often the Church in the USA looks to the culture for her identity and purpose. This book brings this major problem into light and calls the Church to “face our idolatry,” be reformed, and be transformed.
3. Our identity as a Church must be about things of “weighty glory.” Jeremiah asks, “Is this not what it means to know me?” (Jer 22:15) To find our identity outside our culture, we need to be set free. We need to ask the difficult questions, the weighty questions. We need to stop doing church with the modern consumption oriented “meeting needs” methodology. To accomplish this change, we may need to flatten the model of church that we have practiced in the West for 1500 years. The Church became pastoral, meeting needs, because she found herself in a symbiotic relationship with the surrounding culture. The Church lost her cutting edge as an apostolic organization, living on the edge of the mission field as a community witness of the kingdom. She found a “home” in Western culture and lost her apostolic calling and identity. Mission became something outside the West, not a witness to the surrounding community. The witness was reduced to a list of affirmations to be believed, rather than a global community connected by her identity in Christ and her calling to be a witness.
4. The Modern Enlightenment reduced the gospel to a needs based proposition. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (33) implies there are needs which are not met. The Church is then asking, “What is lacking?” The purpose that may be implied for the Church is to meet those needs. This implies that God started something and stepped away from participation in the story of his people. This deist view reduces the purposes of God in the community of believers to “meeting needs.”
5. The call to participate in God’s saving purpose and plan for the world is, to put it simply, the same call to salvation. One does not go without the other. Our purpose is to live beyond ourselves, beyond gratifying our own needs. Both views of gratifying needs, “within my heart” and “the needy of the world.” This push and pull dichotomy leaves the modern follower of Christ easily diverted, distracted, and even diluded. The gospel comes “as an invitation to participate in God’s life.” It’s not simply a need fulfilling religion, but a relationship with the One who comes into His-story and calls us to be representatives of his goodness.
6. I have an inheritance in Christ. That inheritance is something I can ask for, as it says in Ps. 2. Paul prays for us asking that the “eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” (Eph 1:18) Our consumerist mindset encourages us to think of material gain in our relationship in Christ. But that inheritance is “in the saints” – becoming an heir means to be included as a family member, one of the saints. This is good news, but our Modern materialist mindset robs us of this glorious inheritance.
7. The “Storm” is mentioned again as the “apocalyptic storm front.” Our participation in God’s intentions as representatives of the good news brings a “dynamic reality,” a “social reality, energized by God’s presence…distinguishing the present age from the age to come.” This storm is the work of God between our identity and our destiny in Him. The storm is the announcing of God’s reign.
8. Cultivating a “stereoscopic vision” having an eye to who Jesus is, conformed to his ways, and communing with him, sharing in his death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus is our source of grace. “To the extent that the church…conformed to Christ, it also experienced the power of Christ in its life and witness.” (55) Thank God that this communion is not one of ranking; there “are no privileged few who have greater access to God than others - no priestly class, no clerical elite.” (56)
9. Our participation in Christ’s death is a radical message implied by our orientation to abide in Christ, with our source in Him energized by the Holy Spirit. That message calls into question the status quo of everything in and around us. Anything that does not conform to His image, is confronted by the reality of the “storm” the resurrection power of Christ. The Church, by its very nature, resists the ways in which the “dominant in our world crush the weak.” (64)
10. This book, like several others in the “Gospel and Our Culture Network,” points our the spiritual warfare surrounding many of the issues raised in being the Church in culture. This book, like several others that have spawned off of Lesslie Newbigin’s work, points out the principalities and powers and the destructive forces that resist the presence of the Church in the world. The powers “are intimately related to human systems and structures…Today we speak of the ‘spirit of an organization’.” (73) In response to the powers that would destroy the Church, as a human institution, the local congregation and community will be self-protective. This book rightly points out that “apart from God, all human efforts are dominated first and foremost by the need for self-preservation at all costs.” (74) But as we participate in the resurrection life of Jesus, we are no longer ruled by the fear of death and therefore are empowered to confront the powers of darkness and fulfill our God-given purpose.
The resurrection frees us to live our lives grounded in profound trust toward God. I must honestly say I struggle with this. Self-preservation is a very difficult thing to overcome. I’ve climbed old wooden ladders on steep pitched roofs for painting or repair with what I have considered a reasonable fear. If I act foolishly or fail to properly care for my own safety or that of my co-workers, I will be guilty of neglect and whatever harm comes as a result. Is this not also true in the case of providing reasonable protection for my family if an intruder invades our home and threatens harm? Do I not have a responsibility in God’s eyes to protect them from harm? Are we to say that germs are not to be resisted with the deadly force of anti-biotic medicine? What of a country whose borders are threatened by a malicious force, whether it be a national force or a terrorist cell? Shouldn’t force be used to protect? This question was not adequately answered with “Stormfront.” Instead, I was left with bigger questions about the powers and principalities. I’m left with the deep questions of the forces of darkness as they attempt to “teach the nations” their version of truth designed to destroy us and divert our attention from Jesus. This book will raise many questions, but it is worth reading.
May 25, 2021
Fascinating! The main point of what God has done isn't so that Christians everywhere could go to Heaven, but so that we could be workers in God's kingdom, meeting the needs of people on this earth and sharing Jesus rather than keeping Him to ourselves. (Although, that's a bit of oversimplification.) Considering it's subject matter, I think it could be a bit more accessible - it's more an academic essay than anything - but I think it's message supercedes the writing level, and if you can spend some time with it (it's definitely not an easy read), it's worth it. As most of us have, I've spent the primary part of my life thinking that Christianity is about me. I think I agree that it's about time we've begun to focus outward.
Read
May 28, 2012Great book on our culture and the disconnect between consumeristic mindset versus the kingdom paradigm. The reality is that in our culture, we have no framework for what it means to participate in the kingdom.
One of the interesting cnoceps is that of powers that are in effect in the world. FInance. Sports. Entertainment. Government, etc.
One of the interesting cnoceps is that of powers that are in effect in the world. FInance. Sports. Entertainment. Government, etc.
May 28, 2014
For me this book was a less technical re-hashing of "The Gospel Between Church and Culture". The contributors are the same but it seems that this was written in slightly less academic language. If you're able, I'd encourage you to read "The Gospel Between Church and Culture". If you want a quicker introduction to the issues and don't have time for a heavy read then "Stormfront" is great.
September 3, 2008
I found the perspectives interesting and sometimes insightful, but couldn't see the "revolutionary" nature of the solutions.
September 30, 2011
Absolutely wonderful. Some of the best essays on the Good News of God
December 22, 2013
A very challenging book that advocates the participatory neccesity of discipleship within the church.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews