American Christianity took a wrong turn in the early twentieth century when personal holiness and social activism split into two separate, even antagonistic streams.
While fundamentalist groups emphasized the sinfulness of the individual and his or her need for personal change, the mainline denominations emphasized the sinfulness of society and its need for change. One hundred years later, the Social Gospel has been the victim of its own success, becoming indistinguishable from the American Dream instead of serving as society's yeast (Galatians 5:9); meanwhile, those who sought personal redemption by separation from the world have been resoundingly rejected by it. Clearly, neither was the goal of the Jesus revolution.
In Missional Moves (new from Zondervan), authors Rob Wegner and Jack Magruder propose new strategies to bring the divergent streams back into the same current--impacting and transforming entire communities through the holiness of God's grace. Based upon the authors' experience at Granger Community Church and, subsequently, renewal in the inner city and a missional movement of over 1000 churches in India that include more than 120,000 people, this book offers both a vision and down-to-earth tactics for new moves of the Holy Spirit in our time. It's time to follow both streams out of the desert into the course of a powerful new river.
