Overview

IVP Readers' Choice Award Stop outsourcing justice! Many local churches don't know what to do about justice. We tend to compartmentalize it as merely a strategy for outreach, and we often outsource it to parachurch justice ministries. While these organizations do good work, individual congregations are left disconnected from God's just purposes in the world. Adam Gustine calls the local church to be just and do justice. He provides a theological vision for our identity as a just people, where God's character and the pursuit of shalom infuses every aspect of our congregational DNA. As we grow in becoming just, the church becomes a prophetic alternative to the broken systems of the world and a parable of God's intentions for human flourishing and societal transformation. This renewed vision for the church leads us into cultivating a just life together—in community, discipleship, worship, and more—extending justice out into the world in concrete ways. Let's hold being and doing together, so we can become just, compassionate communities that restore shalom and bring hope to the world.

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9780830841516

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This book will be helpful for any church or leader who isn't merely interested in doing justice because it's trendy, but instead who is committed to embodying the way of justice for the sake of God and his shalom. --J.R. Briggs, founder of Kairos Partnerships, author of Fail: Finding Hope and Grace in the Midst of Ministry Failure Adam Gustine is not only a thoughtful author, pastor, friend, and die-hard Notre Dame fan, he is a man committed to leading his church, and churches like yours, into a lifestyle of justice. Drawing on a sound theology, Gustine gently guides us into principled application. For those who want to follow Jesus on the narrow and hard road of church and city--shalom, this book is for you! --John Teter, author of The Power of the 72, senior pastor of Fountain of Life Covenant Church I love it when pastors write about justice. Why? Because they keep it on the ground where real people live and struggle. With a genuine pastor's heart and years of experience, Adam Gustine combines a compelling theological vision of God's shalom and a practical way forward for churches to understand and live out that vision in their neighborhoods and beyond. He pulls this off with humility, grace, and grit. That is, far from coming off like he has it all figured out, Gustine offers insights wrought not just from triumphs but also from mistakes. He knows better than most that justice work is a journey. I for one am glad that Gustine is there to walk alongside us. --Al Tizon, executive minister of Serve Globally, author of Whole and Reconciled Honestly, this book is now my top priority recommendation to every local church that is seeking to be faithful to God's call for justice. Clearly, we are living in a critical season, and the church needs to take action. But our paradigms for entering this work feel enshrouded in a thick fog of competing options and compartmentalized strategies. Adam Gustine is a prophetic guide for white Christians like me. He cuts to the quick and gets us focused back on first things first. This book leads straight to the root issues of justice, issues that begin with our own need to live out a communal alternative to the broken systems of the world. From this living 'demonstration plot, ' we can become an authentic voice that extends God's justice out into the world in tangible ways. I hope churches, seminaries, and faith communities of every variation will buy this book in bulk, assign it for slow reflective reading, and follow it up with serious imaginative engagement. --Paul Sparks, coauthor of The New Parish, cofounding director of the Parish Collective At this time in human history our awareness of a fractured and broken world is unavoidable. The body of Christ was one of Jesus' gifts to our broken world yet the privileged white American church is plagued by partisan divides, a compromised public witness, and the lack of urgency needed to undo injustice's oppression. It is hard to imagine a redemptive way forward for the privileged white American church, but this book reframes the much-needed narrative, digging deep into truth. Refuting cultural lies that keep the American church lulled to sleep and out of the important justice work God is doing in the world. The message of this book is a much-needed wake-up call. The message is a benefit for all Christians but most specifically for white privileged Christians; together we can move toward the repentance, healing, and redemption needed to alleviate injustice. --Michelle Ferrigno Warren, author of The Power of Proximity

Author Information

Adam L. Gustine leads CovEnterprises, a social enterprise initiative of Love Mercy Do Justice, for the Evangelical Covenant Church. He is also the founder of an enterprise incubator in South Bend, Indiana, dedicated to extending opportunity, restoration, and ownership to the margins. He has pastored multiple churches in a wide variety of contexts and has a doctor of ministry degree from Missio Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Ann, are raising three kids to seek the shalom of their city South Bend. Rev. Dr. Dennis Edwards is associate professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary. He was a church planter in Brooklyn, New York, as well as Washington, DC, and has been in urban ministry for nearly three decades. He earned an MDiv in urban ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, as well as MA and PhD degrees in biblical studies from Catholic University of America. Dennis has been an instructor of Bible and New Testament Greek at several schools, including Bethel Seminary and St. Mary's Ecumenical Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

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