Overview

"Over the space of a generation, Christianity in the Western world has gone from occupying a central place in the wider society to being eyed with increasing suspicion and, in some places, outright hostility. Although the church has always been a minority group, in the past decade or so it has become reawakened to that reality--and to the similarities it shares with the first followers of Jesus for whom the New Testament was written. In this book, Tim MacBride shows how New Testament texts functioned as rhetoric for the marginalized minority groups they addressed, encouraging hearers to resist the pressure to conform to the majority culture, yet in a way that remained attractively different to outsiders. He offers suggestions for how Christians today--and preachers in particular--can use and apply the New Testament's minority-group rhetoric to speak into our own increasingly marginalized experience. Such preaching needs to guard against either being shaped by culture or isolating preacher and hearers against culture. It must instead champion the call of New Testament authors to a middle way--a call for communities of """"aliens and exiles"""" to engage with culture by living out an attractive difference."

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9781532696848

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Reviews

Tim MacBride gives us a penetrating analysis of the situations of Christians in the first and twenty-first centuries and shows how the identity-sculpting, group-sustaining, and mission-shaping strategies of first-century Christian leaders provide important guidance for the work and preaching of their modern counterparts. Highly recommended for pastors and other Christian leaders! --David A. deSilva, Trustees' Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Greek, Ashland Theological Seminary

Tim MacBride gives us a penetrating analysis of the situations of Christians in the first and twenty-first centuries and shows how the identity-sculpting, group-sustaining, and mission-shaping strategies of first-century Christian leaders provide important guidance for the work and preaching of their modern counterparts. Highly recommended for pastors and other Christian leaders! --David A. deSilva, Trustees' Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Greek, Ashland Theological Seminary

Author Information

Tim MacBride is an ordained Baptist pastor and Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Preaching at Morling College in Sydney, Australia. He is the author of Catching the Wave (2016).

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