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Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity | 
 enlarge | Author: Frank Viola
Publisher: David C. Cook
Category: Book
List Price: $13.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 3696
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 318
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 1434768759
Dewey Decimal Number: 262.0017
EAN: 9781434768759
ASIN: 1434768759
Publication Date: August 2008
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 The Best of Frank Viola November 18, 2008
Reimagining Church: Pursuing The Dream Of Organic Christianity is without a doubt Frank Viola's magnum opus of his numerous writings on the ekklesia. In this book, church is realigned with all the "strange" descriptions and practices that we read in the pages of our New Testament. It is church as we dream about it being, a going back to her 1st century roots as intended by her Founder.
Reimagining Church is in my estimation a constructive summation of "The Best of Frank Viola." In these pages we find a more mature, polished, and cleaner compilation of reworked earlier material found in, "Rethinking the Wineskin" and "Who Is Your Covering?" and the original "Pagan Christianity" was intended as the third book in this trilogy of early church practice.
The newly released, revised, and widely read (and debated!) Pagan Christianity co-authored with George Barna, was intended to historically demonstrate how far the contemporary church has strayed from its original roots. Reimagining Church is the natural sequel where Viola paints a compelling picture "where the body of Christ is an organic, living, breathing organism."
Even though I believe I have read most of the published writings of Frank, a lot of his earlier writings often have the feel of a radical zealot--a modern John the Baptist "crying out in the wilderness"--preaching repentance from a church gone far astray from its 1st century roots. Reimagining Church has come a long way to bringing the same challenging ideas expressed in these earlier ground-breaking works, for mainstream evangelical consideration and dialog. If I had a $1000 (and the book was in Spanish--hint, hint, Frank!) I would buy every pastor, servant leader, house church worker/planter, and missionary I know a copy. It is that good.
A good idea of what is between the pages can be seen in The Table of Contents:
Preface
Introduction: Toward a New Kind of Church
Part ONE: Community and Gatherings
1. Reimagining the Church as an Organism
2. Reimagining the Church Meeting
3. Reimagining the Lord's Supper
4. Reimagining the Gathering Place
5. Reimagining the Family of God
6. Reimagining Church Unity
7. Church Practice and God's Eternal Purpose
Part Two: Leadership and Accountability
8. Reimagining Leadership
9. Reimagining Oversight
10. Reimagining Decision-Making
11. Reimagining Spiritual Covering
12. Reimagining Authority and Submission
13. Reimagining Denominational Covering
14. Reimagining the Apostolic Tradition
15. Where Do We Go from Here?
Appendix: Objections & Responses about Leadership
Bibliography
Notes
hungry November 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have just finished reading Reimagining Church and what I found was that my heart was hungry -- hungry for the kind of fellowship that Frank describes, the kind of freedom from the weight of tradition that does not build my faith, the new kind of witness in the world that the organic church would give. I have always loved "church" so I find myself surprised at the journey this book and Pagan Christianity have taken me on -- surprised and now very hungry.
"Reimagining Church"--An Excellent Resource for those seeking "New Testament Christianity" November 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have read many of Frank Viola's books and I found "Reimagining Church" to be an excellent resource for at least a couple of reasons: one, it brought together, in one place, many of the points that he has written about in other books (and he went deeper on some of these issues), and two, this book would be a great resource for a small group of people (i.e. "organic church seekers") to read together and discuss. I will be sharing this resource with others who are desiring to know more about this very important topic!
 misses the real issue November 9, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Peter Jones reviews Viola and Barna's Pagan Christianity. Here's the conclusion:
The apostle Paul gives the best definition of paganism (and do we ever need it in today's world!), namely, the worship and service of the creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). Here is an explicit comparison of biblical theism and pagan monism, of the truth and the lie, of the truth of the Creature/creature distinction and of the lie of the divinity of Nature preached by the prophets of the New Spirituality. Of this true paganism, Viola seems dreadfully or naively ignorant. What could have been a significant book, as the title ambiguously suggests, by containing a solemn warning about the inroads of neo-paganism into the culture and the Church today, will alas succeed in doing the very opposite. By evacuating from the term "pagan" any real theological content, and by failing to identify the re-emergence of ancient idolatry in the form of modern mystical spirituality, this book, with the name Barna emblazoned on the front cover, will simply ensure that many will be inoculated from seeing the real thing, namely, the invasion of real "Pagan Christianity," which, as the next great impending apostasy, will threaten the Church to its very roots. From that, Viola's "liver quiver" gatherings will not save us.
What an AMAZING book ************ October 25, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
"Reimagining Church" by Frank Viola is one of the most inspiring,challenging and inspirational books that I have ever read(after The Bible that is!)Having read some of the other reviews I can only add that it has given me hope for the future knowing that there are others out there(I live in the U.K.)who feel the same way!
This book can change your life in ways that you never imagined-it is SO liberating and enlightening.We meet Jesus again and again-not through pre-conceived ideas and traditional thinking but as His friend and as a much loved member of His family.
Frank's sincerity and love of God,his empathy with others and purpose in life shines through his writing.He is practical and non-judgemental in his exploration of what is really means to belong to the "church" that Jesus came to found.
The only way you can understand what is going on is to read it yourself-(I've bought about 20 copies so far to distribute to others-Thats how much I value it)
This book is not an option-you HAVE to read it!
Thanks Frank.
Sarah B.
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