The church. What has it become? What was it meant to be? Does it pave the way or get in the way? Are we suspicious of the institutionalization of church bureaucracy? Or thrilled with the relevant impact of its presence? Robert J. Suderman writes about the church as a practitioner. His inspiration emerges out of the crossroads of biblical vision and human sincerity always tempered with frailty. Years of ministry, never a stranger to complexity, only serve to sharpen the vision of possibility. His imagination of what can be is never divorced from the realities of what is. He does not bow to the common assumption that ""you can't get there from here."" ""Here"" is the only possible point of origin for us. In his succinct, easy to understand writing style, Suderman provides insightful and thought-provoking perspectives to what it means to be the church. To be a people ""called out"" to participate together in God's activity in the world, and to create programs and structures needed for effective ministry are two sides of the same coin. This book is for dreamers and bureaucrats alike; indeed, it assumes that the two are indispensable pieces of God's coming presence. ""There are people that have lost their hope in the church. Some of them are hurt. Others think that the church has been tamed. It is in this context that Suderman invites us to dream and act based on what God has intended for his church: She is 'the foundational strategy of God for the transformation of the world.' This book is a great source to recover our hope and live in that reality "" --Cesar Garcia, General Secretary, Mennonite World Conference, Bogota, Colombia Robert J. Suderman has spent the last forty-seven years working with the church as teacher, scholar, and administrator. Having lived in Latin America for ten years, he has engaged the church in over forty different countries. He has been married to Irene for fifty years, and they have three sons and daughters-in-law, now with five grandchildren. Andrew Suderman is a Mennonite Church Canada Witness worker serving as the Director of the Anabaptist Network in South Africa. He is also working on a PhD in Theology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He and his wife have two children.
