Where in the world is the church? These articles, essays, opinion
pieces, and blog posts gather around that question. If we quit on the
question in despair, we are lost. If we answer it too quickly, we are
not digging deeply enough. But if we hunt hard with the help of the Holy
Spirit, we'll find Christ's body alive, active, working, growing, and
making things new.In Discerning the Body, Jason Byassee goes hunting for
the church guided by a singular conviction--God has promised there will
be a church until Christ's return. So it's out there, it's just
slightly hard to find. Where is a batch of Jesus' disciples, gathering
around his Word and Sacraments, living out his mission in the world?
Byassee spends time among Catholics, evangelicals, mainliners, and a few
non-Christians looking for signs of Christ's body. He also looks in
less likely places: among athletes, in institutions, in popular culture,
in the craft of writing.It is very hard to expect to be surprised.
Doesn't the expectation ruin the surprise? Yet it's Jesus who surprises
us in the church. Every time we find him, we have to expect to be
surprised to find him anew in some counterintuitive guise. This book is
about the author's learning to expect to be astounded anew by Christ.