Mark Love, Douglas Foster and Randall Harris. Seeking a Lasting City: The Church's Journey in the Story of God, Abilene, Texas: ACU Press, 2005. ISBN 0-89112-039-4; 257 pages; $14.95; (800) 444-4228 or www.acu.edu/acupress.

In this book, the fourth in the Heart of the Restoration series from ACU Press, we have yet another discussion of “church.”

The writers acknowledge this, expressing concern that their efforts not contribute to the “sometimes excessive and divisive emphasis” our movement places on this subject.

But we must discuss it because what we think about “church” is finally at the middle of our identity in the churches of Christ. One could argue that our movement is, in fact, all about church.

So when I sat down to read Seeking A Lasting City, I wondered how I would feel when I turned the final page.

Is this book one more attempt to shake off the sectarianism that has been a constant frustration since our movement began?

Is this book one more attempt to explain why we can keep practices of apparent importance (baptism, the Lord's Supper, a cappella music) while still shedding old and tired images?

Is this book another quasi-commentary on the Book of Acts, describing ancient practices and explicating the deep meaning of particular Greek words?

Having finished the book, here is what I found: Within these pages there are indeed discussions of sectarianism, particular practices and the ancient way of things. But they are not the center.

This book, as the writers explain in the first chapter, is intended to be a “narrative ecclesiology.” Rather than begin with the traditional series of investigative questions, Love, Foster and Harris begin by recognizing that we (the contemporary church) did not start this movement and do not re-create it or even restore it. We are but one stage in a story that began long before our birth - a story to which our own narratives have been joined.

If we want to talk about church, perhaps we should begin not with questions that assume that we can start from some kind of “scratch,” but with questions that can only arise when we realize we have entered the journey mid-stream.

So yes, this is “yet another discussion of church”- but a necessary and refreshing one.

Following the introductory chapter, the writers engage the narrative of Israel in the Old Testament, and the narrative of the church in the New Testament in consecutive chapters. This is followed by a chapter that analyzes the character of early Christian practice as a mechanism to sustain the church and her teaching, confession and worship.

The next two chapters are historical surveys, engaging the earliest church and the Restoration movement respectively. The final three chapters (and the Study Guide) present the “so what” of the book's thesis, and work out some concrete suggestions for how the church might proceed in this narrative ecclesial vision. In particular the authors stress the significance of the church's narrative in a “post-Christian Western” context and how the church must exhibit an “exilic” ethic through the power of the Holy Spirit, worship and leadership.

All of this material is provocative. I suspect that, as the writers intend, these chapters will generate a great deal of discussion (and some argument) in our fellowship.
The final chapters in particular present fodder for some serious chewing. Here the reader will find several new discussion points (How do we define and engage “postmodernity?”) and some familiar ones (How do we read Scripture together? What does “unity in diversity” look like?).

There is a sense in which none of this is new material. All the themes that the writers engage are already dialogue points in the greater theological/ecclesial discussion in world Christianity.

But in another sense, this material is new ... for us. I think the content and presentation are wonderful. I agree with those whose assessments appear on the back cover; this is a book that will be read to great profit by our leaders (and members). That such a book has been written and is now being read, encourages me and gives me hope.

But beneath these useful chapters there is a yearning for a paradigm shift. It is a yearning I have also seen in the previous books in this series. It is in this sense that Seeking a Lasting City is novel, and it is in this sense that the book embodies what I see as the primary struggle in our movement.

As mentioned, I do think that ecclesiology is at the center of our identity in the churches of Christ, an identity that has been formed amid and within a very particular, modern paradigm. However, reactions to books like this remind us that some parts of our old epistemology are hard to shake.

There are some who will read this book and find it a strange new world. Consequently, I think the introductory chapter is the most important. Love, Foster and Harris are asking us to consider a “different kind of family conversation” than we have been used to - a narrative vision that changes the terms of the discussion. I think such a shift is necessary and faithful. However, I am left wondering just how a non-narrative church can embody such a vision without discomfort. Paradigm shifts take time, and are often accompanied by emotionally draining and frustrating disruptions.

I have no doubt that this book will generate some of this discomfort, and I am glad that it will. But I believe that the irenic spirit and apparent concern for the church embodied in this book will make this important part of our continuing journey more peaceful.

REX HAMILTON is Associate Professor of Religion at Rochester College, Rochester Hills, Mich.