The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit
(From the foreword) Wise and necessary guidance.... It should be required reading for all who want the church to be faithful to the cause of the gospel in our present cultural context  --Richard J. Mouw, president, Fuller Theological SeminaryThis book helps us retrace the history of misguided ecclesiologies and builds the foundation for a sound missiological ecclesiology  --Rev. James H. Furr, Ph.D., Southern Baptist ConventionVan Gelder is a direction setter. Scholarly but not delinked from right practices, the visual models in the book are carefully and creatively spelled out.... Will keep the church on course into the twenty-first century  --Don Posterski, World Vision CanadaWhen facing difficult decisions, pastors and lay leaders need help from many different places at once, such as the Bible, theology, management, missiology, and sociology. Van Gelder brings together insights from these fields and presents them in ways that are both readable and practical  --Rev. James M. Phillips, Overseas Mission Study Center