Unearth the Church: Exposing Foundations and Exorcising Selfishness
Ebook
There are many ways in which the Church has missed the mark set for it by Jesus--that it would love God and neighbor and that it would preach, teach, and serve. In missing the mark, the Church has caused harm, often to the very people that Jesus called the Church to love and serve. This is a challenge to the Church to be honest about who and what it has become. This is a call to the Church to confess its selfishness and preferences and how they have led it to be of service to itself at the expense of everyone else. This is an effort to own the harm that we, the Church, have caused. This is an attempt at entering into a conversation with the people who have been harmed or left behind by the Church. If the Church is to be effective in the work Jesus has given it to do, the Church must repent of its selfishness, seek forgiveness for the harm it has caused, and be rebuilt on the foundation that Jesus laid out. That cannot happen until we Unearth the Church.
“Unearth the Church is a bold attempt to discomfort the comfortable—in and outside the church—for all our sake. It encourages the thoughtful disentangling of the living, breathing church from all that threatens to stifle the life it was created to spread. You’ll agree, disagree, think, hurt, then be inspired to act because we are the light of Christ in our generation. Thoughtful and loving, this book raises questions we all need to ask.”
—Lori Stanley Roeleveld, author of Graceful Influence: Making a Lasting Impact through Lessons from Women of the Bible
“Johnmark Camenga’s passionate belief in the church’s future is on display throughout this book, and he asks exactly the kinds of awkward questions that many church leaders are avoiding out of concern for their church’s present. I encourage leaders to take Camenga’s questions to heart and honestly wrestle with them as a church community.”
—Sean Gladding, director of Christian formation, Presbyterian Church of Danville, Kentucky
- Title: Unearth the Church: Exposing Foundations and Exorcising Selfishness
- Author: Johnmark Camenga
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666788198, 9781666788174, 1666788171, 9781666788181, 166678818X, 1666788198
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666788198
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-20T18:03:11Z
Johnmark Camenga is a pastor and a chaplain in Harrison County, West Virginia. He previously spent seven years working as a house parent with children in residential care. Johnmark and his wife Cathy have been married since 2000 and their triplets (Cate, Eve, and Jonah) were born in 2007. His ministry is focused on meeting people in their grief and challenging people and the Church to build their lives on Jesus.