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While understanding history has always been an essential task for God's people, rapid changes within the past two generations of Christianity have challenged many of our assumptions and methods for studying the past. How should thoughtful Christians—and especially historians and missiologists—make sense of global Christianity as an unfolding historical movement?Scott Sunquist invites readers to join him for a capstone course in historical thinking from a master teacher. Highlighting both the continuity and the diversity within the Christian movement over the centuries, he identifies three key concepts for framing church history: time, cross, and glory. These themes shed light to help us discern how the Jesus movement developed from the first century to the present, through an explosion of contextual expressions. Tracing these concepts through the centuries, we learn from the stories of Christians reflecting the glories of God's kingdom—and from their failures.Filled with historical case studies and stories from Sunquist's teaching around the world, The Shape of Christian History offers a framework for how to read and write church history. Even more, it demonstrates how the study of history illuminates God's mission in the world and sharpens our understanding of how to participate in that mission faithfully.

2020 Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year ('Also Recommended,'Church)Is a church just something we create to serve our purposes or to maintain old traditions? Or is it something more vital, more meaningful, and more powerful? This can be hard to believe when we look at what happens in any one congregation or denomination. Certainly not all churches act like Jesus in the world, and many individual churches in the West are dying. When it's so easy to be confused, frustrated, or simply apathetic about the church, how should we understand its purpose today?In this appealing introduction to the nature of the local church, set in the context of Christian history and global diversity, historian and missionary Scott Sunquist shows us the church in motion. Why Church? clarifies the two primary purposes of the church—worship and witness—and unpacks what the church is (and ought to be) using five movements of worship:come togetherstand to praise Godkneel to confesssit to listen to the Word of Godgo out into the worldPacked with stories and insights from experiences in churches around the world, this book explores cultural contextualization, the meaning of conversion, worship in both personal and communal aspects, and how mission combines telling the good news with being good news as a community.From Fuller Theological Seminary's renowned church-planting program, this primer is well suited to leaders and their core teams to read together and share with new attenders as they catch the spirit of the dynamic gathering that is the local church.

A respected scholar surveys the most recent century of Christian history, highlighting epochal changes in global Christianity.

This volume completes a landmark history of Christianity. Reviewed and shaped by an international team of 43 consulting scholars, this history assigns a rightful place to the peoples of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Near East in the unfolding of the Christian story, In the process a fuller and richer view emerges of Christianity as a religion constantly evolving in dialogue with new cultures, new questions, and new historical influences. Volume I traced the origins of Christianity up to the middle of the fifteenth century, Volume II continues the story up to the new millennium. Beginning with the early missionary expansion in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, the story goes on to trace the fracturing of Christianity among Catholic, Orthodox, and reformed expressions; the impact of modern colonialism and the emergence of a new global reality; the wars of religion, the impact of the Enlightenment, the rise of Christianity in North America, and the modern missionary movement. Throughout, the authors emphasize the expression of local forms of Christianity in diverse cultures, and the role of Christianity in helping to shape distinct national identities in an era of decolonization and globalization.

This first comprehensive account of Christianity as a world religion is a landmark, offering the work of five years of a team of 43 international scholars and consultants. For the first time, the peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Near East take their rightful place in the account of the unfolding of the Christian story from its beginnings to the 15th century.