The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit by Craig Van Gelder. Baker Books, 2002. Craig Van Gelder, in his book The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit, aims to help pastors and church leaders to develop an applied perspective of available research and scholarship, to integrate diverse perspectives from a variety of disciplines, to focus on the church within the context of North America, and to work from an understanding of the Triune God as central to a correct understanding of the church. He develops the idea of a missional ecclesiology through the idea that the nature of the church is based on God’s presence, the ministry of the church comes out of the church’s nature, and the organization of the church supports the ministry of the church. Van Gelder begins his book by pointing out that the word church has many meanings. The church in modern day North America is usually defined by either its organization or its function. As an organization, the church is composed of a variety of denominations, missional structures, and local congregations. As a function, the church is defined as what it does, making it a series of functions. Both of these approaches neglect the nature of the church, which is human behavior empowered by the Holy Spirit, and God’s presence in the world through the Spirit. To better comprehend this concept, Van Gelder believes that we must discover the complementary aspects of missiology and ecclesiology. Van Gelder then explains the idea of a missiological ecclesiology. Ecclesiology is a what the Bible to teaches about the character and purpose of the church in relation to its setting. Missions, on the other hand, is home or overseas evangelism carried out by specially trained missionaries. Recently, however, more people are beginning to see the church as inherently a missionary church. Missionology and ecclesiology are becoming one idea, not two. Van Gelder believes that one can better understand this by focusing on the being-ness of God, the social reality of the Trinity, and the specific rolls of the Trinity. In order to understand how denominational traditions and beliefs about ecclesiology and missionology have arisen, Van Gelder presents a brief survey of five periods of church history. During the first period, many creeds were developed that focused on the catholic, apostolic, and holy nature of the church, and emphasized the community of believers. Many missional and ecclesiological developments were made during the Medieval times, but, unfortunately, led to the attributes of the church being thought of as the exclusive possession of the Roman Catholic Church. The second period, the Protestant Reformation, placed less emphasis on the apostolic nature of the church, and more on its institutional nature. Third, the Free Church movement introduced self-governing congregations that were connected to denominations for programming purposes rather than for government. This movement emphasized the individual. The fourth period saw the emergence of pietism, mission societies, and the modern missions movement. Out of these, the idea that missions is a specialized task of the church arose. In the fifth period, denominations arose because of the view that the voluntary association of individuals forms the church. This led to the idea that the church is an organization that exists to meet people’s needs. Van Gelder then explains the idea of the kingdom of God as God’s present redemptive reign, and the future final judgment of sin and evil. Christians are now able to experience the power of the redeemed life, including the power to struggle against the evil one. Jesus called his followers the “little flock,” naming them a prototype of the church that will receive the kingdom, and will be accompanied by the Holy Spirit. God designed creation to be in relationship to himself in kingdom service. This kingdom service consists of fellowship, social community, marriage and family, governance on behalf of God, and cultural creation. When sin entered, it distorted this picture, but God provided a new reality through Jesus. Because God is an acting and sending, or missionary, God, the church that exists in this new reality is a missionary church by nature. God has sent it to testify and to be a sign of the redemptive reign of God. This new reality, the redemptive reign of God over the church, is described with numerous images in the New Testament, and in a variety of ways in the history of the church. Some of the main images used in the New Testament are the idea of the church as a social community, the people of God, the body of Christ, the communion of the saints, and the creation of the Spirit. In history, the Nicene Creed described the church with the words “holy,” “catholic,” “one,” and “apostolic.” This came at a time when the church, as the official religion of the Roman Empire, was the only church. The idea of the church as holy was the result of God’s redemption of sinful people, and of the consequent striving of these redeemed people to live up to God’s standards. It was catholic in the sense that it extended throughout the entire known world. It was apostolic because the apostles started church, and God has sent it. These ideas of what the church is leads to an understanding of what the church does. Because of the Reformation, the ministry of the church is usually seen from the perspective of Christ, the cross, and the individual believer. To understand it more fully, Van Gelder asserts that it must be seen in light of God’s purpose in creation, re-creation, and consummation, as well as in the community of believers. The church is also to define itself over the world, not over other churches. God has given many covenants of redemption to establish his special relationship with his people, and to work through his people to bring the message of redemption to the rest of the world. The Holy Spirit leads the church, and teaches it how to live in God’s redemptive reign. It gives a correct understanding of Bible as it is taken as a whole by the church, and equips the church for ministry with Spiritual gifts. The church must also practice grace. Specifically, it must practice the administration of the sacraments, the many aspects of worship, discipleship, fellowship, service, witness, vision, and stewardship. The church organizes these aspects of what it does. This organization, according to Van Gelder, is seen in the institutional nature of the church. It provides structures that bind people together, and tends to hinder change. Because the church is historical and missional, it must adapt to change in order to be relevant to the culture. These organizations serve as witnesses of God’s redemptive reign, as well as God’s authority. In the New Testament, church was organized into congregations that were related to various mobile missions structures. The polity of the church began with local congregations and mobile missions structures as they strove to support each other. Polity is necessary for the church to confess truths held in common, make decisions about specific cultural issues, and organize itself as a social community. The leaders form relationships and help this community live together. These leaders must be people of mature Christian character who are chosen according to their gifts and skills, which should be formally acknowledged. Van Gelder’s book has provided a way to rethink the church as a missiological ecclesiology in order to interact with the complexity of the church in North America. He does this by showing the history that has led to the common understanding of the church, and by arguing that the nature of the church is God’s presence in the world, the ministry of the church is based on its nature, and the organization of the church supports the ministry of the church. Response Evaluation: Van Gelder, in The Essence of the Church, makes an excellent, although brief, argument that the church should not separate the ideas of ecclesiology and missionology. His best arguments for this come out of his historical surveys of the development of our modern conceptions of the church. These show that many of our ideas of the church, and the reason that missions has been separated from church life, stems out of historical developments, particularly the reaction of the Reformers to the rule of the Roman Catholic Church. In addition, it is interesting that Van Gelder showed history as being divided into two “covenants.” The second covenant is divided into eight different covenants. In doing this, Van Gelder appears to be combining a covenantal understanding of history with a dispensational understanding of history. By combining the covenantal and dispensational understandings, Van Gelder may have been pointing out the unity of the church, an idea he focused throughout this book. He emphasized the idea that churches should not define themselves over other churches, but over the world. He believed that many congregations exist because of the many different cultural contexts in North America and in the world. Although this idea of unity is an excellent point, and many variations of theology can exist within the church as a whole, Van Gelder neglects the idea that some churches have gone beyond simply adapting themselves to different cultural contexts, and have left out some of the essentials of the Christian faith. For example, the idea that Jesus was not the son of God contradicts the New Testament teaching on salvation. In addition, although Van Gelder does point out how to rethink some of the historical developments related to ecclesiology and missionology, he does little to explain how to develop an applied perspective of the available research and scholarship. The ability for pastors and church leaders to develop an applied perspective of these was one of his stated goals at the beginning of this book. It would have been interesting to read a chapter that focuses on how to do this.