John Frederick

Centered-Set Church

Discipleship & Christian Education

“Few concepts have had as much impact on my own work as a minister and theology lecturer as Mark Baker's explanation of the church in terms of bounded, fuzzy, and centered sets. I've been benefiting from Mark's work on this topic for years. Now with Centered-Set Church, we have Mark's full treatment of a paradigm that will surely shift the conversation and the church into a space of renewal and Christ-centered recalibration. Baker's advocacy for gospel communities that are defined not by theological fences or doctrinal fuzziness but by Jesus Christ the center will resonate with both new seminarians and seasoned ministry practitioners. Centered-Set Church will spark fresh, imaginative gospel hope in the hearts of the recently deconstructed, and it will provide a healing balm for the heavy-handed and the heavy-laden alike.”

Sermons That Sing

Preaching & Worship

“In Sermons That Sing, Noel Snyder avoids mere academic abstraction in favor of substance that generates formative praxis and constructive theology. From Barth to Begbie, from the contours and cadences of tonal harmony to the modal interchange of modern jazz theory, Snyder articulates a musical homiletic in which the relationship between preaching and music is more than merely metaphorical. Through substantive engagement of music theory, musicology, and homiletic theory, Snyder demonstrates how the structures and characteristics of music (such as synchrony, tonality, repetition, and teleology) fulfill a similar function in sermons. By moving beyond music as an illustration for predetermined homiletic techniques, Snyder invites the reader into a new creative and reflective space where the study of harmony fuses with schema of Scripture and the patterns of homiletical communicative action. As a musician and songwriter who is also a preacher and theologian, I found this book to be both intellectually and spiritually satisfying, drawing the reader's curiosity and imagination into the interplay between music and homiletics. Snyder excels by pointing out analogies between music and preaching, and then pointing beyond those surface level similarities toward the more significant deep structures present within both disciplines. These structures function as instruments in the economy of salvation, facilitating the work of the Spirit in the people of God in ways that are deeply creaturely and yet all caught up in the beauty and holiness of God's redemptive, sanctifying, and sonic work. This book is a must-read for those interested in relinquishing neither the role of art and beauty nor the constructive task and praxis of Christian theology, but who long to see their interplay proceed to deeper, more substantive, and spiritually formative integration.”

Worship and the World to Come

Preaching & Worship

“In Worship and the World to Come, Glenn Packiam delivers an accessible, engaging integration of the eschatological work of leading biblical scholars and theologians N. T. Wright and Jürgen Moltmann within the key and context of the practices of contemporary worship. The result is an inspiring theological vision for worship that situates our present life together as the church within the transformational redemptive purposes of God for all of creation. Packiam's pastoral and theological work in this book will nourish worshipers for the journey of faith by reorienting our gaze toward the goal of salvation—the new creation—as it breaks into the present by the power of the Spirit.”