Church Forsaken
Practicing Presence in Neglected Neighborhoods
(IVP, 2018)
WHO: Jonathan Brooks, a senior pastor of Canaan Community Church in Chicago.
HE SAYS: “We read clearly and directly in the Bible that God has promised never to forsake us. If this is the truth, yet there are communities, that deal with greater ills and injustices, we must ask ourselves who has forsaken these places.”
THE BIG IDEA: Urban, rural and suburban churches are encouraged toward active local community engagement.
THE PROGRESSION:
In Part 1, “The Church-Forsaken Position,” introduces readers to the author and is experience of returning to pastor a church in the Chicago neighborhood he grew up in. Part 2, “The Church Forsaken Process,” the author looks at his return home to the neighborhood he had abandoned.
Part 3, “The Church-Forsaken Plan,” explores how to reconnect for the sake of the gospel while in Part 4, “The Church-Forsaken Place,” looks into reestablishing the value of a place others have neglected.
In Part 5, “The Church-Forsaken People,” the author encourages readers to remember the poor and the marginalized. Part 6, “The Church-Forsaken Purpose,” argues for the importance of reminding one another of our collective power.
The conclusion, “The Church-Forsaken Perspective,” gives help in reorienting our perspective to see the world the way God does.
“If we are to see the world the way God does, then we will have to believe that the plan is to give us a future with hope and never to harm us.”
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