this book is going on my wish list

WOW! i just read chapter one of this book, Seeking A Lasting City: The Church’s Journey in the Story of God. you may be confused after reading the title of this blog and the first line of this paragraph. i downloaded the first two chapters from the book and now i really want the book. (you may see to the right a list of books i am now reading. if there was list of books i would like to have this one would be on it. hint, hint! wink, wink! my birthday is in september.)

it is authored by three great men. mark love, who incidently was the youth minister of the church i attended in arlington texas but he had moved on right before we started attending. randy harris is another one of the authors. randy came to park row to speak while i was still attending there and i got copies of his lessons on tape. i listen to them often and have quoted from them on this blog site before. the other author is doug foster. i know nothing of doug foster, but if he writing in the company of randy and mark he has got to be a great man.

here is the second to last paragraph of the first chapter. it might take a few of you by suprise so you may want to take a seat:

the purpose and function of the church is an extremely sensitive issue because it's so vitally important to us all, and we certainly have no wish merely to be controversial. however, we live in a dark and wounded world that's in desperate need of a new story. we believe the church of Jesus Christ is the bearer of that story and that it can have a greater impact on a hurting world than it currently does.

doesn't that just have so much ... i don't know ... power in those few sentences? it also carries with it our responsibilty to be a light on a hill to the world, not a house of bickering about what songs to sing, and when to sing, or not sing, etc., etc., etc.

you can download the first two chapters as well by going to this link. what do you think of that paragraph? do you agree or disagree? am i nut or what?