Book Overview
How the local church brings life to the poor and needy. This tagline sums up Church In Hard Places (CIHP) extremely well. This book is broken down into three main sections – gospel, church, and work. Each of these looks at these from the perspective of socially deprived areas. The authors leave nothing to chance and start from scratch, building a shared understanding of Western poverty and the Gospel that is so desperately needed in these areas. Though the start of CIHP may come across a more theological narrative, this is the much needed foundation for the practical aspects mentioned later on. Both Mez and Mike share from personal experiences throughout their time working in Virginia and Scotland respectively. Where these may seem like two very different situations, they are more closely related than first meets the eye. Overall the book gives a great understanding for the attitude and understanding required to work in hard places.
What did you takeaway from it?
Throughout the book, there was one solution that came up time and time again to help each of their communities. This solution is a local church. Mike and Mez breakdown the other ideas that have appeared over time such as parachurch organisations and short-term missions. They don’t rant about them but rather help us understand where the pitfalls lie with these groups.
Another takeaway I got from this book was the lack of understanding most people have about these hard places. It seems from Mezs’ experiences, people coming along to help don’t totally understand the Gospel that is needed to be shared and the cultural values in that community. In fact he alludes to a story in which he spent the majority of a short-term mission trips time just re-teaching them the Gospel.
How were you challenged?
- Challenge people how they think biblically about what it means to be an active, local church
- Challenge Christians about how they present the gospel to people in their own locality regardless of the social or cultural background
Why should someone else read it?
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