Vintage Church: Timeless Truth and Timely Methods

Back about a month ago or so, I read another book by Pastor Mark Driscoll out of Mars Hill Seattle, this one entitled Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and TImely Methods. This book as actually the second book of what is known as the Re:Lit project put out by the Resurgence, which is a online ministry resource started by Driscoll.

In similar fashion to Vintage Jesus, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears set out to answer 12 commonly asked questions about the church. These questions include:

1. What Is the Christian Life?
2. What Is a Christian Church?
3. Who Is Supposed to Lead a Church?
4. Why Is Preaching Important?
5. What Are Baptism and Communion?
6. How Can a Church Be Unified?
7. What Is Church Discipline?
8. How Is Love Expressed in a Church?
9. What Is a Missional Church?
10. What Is a Multi-Campus Church?
11. How Can a Church Utilize Technology?
12 How Could the Church Help Transform the World?

I really enjoyed this book; it is a really concerted effort to see what exactly scripture says about the church and examines the scriptural backing for a lot of the practices the church has undertaken historically. Also similar to Vintage Jesus, each chapter is concluded with Dr. Gerry Breshears attempting to answer more specific questions falling within the question of the chapter.

I also really like how a large portion of the book is practical. Driscoll uses his own experiences in planting Mars Hill and gives the reasoning behind why they do things the way they do them. I personally found those portions really interesting because I had been curious as to how the leaders of a church that size think through the things they do.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone. This is not a book written to present some new way of doing church; this book seeks to define what is a Christian church and what it looks like and does historically as well as some practical applications for today.