Panel on Review
and Reform |
 |
RESOURCES
In the course of its work, the Panel on Review and
Reform produces various papers and summaries of books.
A selection of these, as well as papers produced by
the former Assembly Council, are available to download
below in Word [.doc], rich text [.rtf] and text only
[.txt] formats. It is hoped these will be of use to
anyone considering the future of the Church, perhaps
as part of Church without Walls.
Book summaries on this page to
download:
Mission-shaped Church
Fifth Discipline
Congregations as learning communities
God is Dead: secularisation in the
West
A memory mutates: religion in modern
Europe
The Voices of Morebath
The Environment and Christian Ethics
Summaries available on this
page to download:
The Church and social capital
Understanding the spirituality of
people who don't go to church
Mission-shaped
Church
This is an important mission strategy document for the
Church of England, commended to congregations. Whereas
the Church of Scotland report, A
Church without Walls, provided a broad vision of
the church, Mission-shaped Church focuses on one activity,
church planting. This more focused approach makes it an
important tool for congregations eager to turn Church
without Walls into action.
Download Mission-shaped Church:
[top of page]
Fifth Discipline and Fifth Discipline
fieldbook
Although aimed at businesses, this book was an important
influence on Church without Walls. It advocates organisations
led not from the top, but by a vision nurtured and shared
at every level. This will be a learning organisation,
where greater freedom to make decisions - and mistakes
- is combined with real commitment. The fieldbook helps
to put the theory into practice.
Download Fifth Discipline book
summary:
Download the fieldbook summary:
[top of page]
Congregations as learning
communities
This takes the ideas of the Fifth Discipline and applies
them to the local church. It is a way to move from doing
some Church without Walls activities to becoming a church
without walls.
Download the summary:
[top of page]
God is Dead: Secularisation
in the West
A wealthy and democratic society, argues Bruce, fosters
cultural relativism which undermines faith. The thesis
is interesting, although the arguments are not always
convincing.
Download the God is Dead thesis:
[top of page]
A memory mutates: religion in
modern Europe
A sociological picture of widespread religious beliefs
in Europe, but a broken 'chain of memory' which passed
formal religious knowledge to the next generation.
Download A memory mutates:
[top of page]
The Voices of Morebath
A micro-history of a church in an Exmoor hamlet at the
time of the Tudor Reformation, reminding us that this
is not the first challenging time for the church, and
that it is at the local level that national change is
most deeply experienced.
Download The Voices of Morebath:
[top of page]
The Environment and Christian
Ethics
This book addresses what is perhaps the most pressing
concern for our society - and the Church. It traces back
our relationship with creation and its place in Christian
theology, and goes on to develop a Christian ethic involving
the technological society, our relationship with the land,
and other contemporary environmental issues. The question
is, how should the church begin to be reshaped by this
ethic?
Download The Environment summary:
[top of page]
The Church
and social capital
This extensive report
explores the role played by Church of Scotland congregations
in contributing to social capital at local and national
level and shows how the Church is already reaching out
into the community at the start of the Church without
Walls process.
Download the full report (221 pages):
Please note this is a
large file and may take a while to download on a standard
28k connection
Download the report summary:
[top of page]
Understanding the spirituality
of people who don't go to church
This fascinating sociological research studies people
who describe themselves as in some sense 'spiritual',
but who are not involved in organised religion.
Download the full report:
Download the summary:
[top of page]
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