Organized as a series of conversations, this book explores the “lively edge” of Christianity in the U.S. and the U.K. Sine, who wrote The Mustard Seed Conspiracy
in the early 1980s, has always championed Christian subversives and exiles who act in small but significant ways to care for the poor and marginalized. This book begins by delineating four streams of Christian expression that greatly challenge the norms and assumptions of traditional churches. These streams—emerging, missional, mosaic and monastic—frequently flow into one another, and Sine does a fine job of defining them as separate but interdependent entities. Sine looks to these streams for tentative answers to several difficult questions, such as “Did we get what it means to be a disciple wrong?” and “Did we get what it means to be the church wrong?” As he explores these questions, Sine considers the context, particularly what he calls “the global mall,” in which the church must define and distinguish itself. Sine is unflinching in his assessment of Christian consumerism, but his tone is never angry. Rather, he exudes childlike enthusiasm as he shares example after example of Christians all over the world who are expressing their faith through profoundly countercultural acts of mercy, justice, love and compassion. (Mar.)
