Scott Sunquist, Why Church? A Basic Introduction. IVP Academic, 2019. 176 pages.
Why do local churches exist? I wonder, how would you answer that question?
It’s an important question to be able to answer, not only because of the centrality of the church in God’s plan of redemption, but also because many Christians seem confused about the nature and purpose of the church. So, to provide clarity amidst the confusion, Scott Sunquist has written Why Church? A Basic Introduction.
Sunquist’s aim is to reach people who haven’t “done church,” and explain to them why churches exist (12). According to Sunquist, the two reasons why churches exists are worship and witness (10).
THE GIST OF THE BOOK
To unpack worship and witness as the central purposes of the church, Sunquist metaphorically uses five body movements (Come, Stand, Kneel, Sit, Go) commonly associated with worship. He says, “We come to worship, we stand to praise God, we kneel to confess our sins, we sit to receive the Word and the elements, and then we go to bring Christ’s love to the world” (12, emphasis mine).
In chapter three Sunquist looks at all the dimensions of what it means to come. We
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