Any of you who have been following my blog for awhile know that I'm a big fan of Frank Viola's books. It started with Rethinking the Wineskin, and continued with Pagan Christianity and the update to Wineskin, Reimagining Church. This certainly continues with his new book, From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God.

(Note: While the links are to Amazon, Viola really wants everyone to order from Parable.com or purchase the book at Lifeway as the book is getting started. He explained why he's requesting that on his blog. Basically, Parable/Lifeway is promoting the book and selling it at a really good price, and the more they sell the more attention they'll give the books, and the more people will hear this message. You can buy the book from Parable right now for less than $10.)

While Viola's other books that I've read focus on church practice and tradition, this book is different because it focuses on purpose - God's purpose in all of creation, humanity, and the church. The book is split into three parts, focusing on three "stories" that are interwoven throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The first story is that of God seeking a bride for his Son.

The second story is that of God seeking a dwelling place.

The third story is that of God creating a new species to fully reveal Christ.

While these aspects of scripture aren't generally new to many Christians, the depth and intensity of them as God's central purpose is largely lost in modern Christianity. Churches focus primarily on other "things." These things include evangelism, charismatic gifts, theology, eschatology, etc. These things are not necessarily bad in and of themselves, but the pursuit of them as central obscures from us the reasons why God embarked on this whole creation thing to begin with, as well as why he chose to send his Son and establish the ekklesia on earth.

What Viola's book does is help us realign our perspectives back onto God's central purposes. And by doing so, helps us to regain a new focus on Christ as not just the center, but as the fullness.

One of the best chapters of the book is the afterword, "One Man's Journey Into Deep Ecclesiology." In it, Viola shares his personal history of going through spiritual "things," and finding that they do not satisfy. To Viola, "Deep Ecclesiology" leads ultimately to Christ, and to a revelation of Him that changes the entire way we view the ekklesia. The afterword wraps up the information of the book and presents it as a heartfelt pleading to discover Christ in a new way.

In some ways, this book would be the best book to read first of any of Viola's books, as it shares his heart and lays a foundation for why we should question historical church practices, and why we should restore New Testament practices - because of how they either interfere with or focus on God's eternal purposes for the ekklesia. I believe that those who read this book first would feel less threatened by Viola's other books as they would better understand the heart behind them.

Labels: books, church, reviews