The Continuing Coversion of the Church: A Review of Darrell Guder's Call for the Church Itself to Be Converted

Darrell L. Guder is an ordained Presbyterian minister and presently the Dean of Academic Affairs and the Henry Winters Luce Professor of Missional and Ecumencial Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Hamburg in Germany where he also worked as a youth pastor and college professor. Guder also directed the Institute of Youth Ministries of Fuller Seminary and Young Life. Throughout his career he has challenged the Church to regain its missionary spirit. Guder's various articles and books, as well as his current teaching, are on the theology of mission. Guder has been particularly interested in the theological implications of post-Christendom on Christian mission in the West.

Guder's thesis in The Continuing Conversion of the Church is that the church's theology and methods of evangelism must be transformed and the church itself must be converted so that Christians can more effectively minister to diverse and changing societies in the West and around the world.

The structure of The Continuing Conversion of the Church is fairly basic. Part I discusses the foundations of God's call for His people to be missionaries around the world and the benefits of the Christian message on whole communities. Part II tackles the challenges facing mission and specifically addresses the diversity of the world and the Church's failed singular theology and methods of evangelism. Lastly, in Part III Guder focuses on the implications in both the local church and the institutional church of the Church's conversion and its subsequent efforts to meet the needs of non-believers around the globe.