Outreach Resource of the Year
Something is not right. The witness of the church in North America is eroding. Many Christians are alarmed by the decline in church attendance and seek a culprit. Too often, we point the finger away from the church, make culture the enemy, and build walls between us and others. But our antagonism and enemy-making are toxins that further eat away at our witness. Is there a better way?
Tara Beth Leach could easily be one of those millennials giving up on the church. Instead, she is a pastor who loves the church and is paradoxically hopeful for its future. In an era where the church has lost much of its credibility, Leach casts a radiant vision for Christians to rediscover a robust, attractive witness. We need to name the toxic soil we've grown in, repent for past wrongs, and lean into a better way to become the church that Jesus proclaimed we would be.
Leach casts down idolatrous false images ofGod to recover a winsome picture of a kingdom of abundance and goodness. We can be sustained by practices that will tune our hearts to God's and form us into the radiant communities God intends for us and those around us.
"Pointing out the problems with the white evangelical church is easy. Showing the church how to draw on the abundant grace of God so we can live emboldened, empowered, and radiant lives, well, that's much more difficult. But that's exactly the task Tara Beth Leach sets for herself with this exuberant, thoughtful, and inspiring book. Written by a pastor who loves the church, Radiant Church is comforting and challenging in equal measure."Michael Frost, author of Surprise theWorld and The Shaping of Things to Come
"Racism, sexism, and many other injustices plague our world and corrupt our Christian witness. Tara Beth Leach confronts this darkness with the transformative good news of Jesus Christ. She doesn't talk down to us; she walks with us in a journey from lament, to repentance, to radiant living. Radiant Church is for any individual or group looking to refine and rejuvenate their witness in a climate of love, grace, and kindness."Douglas S. Bursch, pastor of Evergreen Church and author of Posting Peace
"Tara Beth Leach is one of the most radiant leaders I know! In the pages of Radiant Church she helps us properly lament issues of church life needing renovation. She then guides us forward to being a church in the radiant image of Jesus. I want to follow where she leads."Todd Hunter, bishop, Churches for the Sake of Others, author of Giving Church Another Chance
"Tara Beth Leach is woman who fell in love with Jesus as a teen and has only fallen deeper in love. As a pastor, she is a prophetic voice for God. In Radiant Church she deploys that voice, as only a prophet can, to call the church back to the heart of God. Tara Beth reminds us of who we are, how God sees us, and how we can be a more loving, thoughtful, a more gracious people in the world. She reminds us that the church is a unique beauty, a radiant beauty."Sean Palmer, author of Forty Days on Being a Three, teaching pastor at Ecclesia Houston
"Like an experienced midwife, Tara Beth Leach leads us through the birth pangs of becoming the church that is to come. Not content to survive, she speaks words of encouragement to help a church flourish through these disruptive times. Anyone who has lived the tumultuous years of American church life these past few decades will find Radiant Church a calming wave of the Spirit preparing us all for the new day to come."David Fitch, B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary in Chicago
"The ability to simultaneously comfort and confront is rare, and this is exactly what Tara Beth Leach offers us in Radiant Church. With the evangelical church lingering at several cultural crossroads, many pastors and church leaders find themselves searching for a way forward. In our most honest moments, we find ourselves lacking conviction, fearful of a wrong step, and deeply anxious as we face an increasingly uncertain future. Leach offers us prophetic insight and pastoral conviction as she skillfully guides us across the landscape of our precarious present and leads us toward a new vision for the future, bright, bold, and teeming with possibility."Jay Y. Kim, pastor and author of Analog Church
"In her customarily personal and pastoral manner, Tara Beth provides a clear and compelling glimpse of the church Jesus loves so dearly. When the light seems to have grown dim, she helps us notice the radiance within and how we can be bearers of this radiant good news. If you're about to give up on the church, wait. Read this first. And don't be surprised if you begin to be drawn in by the beautiful and robust vision of Jesus' church for the first time, again."J.R. Briggs, author of The Sacred Overlap and founder of Kairos Partnerships
"No doubt about it, Christianity has a bad reputation problem in the USA. But that is not how it is supposed to be. The Scriptures offer us a vocation: to be people who bear the loving light of God. In Radiant Church, Tara Beth Leach doessomething radical: she looks to Jesus first, the light of the world in human flesh. Jesus calls us to know him and live like him in such a way that radical love should be what we are known for, not bigotry, hypocrisy, patriarchy, polarization, racism, political ideology, or any other negatively loaded label. Rather than watering down the Bible to make Christianity more palatable for our culture, she invites us to drink deeply of its story, to become people known for radiating God's beauty and goodness to our world. Read this prophetic book, and let's take up the abundant resources of Jesus together so we can put his vision of a Radiant Church on full display."Kurt Willems, pastor, podcaster, and author of Echoing Hope: How the Humanity of Jesus Redeems our Pain
"Our friend Tara Beth nails it in Radiant Church. Something is deeply wrong in the prevailing understanding and experience of the contemporary evangelical church. We are called to a credible, indeed a radiant witness. But to get there, things need to change. Tara brings her compassionate and prophetic voice to bear in ushering in hope and possibility for the way forward. Well done!"Alan and Deb Hirsch, authors and missional leaders, founders of Forge Mission Training Network
"Radiance is not a common term for Christian theology, and it is often ignored in ecclesiology, but Tara Beth has rescued this term and made it central. The church is radiant—like a bride—when Jesus is central, when God's kingdom work forms a church, and when all its habits, practices, and virtues emerge from the Spirit who radiates the presence of Christ through each of us as we together embody the gospel about our radiant Lord. Here is a pastor who loves the church emoting her love for what Christ wants for the church."Scot McKnight, author of The Jesus Creed and professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary
CONTENTS
Introduction: A Dim Light
1. The Call to Radiance
2. The Radiant Story
3. The Radiant Vision of Jesus
4. The Radiant King and Kingdom
5. The Radiant Witness
6. The Radiant Partnership
7. Radiant Evangelism
8. Radiant Practices
9. The Radiant Future
Acknowledgments
Notes
