Becoming a Just Church: Cultivating Communities of God's Shalom - Paperback

by Adam L. Gustine (Author), Dennis R. Edwards (Foreword by)

IVP Readers' Choice Award

Stop outsourcing justice!

Many local churches don't know what to do about justice. We tend to compartmentalize it as merely a strategy for outreach, and we often outsource itto parachurch justice ministries. While these organizations do good work, individual congregations are left disconnected from God's just purposes in the world.

Adam Gustine calls the local church to be just and do justice. He provides a theological vision for our identity as a just people, where God's character and the pursuit of shalom infuses every aspect of our congregational DNA. As we grow in becoming just, the church becomes a prophetic alternative to the broken systems of the worldand a parable of God's intentions for human flourishing and societal transformation. This renewed vision for the church leads us into cultivating a just life together--in community, discipleship, worship, and more--extending justice out into the worldin concrete ways.

Let's hold being and doing together, so we can become just, compassionate communities that restore shalom and bring hope to the world.

Author Biography

Adam L. Gustine leads CovEnterprises, a social enterprise initiative of Love Mercy Do Justice, for the Evangelical Covenant Church. He is also the founder of an enterprise incubator in South Bend, Indiana, dedicated to extending opportunity, restoration, and ownership to the margins. He has pastored multiple churches in a wide variety of contexts and has a doctor of ministry degree from Missio Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Ann, are raising three kids to seek the shalom of their city South Bend.

Dennis R. Edwards (PhD, Catholic University of America) is associate professor of New Testament as well as vice president for church relations and dean of North Park Seminary, Chicago. He has worked in urban ministry for over three decades, including serving as a church planter in Brooklyn and Washington, DC. His books include Might from the Margins and the Story of God Bible Commentary on 1 Peter.