In this compelling book, Scot McKnight shares his personal experience in the church as well as his study of the Apostle Paul to answer this significant question: What is the church supposed to be?

For most of us the church is a place we go to on Sunday to hear a sermon or to participate in worship or to partake in communion or to fellowship with other Christians. Church is all contained within one or two hours on Sunday morning.

The church the Apostle Paul talks about is designed by God to be a fellowship of difference—how people differ socially—and differents—how people differ culturally. God did not design the church to be a two-hour experience on Sunday but a mixture of people from all across the map and spectrum: men and women, rich and poor, Caucasians and African Americans, and Mexican Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, and Indian Americans, and a mixture of people with varying personalities and tastes.

The church McKnight grew up in was a fellowship of sames and likes. There was almost no variety in his church. White folks, same beliefs about everything, same tastes in music and worship and sermons and lifestyle. Because of his experience, he writes incisively and compellingly.

The church is God’s world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God’s show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a family.

The disciplines of biblical studies and theology should serve each other, and they should serve both the church and the academy together. But the relationship between them is often marked by misunderstandings, methodological differences, and cross-discipline tension.
New Testament scholar Scot McKnight here highlights five things he wishes theologians knew about biblical studies. In a companion volume, theologian Hans Boersma reflects on five things he wishes biblical scholars knew about theology.
With an irenic spirit as well as honesty about differences that remain, McKnight and Boersma seek to foster understanding between their disciplines through these books so they might once again collaborate with one another.

For far too long, we’ve talked about heaven as if it were a dream or someplace that only exists in fairytales. We want to believe it’s real, but with such an expanse of contradictory information, it’s difficult to know what to believe. To add even more confusion, we are left to sift through the tales of individuals who have crossed over and returned. With so many competing narratives and accounts based on what many think are beyond-death experiences, wouldn’t it be nice to have a straight forward examination of what the Bible has to say about heaven? Best-selling author and New Testament scholar Scot McKnight thought so too, which is why he wrote The Heaven Promise. McKnight, who has penned more than 50 books, including The Jesus Creed, has had a fascination with heaven since he was a child. As a professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, McKnight is no stranger to academic engagement and scholarly discourse. However; as an ordained deacon, McKnight is well accustomed with the concerns of the everyday thinker. The Heaven Promise represents the perfect blend of thoughtful research coupled with an easily digestible presentation. “My hope,” McKnight shares, “is that people will be hopeful about heaven.” The Heaven Promise offers an infusion of hope alongside a healthy anticipation of eternity. After all, heaven isn’t just a dream; it’s a promise. Heaven. Eternity. The Afterlife. You mention any of these concepts, and people of all ages and from all walks of life are certain to have opinions. Maybe that’s why there are so many books and movies that feature heaven-and-back experiences. But how can we know if those accounts are accurate? How can we know for sure what heaven will be like? Well, according to New Testament scholar and popular author Scot McKnight, all we need to do is to turn to Scripture to answer our questions. Separating fact from fiction, McKnight helps the reader examine the witness of God’s Word in order to discover what awaits us on the other side of the grave. Using the Bible, McKnight answers the most-frequently-asked questions regarding heaven, including: 1. What about Near-Death Experiences? 2. What about Rewards in Heaven? 3. Who Will Be Allowed in Heaven? 4. Is God Fair? 5. Will There Be Families in Heaven? 6. What about Children Who Die? 7. What about Cremation? 8. What about Purgatory? 9. Will There be Pets in Heaven? 10. Why Believe in Heaven? Heaven isn’t the construction of a fairytale or some mythical narrative. It’s very real; it’s very good; and it’s very much the fulfillment of God’s promise to us.

The issue of baptism has troubled Protestants for centuries. Should infants be baptized before their faith is conscious, or does God command the baptism of babies whose parents have been baptized? Popular New Testament scholar Scot McKnight makes a biblical case for infant baptism, exploring its history, meaning, and practice and showing that infant baptism is the most historic Christian way of forming children into the faith. He explains that the church’s practice of infant baptism developed straight from the Bible and argues that it must begin with the family and then extend to the church. Baptism is not just an individual profession of faith: it takes a family and a church community to nurture a child into faith over time. McKnight explains infant baptism for readers coming from a tradition that baptizes adults only, and he counters criticisms that fail to consider the role of families in the formation of faith. The book includes a foreword by Todd Hunter and an afterword by Gerald McDermott.

What is the “Christian life” all about?Studying the Bible, attending church, cultivating a prayer life, witnessing to others—those are all good. But is that really what Jesus has in mind?The answer, says Scot McKnight in One.Life, lies in Jesus’ words, “Follow me.”What does it look like to follow Jesus, and how will doing so change the way we live our life—our love.life, our justice.life, our peace.life, our community.life, our sex.life—everything about our life.One.Life will open your eyes to the full, compelling immensity of what it means to be a Christian. “Jesus offers to us a kingdom dream that transforms us to the very core of our being,” says Scot McKnight. “His vision is so big we are called to give our entire life to it. His vision is so big it swallows up our dreams.”Discover exactly what Jesus meant when he announced the arrival of God’s kingdom. Equipping you with a new understanding of that kingdom’s radical nature, One.Life shares profound, challenging, and practical insights on how to demonstrate its reality in your life.In many ways, what The Cost of Discipleship by Bonhoeffer challenged Christians to do in earlier generations, One.Life will do for a new generation.One.Life will call you beyond the flatlands of religiosity toward a kingdom vision that will shape everything you do.

World-renowned New Testament scholar offers a straightforward examination of what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit. Who exactly is the Holy Spirit? What does he do in our lives? How can we know him more deeply, and is it possible to tap into his power? Should we pray to the Holy Spirit? Is it possible to be aware of his promptings and speaking into our lives? Dr. Scot McKnight answers these questions and more in this comprehensive examination of what the Bible says about this divinely important, but often confusing member of the Trinity. This is the third work in a three-part series examining some of the more mysterious components of the Christian faith. Scot’s The Heaven Promise examines the afterlife. The Hum of Angels elucidates the Bible’s teaching on God’s supernatural messengers and protectors. Now, Open to the Spirit examines the most mysterious member of the Trinity. Scot blogs at Patheos, a large multi-perspective blog format. It serves many influential voices from many faith and non-faith traditions. Scot’s blog draws primarily a Christian readership; one that is looking for intellectual engagement and thoughtful analysis of Scripture, Theology, and Culture.

Being a pastor is a complicated calling. Pastors are often pulled in multiple directions and must “”become all things to all people”” (1 Cor. 9:22). What does the New Testament say (or not say) about the pastoral calling? And what can we learn about it from the apostle Paul? According to popular New Testament scholar Scot McKnight, pastoring must begin first and foremost with spiritual formation, which plays a vital role in the life and ministry of the pastor. As leaders, pastors both create and nurture culture in a church. The biblical vision for that culture is Christoformity, or Christlikeness. Grounding pastoral ministry in the pastoral praxis of the apostle Paul, McKnight shows that nurturing Christoformity was at the heart of the Pauline mission. The pastor’s central calling, then, is to mediate Christ in everything. McKnight explores seven dimensions that illustrate this concept–friendship, siblings, generosity, storytelling, witness, subverting the world, and wisdom–as he calls pastors to be conformed to Christ and to nurture a culture of Christoformity in their churches.

The biblical Book of Revelation frustrates and fascinates many people with its imagery and apocalyptic tone. Most popular interpretations of the book rely on a perspective known as dispensationalism, popularized by the Scofield Bible and more recently the Left Behind series of novels. Yet there are many problems with this popular way of reading Revelation, and until now, few alternatives have been available that were easy to understand.

In Revelation for the Rest of Us, Scot McKnight with Cody Matchett explore the timeless message of Revelation and how it speaks to us today with a courageous challenge to be faithful witnesses to Jesus while standing against the ever-present reality of worldly authorities. The writer, John, stimulates the imagination to see the world differently, through the eyes of God, presenting a “divine politic” that subverts the anti-god patterns of governments, empires, and those in power.

McKnight addresses the popular misconceptions about the book, explaining what John means in his use of the images of dragons, lambs, and beasts, and how the symbolism of Revelation speaks powerfully to the present day–though not in the way most people think. Drawing from the latest scholarship, they present an understanding of Revelation for anyone interested in deepening their personal study of the Bible as well as preachers looking to communicate this timeless message today.

McKnight offers in this book a discipleship manual for discerning the immoralities of political powers and how the church can be both an agent of resistance and transformation.

John designed his Book of Revelation to disciple readers into dissidents of the ways of the world and empire. John describes that empire with the term “Babylon.” Babylon is a timeless image of empire, militarism, economic exploitation, injustice, and oppression. The Book of Revelation disciples Christians through worship and the courageous challenge of faithful, or allegiant, witness to the slaughtered-Lamb. John’s dissident disciples can discern the presence of “Babylon” in our world and learn to speak up, speak out, and walk in the way of the Lamb. He disciples us by stimulating our imaginations to see the world and “Babylon” through the eyes of God, and in so doing John presents a “divine politic,” a view of government and power that subverts the anti-god patterns of “Babylon” today.

Graphics, appendices, recommended resources, and notes are included in the audiobook companion PDF download.

Among followers of Jesus, great is often the enemy of good.The drive to be great-to be a success by the standards of the world-often crowds out the qualities of goodness, virtue, and faithfulness that should define the central focus of Christian leadership. In the culture of today’s church, successful leadership is often judged by what works, while persistent faithfulness takes a back seat. If a ministry doesn’t produce results, it is dropped. If people don’t respond, we move on. This pursuit of “greatness” exerts a crushing pressure on the local church and creates a consuming anxiety in its leaders. In their pursuit of this warped vision of greatness, church leaders end up embracing a leadership narrative that runs counter to the sacrificial call of the gospel story.When church leaders focus on faithfulness to God and the gospel, however, it’s always a kingdom-win-regardless of the visible results of their ministry. John the Baptist modeled this kind of leadership. As John’s disciples crossed the Jordan River to follow after Jesus, John freely released them to a greater calling than following him. Speaking of Jesus, John said: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Joyfully satisfied to have been faithful to his calling, John knew that the size and scope of his ministry would be determined by the will of the Father, not his own will. Following the example of John the Baptist and with a careful look at the teaching of Scripture, Tim Suttle dares church leaders to risk failure by chasing the vision God has given them-no matter how small it might seem-instead of pursuing the broad path of pragmatism that leads to fame and numerical success.

How are we to live out the Bible today? In this updated edition of The Blue Parakeet, you’ll be challenged to see how Scripture transcends culture and time, and you’ll learn how to come to God’s Word with a fresh heart and mind.

The gospel is designed to be relevant in every culture, in every age, in every language. It’s fully capable of this, and, as we read Scripture, we are called to discern how God is speaking to us today.

And yet applying its words and directions on how to live our lives is not as easy as it seems. As we talk to the Christians around us about issues that matter, many of us wonder: how on earth are we reading the same Bible? How is it that two of us can sit down with the same Bible and come away with two entirely different answers about everything from charismatic gifts to the ordaining of women?

Professor and author of The King Jesus Bible Scot McKnight challenges us to rethink how to read the Bible, not just to puzzle it together into some systematic belief or historical tradition but to see it as an ongoing Story that we’re summoned to enter and to carry forward in our day.

What we need is a fresh blowing of God’s Spirit on our culture, in our day, and in our ways. We need twenty-first-century Christians living out the biblical gospel in twenty-first-century ways. And if we read the Bible properly, we will see that God never asked one generation to step back in time and live in ways of the past.

Through the Bible, God speaks in each generation, in that generation’s ways and beckons us to be a part of his amazing story.

**Accompanying quizzes are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.

Contemporary evangelicals have built a “salvation culture” but not a “gospel culture.” Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to the message of personal salvation. This book makes a plea for us to recover the old gospel as that which is still new and still fresh. The book stands on four arguments: that the gospel is defined by the apostles in 1 Corinthians 15 as the completion of the Story of Israel in the saving Story of Jesus; that the gospel is found in the Four Gospels; that the gospel was preached by Jesus; and that the sermons in the Book of Acts are the best example of gospeling in the New Testament. The King Jesus Gospel ends with practical suggestions about evangelism and about building a gospel culture.