The Divergent Church

BOOK REVIEW: THE DIVERGENT CHURCH
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Date Abstract/Short Summary             The text reveals that the world is witnessing new faith-based communities with unique variations from conventional churches. The authors indicate that despite their difference, they maintain the fundamental religious principles of worshiping God and communing with other people in society. Such a shift has risen from the innovations in ministering leading to divergent churches that use contextualized practices to advance religion while meeting other purposes beyond spiritualism. Shapiro and Faris describe different types of divergent churches that embrace contemporary and innovative ways of ministering, including conversations, communal dining, living as a social good concept, and many other ingenious approaches. Such time-honored practices have become the current ways of drawing people into religion and enabling them to establish connections with God, their fellow humans, and the world. Book Evaluation The book by Shapiro and Faris acknowledges that churches and religion have taken a gradual but dynamic change in their forms. However, the authors note that although the purpose may have also changed slightly due to emerging tweaks, they maintain the fundamental principles of connection to God as a divine being. The most radical shift has been the concept of congregating which has taken a completely new shape from the conventional one due to the emergence of new approaches consistent with the diversified needs of various communities. The authors call the current approaches the divergence of the churches because they present unique characteristics and practices reflective of their need to connect with other people, God, and the world. Shapiro and Faris note that creativity is the dominant aspect in the contemporary divergent faith communities, something that distinguishes them from the traditional one that was more structured and uniform across different regions. These transformations are critical for seminarians to enable them to embrace the most helpful ones for ministering to their congregations while identifying and remaining cautious with the least impactful approaches of the divergent churches.             Diverse ministerial concepts illustrate the flexibility of the modern forms of evangelization and congregation. For instance, the idea of church and other fundamental life elements depicted in chapter one is a helpful technique that one can embrace in a local ministry. It presents progressive thoughts about mechanisms that facilitate communing among Christians, worshiping God, and advancing other Christian-based agendas in a liberalized manner. The most interesting aspect of this method is that it is not static. Instead, it displays a fluid feature that integrates spiritualism and innovation that extends the impacts of the church beyond this spiritual realm to include creating a difference in the local communities through non-profit initiatives like promoting social justice. Shapiro and Faris demonstrate that this congregating approach ensures every person is engaged in the activities of the church by participating in the va...