This book will give insight into how we as leaders can help believers see that Faith Community is something we need everyday all week long!

Chester and Timmis write an everyday ecclesiology integrating their experience with the "Crowded House" in England with reflections on 1 Peter. The book rightly recognizes the end of Christendom and the marginalization of the church in the West. 1 Peter was written to the church on the margins of society. Chester and Timmis call for fundamental shift in our understanding of church, connecting the church community into the everyday life of the surrounding community. Intentionally not advocating for any particular patterned model, they are willing to share theirs. They call for forming gospel communities which gather together in a larger group once a week. These gospel communities, or missional communities, regularly interact with each other forming a distinct community within their community, intentionally engaging in everyday ways with the surrounding community, pastorally caring for others in the church and in the community, sharing the gospel in everyday ways, and thriving together in an environment where they are marginalized or even persecuted.

This book is one more resource for the growing house/family church movement. Chester and Timmis' idea is no longer new, but it needs to be restated again and again as the transformation of the church will be slow and long. This book will be enjoyed by those who are discovering that the traditional Western understanding of church needs to be re-conceived in light of our changing context and in submission to the Bible. ( )

A much needed book to re-orient the modern, Western church to get back to what it is called to be- live everyday life as a believer! ( )

Using 1st Peter as a template to discuss Christian life and mission in a 21st Century post-Christian environment, Chester and Timmis lead the reader through a re-imagination of church - from church as a weekly activity to church as an everyday lifestyle. Church life becomes "everyday" as one makes the shift from program-driven events to "gospel communities." Gospel communities, as imagined by Chester and Timmis, serves as a basis for regular and consistant community, pastoral care, mission, and evangelism within the larger church. "Everyday Church" recognizes and unpacks many of the important shifts taking place in western culture and discusses how the church can faithfully share the gospel in this changing culture. A- ( )

An insightful analysis into the work of Christians and the church through an analysis of 1 Peter.

The commentary on 1 Peter, by itself, is quite useful; the authors engage in a good reading of the text.

The authors' main premise is that Christianity and the church has returned to the periphery of society. They compare that to the "Christendom" model of state-sanctioned / societally encouraged Christianity which persevered from 325 until recently. And yet Western society is turning more secular and more ambivalent toward Christianity; this is clearer in Europe than in America, but the trends are heading the same way. The authors spend the rest of the book discussing how Christians and the church can get beyond the "Christendom" model and attempt to practice Christianity so as to lead others to the faith.

The authors insist on low levels of organization and institution; they find more value in everyday evangelism approaches which go out into the community rather than program or event based evangelism. They rightly observe that programs get created because Christians do not do what they should be doing on a daily basis. They show how the Gospel is to be good news and phrased as good news to the people: all things which people go after in sin are inferior to what Jesus offers them through Himself.

Their conversation paradigm is excellent. They do well at showing that everyone has a "gospel" in which they believe; everyone has some story of "creation" (identity, how I got to where I am), "fall" (the problems/ challenges I am experiencing), "redemption" (the way I imagine it will get resolved), and "consummation" (the ultimate end of the matter). Only the true Gospel of Christ has a fully satisfying and true narrative of our creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. But when those we know in the world talk about things going on in their lives which give the opportunity to gently question and discuss these narratives, we have the opportunity of comparing and contrasting some element of their "gospel" with the true Gospel of Christ.

The authors are Protestant/Evangelical and this gets reflected in some of their comments and perspectives; while they do espouse a "both/and" approach to some degree, we can tell where their prejudices lay. Nevertheless, there is much to think about and gain from their perspective and the underlying reality that for the better part of human history Christianity has been promoted and spread more by the life and work of its individual members than through any medium or large scale evangelism campaign, and what worked for Christianity as a societal outlier in the 1st century will work again for Christianity as a societal outlier in the 21st century.

Well worth consideration for all those interested in evangelism and the proclamation of the Gospel.

**--book received as part of early review program ( )