The Once and Future Church Collection
In 1991 The Once and Future Church by Alban Institute founder and former director Loren B. Mead created an instant sensation in congregational circles with its prophetic insights into the life of the church in a post-Christendom era. Still often-quoted and in demand, the book stands as Alban's all-time best seller. Two subsequent titles, Transforming Congregations for the Future and Five Challenges for the Once and Future Church, extended Mead's original vision with similar success. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the publication of The Once and Future Church, Alban released all three of these books as a single, special edition hardcover. In addition to these classic texts in beautiful, newly designed formats, this collection features an interview with Loren Mead discussing how his views have changed since the books' first publications and his current thoughts on directions for the church in the twenty-first century. This hardcover volume is the perfect gift for graduating seminary students, new congregational leaders, or for pastors whose original editions of these three books may be dog-eared or missing--and a wonderful addition to every church library. All who love the church and pray for the future of our congregations will value this opportunity to have Loren Mead's seminal works in a single, long-lived edition.
Top Highlights
“For two millennia the church has struggled with its image of itself and its image of the world outside. The church experienced a special pressure emerging from its belief that its Lord had given it a double-edged commandment—it was to engage with the world, to love the world, to serve the world, to convert the world. And yet it was also to maintain itself as in some sense ‘distinct from’ the world. It was to be a ‘peculiar people,’ as Peter put it, but the peculiarity had much to do with caring for and serving that world for God.” (source)
Product Details
- Title : The Once and Future Church Collection
- Author: Mead, Loren B.
- Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
- Publication Date: 2001
- ISBN: 9781566996631
Loren B. Mead is president emeritus of the Alban Institute, which he founded in 1974. Since his retirement in 1993, he has continued to consult with congregations, lecture, and write. He has written many books, including A Change of Pastors:...And How It Affects Change in the Congregation (2005), More Than Numbers: The Ways Churches Grow, Financial Meltdown in the Mainline?, and Transforming Congregations for the Future.