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<p>About the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series xi</p> <p>Preface and Acknowledgments xiii</p> <p>Introduction: Following Jesus into the Far Country—the Winter of Our Discontent xix</p> <p>Signpost One: Post-Christendom 1</p> <p><i>Into the Far Country: The Journey into Post-Christendom</i></p> <p>Signpost Two: <i>Missio Dei </i>16</p> <p><i>With the Prodigal God: The Journey into God’s Mission</i></p> <p>Signpost Three: Incarnation 31</p> <p><i>On the Ground: The Journey into Everyday Life</i></p> <p>Signpost Four: Witness 48</p> <p><i>In the World: The Journey into the World</i></p> <p>Signpost Five: Scripture 66</p> <p><i>Living Our Story: Journeying by the Book That Is More Than a Book</i></p> <p>Signpost Six: Gospel 83</p> <p><i>Making All Things Right: The Journey into Redemption</i></p> <p>Signpost Seven: Church 96</p> <p><i>In Kingdom Communities: The Journey as the Body of Christ into the World</i></p> <p>Signpost Eight: Prodigal Relationships 114</p> <p><i>With Our Brokenness: The Journey Toward Sexual Redemption</i></p> <p>Signpost Nine: Prodigal Justice 131</p> <p><i>Among Our Neighborhoods: The Journey Toward Local Justice</i></p> <p>Signpost Ten: Prodigal Openness 148</p> <p><i>For the Good News: The Journey into Diverse Worlds</i></p> <p>Epilogue: The Prodigal Returns 163</p> <p>Notes 167</p> <p>About the Authors 183</p> <p>Index 185</p>

<p>The Authors <p><b>DAVID E. FITCH</b> is a copastor and founder of Life on the Vine Christian Community and coaches church-planting for the Midwest District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He is the B.R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary, Chicago, and is author of <i>The Great Giveaway</i> and <i>The End of Evangelicalism?</i> <p><b>GEOFF HOLSCLAW</b> is a copastor at Life on the Vine Christian Community and an adjunct professor of theology at Northern Seminary. He is the Mid-West regional coordinator for Ecclesia Network.

<p><i>Prodigal Christianity</i> asks the questions that point to the issues troubling church leaders in the newly secularized post-Christendom cultures of North America. How is God revealed? What is the gospel? Where is the kingdom of God? And, most importantly, how do we live these realities amidst the sexualities, pluralism, and injustices of our time? Faced with these questions, many are looking for a way beyond the Emergent and Neo-Reformed movements, which seem to speak only to the people already convinced. <i>Prodigal Christianity</i> moves us beyond Christian-culture-bound ways of being Christian to living radically as Jesus’s people present in the world. <p>Using ten “signposts,” <i>Prodigal Christianity</i> charts the journey every Christian must take into “the far country.” It is a journey that is radical and yet generous, defined by the very way God has come to us in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. Nothing is compromised as this journey breaks down boundaries around the postmodern, post-Christian, relationally scarred, sexually broken, economically marginalized peoples of our day. Exploring the depths of the Christian faith, <i>Prodigal Christianity</i> opens the pathway for every Christian and every church to journey forward into the missional frontier God is calling us to in these new and different times. <p>ABOUT LEADERSHIP NETWORK <p>The mission of Leadership Network identifies and connects innovative church leaders, providing them with resources in the form of new ideas, people, and tools. Contact Leadership Network at leadnet.org.

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