Sojourners And Strangers Summary

The Book Sojourners and Strangers, sets out to answer the question “What is a Church?” (pg. 19), as there are many denominations that are claiming to be the church, and some making the claim to be the one true church. Gregg R. Allison, sets out to give the different biblical interpretations that these denominations give and where they make claim that the gleam them from within the Bible. Hi thesis is, “to write a new evangelical ecclesiology as part of Crossway’s Foundations of Evangelical Theology series. He begins with the basic idea of the Church and definition of what he holds the church to be: “The church is the people of God who have been saved through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and have been incorporated into his body through baptism with the Holy Spirit” (pg. 29). This definition does sum up what it means to be a church, but does not solve the interpretational problems that is brought up throughout the
161). He proceeds to unpack this statement and gives the Scriptures to support this document of faith. I do appreciate the subject on the unity of the church and how as a church we need to come together as one body in Christ. “Therefore, the church pursues the complete realization of perfect unity” (pg. 168). This is the heart of the church because without this the rest would fall apart. And with this he moves on to one of the hardest doctrines for churches today and that is the disciplining of members in sin. “For Luther, the true church exercises discipline rightly in order to bring back fallen sinners” (pg. 180). He argues here on the importance of this doctrine and what the lack of it is doing to the churches