About the Author:
Joel Comiskey (Ph.D. Fuller Seminary) is an internationally recognized cell church coach and consultant and founder of Joel Comiskey Group. He has served as a missionary with the C&MA in Quito, Ecuador, started a cell-based church in Southern CA, and now coaches pastors in cell group ministry. 425,000 copies of Joel's books have sold worldwide. His titles include Home Cell Group Explosion (Touch Publications, 1998), How to Lead a Great Cell Group (Touch Publications, 2001), and An Appointment with the King (Chosen Books, 2002). Joel is an adjunct professor at Tozer Seminary and lives with his wife and three daughters in Moreno Valley, California.
Review:
“Joel Comiskey effectively draws upon the skills of a careful interpreter, the heart of a pastor, and a background in cross-cultural missions to craft this thoughtful and informative treatment of cell-group ministry. An attentive reading of Biblical Foundations for the Cell-Based Church will challenge—in the most positive sense of the word—traditional church models and approaches to ministry driven by consumer-oriented pragmatism. I warmly commend Joel’s book to pastors and others who long to enjoy the kind of relationships experienced by the early Christians, and who wish to base their understanding of community on the theological bedrock of biblical truth.” (Joe Hellerman, Ph.D., Professor of NT Language and Literature, Talbot School of Theology, Team Pastor at Oceanside Christian Fellowship)
“Just when it seems that everything has been written that could be said about the church, its nature and its expansion, when all the cliched formulas have been reshuffled ad infinitum, all the accusations dispensed and the mea culpas chanted, suddenly appears a book that can be ignored only to the Kingdom's detriment. This passionate appeal for the rediscovery of the dynamic of the early church that conquered the pagan world within a couple of centuries begins with an unimpeachable Trinitarian theological grounding for the definition of the church. It continues with a careful consideration of the historical and cultural factors that contributed to the shaping of its life and worship, and it culminates with pertinent advice for the transposition of the author's findings to the contemporary church scene. Required reading for pastors and other leaders of static, moribund and/or dysfunctional congregations.”
(Gilbert Bilezikian, Professor emeritus, Wheaton College, Willow Creek Community Church)
“Dr. Comiskey does us a great service in shining a spotlight on both the form and function of the early church of the New Testament era. This book will challenge anyone serious about God’s work to do it more biblically and, therefore, more effectively. The errors of “pragmatism”, “personal preference”, and even “biblical blueprint-ism” will surely find a refreshing biblical remedy for the nature of the New Testament church in these pages.” (Rad Zdero, PhD, author of The Global House Church Movement and Letters to the House Church Movement.)
‘In the first part of this book, Joel Comiskey takes the reader deep into the nature of God as the foundation of the theology of the Early Church. Then, he gives us insights into how to live out that amazing theology in the great mystery of Trinitarian community.” (Bill Beckham, author of The Second Reformation)
“This book is a biblical, theological, and practical study of families, households, and house/cell churches in the New Testament. Although the author does not believe “that God gave an exact prescriptive pattern in the New Testament called cell-church,” he identifies a number of enduring values in these entities such as hospitality, discipline, leadership and mutual accountability that could strengthen the church today and justify the implementation of a cell-based ministry. This book is to be commended for avoiding a pragmatic (“how”) and dogmatic (“God’s design”) approach by focusing on the “why” and challenging the contemporary church to consider such a model. (Arthur G. Patzia, PhD, Senior Professor of New Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary and author of The Emergence of the Church)
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