Here are the chapter titles—along with the questions asked and answered—in Jonathan Leeman’s new book, The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love: Reintroducing the Doctrines of Church Membership and Discipline.
Part 1: Love Misdefined
Chapter 1: The Idolatry of Love
How do our common cultural conceptions of love today hinder our acceptance of church membership and discipline?
Part 2: Love Redefined
Chapter 2: The Nature of Love
What is God’s love like and why does it offend us? What’s the connection between our understanding of God’s love and church membership?
Chapter 3: The Rule of Love
What is authority? How does it relate to love? And what role does it play in the church?
Chapter 4: The Charter of Love
What authority does Christ give the local church and why?
Chapter 5: The Covenant of Love
What exactly is this commitment of “covenant” of local church membership?
Part 3: Love Lived
Chapter 6: The Affirmation and Witness of Love
How should a church responsibly affirm, oversee, and remove members? Should it account for cultural differences in these activities?
Chapter 7: The Submission and Freedom of Love
What does it mean to submit to a local church? Are there limits to the church’s authority over the individual?
Appendix: Outline of the Book
You can read the introduction online for free. Here’s the argument of the book in a nutshell:
Insofar as the gospel presents the world with the most vivid picture of God’s love, and insofar as church membership and discipline are an implication of the gospel, local church membership and discipline in fact define God’s love for the world. That, in one sentence, is the argument of this book. Along the way we will observe that the very things that offend us about church membership root in the things we find offensive about God’s love itself.
Mike Horton says, “This is the best book I’ve seen on this subject in a long time.” Mark Dever says, “This is the best book I’ve ever read on church membership. I can give you no higher commendation.”