Book Critique: Total Church - A Radical Reshaping (Chester & Timmis)

This assignment is a book critique of 'Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community' by Tim Chester and Steve Timmins. The review begins with a summary of the book, highlighting the authors' central argument that the church is not merely a place or a meeting, but a 24/7 lifestyle centered on the Gospel and community. The critique then delves into the impact of the book, noting its effectiveness in encouraging Christians to prioritize their faith and actively participate in church life. The authors' emphasis on the importance of evangelism and the concept of the 'Total Church' is explored. Finally, an evaluation of the book is provided, emphasizing the authors' insights into the church's role in shaping the lives of believers and its connection to gospel, community, and public life. The review highlights the book's success in making people rethink the connection between gospel, community, and public life. The book encourages the expansion of small churches and the training of Christians through discipleship.

Running head: ENGLISH
English
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Review of the book
Chester, T., & Timmis, S. (2008) Total church: A radical reshaping around gospel and
community. Wheaton, IL: Crossway. ISBN: 9781433502088.
Summary
The above mentioned book was written by Tim Chester and Steve Timmins. This book
has focused on the Gospel. It was published in the year 2008. Both the authors were pastors and
they mentioned that church was not a place that people could just simply enter or a meeting just
could be attended. Therefore, it signifies the fact that church is a very holy place that should be
used to keep the faith on God and confess the guilt. According to the authors of the book, it has
been suggested that the church is an entity that helps to shape the life on earth. This is why they
have mentioned the entity of the church as the ‘total church’ (Chester & Timmis, 2008). In the
book, the authors have used several passages that undermine the importance of the churches in
the lives of common people. They have also talked about the creation of the universe that was
done through the Word of God.
Therefore, the church is not just something that could be regarded as a commitment for
the Christians. Rather, it is a part of the 24/7 lifestyle for the common people and every devout
Christian. Many big events and programs are organized in the churches that inspire the Christian
followers by every bit. Both the authors believe that attending the masses in the churches should
be the biggest priority for all the Christians. Mostly, the entire practices of the church have been
discussed in this book by the authors widely (Chester & Timmis, 2008). In this book, the authors
have described about the two main issues in the Christian traditions i.e. gospel and community.
They have conveyed some important messages to the Christian community that are evident for

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the practices. The messages are centered on the mission of Christianity and Word of God. The
concept of the Total Church has been discussed because of these reasons.
Critique
The book is considered as one of the most impactful texts on the Christian missions and
its effects on the common people. The authors aimed at raising the awareness about the Total
Church in the minds of the people (Chester & Timmis, 2008). They found through their church
life as a pastor that there are numerous Christians in the community who only go to the Church
to do the worship on a regular basis because they just have to.
Other than that, they do not have any kind of eternal bond or commitment towards the
Church. This is why this book is a good critique for those Christians. This book has been very
effective and helped a lot of people in the common Christian community through the message
that they must act as per what their soul commands (Chester & Timmis, 2008). Church should be
regarded as a place where they could spend most of their times and engaged in the church events.
This will keep their faith alive and they will do the activities that will correspond to the Christian
faith. The differences between the Total Church and traditional Catholic Churches have also
been presented in the book i.e. quite necessary for the success of the book.
The authors have successfully made it possible for the community to believe the context
that Church is an entity that has shaped the entire life of Christians. After reading the book,
readers will understand about the principles of being a true Christian and recognizing the
sacredness of the Church (Chester & Timmis, 2008). The authors have always stressed on
shaping the importance of church around the gospel and community because it will definitely
help them to understand the importance of evangelism in the community and the place church

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occupies in the life. The concept of helping the poor through gospel and making them understand
the meaning of salvation through gospel messages is a grand success for authors in writing this
book.
Evaluation
In this section of the paper, the book written by Tim Chester and Steve Timmins should
be evaluated. As it has already been known that both the authors were pastors of the church, it
can be very easily comprehended that they had an inside view of the church and awareness of the
proceedings of the church (Chester & Timmis, 2008). They noticed many Christians very closely
and talked with them to understand what had constructed their lives. The inspiration they
provided to common Christian community was very crucial to live the lives properly. These
teachings by the authors also working as church pastors are very interesting enough to
understand the role of church in the lives of people.
The concept of Total Church was really one of the most inspiring ones for the faithful
evangelists and believers of Bible. This book clarifies the issue that church literally occupies the
central part of human mind since they should always be faithful to the Christian faith (Chester &
Timmis, 2008). The evaluation of the book also leads to acknowledge the condition that this
book has been very successful to make people rethink about the connection between gospel,
community and public life. Therefore, this book is really a treasure trove for the Christian
followers. The connection between Christian community and gospel is definitely crucial to be
acknowledged.
This book also centers on the social involvement of the people with the Bible and
messages of the Gospel. The authors in the book have focused on the concept of the church

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planting and this will lead to multiplication of the small churches. The authenticity on the
Christian community can be explored through this point of view particularly (Chester & Timmis,
2008). The training of the common Christians should be done through the discipleship. Each
disciple will learn the unknown things from other because all of them fellow followers of Christ.
This book is successfully evaluated when it is said that the people can be very happy and
successful because they live in the Kingdom of God. Thus, this book is very helpful for all
Christians to gain necessary insights about Gospel and community.

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References
Chester, T., & Timmis, S. (2008). Total church. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books