Martyn Atkins
Martyn Atkins is a British Methodist minister and former General Secretary of the Methodist Church in Britain, a pastor and professor of mission and evangelism who helped shape the Fresh Expressions movement from its beginning.
He has served as a local-church pastor, a seminary professor and college president, and Superintendent of Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, in London. A longtime leader in Fresh Expressions, he chaired its board for several years.
He is married with three grown children and (currently) four grandchildren.
For Invite, he is an author of Saving Church.
Saving Church (Paperback)
Restoring The People of God with Missional Evangelism
The 21st-century Church is in a state of distress. In the pulpit and the pews, people are disquieted, disenchanted, and dispirited.
Some are afraid the church they love won’t be there for the next generation, while others feel tired and desperate for something more.
With skepticism on the rise and church attendance down, churches have a choice: cling to the way things were or stop and ask, “Could God want to do something new in and through us?”
Saving Church is a hopeful, authentic vision for the future of the Church, rooted in the convictions that: 1) The Church is still God’s chosen vehicle for accomplishing His purposes. 2) Things aren’t going back to the way they were – and they shouldn’t.
Combining the expertise and experiences of two giants of missional theology and the Fresh Expressions movement, Saving Church will give you a fresh perspective on what church can be and help you reframe, retrieve, and reclaim the Church’s role as a healing, saving force in the world.
Through storytelling, biblical anecdotes, and honest experience, you will walk away excited for the future with:
- A healthy theology of mission that makes you want to be part of what God is up to
- A vision for God’s mission that runs throughout all of Scripture
- The true meaning of the Great Commission (and why it’s not just about conversion)
- A fresh take on concepts that can be difficult for a modern audience, like evangelism and repentance
- A deeper connection to the “why” of Church and God’s intent for it
- Principles to make your church more missional today
Church and evangelism shouldn’t be about attending an event, engaging in uncomfortable tactics because that’s what you “should” do, or creating a subculture where we expect people to come to us, act like us, and believe like us.
It should be an exciting journey of embodying God’s presence and purpose in the world — a God of expansion, inclusion, outreach, and reconciliation.
Saving Church will give you a renewed sense of what’s possible, permission to do things differently, and a restored passion for sharing God’s goodness with the world.