Community Engagement after Christendom

“Doug provides a timely challenge to the Christian church to ‘reimagine’ their role in society from one of power and influence, characteristic of Christendom, to one of service and ‘community engagement.’ This is a must-read for any person leading a church-related community-service organization in this age of transformation with an interest in the changing relationship between church and state.”


—Doug Taylor, former Deputy CEO of Uniting NSW & ACT





“As CEO and pastor of a church with a large staff, running many programs for people in need, I’ve found no book more helpful than this one. Hynd soberly, carefully names the difficulties of the present while essentially calling from the future. This book and this man remind me that authority comes with a quiet, measured voice.”


—Graham Long, Pastor, Wayside Chapel





“Doug Hynd offers a terrific account of the challenges and opportunities for a discipleship of community engagement on the way out of Christendom. . . . The book is lucid, clear, theologically informed, and laced with apposite stories drawn from his knowledge and experience of contracting and advocacy in the welfare sector. . . . An excellent guide for rethinking community engagement and the welfare sector.”


—Stephen Pickard, Professor of Theology, Charles Sturt University





“Marshalling his deep, practical theological and public-service resources with care, economy, faithfulness, and imagination, Doug Hynd asks our churches to rethink Christian community engagement from a perspective which destabilizes top-down power relations and opens us up to transformation, both personal and political.”


—Simon Barrow, Director, Ekklesia think tank, Edinburgh