The Reason for Church Audiobook By Brad Edwards, Michael Keller - foreword cover art

The Reason for Church

Why the Body of Christ Still Matters in an Age of Anxiety, Division, and Radical Individualism

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The Reason for Church

By: Brad Edwards, Michael Keller - foreword
Narrated by: Mark Smeby
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About this listen

Rediscover the goodness and beauty of the Body of Christ.

The evangelical church is hemorrhaging. Over 40 million Americans have dechurched in the last 25 years alone, and multiple generations have been raised to believe the most spiritual thing they can do is follow God by following their heart—right out of the church. Yet, this shift is happening right as society is hitting record levels of loneliness, stress, and anxiety. In The Reason for Church, pastor Brad Edwards connects the dots of our current church crisis and provides compelling reasons to come back.

In part 1, Edwards shows how individualistic beliefs make church implausible and compromise our spiritual formation:

  • Marketplace logic and consumeristic approaches to discipleship
  • Intuitional spirituality and therapy speak
  • Social media's distortion of what is true, good, and beautiful
  • Performative politics and culture wars
  • Virtuous victimhood, the decline of trust, and the rise of power

These chapters show why individualism won't satisfy and can't provide the refuge it promises.

In part 2, Edwards uses personal examples, church history, non-Western expressions of faith, and Scripture to show how the church is our existentially satisfying alternative to individualism. Equipped with an institutionally robust vision, we will rediscover the church as God's spiritual greenhouse where soul-tired sojourners and lonely exiles are restored and repurposed for life in the world.

The Reason for Church offers an honest-yet-hopeful vision for church as a necessary institution. With radical individualism tearing us apart, we need compelling reasons to fall back in love with Christ's bride, now more than ever.

Reflection questions can be found in the audiobook companion PDF download.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2025 Brad Edwards (P)2025 Zondervan
Christian Living Christianity Church & Church Leadership Discipleship Ecclesiology Ministry & Evangelism Social Issues Theology Heartfelt
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I wish there was more expansion of greenhouse and more scripture references. But I think Edwards’ project is not what my project would be with this same idea.

A very needed book

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In an age when so many have given up on the church, Brad Edwards gives us a compelling reason to return to find what we actually need most and haven’t found elsewhere.
-David Rapp, Pastor, Redeemer Golden (CO)

Why We Need the Church

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I think that Brad is a highly intelligent and scholarly thought leader in the American Christian Pastor world.

Whilst I don’t agree with every statement made in this book - I feel like the overall narrative resonates and many of these words needed to be said and will need to be heard again. I think this book has a lot of truth nuggets that every Christian, pastor, and church leader in Ameria should read!

A great read, not merely to understand the great exudus of the church by millennials and younger, but define the healthy and attainable counter culture. How to, rebuild the institution, and our faith in it.

Church needs to be something different! And not something of our own making.

Successful religious community cannot be led by our feelings, emotions, traumas, or relational brokenness… rather built upon the unchanging truth of salvation, and saving grace - which can only be extended by a good and perfect Savior.
Christians can only grow fully and work-out their faith to greatest maturity within tight knit church-lead communities. Whether we like it or not, we need the institution. And, we need the institution to be revamped. Highly recommend this book!

Religious thought leader!

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