A Church Wide Enough for Everyone

About the Book

Robert Schaeffer and Douglas West are best friends living in Oklahoma in 1963—when they discover that they both sense a calling to become ministers in a mainline Christian denomination. But from seminary and their early years in ministry to their golden years looking back on what it takes to lead a congregation, a stimulating, sometimes puzzling, yet often inspirational world of theological controversies and congregational concerns would unfold for these two men of God. A Church Wide Enough for Everyone follows these two men on their journey to demonstrate the continuing relevance of the Christian faith in a postmodern world. After moving to Berkeley, California, to attend college and seminary, they have little time to ponder the vast social changes taking place before they immediately enter into intensive critical study of the Bible and Christian theology. And as Robert is then thrust into the ordained ministry with his wife, Faye, both men must in their own ways face the political, cultural, and ideological pressures of each passing decade, responding to challenges from both within the church and from outsiders. Are mainline churches—and Christian theology—dead? Or might they be revitalized in the current century? A Church Wide Enough for Everyone and the inspired journeys of two ministers offers a window into how this revitalization and new understanding is possible.

About the Author

Steven H. Propp lives in Sacramento, California, and graduated from CSU Sacramento. He has written many thought-provoking novels, such as The Gift of God is Eternal Life (2016); What It Was All About: A Novel about the Women’s Movement (2015); The Quest for the Inner Human (2013); Liberty Means Freedom for All (2012); Another Jesus, A Different Spirit, A Different Gospel (2011); And With All Your Mind (2010); Three Perspectives: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim (2009); After the New Age (2008); Three Brothers: A Novel about Change and Diversity in the Catholic Church (2007); Saved by Philosophy (2006); A Multicultural Christmas (2005); Josué: Prisoner at Shalem (2005); Utopia on the Sixth Floor (2004); Beyond Heaven and Earth (2003); Tattered Pilgrims (2001); and Work, Death & Taxes (2000). He has also written the nonfiction book Inquiries: Philosophical (2002), and he and his wife, Nancy, have six grandchildren.