Foundational Articles

The following are five foundational conversations we called the Mercyview “Labs,” held in the living room of the Andrews’ home in the summer of 2010 as we began to call together a group of individuals to plant the Gospel in their hearts and to plant Mercyview in the urban core of Tulsa:

1. The Gospel: The Center of Everything
2. Salt and Light: An Alternative City Within a City, For the City
3. A Missional People: Sent as Missionaries to be Witnesses
4. Seeking the Shalom of the City: How a Center-City Church Transforms Culture
5. The Apex of Holistic Ministry: Interlocking the Four Ministry Fronts

Recommended Books

We recommend the following books to assist you in further understanding the ethos of our values: Gospel, Community, and Mission. While we may not agree with every point in every book, nor recommend everything each individual author has ever written, we think these books will help you understand why we do things the way we do.

Gospel

1. Tim Keller: The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
2. Tim Keller: Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything
3. Ronnie Smith: History of Redemption
4. John Piper: God is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself
5. Bob Thune: The Gospel-Centered Life
6. C.J. Mahaney: The Cross-Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing
7. Jerry Bridges: Transforming Grace: Living Confidently in God’s Unfailing Love
8. Jerry Bridges: The Gospel For Real Life: Turn to the Liberating Power of the Cross…Every Day
9. Tim Chester: You Can Change: God’s Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions
10. World Harvest Mission: Sonship

Community

1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community
2. R.B. Kuiper: The Glorious Body of Christ
3. Tim Chester and Steve Timmis: Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community
4. Hugh Halter and Matt Smay: The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community
5. Marva Dawn: Truly the Community: Romans 12 and How to Be the Church
6. John Stott: Ephesians: Building a Community in Christ
7. Joseph Hellerman: When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus’ Vision for Authentic Christian Community
8. Randy Frazee: Making Room For Life: Trading Chaotic Lifestyles for Connected Relationships

Mission

1. Tim Keller: Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just
2. Tim Keller: Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road
3. Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost: The Shaping of Things To Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church
4. Jerram Barrs: The Heart of Evangelism
5. Robert Coleman: The Master Plan of Evangelism
6. Ronald Sider, Philip Olson, and Heidi Unruh: Churches That Make a Difference: Reaching Your Community with Good News and Good Works
7. Abraham Kuyper: Lectures on Calvinism
8. Charles Van Engen: God’s Missionary People: Rethinking the Purpose of the Local Church
9. Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett: When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself
10. James Davidson Hunter: To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World