Modern Times and Church
“A NonModern Manifesto on Church Planting and Evangelism” (Part 1)
The society we live in is comfortable, structured and predictable. Change is seldom a threat, and only enacted when it increases our levels of safety and provision. For those who can accept the boundaries necessary to maintain the system, it is an amazing time to be alive. However, when one falls outside the system, or circumstances make “normal” life difficult or impossible, one discovers that our modern age has narrowly redefined what it is to be human, and how easy it is to be tossed out of that special race.
Industrialization, specialization, and mechanization have overtaken our society. Due to the advances those processes have provided we have accepted that they are unarguably good and have taken them into every aspect of our culture. The only problem is that they are beneficial tools that have run amok and over flown into areas where they don’t belong.
In the case of the Church, we have taken what the Bible refers to as a “family,” a “body,” or the “Bride,” and we have turned it into a corporation with satellites, a building with security systems, an organization with articles of incorporation.
It is time to question everything we have come to see as “Church.” Nothing should be off limits. What does the Bible have to say about fellowships of believers and how should that look in any age? Then particularly we can begin to ask, how should it look today? Sadly, today, the first issue that needs to be clarified is what exactly does it mean to be a believer? Too many people have a vested financial interest in the status quo for this to be done easily or painlessly. Perhaps it is too dangerous to seriously consider.
(part 2)
Industrialization, specialization, and mechanization have overtaken our society. Due to the advances those processes have provided we have accepted that they are unarguably good and have taken them into every aspect of our culture. The only problem is that they are beneficial tools that have run amok and over flown into areas where they don’t belong.
In the case of the Church, we have taken what the Bible refers to as a “family,” a “body,” or the “Bride,” and we have turned it into a corporation with satellites, a building with security systems, an organization with articles of incorporation.
It is time to question everything we have come to see as “Church.” Nothing should be off limits. What does the Bible have to say about fellowships of believers and how should that look in any age? Then particularly we can begin to ask, how should it look today? Sadly, today, the first issue that needs to be clarified is what exactly does it mean to be a believer? Too many people have a vested financial interest in the status quo for this to be done easily or painlessly. Perhaps it is too dangerous to seriously consider.
(part 2)
You're too right Jason. Even our language belies our views: we've commonly come to call a building a "church" - this is a concept, and language, absent from the scriptural notion of what church is. And that's only the beginning...
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