Author Phyllis Tickle argues that every church faces the decision below in the next 18-24 months:
“Within the next eighteen to twenty-four months, denominations and established communions and the Christians who constitute them will decide, consciously or simply by default, whether “church” is first and foremost an experience of communal bonding, spiritual and religious expression, growth in concert with the ages, radical obedience, adoration, and transport or whether it is first and foremost an institution—one that does business and has structure and also structures which are to be supported, and one that is a means for organized interface with, and shaping of, the world external to it as the best means of effecting the Gospel’s principles upon and within culture.”
Source: http://www.emergentvillage.com/weblog/the-18-month-window
Chris,
Will you please explain?
Thanks,
Gary
Gary,
She has dramatized the issue somewhat in that this is a long-time struggle for the church: many churches, once established, once reaching a certain phase in their life-cycle, focus most of their energies on maintaining the institution and less and less on nurturing genuine community and mission. This is especially true in a culture like ours which is shifting from Modern to Postmodern and from Christian to Postchristian. There is a temptation to raise the drawbridge, shutter the windows, and just protect the institution of the church. God’s dream, however, still remains. That early church of Acts was a vibrant community where people were transformed by the presence of God and by a mission greater than themselves. Ultimately, she’s calling us back to the dream of Acts.
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