There are times when a certain topic takes root in my mind, and like weeds it pops up in all sorts of places, shading most of what I think about and talk about. I see it in things I read…in conversations I have…in studies I do…EVERYWHERE! So has it been with church. In one sense, I am not sure why. In another sense I know exactly why. In regards to the former, I am not preparing for a specifically “church” ministry. By this I mean that I am not preparing for a vocational ministry within a church (like a senior pastor, minister to a specific age group, youth pastor, etc). So why the obsession? In regards to the latter, all Christians need be part of a church because this is the body of Christ…this is the family that I have been placed in…this is part of my new identity…it is created/instituted/ordained by God…so how can I not think about it??
I found these interesting statements regarding challenges to the church…issues that I find dangerously real.
The truth is that without a biblical understanding of why God instituted it, the church easily becomes a liability in a market where it competes only with the greatest of difficulty against religious fare available in the convenience of one’s living room and in a culture bent on distraction and entertainment.
The constant cultural bombardment of individualism, in the absence of a robust theology, meant that faith that had rightly been understood as personal now easily became faith that was individualistic, self-focused, and consumer oriented. That was the change to which the church marketers attuned themselves.
–David Wells, The Courage to be Protestant
For many Christians, a biblical understanding of the church is rapidly disappearing.
