Found this over at Jordon's:
Fallout is not limited to the clergy... The faithful.. wonder when they are going to experience the changed life they've been promised and expected to experience at church. In North America, these people have been led to believe that their Christian life is all about the church, so this failure of the church not only creates doubt about the church, it also leads them to all kinds of doubt about God and their
relationship with Him."
"Many congregations and leaders.. adopt a refuge mentality. This is the perspective that withdraws from the culture, builds the walls thicker and higher, hunkers down to wait for the storm to blow over. Those with a refuge mentality view the world outside the church as the enemy [and] live within the bubble of Christian subculture.. Refuge churches evidence enormous self-preoccupation. They deceive themselves into believing they are a potent force.
"The point is.. all the effort to fix the church misses the point. You can build the perfect church--and they still won't come. People are not looking for a great church... The age in which institutional religion holds appeal is passing away. "Church leaders seem unable to grasp this simple implication of the new world--people outside the church think church is for church people, not for them."
Reggie McNeal, The Present Future via Bob Carlton
Thanks Coop
Should have commented on this sooner.
ReplyDeleteThere are a variety of Churches here in Bicester. One in particular was run by an guy from the US, and some friends used to go there. The emphasis was (it seems) on the church doing things. Salvation was a corporate affair, although healing etc was all based on 'personal faith' (you don't get healed - you didn't have enough faith). They were quite taken aback by the idea that each person is responsible for working things out themselves (obviously within the limits of their ability).
Could this be a cultural thing? The models here don't seem to describe any churches that I've met.