Blogotional: Reformation, Not Revolution

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Reformation, Not Revolution

There is so much wrong in Christianity today. Too liberal, too conservative, too political, too big, too small.... This, for example, is just a little too illustrative. (HT: CGO) And Mark Steyn asks one heck of a question when he looks at the state of Europe.

Where is Christianity in all this?

And these are just the most egregious examples of problems I could find in one day.

It is in no way surprising to me that the tag line on George Barna's latest book Revolution is

Worn Out On Church?

This book has been rightly and roundlycriticizedd by two very good bloggers - Jollyblogger and in a whole series of posts by Tod Bolsinger. Both critics; however fail, in my opinion to give due credence to the intensity of conviction and feeling that many, many Christians have when it comes to Barna's diagnosis - if not his cure.

The problem with Barna's book is not in the problems he identifies with the church - it's with the "churchless" solution he attempts to offer. He falls into the great trap of assuming that the last 2000 of history was just wrong - that God has not really acted in history, that His providence has not acted in getting us to this point.

He misses the gospel's grandest theme. Christ suffered physically so that we do not have to. Christ was destroyed in our stead, so that we could be merely remodelled. The church is in oh-so-desperate need of remodelling, nay transformation, but not abandonment. Sure, demolition will be involved, but it will not be wholesale and it will not be foundational, nor fundamental.

What we need is reformation, but not revolution.

This, frankly, is the single key idea when it comes to How To Be A Christian And Still Go To Church. We have a ministry not just out of the church, but to it. We must seek to give the church the grace we do the sinner and seek its transformation asactivelyy as we do the individual's.

Barna's book has really set me to thinking about a lot of topics that Christians who are really committed to God's calling to people and His desire to use the church as a means to achieve that calling. I plan to seriously address some of these in the days, weeks and months to come. Here are just a few of the ideas and topics

The general deinstituionalization of our society i.e. the move from the institutional to the networked. Barna has definitely tapped a trend that isgoingg to have radical effects on the church, though not necessarily those he thinks. How is this really gonna work?
We are indeed a priesthood of all believers, but priestly authority is not the only authority in the church. We need to look at the various types of authority and how it can be exercised.
What about the sacraments?
We all need accountability!
There is a huge difference between earned and institutionally granted authority. This distinction may be the one the church has most forgotten.
There is real power in a bureaucracy

And that's just off the top of my head.

I don't think we can afford to be dismissive of Barna's book. It hit a nerve with me - it touched a temptation I fight constantly. I have argued for what he argues at times in my life. The church is broken, we have to fix it.