to Craig re:Re-envisioning the "church"

Craig-
We've talked about this off and on over the years. It's encouraging to see some of the big players start to question the methodology of the modern church enterprise(over the past 10-15 years only the rebels/heretics would dare to do such a thing), however its not news to the many we label as "lay." Barna fingered it in "Revolution"- there are a boatload of men and women of God who no longer see any purpose for the Institution in their lives. This revelation keeps being re-discovered, re-packaged, re-titled by the institution, but without any realistic vision for the future.

Everyone agrees the institution serves a purpose early in a believer's spiritual journey, especially in our individualistic modern/postmodern western culture. But who has an answer for Pilgrim as he Progresses? Our answer today is we make a place for him in institutional "leadership”, or send him to the mission field(in India, or Africa, or some place worse.) For a few this works, for many this is dreadful. Personally, I can't imagine a worse fate than to either spend the rest of my life sucking up the hierarchy "led" by seminary trained bureaucrats whose primary purpose is to make themselves necessary, or to end up in the woods somewhere begging for financial support from my friends at home.

However some anti-institutional vocational ministry guys are re-envisioning 21st century Christianity. There seems to not only be a shift in methodology, but also in basic Theology. I am ecstatic when I here vocational types start talking in terms of Kingdom Theology instead of focusing on Salvation Theology. "Kingdom now", instead of "Salvation now" has such greater purpose. It steps out of the box, out of the consumer enterprise into the reality of a world in which Jesus is Lord, not just Savior; a world of people all around us who need, who desire, who hurt, who love, who hate, who want a hope bigger than some day going to heaven and an identity more real than the false face of today's institutionalized Christian. Most people I know today, and that includes youth up to my AARP friends, cannot imagine that their ultimate purpose on this earth is to find a niche in the institution and wait for the dubious "rapture". Most people I know want to make a difference. Today's Pilgrim sees a hurting messed up world of people who need care, emotional support, understanding, validation, and friendship where they are and just as they are. Mankind has never craved institutionalization: mankind longs for freedom. (Didn't Paul say something like that?)

It gives me hope when I hear the CEO of the St Joseph Medical system state that her goal as CEO is to have every employee of the medical system recognize their occupation as also being a spiritual vocation.- every personal encounter is a sacred encounter.
At Orange Lutheran HS there is a waiting list for kids who want to give up their Christmas break to go clean houses in Katrina ravaged New Orleans. The fastest growing sub culture in the YLFC High School Ministry is not musical worship, or evangelism, or tech team, but service team! In a time when the institutional church and its paraministries are struggling financially, the coffers of health care non-profits are bursting at the seams. I give time and money to the church out of duty and guilt- I give to St Jude's "care for the poor" program out of joy. My daughter goes to Sunday service out of duty- she's going to New Orleans to make a difference.

Steven Graves in The Fourth Frontier said: "It’s the marketplace that carries the traffic of a lost world." It is my opinion that the "church" as we know it will never solve its problem as long as its primary purpose is internal growth and self propagation. It was once said that our purpose in the Kingdom is fourfold: "Love God, Love our neighbor, Tend Culture, Expand the Kingdom." Jesus pointed to the Kingdom outside the tent-"Go, be fishers of men!” We've got to go to the fishing holes, find out what they eat, what they need. I'm not a fish, but it’s my opinion the last thing any freedom loving 21st century fish wants to be is a trophy on our temple wall or to be showcased as part of our lobby aquarium collection.
Blessings
GP