Rebuild My Church

For the better part of the last month I have been reading like crazy. Ok I am always reading, but not this much in so little time. If it isn't thriller novels that I have recently been captivated by again; they are books that have a common elemental theme running through them... change/rebuild the church.

Without making it sound like I am going on an Emergent Church kick, the books that I am reading or have read in the past month have had that slant to them. Though I don't particularly believe the movement has the solutions... the ideas behind them are propelling the kind of change that I want to see take place in the complacent church.

These books include:

• The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne
• The Emerging Church and Emerging Worship by Dan Kimball
• Experiential Storytelling by Mark Miller
• Preaching Re-Imagined by Doug Pagitt

I find it particularly interesting that St. Francis had a similar calling from God in 1206 (note the year!) in which Jesus spoke to him saying to "repair my house." He then went on to turn the church on its heels by the manner of his and his followers living.

Maybe it is time for another such rebuilding.

It is time for the modern contemporary church (or better said North American Christianity) to understand that what we are doing no longer impacts society like we once did. If we are to be relevant in the coming century then we quite simply can no longer go about as we have. Everything must be looked at through the lens of authenticity and transformation albeit discipleship, evangelism, spiritual formation, social justice, preaching etc.

We must begin asking the kinds of questions that, up to this point, we have been afraid of asking because we were afraid of where they might take us. Now those very questions may hold the key to our survival.