Consider this statement: The environment of the soil must be right for the seed to grow.
One of my favorite authors said recently, "You can rearrange the chairs on the Titanic, but the ship is still going down. My thoughts on most church renewal/restoration strategies."
You can rearrange an environment without changing the conditions of the environment. The younger generations are currently attempting to break free from the environment of religious institutionalism and are trying whatever methods and buzzwords possible to do it (missional, emergent, house church, organic church).
But, no matter what they call it, a close inspection would reveal that most of these methods are simply rearranging the same environment they are consciously or subconsciously trying to leave. This is happening because the movers don't know what the soil of God is like or they don't know how to replace the soil and then let the seed grow.
Also, replacing the soil/rebuilding the ship just costs us too much. Think about what most people would have to give up to have an organic environment. It includes mechanical planning, hierarchical leadership, salaries, and most of all CONTROL. Ah, there it is, the root of it all. Just like Adam and Eve wanted to take control of their own lives in the garden, so contemporary Christianity holds onto control of the environment that is supposed to have Christ as the Head (Controller). Jesus' statement to "leave everything you have and come follow me" takes on a practical dimension when looking at rearranging our environment. The vast majority of Christians are just unable to do this.
So, we live American Christian lives, dabble in theory, and continue to lack serious movement into an experience of what is being discussed. We talk about building a new ship, but just rearrange the chairs on the old one.
Where are those who are willing to rebuild the ship?.....
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