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Every person is a designer of his or her own “soulprint.” A soulprint is an identifying theological perspective, which is unique to each individual. When we truly own our own theology, differing viewpoints shouldn’t threaten us. That which we own, cannot be stolen from us. However, the soulprint we have chosen for ourselves, should never be forced upon other souls, just as we wouldn’t want another person’s soulprint, forced on us.
Most bridal departments are well staffed with consultants. These women politely prevent the general public, who might have dirty hands, from aimlessly browsing through the wedding gowns. Instead, the gowns are carefully selected for the bride-to-be, by the consultants. I was young and naive when my parents took me to several of these upscale bridal shops. They wanted to help me select the perfect dress for my wedding day. What should have been a fun-filled experience, accompanied by laughter and giddiness, turned out to be just plain deflating!
In her book, “Christianity after Religion,” author Diana Butler Bass briefly discusses the First Great Awakening, launched in 1730, followed by a Second and Third Great Awakening. Bass mentions the 1960’s as the beginning of a Fourth Awakening in North American religion. Following her brief discussion on these four awakenings, Bass writes:
Most people would agree that the church needs a transfiguration. She must become a more effective presence in the world. She must become more relevant in her mission to meet human hunger, in all its forms. But, before we can appreciate the scope of such a transfiguration, a veil must be lifted from our spiritual eyes. From 1996 to 2000, I experienced such a lifting. I freely admit that I was unaware of my blindness until the lifting process started.
Christians, we like our walls! I mean we love, love, love our walls! We love the walls of our church buildings. We love our denominational walls, and our non-denominational walls. We love the church walls in our towns and cities. We love our regional walls, and we love our national walls. The church’s walls are time-honored! They were built by our ancestors who shed blood, sweat, and tears to erect them. We must not tarnish or dismantle the work of our parents and grandparents, by disrespecting the walls they built. We’ve inherited them and we must care for them. Right? Read more
The past 30 years have provided a slew of new ideas regarding the way Christians ‘do’ church. The best thing about these fresh entrepreneurial efforts, is that they have successfully broken a mold that needed to be broken. But more recently, people have begun to question the sustainability of the newer church-planting models. Moreover, the term, “church plant,” is problematic. It creates an image of something that is planted from seed, and grown from the ground by those who sow the seed. While this may be a great metaphor for sharing the Gospel, it’s not helpful as a working, organizational image.
As I write today for the church of tomorrow, I am mindful of an ever-increasing uptake in church bashing. It’s a rising trend. After all, what’s not fun about jumping on a bandwagon that’s rolling through town? If everyone else is criticizing the church, why not join in? But Socrates had a different take on things: “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
Christians make one mistake—and it’s a whopper! We don’t understand the Way of Jesus! We think we do, but we don’t. As a Christian, I never knew we were making such a huge mistake. The way we do church is just plain wrong! So, now that I see the mistake, it’s impossible to keep quiet about it! I can’t. Nor should I. As a member of the body of Christ, I am obligated to speak up. Moreover, I believe that the church will spin her wheels forever, unless Christians deal with this mistake, and agree not to continue making it.
Continued from Part I: So, when we look at how the church should’ve organized herself, we must see the 3,400-year-old model, that the first believers in Acts 1 understood! If we don’t look to the original tribal model in the Sinai desert, then we are left to our own imagination, when it comes to building or growing the church. And, so far, human imagination has blown the church way off course! The organizational models that we’ve chosen, and continue to choose, will never fulfill the vision Jesus had for the bride of Christ.Read more