“Each year, one million Christians leave the traditional church. Why?”
Author Frank Viola gives readers language for all they knew was missing in their modern church experience.
Following up the popular “Pagan Christianity”, Frank Viola has provided a useful resource in understanding a less institutional congregation. If you struggled with his first book, I wouldn’t even pick this one up. Otherwise, it becomes a great insight in how to capture a Biblical perspective on corporate worship.
“Reimagining Church” walks through 2 areas of capturing organic community. The first section concentrates on the Community and Gatherings through concentrating on:
Church as an Organism
Church Meeting
Lord’s Supper
Gathering Places
Family of God
Church Unity
Church Practices
The second section has to do with Leadership and Accountability:
Leadership
Oversight
Decision-Making
Spiritual Covering
Authority and Submission
Denominational Covering
Apostolic Tradition
What I like about this book is that it becomes a practical picture, a guide, of how we can “re-imagine church.” I found this most helpful along with the various other books. He stays away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach and reaffirms that “church” won’t look the same everywhere. It runs very counter to the big-box church sets and reclaims a more grass-roots movement.
The pictures that are presented with each chapter a woven with a deep Biblical understanding. Though he piece-mills Scripture together (something he argues against in other books) he still tries to keep a consistent picture.
I found these pictures very challenging to the current was we are doing church. I prefer the Biblical pictures and desire deeply to reclaim those. Everything we do as an act of worship should reflect Scripture and not perpetuate tradition for the sake of perpetuating tradition.
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