Michael Horten hat eine neue Blogserie über die Kennzeichen der Gemeinde eröffnet. In seinem ersten Beitrag kritisiert er, dass überkonfessionelle Organisationen zunehmend einen quasi kirchlichen Status erhalten.
In The Courage to be Protestant, David Wells observes that parachurch ministries are increasingly replacing the church itself. The question is whether evangelicalism itself has become a threat to actual churches. Many Christians today believe that going to a Christian concert, evangelistic event, or conference is equivalent to the corporate gathering of the covenant community each Lord’s Day. As George Barna argues in The Revolutionaries (Tyndale, 2005), most Christians will soon (he hopes) receive their spiritual resources on-line and not even find it necessary to attend, much less join, a local church. Stunned by the revelation that many of those most involved were the most dissatisfied with their spiritual growth, Willow Creek Community Church’s self-study, published as Reveal, concluded that believers outgrow the church. Although the respondents actually said that they thought the weak diet was responsible for their poor spiritual health, the leadership concluded that they need to work harder to make people fend for themselves as »self-feeders« and be less dependent on the ministry of the church.
Hier der Beitrag: www.whitehorseinn.org.