Reimagining Church

A while back, I wrote a few comments about Ed Chinn's book, Footprints in the Sea. I began with this thought:

If print can clamor, then we are surrounded, immersed, nearly overwhelmed by a thunder of pages rightly proclaiming the flaws of today's church structures. Book after book appears on the shelves pointing out the failings of Western Christianity.

Frank Viola has added a significant voice to that crowd in his book, Reimagining Church. The differences between his approach and Ed Chinn's are dramatic. Ed calls us on our ideas about Jesus. Viola deals with our failed doctrine and practice of church structure from biblical, historical, and practical perspectives. One book confronts our muddled image of the Christ, the other dismantles our muddled image of His body and bride.

Unlike Footprints, Viola's book is filled with very pointed instruction about the who, what, where, and how of the church, from God's perspective as set forth in Scripture. Because his proposed solution includes rather the opposite of top-down, hierarchical governments and building-based ministries and passive throngs of believers, his book is predictably controversial. And his less-than-gentle language does nothing to smooth any ruffled feathers.

Ed Chinn's writing makes you think of comfortable chairs filled with old and new friends, scattered around well-used tables holding favorite beverages, all in a room smelling of history, and filled with unrushed conversation. He would hand you a fine cigar. Frank Viola might offer to light it for you - with a flamethrower.

Don't get me wrong - I love Viola's book. I picked it up thinking that in my case he would be preaching to the choir. I soon found that the choir in his church is very, very small, indeed. More than once I found myself in the congregation desperately searching Scripture and logic for a way out of his conclusions. I was not particularly successful.

If I have any criticisms of Reimagining Church, they are pretty small and in no way detract from his message. Let me just mention one - I don't like the title. While it's a great phrase on its own, it does not compliment the thrust of the book.

"Reimagining" is really how we got into this mess in the first place. We (Western Christianity) have repeatedly and insistently reinvented God's plan for organic simplicity, substituting instead a government-and-business-based organization. I have to doubt whether we can find our way out of this wilderness by using the same tools that led us astray. "De-imagining" might be a better fit.

Even more unfortunate, I think, is his use of the word, "church." I say it's time to throw out this misnomer altogether. The early forms of this word all denote a building in which worship takes place. It is thought to have entered the English language from the Greek kuriakon, "the Lord's house." It is part and parcel, maybe even a cornerstone, of the rotten foundation of building-based ecclesiology wherein we view church as a place to go to.

I think you should read the book. Just don't get mad at me when your toes find their way under Viola's heavy feet.