"Going Green" Church

A Book Review of "Reimagining Church" by Frank Viola
from Jeff

There's never a shortage of opinions about the way church ought to be done. Having been in about 20 churches since I was a kid, I've pretty much heard them all.

Most people who end up writing about such things tend to leap over the past 2,000 years of church history back to the beginning. They talk about "restoring" the church by returning to a New Testament model.

New Testament rhetoric aside, I am interested in people's ideas about church - especially if those ideas are not popular. Such is the case with Frank Viola's new book - "Reimagining Church."

Viola is joining a growing revolution of sorts - not just a reformation. He describes himself as an "organic" church planter that seeks to establish groups of people committed to the New Testament vision of church. He decries the institutional church with its paid staff, buildings, programs, passive Sunday experiences, and big budgets. He says the institutional church promotes passivity, lack of deep connection, and lack of deep transformation amongst its members simply by the way it is organized. He suggests that the modern church as we know it is a product of hundreds of years of mistaken practices based on pagan systems, rather than the organic, free flowing, Spirit led, spontaneous, equipping, gatherings we see in the New Testament.

I find Viola's ideas intriguing. There are not many - though there are more and more - people saying these things. Most writers still want to try and improve what already exists - essentially writing "Good to Great" for churches, assuming what exists is 'good' and can be made 'great.'

Viola stands out as someone presenting a bold vision for church. If pursued, it requires a new paradigm and new way of learning to be church for us. There are some things I like about his vision, other things I question. I will be writing a series of reviews of this book so stay tuned.

Check it out on Amazon, here.

Check out http://www.reimaginingchurch.org/ for even more info.