"A New Testament Church in easy reach of every person in Illinois."I really like this as a vision statement for a number of reasons.
1. It requires some thinking to unpack. We need to think more!
2. It communicates the Incarnational and transformational nature of the ministry of the Church.
3. It recognizes that what we need is a reformation not a revolution. In other words we are
talking about getting back to what is radically old not doing something that is radically new.
4. It identifies that either geographically or culturally the church in Illinois is not in easy reach
of many people in Illinois. We need all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people.
5. It focuses on the Biblical foundation of the Church.
6. It is easy to remember.
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5 comments:
Bring that vision to Carbondale, please.
I still would advocate a revolution instead of a Reformation. While I do appreciate and benefit from the Reformers of the 16th Century I believe they only got the ball rolling. Example, Luther brought back to the surface justification by faith but didn't really alter basic catholic ecclesiology and thus the clergy/laity dichotomy was indoctrinated into Protestant theology.
Did the team define "easy reach"?
Regarding #4, wouldn't it be better if the focus was on having churches that were made up of all kinds of people? And if not, how do you draw lines between different "kinds" of people on a college campus?
Chase, that's the million dollar question. That might be better. But how far does it go. Can we say that different kinds of people in a cultural group is diverse enough. Or people from different cultures who are all part of one affinity group is diverse enough. There might be a house church made up of a young goth, two middle age Asians, an anglo sooner fan, and 5 African Americans, But they are all house church people so we have a house church for them. But we also have a cell church out in the burbs of the same city for those folks too not because they don't like Asians, Goths, or African Americans, they just don't like house church.
That helps me understand what you mean by "all kinds" of churches. I'm not a fan of niche churches that focus on just a psychographic slice of their community.
Also, I'll ask again. How do define "easy reach"?
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