Reimagining Church is written by Frank Viola, a prominent voice in the house church movement and author of several other books including bestselling "Pagan Christianity" which he coauthored with George Barna. I was given this book by my Grandfather about a year ago. It is one I have read over a period of time as it has taken a while to fully digest and I finally read the last chapter just recently. Some areas of this book left me thinking that Viola is right on. And in other areas his bias against the traditional church is so dogmatic that it turns my stomach a little.
The purpose of this book is real, and I mean that. There are an estimated one million people leaving the traditional church every year in the United States. You could say the church has lost some of it's mojo. Not to blame the church for all this, we just have life too easy and the church, like many other things, is viewed as a "product" in a consumer mentality culture.
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The main thrust of the book asks this question: Is the New Testament concept of the church of Jesus Christ a spiritual organism or an institutional organization? The answer that most of us would come up with is that the church is an organism, the very bride of Christ. But the argument in this book outlines how the institutional church falls short of this goal. Not that the church is not God's people, but the way of doing church is a system, not incredibly different than what you would find in a corporation. On pages 274-275, Viola outlines the differences in paradigm from being involved in an institutional church and being involved with a home church. I think this breakdown is one of the strengths of the book:
The Institutional Paradigm //The Organic Paradigm
- -is sustained by a clergy system //-knows nothing of a clergy system
- -limits many functions to the ordained //-makes all members functioning priests
- -renders the bulk of congregants passive in the pews //-allows and encourages all Christians to engage in whatever ministry God has called them to.
- -associates church with a building, a denomination..// -affirms they (the people) are the church
- -spends most of its resources on building //-spends most of its resources on the "poor among you"
expenditures and staff salaries
- -operates on the basis that the pastor/priest is the //-operates on the basis that Christ is the functional head
functional head through the Holy Spirit
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I think probably the greatest strengths mentioned above are the empowerment of believers and the freeability of resources that the organic church offers. The biggest problem that I see with Mr. Viola's vision is the possibility of major doctrinal error (heresy) that can accompany such churches. We all possess a fallen nature and the possibility of problems increase when little to no oversight exists. Some people have strong personalities and can take that personality and "lord" it over others. Others, may like to mix a strong drink of left or right politics into their understanding of the Bible. Another problem is the rampant Biblical illiteracy that is plaguing Christians. Of course, maybe we are Biblically illiterate because we rely on the pastor to understand the Bible for us. In that case, which came first? The chicken or the egg?
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Overall this book is a good read. I imagine that every believer would glean some good insight from reading it. More to come soon............................
