Five Challenges for the Once and Future Church

Rating:
Summary: What do you mean... 'challenge'?
Review: "I wonder if we have the time. Do we, who love our religious traditions and systems, have the time to redesign, reinvent, or redevelop them for the next generation?" This is the opening question from Loren Mead book. It is a small and very readable book which pulls no punches in giving the church of today five challenges for our once and future church. At times the writer is confronting and yet it told a common story of the church today: we are smaller, we are dwindling, we want to know why, we are hurting and we want to know what we can do so the church has a future. The five challenges push us to think about who owns the church, the relevance of our structures, our need for passionate spirituality and community, and finally how we can reach out beyond ourselves for the sake of the gospel. Despite being written for the American church I found his thoughts to be very relevant to our context. I highly recommend it for all people to read not just ministers. We all need to be challenged to think of our Once and Future Church.