The Ecclesia
- Speaker: Mark Burch
- Date: Sep 14, 2008
- Series: The Quest Continues
- Key Passage: Matthew 16:18
The "church" is coming under a lot of fire in the west. We're living at the transition point from a Christian world-view that predominated society, to a church that is standing at the margins of culture. Many voices are critical of the church (and often they are right) but there are also many critics who come across as angry, cynical, and antagonistic toward the attempts of the church in our day... and what it most disconcerting is that many of these voices are coming from "within" the church herself.
The impetus for this series comes out of my own musings over the past several months and even the last few years. I have heard so many stories of people leaving the established church, been told that the "institutional church" is irrelevant, that the "mega" church is dead, that God is doing a new thing that will be more organic, incarnational, missional, etc, etc, etc. I've heard and seen a lot of criticism and deconstruction of the "church". Yet Jesus promised that He would build the church!
I believe it is time for us to get back on the hopeful, positive, solution-side of the equation. Openly admitting that the church is not perfect; she has many flaws - but one day we'll stand at the wedding feast of the Lamb and she (we) will be beautiful! In the meantime, we are called to partner with Jesus in building the kingdom of God and His chosen instrument is the church.... But what is the church all about? We need to grapple with these questions, and that's what this new series is all about.
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