The House of Cyril and Methodius

I read this yesterday and I found it interesting for thought especially considering what we're doing. When you're reading it though, do note that it's speaking against the very church it's describing -- the Modern church.

From Modern Christianity to a Postmodern Church

"If I am opposed to the epistemology, or theory of knowledge, that plagues modern Christianity, then I am also opposed to ecclesiology (or lack thereof) that accompanies this modernist version of the faith. Within the matrix of a modern Christianity, the base 'ingredient' is the individual; the church, then, is simply a collection of individuals. Conceiving of Christian faith as a private affair between the individual and God -- a matter of my asking Jesus 'to come into my heart'-- modern evangelicalism finds it hard to articulate just how or why the church has any role to play other than providing a place to fellowship with other individuals who have a private relationship with God. With this model in place, what matters is Christianity as a system of truth or ideas, not the church as a living community embodying its head. Modern Christianity tends to think of the church either as a place where individuals come to find answers to their questions or as one more stop where individuals can try to satisfy their consumerist desires. As such, Christianity becomes intellectualized rather than incarnate, commodified rather than the site of genuine community."

(A couple of paragraphs later...)

"The church does not exist for me; my salvation is not primarily a matter of intellectual mastery or emotional satisfaction. The church is the site where God renews and transforms us -- a place where the practices of being the body of Christ form us into the image of the Son. What I, a sinner saved by grace, need is not so much answers as reformation of my will and heart."

- Who's Afraid of Postmodernism by Jamie Smith