Church As It Has Been and Could Be

Over the last several years there has been a great deal written about believers who are in love with Jesus but not the church. There has been a great exit of believers seeking to find an effective model that is both Biblical and that they find relevant where the life the Bible speaks about can be found among other believers. Some have given up and just stay at home, possibly catching a christian TV show to partially meet their need. Over the next few weeks I want to address this on my Equippers Network Blog http://equippersnetwork.blogspot.com/ and I will be offering brief descriptions of a variety of book on this blog, which address the church, its current state and a variety of solutions being offered by people from a wide variety of theological perspectives.

Many churches have become ineffective at being alive in Christ and in doing what Jesus began to do and teach, Acts 1:1. The Bible tells us that the people of God are destroyed for lack of knowledge and the people perish or (wander aimlessly without hope or purpose) because they have no vision of who God truly is and what He truly desires for us as individuals or as a people.

Hos 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
NASU
Prov 29:1818

Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish; but he who keeps the law [of God, which includes that of man] — blessed (happy, fortunate, and enviable) is he. [1 Sam 3:1; Amos 8:11,12.] AMP

The passage below reminds us that our assembling or gathering together is important. What is not addressed in these verses is the when, where, and how of our gatherings.
Heb 10:19-2519

Therefore, brethren, since we have full freedom and confidence to enter into the [Holy of] Holies [by the power and virtue] in the blood of Jesus, 20 By this fresh (new) and living way which He initiated and dedicated and opened for us through the separating curtain (veil of the Holy of Holies), that is, through His flesh, 21 And since we have [such] a great and wonderful and noble Priest [Who rules] over the house of God, 22 Let us all come forward and draw near with true (honest and sincere) hearts in unqualified assurance and absolute conviction engendered by faith (by that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness), having our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty (evil) conscience and our bodies cleansed with pure water. 23 So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgement of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word. 24 And let us consider and give attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up (stimulate and incite) to love and helpful deeds and noble activities, 25 Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together [as believers], as is the habit of some people, but admonishing (warning, urging, and encouraging) one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching. AMP

The first book I want to feature along these lines is below. This material is from George Barna's site @ http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Resource&ResourceID=337

Life Without Church
by Brian Sanders
Life without church. It's getting easier to imagine.
And maybe you already left. A leaver, then. Committed to Jesus, not an institution. Perhaps you've left your church in spirit, remaining in the pew. Outwardly silent. Secretly bored. In either case, Brian Sanders has a word for you.
Out of his own experience as a leaver, Brian distills the complex problem into two viable options:
Stay. Remain in your church with the blessing of Christ and in the power of his great vision for the church to come.
Take the path of revolutionary leaving. Move purposefully, seeking the kingdom of God that is beyond institutions.
Whether Sunday mornings find you alone in a one-bedroom apartment or isolated in a church of thousands, Brian reminds you to keep listening for God's call.
Reform the church that is Christ's. Be it from the inside out, or the outside in.
About the Author
Brian Sanders was part of a large group of people who all left churches at the same time. Gradually they realized that while their criticism of the church was prophetic, it wasn't productive.
Brian is now executive director of the Underground Network, a coalition of churches united by a call to biblical justice and love for the poor. And he is the lead pastor of the network's founding church, the Underground Church. The Likewise book Life After Church comes out of Brian's dream for a new kind of church. That dream has been formed in part by his degree in applied theology from Spurgeon's College, where he saw what it would take for a church to become a source of life to a community.

Here are a couple books that have influenced Brian's thinking:

The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch and Houses that Change the World by Wolfgang Simson.