Deus Misereatur

A Church You Can See: Building a Case for Church Membership by Dennis E. Bills My rating: 5 of 5 stars One of my nagging frustrations as a minister is how many unconnected people I have run across through the years. They claim to be Christians but refuse to affiliate with a congregation for a host of reasons, some substantial and others superficial. Dennis Bill, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, addresses church membership in his 122 page softback, “A Church You Can See: Building a Case for Church Membership.” This down-to-earth manual is ideal for disciples of Jesus wherever they are in their life’s journey. The author uses a building metaphor as the backdrop and developmental structure of the book. He looks at the builder of the Church, Jesus Christ, and what our Lord said about the church and what makes someone a Christian. Then Bills unrolls the blueprint to set out the contours and framework of what the Church is and what churches are, echoing the W...

Analogies can be helpful tools for teaching new concepts, transferring perceptions from one person to the next, or opening up a new awareness to ideas not seen before. William Abraham (“ The Logic of Renewal ”), in trying to pierce into the heart of renewal movements and their unexamined assumptions, moves to a medical analogy. “3. Proposals about renewal invariably follow a simple pattern. They propose a description of the life of the church that depicts what is flawed in one way or another – we are told that the church is diseased or sick in some crucial respect. This leads to a diagnosis as to why the flaw or set of flaws has developed – we are given an account of the etiology of the sickness of the church. Finally, there is a prescription as to how to put things right – we are offered an account of the medicine that we need to take if the church is to be cured” (p. 3-4). This medical analogy is helpful in thinking about how renewal movements view an existing church structure...

Last week I began this short series on thinking through church renewal, using the first of six observations made by William Abraham in his book, “The Logic of Renewal” (see here ). There I addressed an initial area of church renewal that is often overlooked, and the questions that should rise to the surface when thinking through any revitalization “program.” What other aspects of church renewal plans should church planters and pastors work through or take note of? William Abraham speaks to the next concern by remarking, “2. Ignoring ecclesiological considerations in our thinking stems in large measure from casting renewal in purely personal terms. Thus, ( . . . ) we tend to think of renewal as fundamentally the renewal of the individual. ( . . . ) Insofar as we think of the church in this tradition, we think of the church as a collection of or voluntary association of suitably renewed or sanctified individuals. We need, however, to break loose from this sort of individualism and b...

There are lots of programs, systems, paradigms and “movements” surging through the American Church scene that are promoting themselves as ways to revitalize your church, making it more “missional” and faithful to Jesus and Jesus’ cause. For those who have a rich love for Jesus’ Church, and desire be part of the Word of God increasing and multiplying (Acts 12.24), then this kind of talk will rouse their hearts and draw their attention. Because this subject resonates with me, I would like to take several weeks to think through some issues related to it. The way I plan to address these concerns, hopes and anticipations is by ruminating over six considerations brought up by William J.Abraham in the first chapter of his book, “ The Logic of Renewal ” (p.3-6). Though I read this book in 2004, I have found his observations perceptive, and an indispensable aid to discernment in this area throughout the past several years. To begin with Abraham points out what I think is a serious bl...