The New Ways of Doing Church

Considering the deficiencies of some of the old ways of doing church, perhaps this is not such a bad standard to bear. Somehow, though, the phrase makes me cringe inside. I wonder whether the leaders of such groups really know enough about the old ways to critique them, and whether they really know enough about their new ways to understand their implications.
I will admit that for the most part I am a pretty traditional fellow. I was raised in a Lutheran congregation that conducted services in German until my father was a young boy, only three decades before I was born. There I was weaned on the pipe organ, liturgical worship and memorization from Luther’s Small Catechism and the King James Version of the Bible.
When I left that system and migrated into fundamentalism more than 25 years ago, I came with little understanding of my new camp’s past history. Yet I had purposed to submit myself to profound changes—in my theology and in just about every way of doing church.
I found many of these changes to bring joy and welcome relief. I will admit, however, that at times through these years I have felt like a fish out of water. On occasion I have even had to bite my tongue when my critiques would not have been “fitly spoken” (Prov. 25:11, NKJV). Read the rest HERE