Viola makes two fundamental arguments here. First, that much of what we routinely assume to be part and parcel of doing church--a special building, a paid pastor, the worship set, the sermon, the collection of the tithe, the rather odd practice of "communion"--is really a borrowing from the surrounding culture and not intrinsic to the NT conception of "church" at all.
But Viola's second point is more important by far. Not only are so many of these taken-for-granted practices not intrinsic to the NT church, but they actually hinder spiritual maturity and the full flowering of what Luther called "the priesthood of all believers." Church, Viola argues, church as we know it, stands in the way of spiritual growth.
I'm not going to replay Viola's arguments in detail here, but all I can say is that my own experience has shown me that he's right. Since I drew back from institutional church life in the past year, I've struggled to find expressions of "body-life" outside the institutional setting. Fact is, I struggled to find it inside the institutional setting as well. I've said often enough that the life of the Christian, in company with brothers and sisters in shared-life relationships. This is the picture drawn by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together
. Bonhoeffer was forced by the deadly circumstances of his times to seek an understanding of church--of the communion of saints--apart from the traditional practices of the "institutional church," which in his day was sold out to the Nazis. He went back to the New Testament, back to the 50 or so "one another" passages scattered like gems throughout those pages, and then he sought to put this into practice with a band of brothers. Life Together is his manual for that life.As I read Pagan Christianity, I kept thinking of Bonhoeffer and Life Together. These two authors would no doubt disagree on some things, but heartily agree that on the mutuality and interdependency of the life under Christ's headship. Sunday morning church gatherings are to true community as Sunday morning "communion" is to a true meal. Ritualized, lip-serviced, tragically attenuated and manipulated.
I'm looking for something better than this. I'm looking for something organic. I'm not sure how to go about this, but I'm confident that it is God's plan for his people, and he will guide me into it.
By the way, I've now begun reading Viola's Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity. Here's a quote from chapter 1 (p. 48):
The church is organic. If her natural growth is not tampered with, she will grow up to be a beautiful girl--a living witness to the glories of her Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. She will not grow up to be an organization like General Motors or Microsoft. She will be something wholly different--completely unique to the planet. Just as unique as Jesus Christ was when he walked the earth. For after all, the church is His very body, and its nature is identical to God's.In my experience, church people get very antsy when the church is criticized. But it must happen. Life together in the body of Christ, under His headship, has got to be something more than audience-like attendance at the high-ceilinged hall across town. I'm determined to find out for sure.
