DOCTRINE
REBUILDING RADICAL CHURCH
The church has lost its founding ethos and settled for a power-driven agenda.
and an ancient, out-dated, view of divinity, adapted to its needs.
It needs to rethink its role and its theology before becoming fit for purpose.
Maybe these ten points could be a step upon the way.
1. A person's 'God' is whatever acts truly as the main focus of their actions.
We can focus on good or evil, humility or pride, serving or service.
The role of the church should be to direct our choice along Christ-like lines,
rather than to promote its own concept of divinity and its agenda.
2. Gracious, Godly, behaviour, or the reverse, reflects the God within a person.
and is thus more important than adherence to an ancient theology.
We are called to serve each other not to theological adherence.
The church needs to become a place from which service flows.
3. Jesus is a model for living rather than an object of worship.
Through his teaching he explained the nature of Goodness, of his God.
The role of the church should be to explain and to promote his teaching,
rather than to pour praise on the unhearing ear of the dead.
4. The church expends much effort in promoting the brokenness of mankind,
promoting its agenda by reminding us of our sins and need for forgiveness.
Affirming people’s potential is more important than reminding them of their failures.
The role of the church should be to promote mental health; a positive attitude.
5. The church focusses on salvation of the individual
Yet Jesus taught of service rather than being served,
on salvation of the world, rather than of individuals.
Surely the church should be leading the protection of creation
and the world around us, the environment.
6. The work of reconciliation should be valued over making judgements.
Relationships are the key to healthy living, and retraining the key to new life.
The role of the church should be to recover the marginalised into society;
maybe to go out and find those that need help and bring them comfort.
7. Inviting questions is more valuable than supplying answers.
Encouraging a personal search is more important than group uniformity.
The church needs to encourage personal growth rather than compliance;
to value activity over stability; to demonstrate its Godly focus.
8. The church is focussed on its buildings and institutional organisation.
Meeting actual needs is more important than maintaining institutions.
The church needs to restructure its titled hierarchies and placements.
The church needs to redirect its finances from buildings to people;
9. Peacemaking is more important than power.
The church needs to abandon schism, refute charismatic power-brokers;
to struggle for integration and abandon causes of separation or difference.
10. What we do to serve others in this world is more important than a focus on any most-mortal reward.
The church needs to rethink its concepts of eternal existence and
the streams of theology which surround it.
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However achievement of these criteria probably implies
the prior demise of the church as we know it.