During 2007 I had interactions with numerous church pastors and planters, both in the flesh and on the web. Through these I’ve become convinced that I need to get my ecclesiology clear in my head over the course of 2008. So I’m going to concentrate my studies in this area. Here’s a list of some of the questions I want to have a look at (feel free to point me towards literature that deals with any of the questions below):
According to the New Testament what do you have to have, as absolute minimum, for a church to exist?
What is the relationship between the church and the Kingdom of God?
What is the relationship between the church and social concern (as opposed to the relationship between Christians and social concern)?
What is the relationship between the church (local) and culture?
Is the Knox-Robinson view of church too narrow?
What does over-realised eschatology look like in the church?
What does under-realised eschatology look like in the church?
How do the above two questions relate to the plausibility of the homogeneous unit principle?
What do those same two questions have to say about the depth of gospel community a church should be attempting?
Are multi-site churches theologically viable?
I think these questions are crucial to not only ponder but begin to give solid biblical answers to if a new group of young leaders aim to plant and grow fresh expressions of church that reflect the pattern of the New Testament.
Sounds like a fantastic journey, I hope you’ll keep us posted…
Any links to that Knox-Robinson literature, I’m not familiar with it.
A question I’ve been thinking through for a while is what it would look like for a church to be the ‘whole church’ in that it does all the Acts 2 stuff equally well and significantly. (maybe complete is a better adjective?) and i guess i’m wondering if it’s even possible/designed for an individual church to do so (the thought process here is similar to whether one individual follower can ever become truly like Christ. some would argue no, but as a group we can. etc etc)
Here’s to another year of Big questions.
Matt
The Knox-Robinson thesis is a view of church espoused by Broughton Knox, former principal of Moore College in Sydney. Here’s a link to volume II of his collected works.
How about a half way through the year update?