Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity

by Frank Viola

The constructive follow-up to Pagan Christianity, this book is a theology of church as organism rather than church as organization. Official website with supplements http://www.ReimaginingChurch.orghttp://www.ReimaginingChurch.org

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Paperback, 320 pages

Published August 1st 2008 by David C Cook (first published April 1st 1997)

tags: theology, spirituality, faith, christianity, church, religion, christian non fiction, nonfiction, christian living, christian

Book Quotes

“In fact, I’ve met countless believers who have said, “The church is an organism, not an organization.” Yet as they formed those very words, they continued to be devout members of churches that were organized along the lines of General Motors and Microsoft.”

― Frank Viola

“Organic church life, however, is a wedding of glory and gore.”

― Frank Viola

“Unfortunately, the metaphor that dominates most of American Christianity doesn’t help us much; we usually envision the church as a corporation. The pastor is the CEO, there are committees and boards. Evangelism is the manufacturing process by which we make our product, and sales can be charted, compared, and forecast. Of course, this manufacturing process goes on in a growth economy so that any corporation-church whose annual sales figures aren’t up from last year’s is in trouble. Americans are quite single-minded in their captivity to the corporation metaphor. And it isn’t even biblical. —Hal Miller”

― Frank Viola

“Within the triune God we discover mutual love, mutual fellowship, mutual dependence, mutual honor, mutual submission, mutual dwelling, and authentic community. In the Godhead there exists an eternal, complementary, and reciprocal interchange of divine life, divine love, and divine fellowship.”

― Frank Viola

“The first-century churches were locatable, identifiable, visitable communities that met regularly in a particular locale.”

― Frank Viola

“The church, therefore, should not be confused with an organization, a denomination, a movement, or a leadership structure. The church is the people of God, the very bride of Jesus Christ.”

― Frank Viola

“Organic churches, like those in the New Testament, are different. They are not trains, but groups of people out for a walk. These groups move much more slowly than trains—only several miles per hour at the fastest. But they can turn at a moment’s notice. More importantly, they can be genuinely attentive to their world, to their Lord, and to each other.”

― Frank Viola

“Winston Churchill wisely said, “First we shape our buildings. Thereafter, they shape us.” Exegete the architecture of a typical church building and you’ll quickly discover that it effectively teaches the church to be passive.”

― Frank Viola

“Rodney Stark confirms the point, saying, For far too long, historians have accepted the claim that the conversion of the Emperor Constantine (ca. 285–337) caused the triumph of Christianity. To the contrary, he destroyed its most attractive and dynamic aspects, turning a high-intensity, grassroots movement into an arrogant institution controlled by an elite who often managed to be both brutal and lax.… Constantine’s “favor” was his decision to divert to the Christians the massive state funding on which the pagan temples had always depended. Overnight, Christianity became “the most-favoured recipient of the near limitless resources of imperial favors.” A faith that had been meeting in humble structures was suddenly housed in magnificent public buildings—the new church of Saint Peter in Rome was modeled on the basilican form used for imperial throne halls.”

― Frank Viola

“From the human perspective, the purpose of the church meeting is mutual edification. But from God’s perspective, the purpose of the gathering is to express His glorious Son and make Him visible. (The church is the body, and Christ is the Head. The purpose of one’s body is to express the life that’s within it.)”

― Frank Viola

“The triune God stands at the beginning and at the end of the Christian pilgrimage and, therefore, at the center of Christian faith.”

― Frank Viola

“Eugene Peterson has said, “Trinity is the most comprehensive and integrative framework that we have for understanding and participating in the Christian life.” 4”

― Frank Viola

Frank Viola

Frank Viola ( - )

Frank Viola author is the bestselling author of God’s Favorite Place on Earth, From Eternity to Here, Jesus Manifesto, Reimagining Church, Jesus Now, and Jesus: A Theography. Rethinking status quo Christianity, Frank Viola has helped thousands of Christians to deepen their relationship to Jesus and experience a more vibrant, authentic expression of church. His blog, Beyond Evangelical, is one of the most popular in Christian circles today, ranking in the top 10 of all Christian blogs on the Web. Viola has written a series of well-read articles called Rethinking. Frank Viola’s message has enabled God’s people to:

Frank’s public speaking covers a wide range of topics including the centrality, supremacy, and all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ, the deepening of the spiritual life, Christian community, church planting, God’s eternal purpose, mission, and church renewal and restoration. Viola has written numerous books on the deeper Christian life and radical church reform, including the bestsellers God’s Favorite Place on Earth, From Eternity to Here, Jesus Manifesto (coauthored with Len Sweet), and Pagan Christianity (co-authored with George Barna) as well as Revise Us Again, Finding Organic Church, Reimagining Church, Jesus Now, and The Untold Story of the New Testament Church.

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