18 Questions for Mainline Church Denominations
- If a group of Christians can afford ministry but can’t afford a minister, can they still be a “church”?
- Has religion become unaffordable? Has access to Christian community become something for the affluent?
- What is the purpose of church hierarchy in a world which is largely literate and rarely dependent on benefactors? Does church hierarchy make any contribution to the lives of the laity?
- Can the Church minister as effectively as secular not-for-profits?
- If the Church separates its social services from its Christian message (in order to qualify for government support), is it still ministry?
- If Church-related institutions for higher learning, separate their mission from Christian mission (to qualify for government support or to appeal to richer demographics) are they still Church-related institutions?
- Are our seminaries training theologians or pastors?
- Are pastors leaders or servants?
- How will the congregational/pastoral model, developed in eras of slower social change, function in the modern era of constant change and life-long learning?
- What is the future of the Church and its reliance on pastor-centric leadership in a world where success is often the result of teamwork and intermeshing of multiple and changing skills and talents?
- How will the role of pastors change if the laity in the Church are expected to “transform”?
- How do we become inclusive and diverse when sociologically people tend to find comfort in conformity?
- Can the trend toward larger churches serve the needs of smaller communities?
- Why does the Church allow congregations to fail while shuffling the pastors who served them to new leadership positions?
- How can an institution based on trust and respect guard against abuses of power (as seen in the clergy sex scandals, for example)?
- How can a system based on hierarchy protect supporters from bullying?
- How does the Church reconcile the Christian mandate to reach all the world with its reliance on demographic studies for church-planting and support.
- How do Protestant churches, which often have no parochial school structure, educate youth in the limited time modern families allow for “church”?
16 Jun 2012