The re-opened Church must reform or die
By Graham Wood, The Conservative Woman:
MANY Christians will rejoice at the news that since yesterday places of worship are permitted to re-open for prayer and services. As we know, ‘lockdown’ introduced a complete cessation of such meetings in the UK right across the church denominations for almost three full months, resulting in many of these substituting a very restricted form of corporate church meetings in the form of Zoom or Facebook occasions online. Will there now be a return to the status quo? Many question if this is possible.
The plain truth is that all is not bright and beautiful in the Western churches, particularly Anglicanism, for a multitude of reasons. Arguably they are not only in serious decline but in their death throes. Churches which openly abandon the Bible, and whose leaders embrace every form of post-modern irrelevance and political activism, can expect to reap what is sown.
For thinking Christians, lockdown should raise questions about whether a return to a familiar normality is either necessary or even desirable, particularly whether there is a sound basis for the traditional church worship meeting and a well-worn institutionalism where for decades congregations have voted with their feet and departed. Now is an opportune time to change and to begin a process of reform – to a format which more reflects a biblical view of the church as opposed to the institutional? For example, the online meetings have meant a much more personal dialogue and mutual reaction between members of church fellowships which suggest many have found a healthy and rewarding exercise, albeit not a substitute for the physical gathering for praise and worship of God.
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