Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity
Overview
Author Frank Viola gives readers language for all they knew was missing in their modern church experience. He believes that many of today’s congregations have shifted from God’s original intent for the church. As a prominent leader of the house church movement, Frank is at the forefront of a revolution sweeping through the body of Christ—A change that is challenging the spiritual status quo and redefining the very nature of church, a movement inspired by the divine design for authenticity community, a fresh concept rooted in ancient history and in God himself.
Join Frank as he shares God’s original intent for the church, where the body of Christ is an organic, living, breathing organism. A church that is free of convention, formed by spiritual intimacy, and unbound by four walls.
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- Examines what church looks like outside of the institutional church experience
- Discusses what the Church is and what it is meant to accomplish
- Compares and contrasts the early church with the contemporary church
- Part I: Community and Gatherings
- Reimagining the Church as an Organism
- Reimagining the Church Meeting
- Reimagining the Lord’s Supper
- Reimagining the Gathering Place
- Reimagining the Family of God
- Reimagining Church Unity
- Church Practice and God’s Eternal Purpose
- Part II: Leadership and Accountability
- Reimagining Leadership
- Reimagining Oversight
- Reimagining Decision-Making
- Reimagining Spiritual Covering
- Reimagining Authority and Submission
- Reimagining Denominational Covering
- Reimagining the Apostolic Tradition
- Where Do We Go from Here?
Top Highlights
“The highest purpose of the church meeting, then, is to make the invisible Christ visible through His body. Put another way, we gather together to reassemble the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth. When this happens, not only is Christ glorified in His saints, and not only is each member edified, but something is also registered in unseen realms: Principalities and powers in heavenly places are shamed!” (Page 60)
“The critical question then becomes which practices of the New Testament church are solely descriptive and which are normative? Or to put it another way, which are tied to the culture of the first century and which are reflections of the unchanging nature and identity of the church?” (Page 39)
“Please understand. Anytime a group of Christians undercuts the biblical basis for fellowship by excluding those whom God has accepted—whether explicitly or implicitly—they are a sect.” (Page 120)
“If a group of Christians demands anything beyond a person’s acceptance of Christ before admitting that person into fellowship, then that group isn’t a church in the biblical sense of the word. It’s a sect. (The exception is if a Christian is willfully sinning and refuses to repent.)1 Repeat: All whom God has received are part of the body of Christ.” (Page 119)
“One of the easiest places in which to discover God’s eternal purpose is in the first two chapters of the Bible (Genesis 1 and 2) and the last two chapters of the Bible (Revelation 21 and 22). The reason is because these four chapters are the only chapters in Holy Writ that are untouched by sin.” (Page 141)
True to form, this book contains a thoroughly consistent critique of prevailing forms of church. However, in Reimagining Church, Frank Viola also presents a positive vision of what the church can become if we truly reembraced more organic, and less institutional forms of church. This is a no-holds-barred prophetic vision for the church in the twenty-first century.
—Alan Hirsch, founding director, Forge Mission Training Network International
Frank not only pulls fresh insights out of well-known concepts, but also keeps challenging us to go back to basics and focus on Christ himself. Thank you, Frank! This practical book will identify what church can look like when it is focused on Jesus.
—Tony Dale, founder, The Karis Group
Reimagining Church is a valuable addition to the resources being produced on the subject of organic churches. Written from the perspective of a long-time practitioner, Frank conveys these concepts with his usual clarity and insight, and covers many of the practical aspects of starting a church. I recommend this book to anyone interested in organic church.
—Felicity Dale, author, An Army of Ordinary People
Reimagining Church is a readable (and livable!) description of organic, New-Testament-rooted church life for the twenty-first century. Avoiding the weeds of both wooden fundamentalism and unreflective overcontextualization, Frank Viola paints a winsome and attractive portrait of a gospel people, inhabited by the Holy Spirit with God in Christ as their energetic center. Frank helps us learn from the peculiar genius of Jesus and his earliest followers, planting seeds for authentic, deeply rooted life together.
—Mike Morrell, graduate fellow in emergent studies, Regent University
- Title: Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity
- Author: Frank Viola
- Publisher: David C. Cook
- Publication Date: 2008
- Pages: 318
- Christian Group: Evangelical
- Resource Type: Topical
- Topic: Theology