Does Church Need RePlacing?

Alright, so I'll come right out and say it: the title of this post is a bit click-baity. I am a firm believer in the church. Just see my about page.

With that said, over the last few years, part of that as a full-time Presbyterian pastor, and most recently working outside the church in a secular setting while still being active in a local congregation, I am certain that the form of church needs to evolve, and is indeed evolving as we speak. And it needs to do so in order to remain faithful to Christ's original vision and plan for his disciples. 

An evolving church is a faithful church. 

So back to the title of this post. I recently came across a podcast called, you guessed it, RePlacing Church. It's been around since 2016, and I've really enjoyed the episodes and blog posts I've gotten to so far. And as the unique capitalization suggests, the idea of the podcast and blog is not that Christ's church needs to make way for some new organization that us humans can invent, but rather that "the kind of church Jesus had in mind is still possible." And that disciples of Christ will begin forming this kind of church through imagining, creating, and leading "church expressions" that seek to "follow Jesus in the neighborhood, foster wholehearted community, and pursue social change locally and globally." 

Amen. 

The days of “build it and they will come” are over. Thriving, disciple making communities are possible, but they cannot be built on old church growth paradigms.