Three Faces of the Church

Taken from here(without permission =P ). I am a slow reader alright.

Good reminder on what we should aim to focus on as a whole, and a good start to thinking again about what we ourselves truly focus on as a church.

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Three Faces of the Church

Taking some license with Stephen Covey's best selling tome, "Seven Habits of Higly Effective People", here are three very different, but apt discriptions of church models that exist today. These lists are not exhaustive... and they were written with a broad brush strokes, intentionally, to include a wide variety of church "experiences" in each category. In fact, I would like to know what would your lists comprise of? Read Ephesians 4:11-16 to get a glimpse into the church that glorifies God. Seven highly effective habits of the Contemporary Church that almost always guarantee church growth with very little spiritual impact: 1. Go political, not biblical 2. Go pragmatic, not theological 3. Go psychological, not discipleship 4. Go anthropocentric, not Christocentric 5. Go postmodern, not transcendent 6. Go “share your story”, not “all for His glory” 7. Go sickness, not sin; go disease not, disobedience Seven highly effective habits of the Traditional Church that almost always guarantee church stagnation with very little spiritual impact: 1. Go traditional, not spiritual 2. Go legalistic, not grace 3. Go corporate, not community 4. Go “count converts”, not “make disciples” 5. Go pastoral/elder ruler, not shepherd/servant leader 6. Go more information, not Christlikeness 7. Go programs, not prayer Seven highly effective habits of the Biblical Church that almost always guarantee God’s blessing and spiritual impact: 1. Go supremacy of God and His glory in worship 2. Go sola fide, sola scriptura, sola gratia, solus Christus, Soli Deo Gloria 3. Go The Great Commission and the Two Great Commandments 4. Go take care of the poor, the widow and the orphan 5. Go discipline of sin 6. Go pray without ceasing 7. Go equip the saints for the work of the ministry

Taken from Audience One.