At the Table of Church Renewal

AT THE TABLE OF CHURCH RENEWAL

A Socratic Dialogue on Renewing
the Small, Aging Congregation

Your church says it belongs to God.
The question is whether how you act matches what you say.
Seven lay leaders take their seats at a round table. Each one carries a Revelation diagnosis ? the left first love, the faithful poor, the compromised peace, the wrong voice in the chair, the reputation without the reality, the open door, the comfortable indifference.
Socrates presses every But, every we can't, every we don't. He names the sin beneath the pattern. He holds God's view, the outsider's view, and the insider's view over every conversation.
Christian ? a pastor of thirty-five years ? listens through every dialogue and speaks at the close. No formulas. No cookie-cutter answers. Only the hard, loving, specific word for the specific church at this specific moment.

"He acts as you go. Not before you go. As you go."
"The sea parts for the people whose feet are in the water."
Christ's church ? or yours?
He who has an ear, let him hear.
Part of The At the Table Series
Dennis R. Piearcy