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by Glen on 2002-05-26 00:03:29
Frank Viola's Rethinking the Wineskin is part of a long, distinguished line of expositions portraying the way of life that characterized the New Testament church and its effect on us today. Voices like Frank's express the distinctiveness of the New Testament church--the church is a body, a family, and a bride. In effect, the New Testament church is relational.
That the New Testament church is relational is itself uncontroversial. Yet for many people, books like Frank's come as a shock. The churches most of us inhabit have little or nothing in common with the way of life that marked the New Testament church. Far from being a body or a family, the church for most of us is an organization or an institution. The contrast between the institutional shape of the contemporary church and the relational shape of the New Testament church could hardly be more striking.
The institutional church often knows, at least vaguely, that the New Testament church was a very different kind of beast, yet it goes on its way in blithe disregard of the way the early believers were church. It may even claim that the Bible is its sole authority in "faith and practice" and still virtually ignore its practical authority with respect to the practice of the church. Maybe that's by choice. But most often the ignorance is due to momentum, for institutional churches are a lot like trains. They are going in a certain direction, and they will continue in that direction for a good long time even if all hands try to make them stop.
To read the entire book online, click here
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