Today's Ekklisia

Here's a great quote:

"But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning... Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."

How well that might apply to thousands in America who are looking for an alternative to the institutional church. The most interesting thing about the quote is its source - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Letter from the Birmingham Jail) dated April 16, 1963.

Unfortunately what Dr. King warned could happen in the 60's finally did happen later that decade and continues to happen today. Yet, in spite of the Church's shortcomings, God moved in a new way through the "Jesus Revolution." Now He is moving in new ways beyond our imagination.

Thanks to Anthony Smith for the quote.

His article in Next-Wave resonates with the same heart as the Bible Study I shared Wednesday evening. (I'll blog on that latter.) Anthony writes,

I want to be a part of Christian community...a local ekklesia. But I want to feel at "home". Not in a consumeristic sense, but in a sense that it will challenge me, provoke me, encourage me, to be a part of the missio Dei or God's mission