Note: I already realized I write too many books and other long things, making my posts maddeningly long (which is ironic as I don’t have time to read long posts). So, as a novice I will try to embrace brevity . Thus, part one:

Do you see Christianity in its essence as a movement to be advanced or an institution to be maintained? Institutions matter. We need not choose one or the other. Some today have all but abandoned anything that smacks of institutions or the traditions they uphold. But Almighty God ordained institutions: the home, the government, the church. I would submit however that the form of Christianity most ascribe to in our day has overemphasized the institutional side of the faith and all but ignored Christianity as a movement.

Example One:
An institutional mindset says, “We go to church.” A movement mindset says, “We are the church.”

We live in a day when the Sunday service has become almost synonymous with Christianity in the minds of many. Sunday corporate worship has great importance. The Bible clearly commands it (Hebrews 10:25). Sadly, many today have equated the window dressing of a church service with the foundation of a biblically-guided life. Because we have lost sight of Christianity as a movement, with no boundaries in terms of time or place, what happens on Sunday morning has become too much of a focus. Thus, we have worship wars over style and similar issues because we put so much of our Christian understanding into what happens an hour a week, with little emphasis on living out the faith daily. No wonder people get so bent out of shape when the pastor or someone changes the routine of the morning service! No wonder so much energy is spent giving announcements (to get people to the building) in a service supposedly for corporate worship. I am still trying to find the place of announcements in a worship service in the Bible!

Look at the book of Acts and see how the idea of a daily Christianity occurs over ten times. Notice how much time is spent describing the daily life of the believers versus the time spent describing their weekly worship. I am afraid that were we to write the book of Acts today, 90 percent of it would be a rehashing of our Sunday morning services. If every church building in Ameica burned to the ground today, the church would still be here (I am not advocating the burning of buildings)…

(This is adapted from an article by the same name. It can be found at my website alvinreid.com under articles).