Transforming Church

The Once and Future Church : reinventing the congregation for a new mission frontier

Loren Mead, The Once and Future Church : reinventing the congregation for a new mission frontier, Alban Institute, 1991. ISBN 1566990505 pbk $11 92p.

Classic book that argues that Christianity has been in a Christendom era since the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine in 313 A.D. until recently in the 1980s and 90s when most congregations are once again in an apostolic era environment. Content includes discussion of congregational dynamics, apostolic paradigm, christendom paradigm, clergy roles, laity roles, bishop roles, the call for reinvention and reformation, three polarities of parish vs congregation, servanthood vs conversion, and exclusive or inclusive. Mead argues that the formation of the laity is crucial for this new missionary era that resembles the cultural challenges of the apostolic era. Mission is no longer a far-off enterprise. When one leaves the church parking lot, one is in the new mission field. Pr. Ted Coleman