Thomas Brauer has written a number of fine posts on the Barnabas Initiative blog. Here’s a sample of his most recent post:
“We speak of the Church, we pray for the Church and now we are growing in our capacity to plant Churches… BUT how do we know it’s Church????
As the grain from which the bread we break was made
were once scattered over the fields,
and then gathered together and made one,
so may your Church be gathered from all over the earth into your kingdom.
~ from the Didache 9, as reprinted in 2000 Years of Prayer, M. Counsell, ed., Canterbury Press, 1999
What is it we mean by “Church”? This question has been asked and answered thousands, tens of thousands of times throughout the centuries. One thing that is commonly attested is that we refer to the whole body of Christ, meaning all the people throughout the world who believe in Jesus Christ, when we talk about “the Church.” However, sometimes we get confused between the Church as the body of Christ, and the Church as an institution, or even the church as a place.”…
