Ecclesiology in Context: Urban Church Planting in the Netherlands
نویسنده
چکیده
Evangelicals have always been known for their missionary zeal. Usually, this went together with a pragmatic or even dismissive attitude towards ecclesiology. However, in a late-modern urban context ecclesiological questions are inevitable when Christians set out for mission. These questions will be the main subject of this chapter.1 Christian community formation is part of the answer that human beings give to the Gospel—we may say their “conversion”. This answer will always be culture-specific, because the “ideal”, a-contextual respondent does not exist.2 Therefore, in its organisation and life together the church will always reflect characteristics of the broader culture to which it belongs. This was so in the New Testament and it will always be that way.3 Gradually, the fact that late-modern Europeans, if the Gospel affects them, choose different types of community than their ancestors, is gaining attention. In several countries one can witness the emergence of mostly small, fluid, flexible, eclectic Christian communities, in which a new generation seems to feel better at home than in the traditional “congregation”.4 This seems to be especially true for younger city dwellers. This observation is the point of departure for this article.
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