When an earthquake occurs, scientists will talk about the “shifting” of the earth’s plates…the geological strata layers within the earth. These “shifts” force the earth upward to adjust and often cause damage to existing structures and sometimes loss of life.

In the culture where we live, there have been dramatic shifts which forced the Body of Christ to adjust. Sometimes those shifts have been the forces in the religious world as was the case when Martin Luther was inspired to challenge the conventional wisdom of the Catholic Church with his 95 Theses. Sometimes the shift has been the result of multiple factors in political or economic systems, such as the rise of communism and the results of World War II forcing the church underground in the Eastern Bloc of nations.

When the “shift” comes, loose things or ill-prepared things go flying and often are destroyed. Recently, I’ve been thinking about such shifts in culture which are dramatically repositioning the church of Jesus Christ… Read the rest of this entry »