But clearly, America's religious landscape is changing. In fact, it has already changed. A friend of mine who is serving a dying Episcopal congregation in the Northeast tells me that no less than four Roman Catholic churches in his smallish city are in the process of closing. Clergy talk there focuses on the rise of non-denominational mega-churches emerging to take the place of hundred and fifty year old congregations on the point of extinction.

Does it matter that many committed Christians lament the state of the church? And is it important that the church is in such disrepute in the culture? Some might consider it a badge of honor. But if so, what kind of churches should we be building?

If American culture is experiencing a religious "do-over," as in the Anglican Church of North America, what ought we be building from scratch? Now there are smarter and more experienced people than I who have their pulse on leading-edge church planting.

To them I yield all the ground concerning what is working and not working and the various ways to attract the young and seekers to new church plants. There is much to be learned and implemented here.

However, what I wish to focus on here is a timeless New Testament calling, which is to be the church that Jesus envisioned which would never wear out, grow old or be replaced, a church against which "the gates of hell will not be able to stand." Mt. 16:18.

Part of this vision is the call for God's church, in whatever form, to be a "redemptive community." What do I mean by this? It is the call to take broken, wounded individuals and in the presence of Christ's love, grace, salvation and healing transform them into a powerful force for the kingdom of God. Now you say, "Of course. That is what we should be doing." But are we?

I am not sure how many churches are, but in my experience many are not. A big reason they are not is that becoming a redemptive community is risky as well as rewarding. It just might be "uncontrollable," a fact that frightens many clergy to their core. Let's look at some reasons why churches don't take the risk and then at some powerful principles from the New Testament church that can transform what "church" is all about.

1.American Christianity is too individualistic. Churches focused on individual believers alone will never be redemptive communities. Most Protestant evangelical teaching communicates that "Jesus, my Bible and me" contain everything sufficient for my spiritual life. Then we wonder why things collapse, "the center cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."

Too many churches offer little in-depth community life beyond Sunday. People drift away, marriages fail, children get in trouble and too few knew what was happening beforehand to even pray let alone intervene.

Many say, "If I had only known." But if we don't know, then who will? Recently, my wife met a woman at her health food store who was dying of cancer. She was a lapsed Roman Catholic with one son and a husband who could not engage with her suffering and dying. She had no one to walk through her dying days with her.

Due to my wife's caring and compassion, we were able to lead her to Christ and into his loving arms before her death. The depth of soul care in churches is too often sorely lacking because the depth of relationships has never been established beforehand. People come week by week secretly hoping for the "more" that often never comes. Others have little interest in deep relationships because of either well-defended pain or a desire to clutch some small ecclesiastical turf which might be threatened by vulnerability.

2.Churches too often preach moralism, which is the death-knell to spiritual vitality.Attempting to do more or be better is a tempting human response to a dissatisfied life. This is the easiest path for clergy to take because it gives the illusion of leadership. "I'm the guy who knows the way. Follow me." Isn't it intriguing that churches somehow expect morally acceptable behavior while preaching the universality of sin. We are familiar with sin in general but shocked in the particular. Like Lucy in the Peanuts cartoon, "I love humanity but I can't stand people."

Placing too much faith in conversion to eradicate sin is a triumph of hope over experience and a distortion of Luther's famous phrase "simul justus et peccatur." ( at the same time righteous and a sinner). Moralism is a very odd stance for people confronted with their own corrupted hearts and yet it persists as America's second favorite religion. Its fruits are endless efforts at self-improvement followed by bouts of depression and despair.

Furthermore, leadership is often blind-sided when members succumb, in contradiction to their very teaching. Moralism creates an atmosphere of hiding in order to perpetuate a sense of false spiritual achievement. No one dare come to the light in the presence of demand without grace.

This is often followed by what appears to be sudden collapse, only to realize it was proceeding underneath all along. Years ago, Keith Miller said in his church that "my insides didn't match what I saw on the outsides of others." A church can easily communicate "no honesty required or allowed here."

The result is the aforementioned despair in the hearts of its members hoping to be known and loved as the prodigal was loved by his father. Have you noticed the plethora of books emerging these days about the prodigal son?

A friend of mine is in an accountability group with a Roman catholic priest. The priest told him, "I can't share any of the confessions I have heard in 40 years, but I can tell you this. We are all the same." Spiritual vitality cannot exist except where this truth is known and accepted.

3.Becoming a redemptive community requires honesty and honesty is risky.

Church structures often exist as mechanisms of control. There is no question that godly authority is needed and that it should be exercised with care. But authority should not quench authenticity, nor should it squelch honesty in order to perpetuate a spiritual façade.

All through the New Testament we see the transparency of the disciples. Peter tells Jesus to get away from him. (Lk. 5:8) James and John are so angry they want to call down fire from heaven.(Lk. 9:54) Jesus himself is in agony in the garden, asking that the cup be taken from him. (Mt. 26:39).

How many times have I heard someone say they are so glad Peter was the man he was or else they would have no hope for themselves. Where did we get the idea that it is our spiritual power, rectitude and wisdom that attracts others? No, it is normally the opposite. Our power usually repels others because they often believe inside that they cannot measure up. No wonder Jesus said to Paul that God's power was perfected in weakness. (2 Cor 12:8).

I am not saying that Christians should wear their interior lives on their sleeves in front of the whole church, nor make their own brokenness the focus of church life rather than Christ. That would be a mistake. But what I am saying is that there is power in transparency within a community (appropriately men to men and women to women) in a local church. It is often the locus of God's power. What then is God's vision for the church as a redemptive community?

1.The church (ecclesia-gathering) is called to be a place of truth. Paul tells Timothy that the church is "the pillar and bulwark of the truth." (I Tim. 3:15) One of the definitions of "bulwark" is "the part of a ship's side that extends above the main deck to protect it against heavy weather." Paul is telling Timothy that when personal, cultural and moral storms arise, the church is God's provision for protection against the onslaught. I often tell my adult children that when things get really bad, God's people are the ones who will show up at your door when no one else will.

What a contrast to the weak picture set forth by the critics of "organized religion." A church acting as a bulwark speaks and demonstrates the eternal word of God to one another and the world, not some culturally captive message meant to reaffirm our biases and defenses. Normal preaching ought to cut us to the quick as the word penetrates "to the dividing of soul and spirit... discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Heb. 4:12) But there is more here.

We must also be a people of personal truth, where someone in our local body knows the truth about our struggles, our pains and our hope. The truth is not just the Bible but the truth about me, my walk and where I truly am with my struggles. Unless there is at least one person who knows that part of me, within the body of Christ that is my home, I am not living in the truth and I cannot expect to find my way to Christ's purpose for my life. Spiritual make-believe can only be broken by honesty.

2.The church is called to be a community of transparency. James tells us, "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed." How long did it take Christians who once engaged in confessing their sins to one another to start doing it only with clergy? Why is it that most 12 Step groups are more spiritually powerful than most church prayer and sharing groups? One reason may be that there are no "leaders" within 12 step groups, no people who "are paid to be good, while the rest of us are good for nothing."

Indeed, the threat or presence of morally superior outsiders keeps many a church under a self-delusion of respectability and a morality which is only skin deep. This leaves many churches functioning a little more than social clubs. Recently I was reading some of the history of AA and its roots in the Oxford Group.

The trail leads directly from Frank Buchman to Sam Shoemaker to the founding of AA in Akron Ohio in the 1930's. But why could not the principles of AA function within the church? There is little reason that the principles of AA should not have been used by ordinary sinners, addicted to whatever behaviors are driving them, within the church. Why have so many asked, "Why can't the church be like AA?" It is little wonder that when the church ceased to take confession to one another seriously ( except for the overused and superficial traffic violation sermon illustrations), that real transparency left the body life of many churches.

3.A redemptive community is one where we need one another to make spiritual progress. The movie, "The King's Speech" illustrates this principle. "Bertie" (Colin Firth) who becomes George VI cannot speak due to an incorrigible stammer. It is only with the help of his speech therapist, Lionel Logue, (Geoffrey Rush) and his wife (Helena Bonham Carter) that the Duke of York can become king and speak to an empire on the verge of war.

This is a wonderful movie about a team effort, about which an entire nation takes great pride. There are tough moments of confrontation, disbelief and humor before the end, yet great delight in the result. A potential disaster and disappointment is redeemed for a higher purpose. Unity of purpose that "rejoices with those who rejoice" describes the redemptive community.

We Christians take notice of Paul's phrase that "we are members one of another." But we often fail to see the radical principle that we are as closely woven together as our own arms, hands and wrists. Like it or not, this is the reality of the body of Christ. "if one part suffers we all suffer with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." I Cor. 12:26. This is the beauty of holiness and the anointing spoken about in psalm 133.

1 How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity.

2It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron's beard,
down on the collar of his robe.

3 It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.

For there the LORD bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.

There is much more to say on the church as a redemptive community. Suffice it to say, that the risk to live it out is worth the life of the local congregation. This is not only what Jesus intended. It is a major reason why people walk through our doors on Sunday.

----Jay Haug is a member of Redeemer Anglican Church in Jacksonville, Florida. He is a current financial advisor and former Episcopal priest and radio talk show host. You may e-mail him at cjcwguy@gmail.com