Sublime

More powerful than the compression of technology, particularly for the congregation, is the decay rate of social norms.6 As the present becomes more compressed by the acceleration of modernity, the church seems not only antiquated but immoral in its slow practices of prayer, reading Scripture, and humble service, as well as in its moral sources in

Ecclesiology-so often scoffed at by those who see it as merely "horizontal" rather than the really important thing, the "vertical" dimension of soteriology-is non-negotiable. In Christ there is no vertical and horizontal. Paul was not a Platonist.

Faith, the church and theology must demonstrate what they really believe and hope about the man from Nazareth who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and what practical consequences they wish to draw from this.

We live in a time—call it a secular age—when society has devalued the pastor and yet we nevertheless yearn for ministry.

This ideal of eternity—which can take many different forms—is the common denominator for what I call religious forms of faith.

The church loses personhood, and resonance (becoming alienated from life), when its relations are made into instruments for acquiring resources. And relationships that are made into instruments can be used only for accruing resources.

It’s assumed that in a social media world birthed from new technologies, the church needs innovative and fresh forms.2 They may be right; the congregation may need new forms. But these new forms will be fundamentally flawed, perpetuating the false fullness of busyness and further ostracizing sacred time, if we don’t examine more closely the three d