SOME PARTS OF THE CHURCH MUST DIE FOR THE CHURCH TO REMAIN FAITHFUL – Rick Ufford-Chase’s new book, Faithful Resistance [LDT076] #Church2B

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Hi, Lovers – Welcome to Love in a Dangerous Time, where we take a cool and honest look at the huge transitions that are occurring in the Church. Today, we are so on-topic it’s scary. My guest, Rick Ufford-Chase is the former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA, which is that denomination’s highest elected office. Before that, he was an activist in the Sanctuary movement. So he’s quite embedded in both the institution and the missional activism of The Church. Since those days, he and his wife, Kitty, have become the co-directors of the Stony Point Center, in upstate New York, just an hour or so up the river from the Love in a Dangerous Time World Headquarters. There, they have formed a multi-faith intentional community that acts as the staff for the Center and carries on the business of raising their families and living their various faith traditions in community. More about that in the interview.

Rick came out with a new book back in June, called Faithful Resistance – Gospel Visions for the Church in a Time of Empire. This book is a calm and faithful assessment of the state of the Christian Church today, the direction it is headed, and many creative, and somewhat radical, ideas about how to continue and grow into a future in a world where The Church is not the beneficiary of absolute cultural support.

I know that, right now, many Lovers are involved in efforts to “save” or reform The Church, or starting a home church, or maybe even dropping out of the Church altogether. You may be very intrigued by some of the ideas Rick raises in the interview. The best thing to do, after listening to this interview and telling all of your friends to do the same, is to read his book. In fact, if you’re working with a group of Christians who are looking for change, reading Faithful Resistance together could be very rewarding.

Another thing to do would be to log onto LoveInADangerousTime.net or onto the LoveInADangerousTime community on Facebook, and leave a comment, perhaps with even more book recommendations, or stories of your efforts to create a truly faithful community where you are. Let’s get some conversation going here.

OK. So now to the interview with Rick Ufford-Chase, author of Faithful Resistance.