Freedom for Ministry 2

“Thinking about the Church today is plagued by a mood of anti-institutionalism that pervades our culture. We too facilely posit form against reality, the institutional against the authentic. Institution is simply another word for social endurance. Even the most spontaneous and prophetic of movements cannot last unless they find institutional form. I admit that I have never understood what people mean when they talk about “the institutional church.” There is no other church of historical or social significance. It might be suggested that there is another church of theological significance. But the church we speak of theologically is not another church; it is this Church-in all its sweaty, smelly, concreteness-although viewed in a difference and more comprehensive perspective.”