Planting Churches Among the City's Poor - Volume 2

P ART II: C HURCH P LANTING T OOLKIT • 249

VII. Conclusion: Will the Real Church Please Stand Up?

A. Reductionistic views of the Church

B. Re-formed (i.e., revolutionary views of the Church)

C. Redemptive views of the Church

Conclusion and Review of the Major Concepts

• Evangelical Protestantism is struggling with its definition of the Church. • Many modern reformulations of the Church are greatly influenced by cultural analyses with its present emphasis on existential meaning, personal choice, and authentic experience. • Any credible definition of the Church must take into account both the biblical testimony on the nature of the Church as well as the historic orthodox formulations of that testimony: We are not free to draft conceptions of Church out of sync with Scripture and the Great Tradition.