This month in Precipice we weigh in on George Barna's Revolution: Finding Faith Beyond the Walls of the Sanctuary. As a social researcher and futurist one of the key points that Barna makes regarding Christianity in America, is that identification with the local church is ceasing to be the main spiritual touch-point for millions and millions of people. Barna claims that this move, already 20 million strong, will only grow in future decades. Rather boldly Barna predicts that by the quarter point of this century only 5% of American Christians will "experience and express their faith through the local church".

I think that Barna is wrong in his assumption. With all do respect to a man who is apparently "the most quoted man in the church today", my sense is that Barna reaches too much and too far in his predictions. But for more on that see our article "Assessing Barna's Revolution: Futurism or Wishful Thinking?" Beyond the issue of whether or not Barna's future-telling is accurate or not, is the issue of whether or not we want him to be right. Perhaps some of us are chomping at the bit- convinced that if the way of the local church were to fall like the empire of Rome that we would all be the better for it.

For the record, I am not one of those people. Despite all its blemishes (and sometimes because of them) I believe the local congregational connection is a good thing. Perhaps my position could be compared to Luther's just prior to the Protestant Reformation. I see plenty that needs to change within the local expression of Church. But what I'm looking for is reform- not abandonment.

Let me say that there probably are many expressions of the local church that need so much reform that perhaps putting them out of their misery would be the most compassionate and communal thing one could do. Believe me, early on in my Christian experience I belonged to a couple of churches that might fall into that category. And for the record- both of those churches are no more. But like a phoenix from the flame- even from those local miscues- some beautiful expressions of community can arise. In recent years I have had the pleasure of belonging to some vibrant, passionate, faith-filled local church communities. And it's those experiences that I want to key in on here. What follows are 10 things I love about the local ecclesial gathering. Perhaps I could call this my "ode to the local church". Here goes:

1.) In the local church we are reminded that the Kingdom of God is made up of all sorts of people; including people very different from ourselves. This plurality of personalities and backgrounds is easy to miss when we interact in homogeneous ways with people very much like ourselves in the "blogoshpere" and via specialized conference gatherings.

2.) In the local church we are forced to interact with people who we wouldn't necessarily include in our blogroll- or in our email address directory. And I'm not talking so much about those who are different from us (as above) but those whom for whatever reason, we just don't get along with all that well.

3.) While a Sunday service alone won't do it, the interaction that can come when we repeatedly live and interact among other Christians moves us beyond the state of only "putting our best foot forward". In other words, local community gets us beyond the "first date" mentality. Local community is messy. It gets in our faces. It makes us face who we are when we're through with stating our doctrinal dissertations.

4.) Local church gatherings let us experience the corporate expression of worship. I am in part referring to the wonderful expression that comes when we sing praise to God together (its in these moments that we experience harmony rather than discord for a change!) But I am also referring to the kind of worship that leads us to join hands in serving our communities.

5.) In the local church we are forced to participate in acts of mutual submission. In the blogoshere it's easy for us to march out our individual visions. In the local body we are forced to put our finite energies into finite visions. And by submitting our visions to the larger community we grow in humility and corporate identity. In other words, we gain practical experience in knowing what it is to be an elbow or a hand rather than a head.

6.) In the local church gathering we are forced to experience things done in a way we would rather not do them. Because church is a corporate experience we cannot always have it our way. And again, that's good for our humility and good for growing us in the art of "holy compromise".

7.) The local church gives us the opportunity to receive community support and affirmation on those days where we simply cannot do it on our own. The laying on of hands, a "holy hug", the body language of love and acceptance are things we experience when we commune with each other in a local body of belief.

8.) The local church provides us with the opportunity to sacrificially give of our time, talents, and resources. The local church reminds us that we are in this together and that only together can we keep this thing afloat. (Admittedly that's more difficult to "feel" when we belong to a mega-church!) As a former pastor/mentor of mine used to say in wonderfully unreligious terminology, giving financially to the local church is as basic as the idea that "we should all pitch in for gas".

9.) The local church provides us the opportunity to step out in practicing our gifts; be that teaching, hospitality, encouragement, or what have you. One caveat here is that as local bodies of faith we need to do a better job of not putting some gifts above others (even if we often do this only implicitly and unconsciously).

10.) Finally, the local church is a good thing in my experience because it provides me the opportunity to do life with other Christians who, just like me, are struggling to find an authentic expression of incarnational living in one particular socio-geo-political context. In reality I know an Ethiopian Christian is a brother- as is an underground believer in China. But its only with those who experience the same socio-geo-political context as do I that I can really relate to on a day to day, issue to issue, priority to priority basis.

I could go on. This is by no means an exhaustive list of the things I personally love and appreciate about the local church. Returning briefly to Barna's Revolution, my sense is that much of what Barna found in the polling of his "revolutionary" individuals is valid discontent. But I think this could be used - not to sound the death knell of the local church - but rather to encourage its revitalization. To be honest, Barna's assertions sound to me more like "boomerology" than anything else. Most of the Gen X'ers and Gen Nexters that I know are so relational that life without the local gathering would seem at best- hollow. My guess is that Barna mixed in some valid research and statistical analysis with a healthy dose of his own "solutions". But I digress.

The point of this present article has been to outline some of reasons why I think the local church is a very good thing. I am not arguing from a standpoint of biblical imperative. In other words, I agree with Barna that the New Testament doesn't specifically prescribe the local church as the only valid expression and vehicle for the advancing Kingdom of God. I do not believe that those outside of the congregational setting are "cursed" and "spiritually alone" as some Christian leaders would have their congregations believe. What I do believe is that on a purely pragmatic, experiential level (ah- now that sounds like the language of a postmodernly sensitized Christian!) I find the local church to be a wonderful thing. It is an organic structure that, unlike Barna, I neither hope nor believe will die in decades to come.