All the effort to fix the church misses the point

This post is from the defunct blog “Dying Church”

Fallout is not limited to the clergy… The faithful…wonder when they are going to experience the changed life they've been promised and expected to experience at church. In North America, these people have been led to believe that their Christian life is all about the church, so this failure of the church not only creates doubt about the church, it also leads them to all kinds of doubt about God and their relationship with Him. Many congregations and leaders.. adopt a refuge mentality. This is the perspective that withdraws from the culture, builds the walls thicker and higher, hunkers down to wait for the storm to blow over. Those with a refuge mentality view the world outside the church as the enemy [and] live within the bubble of Christian subculture.. Refuge churches evidence enormous self-preoccupation. They deceive themselves into believing they are a potent force. Some churches go to the opposite extreme. Instead of choosing refuge, their response to the collapse of the church culture is to sell out. [In one congregation] the only music sung was the soft-rock tune, "I can see clearly now the rain has gone." Not one word about resurrection .. on Easter Sunday! The point is.. all the effort to fix the church misses the point. You can build the perfect church–and they still won't come. People are not looking for a great church… The age in which institutional religion holds appeal is passing away. Church leaders seem unable to grasp this simple implication of the new world–people outside the church think church is for church people, not for them. (Reggie McNeal, The Present Future)

Found through Jordon, who found it through Bob Carlton, and so on. Great book if you haven't read it yet.