Deep Ecclesiology

It is important that church which really matters can happen anywhere and in a huge variety of forms. Brian McLaren - and others - refer to this as 'deep ecclesiology'. McLaren develops the point in "The Last Word and the Word After That" (Jossey-Bass, 2005) p. 195 - “There are many wild ideas associated with the word church. It’s like barnacles stuck on the hull of a boat, or maybe like those noodles burned on the bottom of your pot there. For some people, church is an institution of a modern society, right alongside government and the media and art and science and business and education, servicing the public or a segment of the public. For others, it’s a vendor of religious goods and services, servicing the needs and wants of customers. .... Deep ecclesiology .. means .. we honour the church in all its forms, from the most historic and hierarchical forms of church – Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox – through the middle range of more congregational or local Protestant churches to the low range of storefront churches and house churches and even below that. .... Some forms of church don’t last centuries or decades or even years. There are very ephemeral forms of church .... Jesus said, ‘wherever two or three are gathered in my name.’ According to deep ecclesiology we’re churching right now.” Church has happened in many forms, and will continue to do so.