Note: On the first Sunday of January 2000, in an adult Bible class, I presented a list of items to be thoughtfully addressed if the church were to be a viable voice in the new millennium. I was later asked to expand the list from that Bible class presentation into a series of bulletin articles. Those original articles are available on this website: Foundations Series.
Now 20 years later, it is time to revisit and rewrite the articles. The question is still valid, and ever more pressing: how can the church be a viable voice in our contemporary world? What questions must we address? What understandings are essential for Christianity to survive and thrive in the world we know today? The series is again being written as articles, but it is expected that the articles will be useful as outlines for a sermon series or seminar presentations.
In the new series, I write with the goal of setting forth a 20/20 vision, to help us see more clearly, and to encourage us to set goals that can be accomplished, beginning in 2020. The years will fly by quickly. Can the church learn from what it experiences? Can the apparent decline in Christianity in the U.S. be reversed? Will the church find renewed strength and resolve to present God's truth with boldness, daring, and sensitivity so that future generations of Christians (1) learn how to live in the world without becoming worldly, (2) understand the call to unity amidst diversity, and (3) renew the mission so the primary Christian message is always one of eternal hope? The beginning of 2020 is a good time to begin working toward the reality God desires for his people.

The first three articles in this series addressed concerns in the general area of Bible knowledge. If the observation that Bible knowledge, or more accurately the lack of Bible knowledge, was one of great issues of 1990s, is true, then the church in the new millennium must address at least three areas: (1) the nature of the Bible, that is, the nature of truth and the relationship between Biblical truth and human thought, (2) Biblical inspiration, and (3) Biblical interpretation. The challenges that are continually presented to the church in these three areas were the subject of the first three articles in this series.

A second set of issues generally relate to the church. Six specific concerns were suggested. (1) What is the nature of the church? (2) What is a proper attitude toward unity, and what is a workable process that will result in unity? What should be our attitude toward ecumenical movements? What should be our attitude toward opportunities for cooperation in areas of mutual concern such as moral issues? (3) What is the relationship of the church to the world? (4) What is the nature of Christian experience? This will require that we think clearly and restudy biblically such subjects as worship, gender roles, the value of human beings (including racial and ethnic matters), the nature of our fellowship, and biblical methods for resolving differences. We must attempt to understand the impact of culture in these areas while maintaining a firmly biblical stance. (5) What is the nature of the Christian mission? (6) What is the nature of the Christian hope, i.e. what is a proper eschatology or understanding of the last times?
These are things the church must address corporately in an attempt to reach a shared understanding of basic issues that threaten to divide God's people.

What is the nature of the church? What is the nature of the fellowship shared in the church? What does it mean to be koinonia? Especially in today's society, it is easy, and tempting, to hold a separatist ecclesiology and to withdraw from any community, people, or individual person who does not agree in every particular with our own doctrinal position. Is it possible to maintain the doctrinal (and ethical!) purity of the church while questioning whether perfect agreement can be attained in this world? If such doctrinal agreement is humanly impossible, what should be my attitude toward someone who acts incorrectly, or toward someone who thinks incorrectly (according to my understanding)? The balance between discipline and tolerance is not easy to find. How shall I understand others who are also firmly biblical Christians? Is the grace of God sufficient to cover misthoughts as well as missteps? At what point is a person's relationship to Christ, and thus to the church as the body of Christ, severed? We certainly cannot afford to sever relationships more quickly than would Christ himself, nor do we desire to maintain that which he would not maintain. These are not easy questions; they will not be satisfactorily addressed with standard answers. Addressing this question will require our best minds and our best hearts as we interact and study together.