By Nan Corbitt Allen
Freelance writer
“Where have all the flowers gone/Long time passing/
Where have all the flowers gone/Long time ago?”
Remember this protest song recorded by the trio Peter, Paul and Mary in the 1960s? Its lyrics describe a sort of cycle of life … of flowers … picked by young girls … who take husbands … who become soldiers … whose bodies go to graveyards … that are eventually covered in flowers.
Occasionally I’m asked similar questions about the church. “What’s happened to the church? Where has it gone? Will the church as we once knew it ever return?”
These questions are usually referring to music and worship styles and are often asked by those who prefer the more traditional ways — of which they are more familiar. My answer is usually some mumbo-jumbo about trends, and relevance, and post-modernism and such. But in reality I have no idea what’s happening in the worldwide church.
Through my six decades on the planet as a “church girl,” I’ve seen the Body struggle with itself (or against itself), in an attempt to make it more relevant. I am just now starting to see a pattern and trying to make sense of it all. [Read more…]
