Nomad, Christian community, mission and the future of the church.

Hello and welcome back to Nomad podcast. We're a group of friends from Nottingham, England,

who are thinking about what community and mission might mean today. We're a group of friends from Nottingham, England, who are thinking

about what community and mission might mean today. We're doing this by chatting with various

Christian thinkers and visiting other Christian communities and seeing how they're incarnating

God's love in their neighbourhood. This month, I'll be getting things started with a chat with

Frank Viola, a leader in the organic church movement. Then there'll be some chat from us, and we'll be having a look at your emails.

This month's guest on Nomad Podcast is the international speaker and author,

whose books are found hugely challenging and exciting

Frank Viola. Frank speaking and writing covers a range of topics, but he's become particularly

associated with his writing on radical church reform in books such as pagan Christianity,

reimagining church, and the forthcoming finding organic church. And consequently, he's become known as a leading

authority and what has become known as organic or simple church. So Frank, welcome to Nomad Podcast.

Thank you. It's my pleasure. Now, you start your book reimagining church by saying that you've

left the institutional church. And so I'm wondering whether you could

begin this interview by firstly defining institutional church and secondly, telling us a little bit

about what led you to take such a bold and controversial step in publicly leaving it.

The institutional church is what many have called the traditional church or the conventional church or the organized

church. It's typically a church that organizes itself around a clergy and a laity, around a pastor

or reverend, and then the people who come to a building

typically

uh... listen to uh... sermon

...