What is the church about?

There is an interesting review of George Barna's book "revolution" on the Reformation 21 web site.

The review raises some interesting points about Barna's approach, and about Evangelicalism in general. As the reviewer states:

Barna’s argument reveals a belief that the Church should be governed by marketplace consumerism. George Barna is a pollster. Pollsters deal with popular or consumer opinion. Popular opinion is the anthropology of the marketplace. The pollster sees the market changing and recommends changes in the product to suit these changes. In this case, the consumers are the revolutionaries and the product is a stimulating Christian life. Barna sees the market changing. The consumers needs aren’t being met, therefore the church must change its product.

One of the arguments that Martin Luther had to refute in his book "Bondage of the Will" was that God wouldn't let His church go so wrong as to require the Reformation. Luther responded that the history of the church revealed in the Old Testament shows repeatedly that there are many times when a majority of those within the church are apostate or just plain wrong.

It's very dangerous for us to base what we should do as Christians on polls, even if the polls are of other Christians. According to the reviewer, Barna places a great deal of emphasis on people's experiences over what the Bible says. Is that a good thing to do?

When I was tutoring software development project managers I was constantly trying to teach them to discern between activity and progress. Activity only counts as progress if it moves the project closer to it's goals. As Christians we need to keep Christ and His Word ever before us so that we can accurately answer the question "would doing this move me closer to the goals given us by our Lord?"

Because in the end this is what accepting Christ as Lord is all about: working toward the goals He has set for us, His church.