Dead End For The Mainline
Whatever it is, it works. The Church of Joy has over 6,000 members and another 6,000 who participate in the more than 100 recovery and other special-interest programs that keep the church doors turning seven days a week. That’s not what Martin Luther may have had in mind when he set out to reform Christianity–but that’s the point. There’s a new Reformation in American religion, and this time it is not the Church of Rome but Lutheran and other mainline Protestant denominations that are under siege....