The Death of Scripture and the Church?

Interesting take on how the web is not only “democratizing” church, religion and Scripture-reading, but also how it may inevitably lead to the death of the church (at least as we know it) and the “family bible”…

It is now possible to imagine the extinction of the family Bible, long given as a gift on graduation day or other big occasions and inscribed with special dates: births, marriages, deaths.  Instead, the Bible may someday exist exclusively online, with features that allow for personalization: Link to photos of weddings and baptisms! “Share” favorite verses!

When Bible study can be done on Facebook as easily as in the church basement, and a favorite preacher can teach lessons via podcast, the necessity of physically gathering each week in the same place with the same people turns remote. Without a doubt, this represents a new crisis for organized religion, a challenge to think again about what it means to be a “body” of believers.

Full Story

I think evolution is a necessity.  It’s rarely painless, but rather than lament, the church needs to see this as a necessary process it should embrace – even up to and including the dissolution of the organized, institutional Western church.  Heavens! What’s NEXT!??  That’s the fun part…