Whew!

Whew! The paper is done - aside from a formal edit from Brigitte (my proof reader) and if I can keep my hands off it. I keep having this temptation to go back and review and adjust and add another footnote and tweak the flow of the argument here and there. I'm like a dog with a bone - I just want to keep gnawing on it. I just have to put aside my perfectionist tendencies and say "DONE!" I topped off at about 10,400 words (in the main body of the essay - not including footnotes or the words of the bibliography). Pray for Brigitte!

I titled it "The End of the World As We Know It." It's basically a survey of the recent literature surrounding trends in the Church over the last few decades. The consensus is that Christendom is over (Christendom being the system of religion that has dominated the Western world for more than a millennium) that's Christendom -not Christianity. The interest in spirituality and Jesus is actually very intense but most would consider the church irrelevant. But there are lots of new expressions of church being done that are having an impact. There are also lots of old styles of worship and devotion being done with equal effectiveness. The new is old and the old is new - sounds like Ecclesiastes.

I'll post some sections of the paper as the days and weeks go by. My next focus is a presentation that I need to do on Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf - the founder of the Moravian movement. Very interesting stuff. Two common denominators of most renewal movements is a renewed interest in Jesus and a manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit - both happened with the Moravians. Stay tuned!