Chris, Here's another way of thinking of this but from a different perspective...one offered by Brian McLaren in his book A New Kind of Christianity. It's still about the "death of Christendom" but with a joy-filled response: "The church, then, in Paul's mind, must be above all a school of love. If it's not that, it's nothing. Its goal is not simply to pump knowledge into people, but to train them in the 'way of love,' so they may do the 'work of the Lord,' empowered by the Holy Spirit, as the embodiment of Christ. Perhaps school isn't the best metaphor, though, unless we think of a karate school or a dance school or a language school--not simply a community where you learn or learn about, but where you learn to. Not simply a place where you hear lectures and amass information, but a community where you see living examples of Christlikeness and experience inner transformation..."