Hundred Year Storms

Some years ago, or maybe it was decades ago by now, I remember reading some book about the church which declared that it would be a good thing if a great storm could come every hundred years or so and destroy all the churches.  It sounds rather radical, but the author was offering a solution for churches that have fallen so in love with the status quo that they no longer have any real meaning in the world.  Of course, the great storm would mean starting over with buildings, but would not do too much for the invisible spiritual dimension of the church.    

But, then again, the kind of adversity he prescribed might give birth to a different kind of spirituality than seems to under gird too many churches of our day.  The church set forth in the book of Acts actually was birthed in a hostile climate which is something often overlooked in our reading of the beginning days of the church.  It was not all roses and sunshine.  There were people of power who wanted the Jesus movement to die a quick death and even as it managed to spread across the land, it often faced the kind of opposition which resulted in the death of its leaders.    

The author from the past whose name I have forgotten may have been thinking that the church has it too easy to flourish, or maybe he was suggesting that something pushing against it is necessary for it to grow.  Perhaps, it would be a good thing if the church was pressed into starting over every hundred years or so.  Maybe it needs a time when it is forced into a kind of reflection and renewal it does not want to do.  Maybe some of this is happening even as we behold the once nailed down status quo being pulled loose by forces that are either of culture, or the Spirit.