The Long-Awaited Birth of Reflective Ecclesia
A call to reflection for all Church leaders and laity
What Reflective Ecclesia is and what it’s about.
Reflective Ecclesia is setting out to be a network hub of content that can provide both thought leadership and practical resources to the Church. The tagline for the Reflective Ecclesia network is “Deep Thought — Christ Centered Action.” If that resonates with you, please come along for the ride and join the conversation.
1. Why this, why now
The word “reflective” has a double meaning; it can mean “to think deeply upon something” or “to shine with the light from another source.” The word “ecclesia” is often translated as “church”, but the full meaning is closer to “gathering” or “assembly” — implying a focus on faith communities more so than church buildings.
We believe the Church is desperately in need of reflection — in both senses of the word. Our society needs the Church to shine the light of the Gospel and become more effective in how we minister to our communities. Unfortunately, our organizations, congregations, families, and individuals are often beset with their own problems, hindering us from becoming the best versions of what Christ intends. This has been demonstrated, in part, by the massive decline of church affiliation in the U.S. over the last 50 years.
Yet there is hope. The tide is beginning to turn. Increasingly, due to the decaying state of our society, people are now finding themselves returning to faith and have become open to hearing answers to their questions. People are looking for examples of a better way.
There is a window of opportunity here, if the Church can ready itself. If not, other movements will seize upon this opportunity and capture the hearts and minds of the seeking instead. To reflect brightly, however, we will need to reflect deeply.
We will also need to reflect together. We will need like-minded community — real community.
2. What kind of community we are looking to build here
No, we know that online content and comment sections can’t substitute for authentic depth (the kind that we all can feel has been hollowed out from our communities), but for any who resonate with what we’ve been expressing, this is the place for you. What we’re building here can do is give you some of the ideas, resources, and connections you’ll need as a the right foundation to make things better.
More specifics about that in moment during the next section.
But in short, whether you view yourself as a leader, thinker, or more practically-oriented “do-er”, there is something here for you. We will certainly engage with big ideas and explore dense topics (our society needs more depth, not less!), but we’ll also be pushing hard to provide resources and clear pathways to practical application.
3. More Specifics
There are a lot of issues we in the Church need to be talking about. There is a lot we need to learn. There’s a lot our society needs us to share.
To make room in our network for multiple spaces without things getting super jumbled, we intend to try to stand up four lanes, although at the beginning everything will placed into lane one (Reflective Ecclesia) for the sake of simplicity in the launch messaging.
Reflective Ecclesia: Sharing the same name, this space will be the flagship channel of the Reflective Ecclesia network, focusing on edifying the Church to become more effective, connected, and intellectually grounded. We will also take a lot of time here to explore more about the role of the Church in Society.
As mentioned above, all content will fall under this brand for a time. As more momentum and content builds, we will consider splitting some of it out into the following lanes.
Foundations & Formation (Coming Later): This lane is about promoting practical, healthy foundations and formation for individuals across the major domains of life, including spirituality, finances, physical wellness, career, education, family, relationships, mental health, and more.
Logos Pathways: (Coming Later) This will be a space for deepening our understanding of Scripture and Theology, as well as providing resources for teaching, discipleship, and practical application.
Park New York Productions: (Coming Later) You might be thinking, “this all sounds great, but it’s all kinda… dense.” We hear you. We think the Church needs brains and hands, to be sure, but we also need the heart. We need to engage our souls not just our minds. The best way we know how to do that is by telling stories. This will be the place where rich stories and other creative works are produced and distributed, including written, audio, film content, games, and more!
Hopefully these spaces all make sense. I’m sure things will evolve as the needs and our community itself does, but for now this is what we’re aiming at. We intend to publish videos, audio content, and blogs pretty frequently. On a more measured pace we will be releasing larger articles, ebooks, tools, and other resources. We’ve already got a bunch in the queue we’ve been working on though and are looking forward to launching more!
4. What now?
If you’ve read this far, thank you! It means a lot to know that you would engage with our ideas. There are a few easy next steps we’d like you to consider.
One, could you take a moment to hit the “Share” button below? We really want to get the word out and build this network and community.
Two, please consider becoming a subscriber using the other button below! There are free subscription options, but if you’d be gracious enough to upgrade and contribute a small amount to our mission, we have a bunch of great content we plan to make available exclusively our paid supporters. We also provide group discounts and the ability to gift free trials, if there are others you think would appreciate engaging with these ideas with you. We’ll even throw in a free e-book as a huge THANK YOU!