'Recovering Deep Church'

Chapter 1 of Remembering Our Future is called 'Recovering Deep Church: Theological and Spiritual Renewal'. Here Andrew Walker describes what he means by deep church. How the word is borrowed from C. S. Lewis. The chapter ends with Walker's thoughts on practical steps to living in deep church (p.12). His first I found myself saying 'amen' to many times.  He begins with the kind of frankness I like: 'the man and woman in the pew are woefully ignorant about their faith' (p.12). Walker says that we have 'gospel amnesia' and we've forgotten our own story.  So to live in deep church we need theological education. He writes 'what a deep church most needs today ... is for a theology of Christian basics. In short: catechesis for all beginners in the Christian life whether they be infants or adults. Catechesis should be the prolegomenon to a life-long educational process in and for a deep church.' (p.14). As a local church, we have found that the Christian basics are sorely missing. We need to discover ways of helping the church narrate its life as the people of God. Through everything we do together as the people of God we should be creating a long-term memory about who we are as the Christian church and the story that we claim to live by. Whether it is through hymns and songs, prayer, the sacraments, the church meeting, the sermon, social gatherings - the Christian story should be heard.