The Tale of Two Churches

Is your congregation in its final days? Move your congregation from survival to revival, says the Rev. Dr. William Dopp. Congregations will not only survive, they will thrive when they enter the mission field. In his lively book Dopp illustrates how to move from the old chapel to the emerging missionary church.

Back in 2000, Episcopal priest, William Dopp and his wife, Janet, were on their way to Kisoro, Uganda to be part of a special celebration at St. Andrews Cathedral in that remote part of east Africa. They stopped over in London, where they had the opportunity to attend Sunday worship at St. John the Baptist Church in the Kensington section of London. The contrast between the two churches inspired this book.

The old gothic church in London was nearly empty on Sunday morning. One week later, the Dopps took part in worship in rural Kisoro where the 1200-seat cathedral was not large enough to hold the crowd. The church in London had on its literature, Preserving Holy Worship. The church in Kisoro, Uganda proclaimed on a sign, Jesus is our living hope. One church lives in the past; the other is in mission proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. These two churches are the symbols of what Dopp calls the old chapel church, the OCC, and the emerging missionary church, the EMC. Congregations of all denominations fall into these two categories. Through engaging ministry experiences backed up by current statistics, he illustrates how the emerging missionary church transforms the lives of people.