From Doug Pagitt:

We are called to be communities that are caldrons of theological imagination not “authorized re-staters� of past ideas. What we have in our communities are not simply people who need to have the Gospel applied to their lives, but people who know in themselves and in their situations what the Good News of God means. So our job as leaders of communities is not to simply apply the well-founded answers of previous generations questions or assumptions to the lives of our people, but rather to guide, extract, and join with the hopes and aspirations deeply embedded by God in the lives of our people.

(emphasis mine)

This is an extremely important point. One of our challenges here is encouraging people to think for themselves and apply the faith in the context of spiritual maturity. However, this means that people transform from passive theological recipients to active theological participants. This is something that everyone will be able to do, given increasing degrees of spiritual maturity.

This means that the basic, core activities of the Gathered People of God will have to be designed such that all people, as disciples, are active participants rather than passive recipients. This means profound transformation of the nature of worship. Worship cannot be “entertainment” and TV-like, where a small group of people does everything and does everything for everyone else who just sit there and watch and listen. Worship will be the whole people actively participating in all four parts of worship: gathering, word, table and mission.

More importantly, worship will be the expression of the life of God lived out all during the week. The core of our life will be cohorts of disciples learning together and engaging in the common life of ministry together. These cohorts will take the shape of the gifts, calling, passion, abilities and needs of the participants as they live in light of the Victory of God. They will shape the continued ministry and theology of the whole people of God in the process.