Instituting the Church in the world
Much of Christian life is spent inside institutions that are not the Church. We are formed by schools, workplaces, charities, neighborhoods, households, and civic bodies, and we rightly want those places to be ordered toward truth rather than falsehood. In a fragmented and often hostile world, this desire is not hard to understand. We want institutions that protect, strengthen, and form those entrusted to them. The danger is that this good desire can shift from forming Christians for the world to building institutions that function as substitutes for the Church.
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