Jason Clark, Paul Mayers, and Andy Goodliff have started a new blog called “Deep Church.”
If just their second post is any indication as to the quality of content, this blog is one to keep an eye on. Here’s an especially thought-provoking section from The ‘Wellness” of Church?:
I often wonder if we have made the mistake in our assessments of church, in becoming almost pathological. We look at current forms of church, and church in the past, with an eye to the ‘ill health’, the deformations, the things we dislike etc. Then we construct idealisations of church in reaction to this ‘sickness’ diagnosis. Church becomes about ‘not being’, and we measure who we are by what we don’t do, and what we are not. Are we left with any understanding of ‘wellness’ of the church at all?
Without using the term “wellness,” I’ve been thinking a bit about this myself. For awhile, it looked like there was a possibility I would be pastoring a church again. It was a small church which was considering radical change in their structure. Even in the emerging church movement, there are few who are pushing and have given thought to radical change in structure. Most emerging churches are strikingly similar to the established church when it comes to the base organization of how things work. It is mostly the attitudes that are changed.
In thinking of how to take an existing body of believers who have been used to a certain structure, I wanted to look at the strengths of what they were already doing. I feel that each unique body of Christ followers is different, and taking a tiny, close-knit congregation would require a lot of time just to get to know their natural strengths and weaknesses, much less those inherent in the structure. I believe structure should be formed around the body rather than a predetermined structure for everyone.
I must admit, I didn’t get far in this process, because it became clear rather quickly that though there was talk of change they were pursuing the normal channels for finding a new pastor. This meant I would be bumped near the bottom of the list unless God makes it so change is the only option. I’ve clearly stated my lack of interest in taking a position that would fit in a typical established church structure.
This article written by Jason provokes me to give more thought to the subject of strengths in existing churches. Who knows, maybe the opportunity will come with a different church to help them transition out of the old and into the … well, different at least 
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