CAWKI

By RJ Lambert

CAWKI is a term coined by Wolfgang Simson to describe "church as we know it".

There should be 2 qualifications to that definition:

Naturally it will be a moving statement depending on the time it is said, and it was intended in its original sense to describe the Church as we knew it in the very early 21st century;
It is a statement referably, to a major extent, to the state of church in the West and Orthodox East. Whilst the church in the 'East' also has its issues, to some extent the issues are either resolved by looking at reforming "MAWKI" (Missions as we know it) and taking stock from the great work of house churches in the East.

CAWKI describes, to the Western audience, the fundamental malaise in missional church work in the West that sees:

very little new converts coming into the kingdom;
very few 'Christians' in fact discipled into living for the kingdom as the Bible requires;
a Church that has grown fat on its historical legacy via the non-kingdom model of Christendom

Various references to CAWKI in the Manifesto and from other editors appear below. To find further references, click "What links here" on the left:

"In 2001, God had asked my wife and me to quit completely Church-as-we-know-it (hereinafter CAWKI) and even MAWKI – missions-as-we-know-it, and to go into an unknown future" ... "I have good news, too. As CAWKI has faded into the distance long ago, there is a rumor that a new land has been spotted: CAGWI – Church as God Wants It. And that God lives there."(Foreword to Introduction and Vision of the Manifesto);
"2. CAWKI, church-as-we-know-it, goes backstage; CAGWI – church-as-God-wants-it - appears for the final act. Sure, organizational and traditional, Constantinean Christianity will never cease to exist; but, in this age, it will soon lose whatever credit is left if it continues simply to prolong religious tradition. If CAWKI does not change, it will remain a reactive ghetto, angry at a world it no longer understands, a pale caterer of ready-made Christian programs for passive Christian consumers, and will serve as little more than a religious insurance company for the unaware and uneducated in some fear of hell. It also will be seen as a place of immense busyness and growing frustration for those truly called to the world, not to the church, a burial ground to callings and giftings." (Goals of the Manifesto from the section Why this book?)

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