The Problem of Wineskins: Church Structure in a Technological Age

by Howard A. Snyder

Wine, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Wineskins, the manmade structures of the church.

How do the two relate? What happens when new wine is poured into old wineskins? What about making new wineskins? In short: What kinds of church structures are most compatible with the gospel in our modern, techno-urban society?

Howard A. Snyder addresses these questions-and provides some challenging answers. In the course of his argument he discusses the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ, the role of spiritual gifts, the pastor as superstar and the
place of small and large groups in the local church. His goal: to foster church renewal that is deeply spiritual and immediately practical.

Howard A. Snyder, formerly Dean of the Free Methodist Theological Seminary in São Paulo, Brazil, is currently Executive Director of Light and Life Men International. He was a major speaker at the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Genres: Church, Theology, Ecclesiology, Christian Living, Leadership, Christian, Spirituality

214 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1975

About the author

Howard A. Snyder serves as Professor of Wesley Studies, at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Previously he was Professor of the History and Theology of Mission in the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, 1996-2006. He has also taught at United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio, and pastored in Chicago, Detroit, and São Paulo, Brazil.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continues to amaze me how some problems and their solutions stand the test of time. With a few glaring exceptions (an ongoing concern with psychedelic drug use and the assumption of New Age hippies everywhere) these are the same problems the church faces now and the solutions are the same. That is reassuring to me because it seems the sky isn’t falling, but we need to continue to focus on being communities of grace and hope and we need periodic reminders of this.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book years ago, and it had some benefit. I think the problem was that the author had an application for how to interpret the parable of the wine skins which seemed to be obscure for me at the time. I was missing the exegesis of the parable before I could apply it to church structures.

[Jonathan Schut · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for any church member or leader in the process of casting vision for the future of the congregation. My primary concern here is that Snyder falsely attributed the growth of the Early Church to their meeting in homes, when a number of factors were at play including intense persecution, the availability of eyewitness testimony, and the threats posed by heretical sectarian movements. While their meeting in homes may have been helpful, I think it unwise to attribute the growth of the Early Church entirely to this one factor.

[Leeann Bergeron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a super interesting read especially all these years after publication. The encouragement for the small group and the leading of the Holy Spirit as critical to church structure was woven throughout the book and still applies today. It got to be a little bit of a slog in the middle but I found the last two chapters to be excellent and completely worth finishing the book!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a powerful examination of how church structures, both physical buildings and organizations can both help and hinder Jesus' gospel. This book makes the case for church baed on small groups which are able to grow organically and were everyone has an important role, rather than having a few super star paid staff and everyone else is a spectator. Even though this book was written 40 years ago, it still very relevant.

[Bruce Joffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread and revisited this book that changed my whole thinking and understanding about Christianity and the role of the Church. This was the first title in a series (by a variety of authors) that changed me, fundamentally, from a "God said it. I believe it. That's all there is to it." believer into a much more progressive pastor.

[Stan Sorensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still relevant for today after 45 years when it was written. It would be good to have a sequel or new book which take up developments since 1975. The chapter on church buildings is important and would appreciate more information on the house church movement.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this over 50 years ago. The ideas still draw me on..

[Pat Reeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in 1975, this text is still challenging for what Christianity should look like in the modern urban West.

[Werner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Regarding the entrenched, traditional religious practices of his own day, maintained without question for their own sake regardless of their relation to human needs, Jesus famously observed that old wineskins cannot contain new wine. Snyder evokes that image in this serious, well thought-out and biblically informed analysis of how little biblical warrant actually exists for much of our current traditional pattern of church organization and life, how miserably that pattern fails to fulfill the divine intention for the Church, and what a new, more biblical and more genuine community of faith might look like in practical terms.

Writing from an evangelical perspective, Snyder's vision clearly has affinities to that of Rick Warren in The Purpose -Driven Church (see my review of that book). Where Warren emphasizes evangelistic outreach, Snyder emphasizes nurturing and supportive fellowship, though neither neglects the other's area of emphasis; the two books are throughly complementary, not contradictory. Though this one was written more than thirty years ago, it's every bit as relevant --or more so-- today than it was in 1975.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book over thirty years ago, and it still affects me. Snyder remains an active writer, thank goodness. For Christians, about the church.