(Editor's note: This is one of many responses we have received to Chad Hall's recent column "Why Church Isn't Really a Church." Hall laments the confusion between the organization we call "church" and the community of believers who are the living Body of Christ, the Church. To read Chad's article, click here. We'll post more replies soon.)

In all the years I have been reading Leadership Journal, I have never felt the need to respond to an article, even when I disagreed with it completely. Sometimes, however, an idea comes around that is so muddled and potentially dangerous that to fail to respond would be sinful.

Chad Hall's recent articles on LeadershipJournal.net fall under this category. Because I am the pastor of (pick one) a local church, "authentic church," or just a 501(c)3 masquerading as a church, I have a vested interest in this conversation.

I think what Hall is arguing for is another form of "primitivism." To quote Os Guinness, "Because the primitive is the pure, the original, ...