The issue in today's marketplace is speed, not precedent. The future belongs to those who see emerging needs and have an innovative, can-do attitude about responding to them. Organized religion dominated the intersection with propriety, not bikes and leathers, and historic denominations' moment of control lasted longer than Microsoft's. But as in technology, history has kept on moving. Stale arguments about old controversies shed no more light than old WordPerfect manuals.
Faded franchises claim privileged status and demand the game be played their slower-moving way.
Congregations cling doggedly to locations and styles of ministry the marketplace abandoned long ago. They keep trying to build community through weeknight meetings, for example, as opposed to e-mail networks and workplace gatherings. Preachers keep defining Greek verbs while people cry desperately for insights to real-life needs. People's lives keep changing. So do their needs.