NEW YORK-On the one hand, the bankruptcy of investment firm Lehman Brothers and the forced sale of brokerage giant Merrill Lynch struck many as not surprising after years of living large in a shadowy, high-risk world beyond normal financial regulation. On the other hand, in the complex interconnections of a modern economy, those collapses will cascade far beyond the pricing of Park Avenue penthouses and will bring pain to Main Street America. Wall Street isn’t asking this question, but I will: How will the Christian enterprise respond? This moment is a test. Make no mistake about it. This specific meltdown and the larger movements it signals compel us to abandon business as usual. We must rethink everything we do.
(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is www.morningwalkmedia.com.)