Non church future?

I find myself very drawn to this model of doing things ecclesial [or not!]. If I'm honest, I've liked the model for years but only really started to consider it in its own right recently. Talkinig about the history of Christian faith in Japan, particularly a non-church manifestation Lowell Sheppard writes:

I am skeptical of the often quote statistic that only 1% of the population in Japan are Christians. This stat is based on church attendance. The fact is that the western model of Sunday church meetings, and full mid week programs are wholly incompatible with the Group oriented society that pervades Japan. I suspect that as many as a third of Japanese are followers of Christ and seeking to live out their faith in ways that fit with the society in which they find themselves.
Evangelicals would dismiss this view for they claim the Japanese are simply syncretistic, taking bits of everything as it suits them. I disagree. If the KOG is our ultimate aim in mission and not simply 'conversion statistics' I suggest that the Japanese People are more embracing of KOG than most evangelical Christians in the west.

I found myself very interested and resonant in my soul with this:

...the church generally seeks to structure and organize itself in a very industrial fashion. So, perhaps many people simply view the church as another institution that cannot be trusted.
Money has corrupted the church and what we call the para-church. I do not mean to suggest that the vast majority of Christian workers and leaders are themselves corrupt (the opposite is true as most I know give their all to the cause at great personal sacrifice… perhaps at times sinfully sacrificial) but the system is corrupted by the power of money. Whether it is a pastor of a heavily programmed church who compelled to grow his church and sustain his the payroll, the CEO of a single focus mission agency that has to build a support base tailored to suit the donor base, money is lethally effective at subverting relational, organic mission.

And I think that this kind of thing is similar to my desire not to quickly re-enter 'normal' pastoral ministry but to try to discover what priesthood [both all believers' and ministerial] might mean outside of ecclesial livings.

...on reflection, I look back and consider a lot of the things that occupied my time as a ‘full-time Christian worker’ were somewhat dubious as to any value added to the Kingdom of God. The challenge has been to live my life as a Christian in the cut and thrust of society and in particular the business world. I have found conversations with fellow business folks, to be more frank, to the point, and transparent that within the rarified air of the Christian industry.
I do not for moment question the motivation of Christian workers, BUT, the sub culture can all be all consuming, and have found the atmosphere of the outside world, to be more nourishing and invigorating than the limited atmosphere of the Christian sector.

For me, lots to think about ...

PS It occured to me that what appears to have been happening in Japan is more like what I hoped that cell church would be, except that cell church was hijacked by a certain kind of programmatic mentality.
PPS I was reminded, as I reflected on the issue of money and livings of an interesting post on 'out of Ur' which asks questions about institutional models of church and growth measures...
emergingchurch.info > stories > wallingford:
Filed in: Christian, mission, Japan, non-church