BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE
Jay Voorhees has a good synthesis of the cultural challenges that the church faces.

For example, speaking of the shift from a broadcast to a narowcast society:

The church must take care to be aware of these changes in the world because so many of our models for evangelism and discipleship are based on the mass media paradigm. Since the time of Gutenberg, our Enlightenment-influenced models of church have focused on ministry to the masses -- be it through the field preaching of John Wesley or the current interest in "satellite" congregations in the US. The goal has been to reach the largest number of persons with the most basic message of the gospel, which is why propositional formulas became so popular. "The Four Spiritual Laws" of 1960s and '70s fame were formed out of an attempt to synthesize the gospel into the most basic message for mass consumption. However, when those propositions or "principles" no longer answer the difficult questions of life and faith, faith "consumers" have no choice but to take matters into their own hands.

Some of what is happening within the church known as the "emerging church" represents that movement from the priesthood of the few to the priesthood of the believers, and not just the believers but anyone who is seeking after a sense of the holy in their lives. Through blogs, podcasts, e-mails, and small gatherings at pubs and coffeehouses around the world, men and women are gathering to think about faith in a serious way. As a whole, these people are not afraid to ask hard questions about biblical texts, church traditions, or religious practices. The question of what to believe is no longer relevant. The conversation has moved to questions of why.