What is "mere church"?

Extract from Richard Baxter's essay where he is the first to use
the phrase "mere Christian"

"Mere Church" is my attempt to work out a review of many of the basics of church life in 21st Century Canada.  

The Bible provides a clear set of principles to guide church life, and a small number of hard rules, and a great degree of liberty in the specifics of what a church is to look like.  This isn't surprising, since the same Scripture is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice for the brand new congregation in the jungle of Papua New Guinea as in the large established churches of downtown Toronto.  Thus in key areas, God's Word tightly defines boundaries and principles, but in most areas of practice there is a broad space for many different methods of organizing the local manifestations of Christ's Body on earth.

I've been involved in many different ways in many different churches, and this blog is my attempt to distill out principles and methodologies that may better serve some churches in Canada than existing, more commonly known approaches.  I don't want to be novel.  I don't want to be reactionary. I don't want to be pragmatic. I want above all to be biblical, and within those boundaries, determine ways to serve the church in Canada.

Let me encourage you, dear reader, to come along with me.  I'm using a blog format to be able to share some ideas with friends, and perhaps engage some other folks in useful dialogue.  And by knowing that some others might possibly read this, it will force me to be diligent and careful in my thinking and expression.

And to clarify, this blog has no relationship to this other Mere Church.