Revolution or evolution?

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Revolution or evolution?

• Considering the impact of 'emerging church'
  conversations on the mission and ecclesiology of
  established churches
• -
• Dr Dion Forster
• http//www.dionforster.com

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Outcomes

• By the end of this session you should be able to
• Attest to a clear understanding of the continued
  relevance of the Gospel of Christ for
  contemporary society.
• Articulate some understanding of how and why
  society is moving away from traditional models of
  the Church.
• Explain what some of the implications of this
  shift are.
• To offer some insight into alternative, and
  fresh, expressions of the Christian faith
  community (and relationship).
• Offer a case for Churches, and individual
  Christians, who deliberately and strategically
  incarnate themselves, and the Gospel of Christ,
  in their context for the sake of the Kingdom of
  God and the world.

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1. Introduction

• Is there still a place for the Gospel of Christ
  in contemporary society?
• Do contemporary Christians, and the contemporary
  Church, have the courage and critical insight to
  make the necessary changes to effectively engage
  the world with the transformative truth of the
  Gospel of Christ?

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2. Is the Church dying or simply changing?

• Churches 2005
• 48,328 - including 18,503 Anglican, 4,585
  Catholic and 6,062 Methodist
• Churches 2050 (projection)
• 27,473 - including 4,014 Anglican, 3,359 Catholic
  and 2,037 Methodist

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A decline in Church attendance
Church attendance in Britain is declining so fast
that the number of regular churchgoers will be
fewer than those attending mosques within a
generation. Ruth Gledhills commentary on the
Christian research report on Church attendance in
the UK (2008).
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Reasons for decline in membership and attendance

• Martin Wellings
• A Spiritual understanding (when the heart
  grows cold)
• A cultural understanding (related particularly to
  secularization)
• Pragmatic reasons for Church decline
• No new members joining
• Existing members leaving the Church

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Church attendance by age
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Church attendance by age (under 15)
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The Copenhagen Consensus, the United Nations and
the average Church

• Brian McLaren What are the big issues in
• No wonder the world is giving up on the Church

Our church Our world
Music Poverty
Dress Hunger
Buildings AIDS
Status Global Warming
Etc War
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George Barna

• The major changes in spiritual practice over the
  past half century have been largely window
  dressing. Pick a trend mega churches, seeker
  churches, satellite campuses, vacation Bible
  school, childrens church, affinity group
  ministries (e.g., ministries for singles, women,
  men young marrieds) contemporary worship music,
  big screen projection systems, EFT giving, cell
  groups, downloadable sermons, sermon outlines in
  bulletins, Alpha groups. Al of the above have
  simply been attempts to rely on marketing
  strategies to perform the same activities in
  different ways or places, or with particular
  segments of the aggregate population.

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Perceptions about the Church

1. "Whenever I meet a Buddhist leader, I meet a holy
   man. Whenever I meet a Christian leader, I meet a
   manager." Os Guiness
2. "the media know what the story is before you
   do... and their story about the church is 2
   things, conflict and decline.... if those are the
   grids through which everything is read, it's very
   hard to break through it. We try Archbishop
   Rowan Williams
3. I dont mind Jesus, but I dont trust his wife
   bride (comment by a skeptical friend).
4. 60 of all Churches in America will die out by
   2050 (Peter Brierley in Gibbs Coffey 200520)

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Jesus needs NEW PR!
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Engaging Gods world!

• Preaching the truth without love is like giving
  someone a good kiss when you have bad breath. No
  matter how good your kiss is, all the recipient
  will remember is your bad breath! - Ed Silvoso

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Back to the question

• Is the Church dying
• Or is it simply changing?

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Christian Marketshare Mainline Denominations
1911-2001
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Christians in SA 1911-2001
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Church membership in population groups 1911-2001
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Christian Marketshare AIC, Pentecostal, Other
1911-2001
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What makes the AIC and American style
Pentecostal / Charismatic Churches so popular?

• They are evangelical (even if their gospel is not
  entirely good news).
• They offer hope (particularly in addressing the
  most serious FELT needs of people)
• Prosperity doctrine offers hope in poverty
• Healing miracles and ministry offer hope in
  sickness
• Contextually African (in AICs)
• They have a strong entrepreneurial leadership
  (see the sigmoid curve) whereas we face
  significant pressure to maintain our culture
  (e.g., uniforms, orders of service, hierarchies)
• They are market oriented (changing in
  accordance with needs and pressures from
  outside), we are internally regulated (not
  responding to outside pressures and needs).

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Dying or changing?
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(No Transcript)
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3. Emergent, fresh and organic

• I believe that Jesus Christ started the New
  Testament Church He started it as a community of
  men and women with a mission, a new purpose for
  their lives. He gathered them, invested in them,
  and then commissioned them to go and live what he
  had lived among them.
• If we think of the Church as a celebration
  service that only happens in a building on
  Sundays, then Jesus doesnt fit the model. We
  certainly wont be able to call him Pastor
  Jesus. If the Church is more dynamic than
  that if indeed living like Jesus is how we
  should be and do Church, then thinking of Jesus
  and his band of followers as a Church community
  helps us have a more dynamic concept of what
  Church is all about.
• Floyd McClung in reference to his book You see
  bones, I see an army Changing the way we do
  Church (2008, Struik Christian publishers Cape
  Town).

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The emerging church / conversation

• The emerging church favors the use of simple
  story and narrative, occasionally incorporating
  mysticism and/or charism. Members of the movement
  often place a high value on good works or social
  activism, sometimes including missional living or
  new monasticism. While some Evangelicals may
  emphasize eternal salvation, many in the emerging
  church emphasize the here and now.
• Some have noted a difference between the terms
  "emerging" and "Emergent." Whilst emerging is a
  wider, informal, church-based, global movement,
  Emergent refers to an official organization, the
  Emergent Village, associated with Brian McLaren,
  and has also been called the "Emergent stream.
• Key themes of the emerging church are couched in
  the language of reform, Praxis-oriented
  lifestyles, Post-evangelical thought, and
  incorporation or acknowledgment of political and
  Postmodern elements. Many of the movement's
  participants use terminology that originates from
  postmodern literary theory, social network
  theory, narrative theology, and other related
  fields

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Trinitarian values and the impact upon community
and discipleship.

• I suggest that perhaps the Emerging Church had
  found, or been led to a Trinitarian ecclesiology
  which had inspired a model, the values of which
  reflected God's desire for what the emerging
  church should be. This is what Volf is talking
  about in After our Likeness. A Church whose
  values reflect the Trinitarian God. This
  development appears not to have been a
  consciously mediated action, but to have emerged
  out of the experience and practice of those
  involved in the projects. Is this a God-led
  re-imagining of the Church? I believe that it is

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'The Mystical Communion Model of Church

• Not an institution but a fraternity.
• Church as interpersonal community.
• Church as a fellowship of persons - a fellowship
  of people with God and with one another in
  Christ.
• Connects strongly with the mystical 'body of
  Christ' as a communion of the spiritual life of
  faith, hope and charity.
• Resonates with Aquinas' notion of the Church as
  the principle of unity that dwells in Christ and
  in us, binding us together and in him.
• All the external means of grace, (sacraments,
  scripture, laws etc) are secondary and
  subordinate their role is simply to dispose
  people for an interior union with God effected by
  grace.

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Post-Christendom and how it shapes mission and
evangelism.

• Lets go to Church, or The Church needs a new
  coat of paint. Orthodox Christian ecclesiology
  is clear that the Church (ekklesia c.f. Matt
  1618)
• Church, as it is used in contemporary English,
  is an anglicised form of the Greek word kuriake,
  meaning "of the Lord (The Church is most likely
  a shortening of kuriake oikia house of the Lord
  which was first used in the writings of the
  Church Fathers). This understanding of Church
  denotes a place (no longer a people)
• Participants in this movement assert that the
  incarnation of Christ informs their theology,
  believing that as God entered the world in human
  form, adherents enter (individually and
  communally) into the context around them, aiming
  to transform that culture through local
  involvement in it. This holistic involvement may
  take many forms, including social activism,
  hospitality, and acts of kindness

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Creative and rediscovered spirituality.

• Technology (such as Rob Bells nooma video
  series), neocharismatic contemporary worship, to
  more ancient liturgical practises and customs
  (such a labyrinths, monastic communities, Taize,
  and even indigenous and cultural expressions of
  spirituality such as Celtic, African and even
  secular spiritualities).
• Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal and Evangelical,
  and even Eastern faith communities. (Bede
  Griffiths, Abhishiktananda).
• The overarching emphasis, however, is to shift
  the emergent Christian from being a spiritual
  tourist (who is simply seeking spiritual
  experience) towards a reality of being a true
  spiritual pilgrim or deeply faithful disciple.
  The aim of such spiritualities is thus mission.

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The Kingdom of God and the Mission of the Church
evolution and revolution in the contemporary
Church.

• The missio dei Gods mission (please refer to
  Forster 2008a71ff. What is Christian Mission?)
• He sent his Son for this purpose and He sends
  the Church into the world for the same purpose
  (van Sanders in Forster 200871)
• What was Jesus mission?
• cf. Lk 443, 418-19 - The Kingdom of God!
• Is 116-9, Rev 213-5a. Gods eternal shalom a
  peace that passes all understanding

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The SAME mission in an ever CHANGING world

• "The gospel must be constantly forwarded to a new
  address because the recipient is always changing
  his place of residence. Graham Gray, Bishop of
  York

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Any suggestions for the way forward?

• We must change from
• Living in the past to engaging with the present
• Market driven to mission-oriented
• Bureaucratic hierarchies to apostolic networks
• Schooling professionals to mentoring servant
  leaders
• Following celebrities to encountering saints
• Dead orthodoxy to living faith (orthopraxy)
• Attracting the crowd to seeking the lost
• Belonging to believing
• Generic congregations to incarnational
  communities.
• Please read Church Next by Eddie Gibbs, and
  Reimagining Church by Frank Viola

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Revolution or evolution?

• Ask yourself a few questions
• What constitutes most of the activity and
  preaching in your Church?
• Does your Church do the same kind of things that
  Jesus did?
• Do you find the kind of people that Jesus
  welcomed in your Church (i.e., people on the
  margins of society)?
• When you listen to the people in your Church, or
  your ministers sermons, do they sound like the
  kind of things that Jesus would say?
• Is your Church actively establishing Gods
  Kingdom in your community?

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Some suggested reading

• Forster, DA, 2007 An uncommon spiritual path.
  The quest to find Jesus beyond conventional
  Christianity. AcadSA publishers. Kempton Park.
• Forster, DA Bentley, W (eds) 2008a Methodism in
  Southern Africa. A celebration of Welsyan
  mission. AcadSA publishers. Kempton Park.
• Forster, DA Bentley, W (eds) 2008b What are we
  thinking? Reflections on Church and Society by
  Southern African Methodists.
• Gibbs, E Coffey, I 2005. Church next Quantum
  changes in Christian ministry. Inter Varsity
  Press. Leicester, UK.
• Barna, G, Viola, F. 2008 Pagan Christianity?
  Exploring the roots of our Church practices. New
  York. Tyndale Publishers. and Revolution
  (2008).
• Viola, F 2008 Reimagining Church Pursuing the
  dream of organic Christianity. David Cook
  Publishers. Colorado
• Brian Mclarens book, Everything Must Change
  Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope
  (Thomas Nelson, 2007).
• Rob Bell Velvet Elvis, Sex God, Jesus save
  the Christians
• Floyd McClung in reference to his book You see
  bones, I see an army Changing the way we do
  Church. 2008 Cape Town. Struik Christian
  publishers.

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Some suggested reading

• Forster, DA, 2007 An uncommon spiritual path.
  The quest to find Jesus beyond conventional
  Christianity. AcadSA publishers. Kempton Park.
• Forster, DA Bentley, W (eds) 2008a Methodism in
  Southern Africa. A celebration of Welsyan
  mission. AcadSA publishers. Kempton Park.
• Forster, DA Bentley, W (eds) 2008b What are we
  thinking? Reflections on Church and Society by
  Southern African Methodists.
• Gibbs, E Coffey, I 2005. Church next Quantum
  changes in Christian ministry. Inter Varsity
  Press. Leicester, UK.
• Barna, G, Viola, F. 2008 Pagan Christianity?
  Exploring the roots of our Church practices. New
  York. Tyndale Publishers. and Revolution
  (2008).
• Viola, F 2008 Reimagining Church Pursuing the
  dream of organic Christianity. David Cook
  Publishers. Colorado
• Brian Mclarens book, Everything Must Change
  Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope
  (Thomas Nelson, 2007).
• Rob Bell Velvet Elvis, Sex God, Jesus save
  the Christians
• Floyd McClung in reference to his book You see
  bones, I see an army Changing the way we do
  Church. 2008 Cape Town. Struik Christian
  publishers.

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The life cycle of an institution (sigmoid curve).
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The life cycle of an institution (sigmoid curve).
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So, how do we turn this around?

• Face the facts! Denial will not serve the cause
  of Gods mission.
• Do our best to understand Gods mission for OUR
  context.
• Gain insights and expertise to help us in
  retooling the DNA of the Church for the churches.
• Have the COURAGE to make some changes (for the
  sake of the Gospel!)

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The emergent conversation

• Strengths
• Radically incarnational
• Fresh expressions
• Recaptured a balance between creative
  non-propositional evangelism and tangible social
  action
• Diverse (not a Mediclinic (lots of niche
  specialities), but rather a home visit (bring
  the gospel to you, to meet your needs)).
• Weaknesses
• Pragmatism can come at the cost of both orthodoxy
  and orthopraxy e.g., Loss of our roots (theology,
  liturgy, success stories and models)
• Loss of Christian identity
• Imprisoned in a Cell and emerging into the
  status quo (stagnation and stuck of success)
• A Church without a Mission / a Mission without a
  Church
• The sympton masquerading as the cause
  (conferences, constant change, schism,
  contentious issues etc.)
• Examples of emergent Christian movements
• Marketplace ministries
• Special interest groups (prayer, outreach, age
  groups, social needs, sports etc.)
• Home Church

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Questions, input and discussion

1. Please share one thing that has challenged you,
   perhaps something youve learned today, a new
   insight, or something youve resolved to do.
2. Please affirm one thing that our Church is doing
   well!
3. Please highlight one thing that you would like to
   help change in our Church during your ministry.
4. Any other inputs?

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Questions, input and discussion

1. Please share one thing that has challenged you,
   perhaps something youve learned today, a new
   insight, or something youve resolved to do.
2. Please affirm one thing that our Church is doing
   well!
3. Please highlight one thing that you would like to
   help change in our Church during your ministry.
4. Any other inputs?

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Some differences between established and emergent
Church movements
Mainline / Established Church Emergent
Centralised leadership / Professional clergy (separation between clergy and laity) Organic, egalitarian governance. No separation between laity and clergy
Limits certain functions to ordained / sadly renders laity largely passive (pew warmers) Makes all members functioning Priests
Has a go to Church perspective Has a be Church perspective
Prioritizes programs (frequently to educate members on efficiently and effectively maintaining the status quo) Prioritizes relationships within the community (both within the Christian community and incarnating those values into the broader community)
Depends on tithing and planned giving / requires large budgets (mostly spend on buildings and pastoral staff) Requires less funding, is frequently self supporting (either bi-vocational or marketplace ministry driven)
Separates Church (ecclesiology), mission (missiology) and social transformation (corporate Soteriology) Intertwines belonging and mission. Balances personal and corporate Soteriology