some quotes from jordoncooper.com where he is quoting from mcneal in the book, the present future...
The current church culture in North America is on life support. It is living off the work, money, and energy of previous generations from a previous world order. The plug will be pulled when either the money runs out (80 percent of money given to congregations comes from people aged fifty-five and older) or when the remaining three-forths of a generation who are institutional loyalists die off or both.
Please don't hear what I am not saying. The death of the church culture as we know it will not be the death of the church. The church Jesus founded is good; it is right. The church established by Jesus will survive until he returns. The imminent demise under discussion is the collapse of the unique culture in North America that has come to be called "church". This church culture has become confused with biblical Christianity, both inside the church and out. In reality, the church culture in North American is a vestige of the original movement, an institutional expression of religion that is in part a civil religion and in part a culb where religious people can hang out with other people whose politics, worldview, and lifestyle match there. As he hung on the cross, Jesus probably never thought the impact of his sacrifice wold be reduced to an invitation for people to join and to support an institution.
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Faced with diminishing returns on investment of money, time, and energy, church leaders have spent much of the last five decades trying to figure out how to do church better....
...All of this activity anesthetizes the pain of loss. It offers a way to stay busy and preoccupied with methodological pursuits while not facing the hard truth: none of this seems to making much of a difference. Church activity is a poor substitute for genuine spirituality.
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You can build the perfect church--and they still won't come. People are not looking for a great church. They do not wake up every day wondering what church they can make successful. The age in which institutional religion holds appeal is passing away--and in a hurry.... Church leaders seem unable to grasp this simple implication of the new world--people outside the church think church is for church people, not for them.
A thought which is reinforced by my reading of many Christian blogs. Church is a club for Christians and is not interested with talking with the outside world.
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[now my thoughts] wow, i have had so many of these same thoughts, which is why i think that it's not time to 'do church different', it truly is time to be the church, and all that follows that... its not about creating a service where people can come, its not even about a home group... it is perhaps about (as god did with abraham) realizing our identity and helping others see their's as well... and perhaps letting others tell us what ours is as well, you know?...
so, the kingdom of god is not about building a recycling center, it is about involving people in the act of recycling, no?... it is not about building a fixed education institution, it is about encouraging people to learn... it is not about building a new place of worship, it is about helping 'normal people' see the kingdom in their lives... and learn from their goodness and be inspired and inspire... or something...
3 comments:
Hey Ryan, it's Mike from the EmergentVillage boards. I followed your link here. I totally resonate with what you're saying about church being about doing and being what God calls us to, rather than simply creating a structure, or a building, or a service, or whatever... the only thing that occurs to me though, is that even given what you're saying, when the rubber meets the road you still have to do something. I mean, you still have to gather with real people in real times and places and have some kind of idea of what you're gathering for. Maybe this won't look like a typical church service, but it will have to look like something. And whatever that "something" is, will be your new church structure.
This is why I don't think creating church structure is bad. The church, essentially, is just people gathering for the purpose of carrying out God's mission to the world. I don't see anything wrong with having some kind of organizational scheme to that.
Anyhow, I don't know if my little ramble really had anything to do with your point or not, so forgive me if this seems like too much of a tangent.
Peace,
-Mike
Very good points. So many of us that are ‘anti-establishment’ miss the point that we are often times doing the same thing that we are attempting to ‘buck’.
Let me explain a little further what I meant (if not in my blog at least on the emergent village board).
I think it is great to have a place for Christians to meet and re-explore what a life lived out in the way of Jesus could look like. I think that is great. But I don’t know if loving my neighbor will ever look like ‘bringing him/her to our Friday night sabbath meals’. Perhaps at some point, but for me the church is more about connecting them with these people... on a purely informal basis... going to movies together, just sharing a meal when we are not having anything to do with a church program, you know?
So, where I hear many people talking about the missional church, I would say that looks like a church on a very low-ecclesiastical-understanding way, you know? Like I am not interested in missional services, missional projects as much as I am interested in missional lives. And honestly, our group doesn’t always look that much like that, but it’s my hope.
I know what you mean, and I really like what you say. I agree that ideally "church" will ultimately just be about people sharing life together. I don't know that programs are necessary to do that. In fact, in my current church, I've found that church programs too often keep people too busy to actually do life together.
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