Next week I’ll be participating in the Forge Emerging Church Summit. Forge sent me some questions they want me to respond to on a panel. Here are the questions with some brief responses.
1. Briefly use some words and phrases that describe for you what the future of the Church will look like.
Let me begin by saying I don’t think anyone can accurately predict what the world or the church will look like in 5, 10, 20 or 30 years time.
What we have to learn to do is “Thrive on Chaos” (Tom Peters). Expect the unexpected and make it up as you go along has always been the key to the renewal and vitality of the Church. Especially so in the postmodern world.
Having said that here are some trends that I think will continue.
a. Christianity is moving “South”.
The centre of gravity will continue to move from the “North” (developed world) to the “South” (developing world). One example of the impact of this shift is the Back to Jerusalem movement within the church in China. Not sure if this reality is understood well in the emerging church.
b. Continued decline of the mainline denominations.
The mainstream/“liberal” denominations are in serious trouble. There are some signs of life but I can’t see them pulling out of the tailspin. They are asset rich and cash poor. They may survive by living of the assets but that’s all.
c. Pentecostals/charismatics moving to the centre.
The most effective movement (religious, political or social) of the 20th Century are the Pentecostals/charismatics. Their rise has been unprecedented in history. As all movements do, they started on the fringe and are now moving the the centre. Their greatest challenge will be their success.
d. Emerging church on the rise
It’s definitely now a growing global movement. Although mostly limited to the developing world. The challenge now is to turn a critique and a vision into reality. Can viable communities of faith be established and multiplied within the postmodern world made up of people who have come to Christ out of that context?
e. Back to the unexpected.
The breakthroughs in the renewal and expansion of the church always occur on the fringe. Never at the centre. Somewhere out there is a Patrick or Patricia, a Martin or Martine, a Paul or Pauline who will spark a movement that takes our breath away and shapes history in a manner that we could never have predicted.
2. In Forge circles you often hear the phrase that missiology should come before ecclesiology. In other words, we need to understand our missional context before we create our style of faith communities. Maybe we need to ask – what our world will look like in 10, 20, 30 years before we ask what the Church will look like?
I don’t like either/or. I prefer both/and. I’d be happier to wrestle with a creative tension here. My vote is for “engaged orthodoxy”. Very clear about who we are. Very open-ended regarding forms and structure. The most effective movements are tight at the centre and open at the edges.
I’m also uncomfortable about us “working out” what the world will look like in 10-30 years and then deciding what the church needs to look like. I think we need to “Thrive on Chaos” a bit more. We also need to remember that the best strategists must come from amongst the people we reach rather than from us as the “missionaries”. We need to catch up to Roland Allen who believed that truly indigenous churches need to come up with their own answers with the help of the Word and the Spirit.
3. Respond to this quote from the Archbishop of Canterbury
“In all kinds of places, the traditional system of church as we know it is working. It’s just that we are increasingly aware of the contexts where it simply isn’t capable of making an impact, where something has to grow out of it or alongside it, not as a rival ( why do we cast so much of our Christian life in terms of competition? ) but as an attempt to answer questions that the parish system was never meant to answer….
At present, we stand at a watershed in the life of the Church – not primarily because of the controversies that have been racking us, but because we have to ask whether we are capable of moving towards a more ‘mixed economy’”
Not a bad quote as long as this is understood:
The best renewal takes the form of an “innovative return to tradition”. It’s another way of saying it must be “engaged orthodoxy”. That’s how Jesus operated and why both conservatives and radicals co-opt him. If we try and conserve our current expression of the faith, we’ll be irrelevant. If we move away from the historic Christian faith in the attempt to be relevant in form we lose everything. Creative tension is the only way forward. It’s the mystery of the Incarnation. Radically identified, radically distinct.
Respond to the following quote from Mark Pierson:
“…I remain convinced that the future of the Church in the West doesn’t lie in the Emerging Church movement. The value of this movement is to influence and provoke the inherited church forms into change rather than to replace them. Still a vital role…”
It’s not either/or, it’s both/and. I’d add, the emerging church movement is just one of the movements that God will use to renew the church. Hang on for the ride. There’ll be more on the way. Renewal begins on the fringe and then impacts the centre.
What will it take to mobilize and catalyze the teenagers of today into the leaders of a missional movement for the Church in the next 10-30 years?
The chance to do something. Now. Thirty years ago I went off overseas and worked on the “Ark” in Amsterdam amongst travelers—prostitutes, army deserters, former IRA operatives, even school teachers. I didn’t know what I was doing but the people in leadership around me did. It was a safe place to learn. I saw God change lives. In the process he changed my life and taught me what missional community could be.
The teens and young adults of today need challenges like that. Train them on the job and just in time. Invest in their holistic development—character, spiritual and ministry formation all rolled into one. You don’t learn to swim sitting in a classroom.
Are we involved in a reformation?
Not a question that really interests me.
3 Comments
Hey Steve…why doesn’t the last question interest you
Why doesn’t the last question interest me? I think questions like “Are we a new reformation?” are better left to history to decide. Others have tried to claim the New Reformation title only to be revealed as spirituality impotent. See my post on the suicide of liberal Christianity http://www.steveaddison.net/2005/04/11/the-suicide-of-liberal-christianity.html
Steve, love the concept of “engaged orthodoxy”. This has it in a nutshell. For myself, forget whether the emerging church is a movement or not. Time will tell and others will have the say. If the focus shifts to whether the emerging church is a “movement” the eye goes off the ball and turns inward – next thing it will be about how the movement should survive, etc ad nauseam. 500 people at the weekend was pretty wonderful – the goal should be to network and encourage those people who attended. These are the leaven in the lump, the salt to give savour – these are the ones who can make the difference. And if they do make the difference – well, how mindblowing is that. Let’s not talk about where the world will be in a decade or two or three. We don’t have much of a clue. So much that has affected our loves in recent decades could not have been predicted and that which was indicated was unclear in its shape, form and impact. Talk about getting it right and how we can sustain people and message in the changing dynamic is more to the point. The concept of DNA transmission is vital. As we look back over two millenia we can see how much the emphasis of Christian life and its message has changed without the corge message itself changing. Sustaining flexible, engaged, life filled Christian communities (as apart from increasing institutionalisation) is the way to go. The Forge Summit did that. I know that even if I am not personally engaged with The Forge people week by week, even though I am in a traditional church community, there are 499 others like me spread across the continent. With faith, love and prayer we will impact our corner of the vineyard.
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[...] 29/6/2005 Forge panel on the future of the church Steve Addison links up the questions that I sent him to prepare for the panel I am faciliating at the forge [...]
[...] Notes for a panel discussion to be held at an upcoming Forge Emerging Church Summit (HT: Signposts). The notes alone make some interesting reading and reflection stimulus — even if you’re not part of the panel discussion. [...]
[...] I attended the forum on the future of the Church, with Michael Frost, Ruth Powell (NCLS), Tom Sine, Carolyn Kitto and Steve Addison. The most interesting comment came from Steve, responding to unease about the success of the Pentecostals. He suggested that from his studies of similar movements in history, the future leaders of the AOG and their peers are likely to mellow out and provide a mainstream contribution to the future of Australia. [...]