The Great Emergence
By Phyllis Tickle
Published by Baker Books 2008
In the variety of opinion that exists within the breadth and
scope of the Christian Church in the West in the 21st Century
there is unanimous agreement about one thing; the Church is
currently going through a period of great upheaval and change, which is described
by Tickle as “a monumental phenomenon.”
1
The various strands of Western
Christianity disagree, sometimes very strongly, as to whether or not this
‘monumental phenomenon’ should be encouraged or resisted, and so across
denominations and cultures, battle lines are drawn on matters of theological
orthodoxy and praxis. Phyllis Tickle describes this time of upheaval and change as
‘The Great Emergence’ though many of her readers might be more familiar with the
term Emerging Church, and she asks three crucial questions about it:
1. What is this thing?
2. How did it come to be?
3. Where is it going? (The question infers another: where is it taking us?)
Most books relating to the current upheaval in Western Christianity focus on either
condemning it as a departure from orthodox (by which they normally mean
Reformed) faith or promoting it as a recovery of a pre-Constantinian and therefore
truly apostolic faith.
1
Tickle: 13
1
The Great Emergence takes a different path by seeking to set the current upheaval
in a broad historical context and as such it is her second question that receives the
most attention in the book.
Tickle picks up on Bishop Mark Dyer’s observation that “the only way to understand
what is currently happening to us as twenty-first-century Christians in North America
is first to understand that about every five hundred years the Church feels compelled
to hold a giant rummage sale. And he goes on to say, we are living in and through
one of those five-hundred-year sales.”2 In fact the ‘500 year cycle’ of upheaval and
change among God’s people can also be traced back through the Old Testament.
Although Tickle acknowledges that Bishop Dyer’s comment was said in jest, she
shows how accurate his assessment actually is: 500 years ago we had the Great
Reformation, 500 years before that we had the Great Schism, 500 years before that
we had Gregory the Great who oversaw the preservation of Christianity at the fall of
the Roman Empire and the slide into the Dark Ages, and 500 years before that we
have the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus and the establishment of the Church.
According to this pattern, “>about every five hundred years the empowered
structures of institutionalised Christianity, whatever they may be at that time, become
an intolerable carapace that must be shattered in order that renewal and new growth
may occur. When that mighty upheaval happens, history shows us, there are always
at least three consistent results or corollary events. First, a new more vital form of
Christianity does indeed emerge.
2
Tickle: 16
2
Second, the organised expression of Christianity which up till then had been the
dominant one is reconstituted into a more pure and less ossified expression of its
former self>The third result>is, every time the incrustations of an overly
established Christianity have been broken open, the faith has spread – and been
spread – dramatically into new geographic and demographic areas, thereby
increasing exponentially the range and depth of Christianity’s reach as a result of its
time of unease and distress.”3
Tickle very briefly states the case for how the Church and Christianity changed
during each of these periods but focuses (for the sake of brevity) on the period
leading up to the Reformation to the present day. She makes the point that none of
the upheavals like the Great Reformation happened overnight and in fact they only
happen when changes in the wider society finally reach a tipping point. As she
correctly notes the Reformation did not begin when Luther nailed his 95 theses to the
door of the church; rather, that event was the culmination of events over the previous
100 years and would itself lead to that ‘tipping point’ but it was not itself that point.
One of the significant factors of Tickle’s thesis is that the changes that were taking
place theologically within the Church during the Reformation were not happening in
isolation from the political, social, scientific and technological changes that were
taking place in the wider society. For me this was one of the great strengths of the
book, that she not only showed how the prevailing church worldview, the background
story, was gradually eroded by factors both internal and external to the Church, but
also that the new worldview, the renewed background story was and is being
3
Tickle: 16f
3
reshaped by those same factors. In the past couple of years there have been a
number of books (e.g. Flickering Pixels; Church of Facebook) that have explored the
impact of technology and social media on the faith and practice of Christians in the
21st Century. Much as Christians might like to think that their theology and practice is
based sola scriptura the reality is somewhat different.
According to Tickle the key question asked in every great upheaval is: where does
authority reside? In contrast to the Roman Catholic Church, which gave equal
authority to Church tradition and Scripture, the Reformers placed the authority for life
and faith squarely within the locus of sola scriptura. The Enlightenment would lay the
groundwork for the scientific/technological discoveries of the 20th century that would
gradually deconstruct the belief that authority lies within the locus of scripture alone.
Although most theologians would readily recognise the social and religious impact
made by the Enlightenment in general and Darwin’s theory of Evolution in particular,
Tickle highlights some equally important and perhaps less obvious factors that have
had a major impact in reshaping the worldview of Western civilisation, particularly in
regard to God and a Christian worldview:
o Faraday’s field theory: as Tickle says his work on electromagnetic rotations
and induction meant that electricity became “>the base for almost every part
of the technology that first spawned and then enabled the postmodernism
within which the Great Emergence is coalescing.” His work also opened up
the unseen world, which in previous generations had been left to the mystery
of God.
4
o In a similar way Freud and Jung together opened up the landscape of the
unconscious and had a profound influence on later thinkers who would
powerfully reshape our understanding of God. According to Tickle, Freud and
Jung are “without question, the line of demarcation between post-Reformation
and peri-Emergence ways of thinking, being, and believing.”4
o The four scientific papers published by Albert Einstein in 1905 altered our
understanding of the physical universe, “as had been true of Faraday’s
work>much of the kingdom of the angels, of the mystery of the soul, was
forever breached by the simple process of being exposed as physical and
subject to incredible, but still describable laws.”5
o The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: Einstein’s theory of special relativity led
directly to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle (you can measure the speed of
a thing or its position but not both because the act of observing changes the
thing observed) which in turn laid a key foundation of postmodernism; the
absence of absolute truth. In particular, literary critics (especially Derrida)
claimed on the basis of Heisenberg’s principle that all writing has no innate
meaning until it is read and therefore it is the circumstances and disposition of
the reader that determines the meaning. The Bible, being a book, came under
that same scrutiny and for many the Reformation cry of sola scriptura no
longer held any validity.
o The Model T Ford and the advent of the affordable motor car: this allowed
greater freedom of movement and Sunday afternoons quickly shifted from
being the time spent on your grandparent’s porch talking about God and
4
5
Tickle: 65
Tickle: 78
5
scripture to being a time for picnics, country drives and eventually shopping
malls and other leisure pursuits.
o Radio and Television: allowed for the quick spread of new ideas, although
some ministers used this media well the Church largely was slow to adapt and
respond to the challenges brought about by this new technology.
The list goes on, the point being well made that the Church exists within a cultural
framework that is constantly being shaped and reshaped by science, technology and
a variety of sociological factors and that framework in turn helps to shape the
theology and practice of the Church, in fact it could be argued that the theology and
practice of the Church are as dependent upon these external factors as they are sola
scriptura.
With this in mind it is not difficult to see why Christians from a Reformed tradition find
themselves at odds with the so-called Emerging Church. At first glance the Emerging
Church appears to reject the authority of sola scriptura in favour of a Derridian
deconstructionist view. However, a closer look at the Emerging Church position on
authority shows that it still accepts the authority of Scripture, but understands how
the social, political, technological and cultural framework we live in affects our
understanding of Scripture.
It is noticeable that almost every systematic theology available today begins with the
authority of Scripture,6 for in the Reformed tradition all other doctrines flow out of the
foundational belief that Scripture in true.
6
Theology for the Community of God by the late Stanley J Grenz is a notable exception
6
Yet the very idea that anything could be absolutely true is completely foreign to the
postmodern worldview. What that means is that Christians from the classic
Reformed Church tradition are arguing for Christian truth from a foundation that no
one outside the Church believes in any more. It can be argued that the Emerging
Church position is not so much to reject the truth or authority of Scripture but simply
to find a different starting point to argue for Christian truth.
Tickle goes on to describe the various streams of church that are emerging in the
new landscape of the 21st Century and offers some insight as to what shape Church
might take in the coming decades. She correctly acknowledges the arrogance in
trying to answer the question of where this is all taking us, however, she also notes
that it is equally foolhardy for those of us living through this upheaval not to try and
answer the question.
A review of previous upheavals shows that in each there was a specific ‘tipping point’
where the changes that had been forming/evolving over many decades finally
coalesced and took shape. In terms of the current upheaval our attention is drawn
back to the 1960’s when historians and theologians were beginning to sketch out in a
concrete way the changing paradigm of the church in North America (which may be
understood as generally, though not completely, analogous of Western Christianity).
By the late 1960’s they had come up with a quadrilateral illustration to describe the
new shape of the Church.
7
Liturgicals
Social Justice
Christians
Renewalists
Conservatives
Although the ‘Liturgicals’ quadrant was originally intended to include only Roman
Catholics and Anglicans, it is now understood to also include Orthodox Christians of
which there are now a significant number in the West. The ‘Renewalists’ quadrant
includes both Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians.
Fifty years ago that quadrilateral description of the Churches in North America was
fairly accurate but became increasingly less so from the 1980’s onwards when there
began to be a blurring of the dividing lines as each sector of the Church began to
adopt specific theology and practices belonging to the other quadrants around them.
Although key distinctions remained this blurring of tthe
he edges led to a gathering
centre of belief and practice that in some way encompassed the theological
distinctiveness and practice of each quadrant.
As the decades passed the pace of this gathering centre increased “Where once the
corners had met, now there was a swirling centre, its centripetal force racing from
quadrant to quadrant in ever
ever-widening
widening circles, picking up new ideas and people from
each, sweeping them into the centre, mixing them there, then spewing them forth
8
into a new way of being Christian, into a new way of being Church.”7 Furthermore,
this progression followed a trajectory that had been predicted by sociologists and
religious observers, however, despite the basic accuracy of these predictions, they
had failed to account for the rummage sale factor.
The predictions had not taken account of the fact that the Church and wider society
had temporarily ‘slipped its moorings’ that “as a whole culture, as a social unity, we
had at last become truly post-modern, post-literate, post-almost everything else that
only a century before we had been, including post-Christendom. And these
emergents, whose numbers increasingly included the white haired as well as the
young, could now use the term inherited church to name the goods being placed on
the rummage sale table. Inherited church was that from which they had come and to
which they, literally, now had no means of returning, let alone any desire to do so.”8
As in previous rummage sale/upheavals there was inevitably a backlash, such
dramatic change is always perceived as a threat to the status quo, simply because it
is. So it was inevitable that within each quadrant “there would be congregations or
ecclesial units and / or individuals who would aggressively dedicate themselves and
their resources to reversing all the changes that had enabled, and were continuing to
enable, the centre and the emergence taking place there.”9
One of the difficulties faced in charting the history of this great emergence is that
whatever is emerging is still in the midst of that process of emerging and the central
question of where authority lies has not yet been answered or agreed upon.
7
Tickle: 135
Tickle: 136
9
Tickle: 137
8
9
At the dawn of the 21st Century we are beginning to understand that the Church is
not a ‘thing’ or entity but is rather “>a self-organising system of relations,
symmetrical or otherwise, between innumerable member-parts that themselves for
subsets of relations within their smaller networks, etc., etc. in interlacing levels of
complexity. The end result of this understanding of dynamic structure is the
realisation that no one of the member parts or connecting networks has the whole of
entire ‘truth’ of anything>”10
The book closes with a short discussion on the impact of the Quakers to the
emergence, particularly their belief in the “paradoxical interplay of revelation,
discernment, and Scripture in the life and governance of the body of Christ on
earth.” 11 Tickle also briefly describes the influence of the Vineyard movement
founded by John Wimber who had been a Quaker and shows how the various
strands of Church in the West in the 21st Century, from whatever quadrant or
network are basically falling into two categories of Bounded Set and Centre Set, two
categories that have been widely discussed elsewhere 12 and are now generally
accepted as descriptive of emerging and non-emerging churches.
As I have read this book is have come to understand not only why the church is as it
is at the dawn of the 21st Century, but also that whatever is emerging is doing so as
part of the outworking of God’s purposes in and through human development in
history.
10
Tickle: 152
Tickle: 154 She does not mention the troubling developments within Quaker theology and praxis by
which there is no focus on the person of Jesus, despite the fact that this is in stark contrast to the
approach taken by the main exponents of the emerging Church: see Re: Jesus by Frost & Hirsch
which advocates life lived with Jesus at the centre of everything.
12
See: Church after Christendom by Stuart Murray, published by Paternoster or Deep Church by Jim
Belcher published by Inter Varsity Press, USA
11
10
As such, space is given for Christians today, not to fear the changes taking place but
to embrace them, and through them to participate in God’s work in the world>the
very ethos of the emerging Church. Ironically, the emerging Church provides an
opportunity for us to embody a motto of the Reformation: always reforming.
Some reviewers have been critical of the book describing it as an impressionist
painting rather than a detailed portrait and whilst that analogy is not far off the mark,
it should not necessarily be viewed as a negative. The Impressionists taught us to
see the world in new ways and with this book Phyllis Tickle helps us to see the
current upheaval in the Church in a new way. The broad-brush strokes with which
she paints that picture only serve to make the flow of her narrative more readable
and easier to grasp. No other book tells so well the story of where we are now and
how we got here and where we might be going.
11
The Faith of Leap
By Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch
Published by Baker Books, 2011
As implied by the title, this book is all about risk and is a call for the
Church to resist the naturally human desire for certainty and security and
control both personally and corporately. Frost and Hirsch are in no doubt that the
longing for certainty and security is idolatrous and prevents us from fully participating
in the risky adventure that the life of faith is meant to be. The authors take as their
starting point the story of the call of Abram in Genesis 12 to leave his home and
family and all that was familiar to him and go to a land that he did not know, without
any explicit directions as to how he would get there or knowledge of what would
happen on the way. In other words he was called to risk a dangerous journey with an
uncertain outcome.
Abram’s obedience to that call was without question a leap of faith into the danger of
the unknown but “>it also led to a life of faithfulness that has set the parameters of
how we as God’s people ought to understand what it is to live a life pleasing to
God.”13 Accordingly, Abram’s type of faith (faith that is willing to risk venturing into
the unknown) is to be regarded as setting the standard of faith for future generations
and serves as a model of what it means to be faithful.
Using the illustration of Frodo’s adventure in The Lord of the Rings, the authors
suggest that, like Frodo and his companions, the Church is meant to inhabit what
they call liminal space. Liminality is a term used to describe any threshold
experience.
13
Faith of Leap, p16
12
In other words, rather than occupying a settled space and place the Church is
always meant to be just on the verge or on the edge of something new and as yet
unknown, in the transitional space between what was and what is to come. The
Church, after its birth at Pentecost, was sent out on a quest to be Christ’s witnesses
and that quest is open ended, as Tolkien has Bilbo Baggins singing, “the Road goes
ever on and on, down from the door where it began, now far ahead the road has
gone, and I must follow if I can, pursuing it with weary feet, until it joins some larger
way, where many paths and errands meet, and whither then? I cannot say.”14
The parameters of the Church’s quest was given only broadly (Jerusalem, Judea
and Samaria and the ends of the earth), how they would go, what would happen and
the results of their quest were not specified. As in Bilbo’s song, they were simply to
follow the ‘Road’ wherever it led them, to inhabit its liminality always moving from
where they were to where they were going. The liminal space we are meant to
inhabit is the risk-filled, uncertainty that is nothing less than the mission of God in the
world. The Faith of Leap is a passionate plea for the church to recognise that it does
not have a missionary strategy; rather it is God’s missionary strategy. The various
aspects of liminal living are defined as:
o Living adventurously: adventure is further defined as a journey with an
uncertain outcome.
o Being courageous: this is not about not being afraid but rather to be faithful
even though we are afraid.
14
JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, (limited edition), London Harper Collins, 1997, 35
13
o Embracing risk: this is not about being foolhardy in our faith but rather the
understanding that if we settle for certainty, peace, stability or security we will
not take the risks that faith demands. Peter did not know if he would be able
to walk on water, but the only way to find out was literally to take the risk of
stepping out in faith, abandoning the certainty of the boat. It is worth noting
that this was not a random foolhardy act, it was in response to Jesus’
command.
Chapter 2 deals with the theme of communitas and there is a wide-ranging
discussion of the importance of communitas in the life of faith, we are not to live the
adventure on our own but together. Communitas is not to be understood as simply
another form of ‘community’ or fellowship, which can often be quite shallow and
superficial. Rather, communitas is the bond between a ‘band of brothers’ who have
fought and suffered for the same goal. It is only developed in the crucible of mutual
suffering and sacrifice for the sake of Christ and so throughout the book the
message is clear that embracing risk also means to suffer. Herein lies part of the
reason that we avoid the risks of faith; we simply do not want to suffer – we want
comfort, peace and security.
Chapter 3 contains an extremely helpful discussion on the nature of fear and how it
hinders the mission of the Church and why we must overcome it. The chapter begins
with a quotation attributed to Paul Tillich “He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He
who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.” Frost and Hirsch
convincingly show how fear of failure, of unexpected outcomes etc. is fatally
damaging not only to the mission of the Church but also to Christian discipleship.
14
Furthermore, they are convinced that the only way to overcome fear is to have a
vision that is bigger than our fears. In order to stir up disciples to live the risky
adventure of faith the Church must learn to:
o Foster pioneering and protest
o Stir up holy discontent
o Trade traditionalism for tradition
Chapter 4 focuses on the concept of the hero myth, particularly in light of a now
famous memo within the Disney Corporation giving advice to screenwriters based on
a 1949 publication The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Frost and Hirsch show how the
story of Jesus fits into the thesis of that book, and for many this may be the most
controversial chapter of the book. Their point is not that Jesus’ story is a myth but
that all the subsequent ‘hero’ stories are an attempt in some way, albeit
unconsciously, to retell the Jesus story however partially or inaccurately.
The final sections of the book offer some in-depth analysis of the nature and calling
of the Church in the light of the content in the first four chapters. In particular there is
a section entitled ‘Mission Catalysts’ in which Frost and Hirsh show the need to
understand that mission is the organising, catalysing and revitalising principle around
which Church should be organised and shaped. In order for that to happen we must
deal with our risk aversion and be willing to embrace the risks that faith demands. No
one reading this book could fail to be challenged by its well-constructed, honest and
powerful message. It is a book that I wish every pastor and church leader would
read, and then seek to work out in the life of their congregations.
15
Broken Hallelujah’s: Why popular music matters to
those seeking God
By Christian Scharen
Published by Brazos Press 2011
The subtitle of this book is somewhat misleading as most
people today reading the phrase ‘popular music’ are likely to
think of contemporary artists like Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Katie Perry, Adele etc. Yet
the book does not mention any of these artists and in fact only devotes a few pages
to contemporary artists like Kanye West and Arcade Fire and an obscure (though
brilliant) Icelandic band called Sigur Rós.15
Once he sets out the case for looking to pop culture as a spiritual resource the
author focuses on the work of Canadian poet/writer/singer Leonard Cohen, which is
then followed by a chapter on the musical genre known as the Blues, focusing on the
life and work of Billie Holliday, Ma Rainey and Tom Dorsey. At one point in the book
he starts discussing the Harry Potter books and movies and also devotes space to
the literature of CS Lewis. In short there are things in the book that you would not
expect from the title and there are things absent from the book that you would expect
to find. So there are some aspects of the book that might leave some readers, drawn
in by the books subtitle, somewhat confused or disappointed. However, there is
much to love about this book.
The chapter on the life and work of Leonard Cohen is quite brilliant and leaves the
reader wanting to dig deeper into Cohen’s art.
15
The author also repeatedly mentions U2 as an important and rich source of material on the
intersection of pop music and faith.
16
Although he is an artist who might be unfamiliar to many people today, particularly
young people, he is constantly referenced by other artists as an inspiration and his
song Hallelujah has become one of the best-known songs of the 21st Century due to
numerous covers and having been used on the soundtrack for the movie Shrek and
also in the X Factor TV show. Cohen’s career has therefore seen something of a
revival in recent years with a new book of poems and a new, critically acclaimed
album (Old Ideas), and a successful world tour.16
Yet Cohen is not a figure that Christians might naturally gravitate towards as a
source of spiritual insight and in fact his life seems to be a blend of contradictions.
He is a Jew who spent 5 years in a Zen monastery and qualified as a Zen priest, his
work is infused not only with biblical references but also has a strong focus on
sexuality, a subject not widely used as an inspirational source by Christian
songwriters.17 His work has an honest, raw earthiness and often expresses doubt
and anger at God in a way that many Christians would at least find uncomfortable if
not objectionable.
Although he would most likely reject the comparison out of modesty, 18 Cohen is
really only following in the footsteps of the psalmists and in expressing his anger and
his doubts and his brokenness and asking his questions Cohen artfully expresses
the broken reality of the human experience, the brokenness of the human heart and
ultimately our longing for healing and redemption.
16
The revival was much needed, after spending 5 years in a Zen mountain retreat Cohen emerged to
discover that his accountant had stolen most of his money leaving him virtually penniless and
although Cohen won a lawsuit against his manager he has not yet recovered any of the missing funds
(approx. $5 million)
17
I am not aware of any Christian artist who regularly writes songs dealing with human sexuality other
than Bruce Cockburn who would not be considered overtly Christian by the religious mainstream.
18
Cohen always speaks of the psalmists reverentially, for him theirs is the highest form of his art.
17
Furthermore, in this way he draws himself closer to God,19 consider this quote from
Book of Mercy: “All my life is broken unto you, and all my glory soiled unto you. Do
not let the spark of my soul go out in the even sadness. Let me raise the brokenness
to you, to the world where the breaking is for love.”20
Above all, Cohen’s work reminds us that we are broken, but that we must bring the
whole heap of our brokenness before God.21 Commenting on this theme in his song
Hallelujah, Cohen said “I wanted to write something in the tradition of the hallelujah
choruses but from a different point of view>it’s the notion that there’s no perfection –
that this is a broken world and we live with broken hearts and broken lives but still
that is no alibi for anything. On the contrary, you have to stand up and say hallelujah
under those circumstances.”22 Broken Hallelujah’s was published before the release
of Cohen’s latest album, Old Ideas the songs of which can be divided into two
categories: hymns (songs of praise) and elegies (songs of mourning)23, a fact that
could be true of his whole body of work
The rich spiritual depths of Cohen’s work find a clear echo in the Blues. Scharen
begins exploring this echo with the now well-known story of Billie Holiday’s famous
rendition of the song ‘Strange Fruit’:
Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
19
I think that it was Jacques Ellul who said that with his questions man raises himself up to God
Leonard Cohen, Book of Mercy, Ontario: McClelland Stewart, 1984, prayer 49
21
Leonard Cohen, Book of Mercy, Ontario: McClelland Stewart, 1984, prayer 45
22
Leonard Cohen in ‘A Master’s Reflection on His Music’ Robert Hilburn Los Angeles Times
September 24, 1995
23
http://www.canadianinterviews.com/reviews/index.php?ID=1052&SECTION=82&type=music
20
18
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
In the context of the segregation and racial discrimination in the USA at the time, the
juxtaposition of classic pastoral images from the South with the horrific images of
dead bodies was a revolutionary act that may have damaged her career but which
also powerfully expressed the terrible suffering of black people in America and the
deeper wider brokenness of American society. It may be argued that during this
period it was only blues singers and musicians who dared to speak of this
brokenness, although it would be the protest singers of the 1960’s that would provide
the soundtrack to the sweeping social change that has gone a long way to bringing
healing to racial brokenness in the USA. The brokenness articulated by blues
singers like Holiday was not just social it was also intensely personal and most of her
own work was of a personal nature and spoke of common human themes such as
heartache, love and loss.
Scharen notes the irony that the Blues has often been labelled as the devil’s music
at both a scholarly and popular level which may account for the reluctance of people
of faith to embrace it. Yet it seems evident that at that time24, the music of faith was
not articulating the pain, sorrow and suffering of those outside of the church in the
way that the Blues was, but it would be the fusion of both that would lead to the
emergence of Gospel music. Scharen cites the life of Tommy Dorsey as an example
of how this fusion came about.
24
The same could be said today
19
The son of a Baptist preacher Dorsey grew up in home rooted in faith and music and
he was very familiar with the hymn music of church but as a young man was more
drawn to the music of the blues. Whilst recovering from a nervous breakdown he
was invited to the last session of the National Baptist Convention in Chicago and it
was there he heard WM Nix sing a new gospel song I Do, Don’t You? When he
heard it, he said that his heart was thrilled and perhaps for the first time he found
something in the hymn singing, not quite the blues but what he called a touch of the
blue note. Dorsey tried his hand at writing gospel songs with moderate success but
drifted back to the blues, eventually achieving great success but losing all his money
when the bank failed. His wife believed that their loss was a result of having gone
back on his word to only write songs for the Lord and so at his wife’s urging Dorsey
returned to writing for the Lord and again found success.
Sadly, whilst performing at a religious revival meeting he got word that his pregnant
wife had died. It was this tragic event that led him to write one of the most famous
blues/gospel songs of all time, Take my Hand Precious Lord. It was with this song
that Dorsey allowed himself to truly wail and get lowdown like the blues singers in
the bars and clubs in order to purge rather than soothe his grief. It was not simply a
matter of musical style; rather this song had all the right ‘feel’ of the blues, but with
pure Gospel lyrics. Scharen writes “Dorsey saw a profound connection between the
blues and church, rooted as they both are in what it means to be human, to cry out in
the depths of our being in response to the circumstances of life.”25
25
Christian Scharen, Broken Hallelujahs, Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2011, 72
20
When we consider the experiences of people like Billie Holiday and Tommy Dorsey
and the work of artists like Leonard Cohen we can sense the fundamental, if
uncomfortable, truthfulness of their art, 26 as Cohen sings “There is a crack in
everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Although this is an accurate statement of the
reality of how things are, the biblical narrative assures us that this is not how they
were meant to be. Music, perhaps more than any other art, articulates the disconnect
between the two and is able to express a hope that even in the worst of
circumstances we are not abandoned by God. It is both surprising and disappointing
then that so little explicitly ‘Christian’ music conveys that quality of truthfulness or
articulates the brokenness and contradictions of the human experience.
One of the most striking and helpful sections of the book is the chapter ‘Grace and
Karma’ which examines the theological and hermeneutical framework employed by
Focus on the Family, a very influential conservative Christian organisation based in
the USA but with powerful influence abroad. According to Scharen, this organisation
typifies a framework for relating faith to culture that is broadly assumed within large
sections of the Christian Church in the USA and beyond.27
After giving a brief history of the birth and growth of Focus on the Family Scharen
artfully deconstructs the interpretive hermeneutic that lies at the foundation of their
ministry and shows how it is bound up in American conservative politics.
26
People are basically looking for truthfulness whether it is in music, art or cinema, as someone once
said, they would rather go to an X-rated movie that was true than a U-rated movie that was a lie.
27
The interpretive framework employed by Focus on the Family would generally be the approach of
most conservative evangelical churches in the West.
21
Focus is pro-family and anti-homosexual, James Dobson, its founder, famously
attacked the children’s programme Spongebob Squarepants as being prohomosexual because Spongebob held hands with his friend Patrick.
Pop music, particularly Rock and Rap have been an obvious focus of attention for
Dobson and his ministry and their condemnation of it, according to Scharen this
stems from what he calls a constricted imagination.28 He shows how Focus on the
Family has a default position of scepticism about culture, a guilty until proven
innocent approach, which in turn “>carries with it an assumption about how
Christianity works out in practice – a kind of checklist Christianity>the Focus
approach offers a ‘checklist’ of concerns to measure whether particular media are
acceptable or not.”29
A good example of this is their review of Kanye West’s album The College Dropout:
the biggest selling single from the album is a song called Jesus Walks. It is sung
from the viewpoint of a drug dealer who cries out to God wondering of God will hear
him because it has been so long since they talked. The track samples a gospel
choir’s rendition of ‘Walk With Me’, which suggests that Jesus walks with those who
are crying out in despair, in the midst of addiction etc. Rather than explore the
feelings/philosophy/theology of the song the entire album is written off and as
unsuitable for Focus constituents because of the ‘objectionable content’. In the
Focus checklist of what is suitable for a Christian audience, Kanye West came up
short, regardless of any theological insights that might be explored in his work.
28
29
Christian Scharen, Broken Hallelujahs, Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2011, 107
Christian Scharen, Broken Hallelujahs, Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2011, 108
22
The previous chapters on Leonard Cohen and the Blues illustrate why this approach
is entirely negative and unhelpful; it spectacularly fails to account for the brokenness
of humanity that needs and longs for a bigger vision of grace and redemption and it
ultimately has a very narrow view of who God is and an even narrower view of the
Christian imagination. The kind of interpretive model adopted and promoted by
organisations like Focus on the Family, are polemical and bound to the Greek
dualistic worldview where things are right or wrong, good or bad, black or white. In
the Focus on the Family universe, life has no grey areas, and like all fundamentalists
they believe that their view is the only possible correct one. However, the history of
the Blues and the suffering heartache of Cohen’s work show us that life and faith are
not quite so neat and tidy, not so easily categorised and defined.
Scharen helpfully follows up this critique of Focus on the Family’s hermeneutical
methodology with a careful exploration of an alternative way of exegeting pop culture
based on a famous quote from CS Lewis: “The first demand any work of art makes
upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way. (There is no
good asking first whether the work before your deserves such a surrender, for until
you have surrendered, you cannot possibly find out.)”30 Scharen is critical of those
who take Lewis’ statement to mean that we should accept pop culture uncritically, he
writes “by this Lewis does not offer a license to suspend judgement on works of art
and to let them have their own say without our saying anything.”31
30
31
CS Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism, Cambridge: CUP, 1961, 19
Christian Scharen, Broken Hallelujahs, Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2011, 121
23
His analysis of the critical methodology proposed by Lewis provides a helpful
alternative to the Focus on the Family model, one that is thoughtful and balanced
and helps us to avoid making snap judgements about a work of art. As he says the
key issue is how we arrive at the conclusion that this is a bad picture, record, movie,
song, show and so on. The checklist approach of focus, according to Lewis’
methodology, impedes reception of the message of the painting, song etc.
The final chapter seeks to make explicit what has been implicit throughout the book;
that, contrary to the Focus on the Family view, culture is not something that we can
remove ourselves from and rather than simply offering a critique of culture,
Christians should be helping to shape it. Citing the work of Andy Crouch 32 he
suggests that what we need is not more ‘Christian’ art, but more Christians making
art. Although his argument is compelling it is here that the book starts to go wrong,
for the final chapter seems hurried, rushing towards a conclusion as though the
author was approaching his contracted word count.
The section on Sigur Rós and Arcade Fire failed to really examine their work in any
great detail or show how they might be examples of the kind of art, and interpretative
methodology of art that the book is recommending. I would certainly have liked the
author to have explored the work of these bands in greater depth. Having said that,
there is much to love about this book that makes it worthy of commendation, most
importantly it highlights that uncomfortable truth that Christians do not have a
monopoly on spiritual wisdom and insight, and that sometimes it is the voices outside
the Church that we need to hear the most.
32
Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity
Press 2008
24
The Road to Missional
By Michael Frost
Published by Baker Books, 2011
This slim volume is a quick read but nonetheless it is packed full of
thoughtful and challenging material. Whilst many books dealing with
being missional are aimed at helping churches become missional, this
volume seems to be aimed at those churches that already think that they are
missional, and those churches that have tuned into the language of missional
thinking but which have failed to adopt the behaviours of a missional movement.
Frost is a well-known missiologist thinker/practitioner and in fact he feels somewhat
responsible for the promulgation of the term ‘emerging missional church’.33 Although
that is not itself a bad thing, he clearly see that popularity of the phrase as potentially
negative insofar as the term ‘missional’, like the term ‘spiritual’, has become so
common that it means both everything and nothing.
As one of the key authors writing about the emerging Church, Frost says in his
introduction that it never occurred to him would happen when the emergence was
complete and the missional church was a widely accepted phenomenon.34 Whilst I
would agree that forms of missional church have become widely accepted, I think
that it is stretching the point to suggest that the emergence is complete. Many of us
who might identify with the emerging missional church feel that it is a long way from
being fully emerged, and in fact many of us are just beginning the journey.
33
34
The Road to Missional, 15
The Road to Missional, 15
25
For those just beginning the journey from traditional forms of Church to more
missional forms it is a remarkably helpful book because it is essentially a concise
restatement of what it means to be missional. Frost’s first complaint about would-be
missional churches is that they use missional language to describe evangelism.
Frost’s point is that being missional is not just another way of doing evangelism; it is
not another way of saying get-out-there-and-invite-your-unsaved-friends-to-church.
Fortunately, Frost goes on to describe what being missional is beginning with the
fact that it is about alerting people to the reign of God through Christ.
Evangelism simply presents a message with the invitation to respond (in itself that is
not a bad thing), but “Mission is both the announcement and the demonstration of
the reign of God through Christ. Mission is not primarily concerned with church
growth. It is primarily concerned with the reign and rule of the triune God.”35
Like many missiologists Frost draws heavily on the work of David Bosch, particularly
Transforming Mission; “Mission takes place where the church, in its total involvement
with the world, bears its testimony in the form of a servant, with reference to unbelief,
exploitation, discrimination and violence, but also with reference to salvation,
healing, liberation, reconciliation and righteousness.”36 Frost goes on to summarise
the 6 main positions taken in mainstream churches regarding the relationship
between mission and evangelism:37
1. Mission = Evangelism = winning souls for eternity
2. Mission = Evangelism = soul winning
35
The Road to Missional, 24
Bosch OP.Cit The Road to Missional, 24
37
Frost’s 6 points are a summary of 12 positions identified by David Bosch in Transforming Mission
36
26
3. Mission/Evangelism = soul winning
4. Mission/Evangelism and social involvement relate to each other like seed to
fruit
5. Mission is wider than evangelism. Mission is evangelism plus social action
6. Evangelism and social action are equally important by genuinely distinct
aspects of the church’s total mission
He notes that the first position, which rejects social involvement, has been the
dominant one among conservative evangelical and fundamentalist movements.
Frost’s analogy of movie trailers is a very helpful means of describing what it means
to alert people to the reign of God through Christ. He writes “Trailers are tasters,
short film versions of the soon-to-be-released feature, and they usually include the
best special affects of the funniest scenes or the most romantic moments, depending
on the film, of the forthcoming feature. Now, watch those around you in the theatre at
the end of each trailer. If it has done its job, usually one person will turn to the other
and say ‘I want to see that movie’. This is a great metaphor for the missional
church.”38
He is right, it is a great metaphor for the missional church and he develops the
theme well managing to show an integration of gospel proclamation with social
involvement that goes beyond the so-called social gospel (i.e. liberal theology).
38
The Road to Missional, 29
27
If we believe that the rule of God means that the world to come is a place of love and
mercy then we should be a trailer of that love and mercy here and now so that those
looking into our lives will want to be part of that future world. Frost goes as far as to
say that the argument about whether evangelism or social engagement has priority
is redundant.
Having defined mission the first chapter, the second chapter ‘Slow Evangelism’
seeks to define evangelism thereby highlighting its distinctiveness from mission as
well as the points of commonality. Frost breaks down David Bosch’s definition to five
points:
1. Evangelism is a dimension of mission, not its sum total
2. Evangelism is part of the church’s mission, not just an activity for individuals
3. Evangelism involves both word and deed
4. Evangelism occurs within, and is influenced by, certain cultural and relational
conditions and in a certain context
5. Evangelism challenges people to a radical reorientation of their lives
The outworking of that reorientation is deliverance from slavery to the world and its
powers, embracing Christ as saviour and Lord, becoming a living member of Christ’s
community, the Church, being enlisted into his service of reconciliation, peace and
justice on earth and being committed to God’s purpose of placing all things under the
rule of Christ. The problem is that very few evangelistic presentations express the
missional responsibility of those who come to faith in Christ. However, with The Big
Story produced by IVP that omission is beginning to be addressed.
28
Frost recognises that there must be a balance between proclamation and
demonstration insofar as they are complimentary aspects of the one thing rather
than competing practices. However, he rightly notes that a generation after the
conversation re: evangelism and social action began there is little evidence that
churches are taking the integration of these dual aspects of mission seriously. Frost
leaves us in no doubt that a truly mission shaped church not only announces the
reign of God through Jesus Christ both locally and globally, it must also demonstrate
and embody it as well.39
A fundamental reason for the Church’s general failure to do this stems from “>the
assumption that church membership is the chief goal of the mission of the church.”40
Frost’s descriptions of the extreme lengths that some churches go to in order to
attract new members is truly harrowing (prize giveaways of game consoles, Harley
Davidson motorcycles, flat screen TV’s, guitars, cars etc.). The end result of this is to
reduce evangelism to recruitment and mission to salesmanship. Like many other
Christian writers willing to offer a critique of the Church within culture, Frost identifies
consumerism as a major threat to the true identity and mission of the Church. Faith
becomes a brand and Jesus the main product and so the whole dynamic of radically
living a Jesus-centred life is subverted by our self-centred desire to reshape Jesus in
a way that bests suits our preferences and lifestyles.
39
40
The Road to Missional, 61
The Road to Missional, 63
29
One preacher was quoted telling how his church advisory committee told him to keep
his sermons short, to tell funny stories and leave people feeling good about
themselves. He said the unspoken message was that if he didn’t provide that kind of
service then they would get someone else who would.41
Perhaps as a warning to would-be missional leaders who wish to remain true to the
calling to ‘announce the reign of God through Jesus Christ’, Frost cites the story of a
Catholic priest in 1969 during a time of great social upheaval in Europe, who during
an interview offered a fresh vision of the church “that no longer relied of its power,
prestige, privilege, or finances, a church comprised of missional volunteers who
developed new incarnational ministries and who took the mission of God to the poor
and to ‘the little people’ as empty-handed ones, filled only with the grace of God and
the power of the Holy Spirit.”42 That priest was Joseph Ratzinger, the current Pope
and leader of what is aptly described as the biggest religious business in the world.
Being missional is costly in every way; in fact Frost writes that, “When we speak
about Jesus being the exemplar of missional living, we must not ignore the crossshaped nature of that example.”43 However, in a consumerist, market driven church,
the call to suffer and live a cruciform life is deeply unattractive and this may in fact be
a key reason why the journey from traditional forms of Church to missional forms fail.
Just as there is no short cut to discipleship there are no short cuts to becoming
missional both are by definition cruciform ways of living.
41
The Road to Missional, 71
The Road to Missional, 80
43
The Road to Missional, 91
42
30
The Road to Missional raises many questions that would allow any local
congregation to examine its life and mission and plenty of benchmarks by which to
determine if and where they are on the road to being missional. Crucial to the whole
project is the idea of incarnational Christianity and mission. Frost cites Darrell
Guder’s definition of incarnational mission as mission that is rooted in and shaped by
the life, ministry, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. 44 Eugene Peterson’s
translation of John 1v14 encapsulates the concept well “The Word became flesh and
blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.”
A failure to incarnate the life and mission of Jesus will result in churches that remain
disconnected from their neighbourhoods for “>a truly incarnated church joins God’s
mission in the redemption of the poor and the institution of godly justice, which leads
to renewed neighbourhoods.” 45 The mission of the church is not to maintain its
ministries but to announce, demonstrate and embody the reign of God through Jesus
Christ and The Road to Missional is a useful resource for churches looking to
evaluate if and how they are doing that.
44
45
The Road to Missional, 122
John Perkins quoted in The Road to Missional, 134
31
Church After Christendom
By Stuart Murray
Published by Paternoster 2004
Although it has almost been a decade since this book was first
published (2004) it remains remarkably up to date. The
underlying assumption of the book is that the era of Christendom, a period in history
when the Church was the dominant, shaping and at times controlling force in society,
has come to an end. As the title suggests the book then explores what the Church
might be in a landscape where it has moved from the centre to the margins. The
book is in two closely interrelated sections called Shape and Ethos. Shape explores
the question of how the Church might evolve or emerge in a post-Christendom
context and Ethos explores what kind of Church can survive and flourish in that
same context.
Shape
The first section begins by explaining what has now become a well-known thesis –
the belonging, believing, behaving model of faith. The basic premise of this model is
that there has been a shift in the pattern of how people come to faith through contact
with churches. In the past, when the Christian story formed a cultural background, it
was common for people to come to faith (believing) and then having come to faith
they would behave in ways appropriate to the believing community and once that
behaviour had been sufficiently tested they would be allowed to fully belong, to be
true insiders within the church.
In a Christendom context, coming to faith was seen as an event (usually a crisis
decision) from which everything else flowed.
32
In a post-Christendom context we have come to understand that for most people
coming to faith is a process and one that might well be preceded by belonging as the
first step in that process. The factors in bringing about this shift are identified by the
author as:
o Postmodern people are suspicious of institutions and want to see if beliefs
work out in practice and so belonging is a necessary step prior to commitment
to test whether Christians live out what they claim to be true.
o Knowledge of the Christian story is limited in a post-Christendom context and
so people need longer to learn and understand the gospel story in order to
believe it.
o Linked to that is the fact that Church culture is alien to those who have not
been brought up as insiders and so exploratory participation in church is safer
than making a definite commitment.
This shift has major implications for the Church where, traditionally, prior to coming
to faith people have not been allowed to participate in or belong to the church. In a
post-Christendom context the church will have to become more willing to allow those
who have not made a definite commitment to participate in its community life. The
author also deals with an increasingly difficult factor in post-Christendom Church; the
increasing numbers of people who believe but who do not want to belong. In fact
there is a lengthy and helpful discussion in this section that seeks to bring together
various studies of the reasons that people leave churches and to compare that with
studies of the reasons that people join.
33
Murray provides a breakdown of the various degrees of alienation46 experienced in a
post-Christendom context:
•
The semi churched are those who have some connection with a church and
occasionally participate in church activates but do not fully belong
•
The de-churched are those who have some familiarity with church but do not
generally find churches attractive or amenable
•
The pre-churched are those with no prior experience of church, for whom
church culture is alien and church language incomprehensible
•
The post-churched are those who have, for various reasons and often after
years of involvement, decided to leave church
•
The anti-churched are those with personal or ideological objections to church
culture and maybe also to Christianity
As you might expect the reasons people leave or join churches are as varied as
there are people but some common themes emerge and I am certain that every
church leader reading this section will recognise some factors common to their own
local congregation. It is clear from these various studies that more people are leaving
the church or choosing not to belong to it than are joining, despite the success of
programmes like Alpha. Much of the church growth that we hear about today is in
fact simply a re-shuffling of the deck as people move from one church to another,
there is little if any exponential growth. However, there are encouraging signs that
churches are more sensitive to these factors and many are seeking to make the
transition to becoming more missionally adaptive in this new environment.
46
Church After Christendom p25
34
The ‘Shape’ section ends with a discussion of the different types of church that are
emerging at the beginning of the 21st Century and this highlights the ecclesiological
diversity that is necessary in a post-Christendom world. In such a world, a one-sizefits-all approach to Church is completely out of touch with reality.
Ethos
The ‘Ethos’ section begins with an important disclaimer that it does not seek to “offer
a comprehensive twenty-first century ecclesiology.”47 The disclaimer is unnecessary
as the wide range of different types of church that are described in this section defy a
universal ecclesiology. One of the defining features of Church in a post-Christendom
context is its diversity and so what is on offer in this section are a variety of
expressions of Church that might in some way be sustainable and effective in the
post-Christendom era.
The Ethos section is divided into four chapters that look at mission, community,
worship and simplicity and sustainability. The order is quite deliberate and seeks to
reverse the priorities of Christendom in which because culturally we were all
Christian, mission was not important and worship was primary. In the postChristendom era, mission (not merely evangelism) must be the priority, the defining
centre of the Church. According to Murray, whatever shape the Church takes in the
future it must make a shift from prioritising maintenance (buildings & ministries) to
prioritising mission.
47
Church After Christendom p129
35
Prioritising mission means more than simply adopting missional language, it includes
introducing current and new members to the missionary God and the scope of his
mission in the world, teaching people to interpret Scripture with a consistent
missional hermeneutic and equipping them to participate in God’s mission first as
well as in church activities. The final point of involvement in church activities is
important because without the processes of corporate worship, prayer and learning
the missional activities become unsustainable.
Supported by other studies, Murray calls into question the widely held belief that the
current interest in ‘spirituality’ is evidence of a spiritual revival and asserts, I think
correctly, that in reality the UK is becoming more secular. The changes that have
occurred in British society in the years since this book was first published only
strengthen that argument.
Building a Christian community in the midst of a secular society brings church health
to the fore as a necessary component of Church if it is to survive in the postChristendom era. In fact Murray asserts, “Building healthy, honest and harmonious
communities is a prerequisite for effective mission.” He points out that the Ephesians
4 passage so central in defining the ministries of the Church also has much to say
about the kind of interpersonal relationships that ensure the good health of the
Church. For Murray, the internal health of the Church is critical to its growth and so
health and not growth should be its focus.
36
Although he is not mentioned in the book this seems to pick up Rick Warren’s
Purpose Driven Church thesis that living things that are healthy grow naturally. So in
a post-Christendom context, congregations and leadership teams will have to give
more attention to the health of the church and this will include how we deal with
conflict resolution and church discipline. It is important to note that a healthy church
is not necessarily free from conflict. Rather, a critical factor in its health is it how it
deals or lives with the conflict.
The placing of worship last in the triumvirate of Mission, Community, Worship will
dismay many for whom worship has been a priority, not least those brought up on
the Westminster Shorter Catechism (the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy
him forever).
Murray points out that worship dominated Christendom to the detriment of mission
and community, he does not suggest that it is of no importance but that it must not
take precedence. Like the other categories mentioned, worship must also adapt to
the new landscape of post-Christendom, and be viewed through the lens of God’s
mission in the world.
The final chapter ‘Simple and Sustainable’ highlights the important fact that any
change in the Church’s shape or ethos in post-Christendom must be sustainable if it
is to be successful, and to be sustainable they must be simple. Murray calls on
churches to seriously review not only what they are doing but also why they are
doing it. To that end he suggests some very hard questions that we could ask of our
own congregations:
37
Need we pack every service with so many different ingredients?
How many monologue sermons do we need?
How many can we digest and act upon?
Do we need to sing so many songs?
Do extended periods of singing enhance worship, build up the community and
equip us for mission and discipleship?
How many people need to be involved in institutional maintenance?
These and other questions will need to be addressed by any church seeking to make
the transition from institutional church to missional movement. Therein lies a problem
for those who would agree with Murray’s assessment; when considering the stories
and experience of other church planters and missional practitioners few seem to
have been able to make that transition and most of the success stories of church
after Christendom lie with new churches that have been established with a missional
ethos in mind.
Church After Christendom offers a wide-ranging assessment not only of the current
situation in which the Christian Church in the UK finds itself, but also offers a variety
of options that might help churches to thrive within their own local context in the
much wider context of life in the post-Christendom era.
38
The Forgotten Ways:
reactivating the missional
Church
By Alan Hirsch
Published by Brazos Press
Alan Hirsch is an experienced pastor, church planter,
missional theologian and writer and is a founding director of
Forge Missional Training Network, which focuses on developing missional leaders
within Western contexts. He has written and co-written a number of books on
missional issues. The basic premise of this book is that following the demise of
Christendom the Church in the West needs nothing less that a paradigm shift of epic
proportions if it is to survive the post-Christendom era. Furthermore, he asserts that
everything the Church needs for this to happen is already present (but dormant)
within the church’s DNA. In order to survive and thrive in the 21st Century and
beyond the Church needs to rediscover this latent power and unleash it. Hirsch
describes it in the introduction as the “missional equivalent to unlocking the power of
the atom.”48
The book is in two main sections, the first of which is biographical as Hirsch presents
some of the key ideas of his thesis through his personal story and his experience as
a pastor in a post-Christian context. Although he suggests that those readers who
wish to can skip to the second section of the book, this first section is important in
providing some weight and authority to his whole thesis. All that he will go on to say
is not mere theory devised in the ivory tower of academia but has been forged in the
reality of ministry experience in the 21st century.
48
The Forgotten Ways, 15
39
The introduction sets out the case for the changed situation in which the Church now
finds itself; the shift from modernity to postmodernity, from Christendom to postChristendom. He notes “Whatever one may call it, this shift from the modern to the
postmodern, or from solid modernity to liquid modernity, has generally been difficult
for the church to accept. We find ourselves lost in a perplexing global jungle where
our well-used cultural and theological maps don’t seem to work anymore>we are
left wandering in a world we can’t recognize anymore. In the struggle to grasp our
new reality, churches and church leaders have become painfully aware that our
inherited concepts, our language, and indeed our whole way of thinking are
inadequate to describe what is going on both in and around us. The problems raised
in such a situation are not merely intellectual but together amount to an intense
spiritual, emotional, and existential crisis.” 49
As Hirsch discovered while a pastor, in these changed conditions the things that
made sense and ‘worked’ in previous generations quite simply do not work any
longer, and so what is needed is nothing short of an entirely new paradigm of what it
means to be the church – a new vision of reality.
The second section of the book is an attempt to describe that reality by means of
what Hirsch refers to as Apostolic Genius, which he describes as “>that unique
energy and force that imbues phenomenal Jesus movements in history.”50 According
to Hirsch this Apostolic Genius is made up of 6 different components which he
collectively refers to as mDNA (missional DNA): the central element is the basic
Christian confession that Jesus is Lord, and around that confession are the elements
49
50
The Forgotten Ways, 16
The forgotten Ways, 274
40
of mDNA: Disciple Making; Missional –Incarnational Impulse; Apostolic Environment;
Organic Systems; Communitas, NOT Community. 51 In order to rediscover its
purpose, Hirsch contends that the Church must rediscover its forgotten mDNA.
Like the majority of emerging church leaders and missional thinkers, Hirsch looks
back to the first centuries of the Church for inspiration and help in navigating the
troubled waters of the post-Christendom world. It is with good reason that leaders
like Hirsch look to the early Church; it is estimated that by 100 AD there were as few
as 25,000 Christians worldwide but that by 310AD that number had risen to an
estimated 20,000,000.
Hirsch concludes that the five-fold ministry pattern of Ephesians 4 (Apostles,
Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers – APEPT) embedded as they are in
apostolic genius, was a significant factor in the exponential growth of the church and
he calls for a radical reinterpretation of those ministries today. He correctly notes that
the Church in the West has all but abandoned the first three. However, it is important
to note that Hirsch is not calling for a reinstatement of the office of Apostle etc. rather
he calls for a rediscovery of the energy and missional impulse of the Apostolic
ministry. He sees it as a form of influence and leadership style rather than Church
office.52
51
The second section of the book devotes a chapter each to explaining these categories
We should note that the New Testament uses the term ‘apostle’ in different ways, although we
normally think of the term in regard to the 12 apostles specifically appointed by Christ as THE
apostles of the church, others are described as apostles in the NT in regard to the wider meaning of
the word as messenger or one sent on an errand.
52
41
The apostolic ministry he calls for is not the ordination of new apostles but for
leaders to emerge who, modelling themselves on the archetypical ministry of the
original apostles, will “impart and embed the mDNA within local communities and
then will work to ensure that the resultant churches remains true to it and that they
do not mutate into something other than God intended the Church to be.”53
He lists the functions of apostolic ministry as:
•
To embed mDNA through pioneering new ground for the gospel and church
•
To guard mDNA through application and integration of apostolic theology
•
To create the environment in which the other ministries emerge54
Hirsch brings together much of the current thinking on mission, incarnational
Christology, ecclesiology, post-modernity, social theory and science 55 together in
what is a surprisingly practical resource for unlocking the latent mDNA of the Church
in the West. At the core of the book is a plea for Christians to embody the gospel,
Hirsch writes “In a very real and sobering way, we must actually become the gospel
to the people around us – an expression of the real Jesus through the quality of our
own lives. We must live our truths...Embodiment literally means to give flesh to the
ideas and experiences that animate us. If these ideas and experiences are really
believed in and valued, then they must be lived out.”56
53
The Forgotten Ways: 153f
The Forgotten Ways, 154ff
55
Particularly Biology and the nature of organic systems
56
The Forgotten Ways, 114
54
42
The Forgotten Ways is essential reading for anyone concerned about mission and
the place and role of the Church in society in the 21st Century. It will by no means
answer all of our questions on these issues and nor does it intend to, in fact it raises
many other questions: like so many ‘missional’ books, the ideas seem to work
easiest in new churches established with mission in mind, but what about other
churches that have long been immersed in the thinking of Christendom and
modernity?
It is much more difficult for those churches to make the transition from
institutionalized church to missional movement. However, the principles laid out in
The Forgotten Ways seem to be universal in that they can be adopted by all kinds of
churches if their members are receptive. Hirsch is not ignorant of the difficulties
involved in transitioning to being missional, he writes “A note of warning for those
leading in established churches: what Western Christianity desperately needs at the
moment is adaptive leadership – people who can help us transition to a different
more agile, mode of church. Such leaders don’t necessarily have to be highly
creative innovators themselves, but rather people who can move the church into
adaptive modes – people who can disturb the stifling equilibrium and create
conditions for change and innovation.” 57 In other words, leaders of established
churches don’t have to be the innovators and trailblazers, but they do have to allow
those people the space to flourish within the church. Hirsch then goes on to warn of
the dangers of avoiding the conflict that results from change, innovation and risktaking.
57
The Forgotten Ways, 257
43
The clear aim of the book is to motivate Christians to refocus on and participate in
the mission of God in the world as the defining principle of what it means to be
‘Church’. The model of Apostolic Genius posited by Hirsch provides a suitable
framework for doing exactly that by unleashing the latent potential of mDNA that
already exists within the Church. A good book is any book that answers some of
your questions going into it, a great book not only does that, it also leaves you with a
new set of questions. By that standard The Forgotten Ways is a great book.
However, like the majority of books of its kind it is written for a theologically
discerning reader and most pastors will have difficulty in communicating its message
to leadership teams and congregations less theologically aware and more invested
in Christendom forms of Church. The strong dependence on non-biblical sources will
only serve to make some church leaders/congregations suspicious of the content.
Having said that, no matter how difficult the task may be, it is worth the effort for as
this and other similar books show, the survival of the Church is at stake.
44
Multi-Voiced Church
By Stuart & Sian Murray Williams
Published by Paternoster 2012
Multi-voiced Church is a very challenging, thought
provoking and inspiring book. The Bible text that lies at the
heart of the book is 1 Corinthians 14v26, “When you come
together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an
interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.” The
book is divided into 8 chapters, the first 3 define the term and broadly set out the
case for multi-voiced Church; chapters 4-7 explore what that might look like in key
areas of church life and ministry with the final chapter simply acknowledging the
struggle to develop and sustain multi-voiced church and concluding that it in the view
of the authors, it is worth the struggle.
Simply put, multi-voiced church is the church described in 1 Corinthians 14v26, a
church where the congregation rather than a few chosen leaders, actively
participate, and shape the worship services and community life of the church. The
authors describe it thus: “Multi-voiced church is an alternative to the dominant
tradition in which large numbers of the Christian community are passive consumers
instead of active participants. It replaces reliance on one person (variously
designated as priest, vicar, minister, pastor, lead elder or whatever) or small group of
people (elders, deacons, leadership team, church board, parochial church council or
whatever) with an expectation that the whole community is gifted, called, empowered
and expected to be involved in all aspects of church life.”58
58
Multi-Voiced Church p6
45
For many people such a description of church sounds like a recipe for chaos but as
the Williams go on to say, multi-voiced church “>does not mean that all are equally
gifted in all areas. Nor does it just apply to vocal participation>nor does it remove
the need for leadership in the community – indeed, leadership is needed more than
ever but it operates in a rather different way. Nor does it equate to a free for all,
although it does mean a significant loss of institutional control>”59
The authors state the obvious; that churches in the West are held captive to and
almost totally controlled by a mono-voiced model of Church that has been
particularly dominant since the Reformation but that this is a model that is
increasingly out of touch with the reality of life in a post-Christendom context.60 Yet
despite this, the promise of the Old Testament and the experience and teaching of
the Church in the New Testament appear to advocate a multi-voiced approach to life
in the faith community. The authors explore a number of scripture texts (Acts 2;
Genesis 11; Revelation 7; Joel 2; Numbers 11; Jeremiah 31; 1 Corinthians 11-14
etc.) and in doing so they present a very compelling and biblical case for multi-voiced
church as normative, as advocated in scripture and in the practice of the early
church. Given the strength of evidence for multi-voiced church presented here, one
must wonder why more churches do not adopt a multi-voiced approach today. Is it
that the difficulties of being multi-voiced are such that we (church leaders) would
rather ignore the biblical text than go through the hardship and risky uncertainty of
becoming multi-voiced?61
59
Multi-Voiced Church p6
st
For a detailed analysis of the post-Christendom context of the 21 Century see Church After
Christendom by Stuart Murray
61
For an analysis of the dangers of risk aversion in the church see The Faith of Leap by Michael Frost
and Alan Hirsch
60
46
Or is it simply that our attraction to the post-Reformation dominance of mono-voiced
church blinds us to the meaning of these texts? Not liking the message because it is
difficult is not a good enough reason for inaction. It is interesting that in Church
history the groups that have tried to recover multi-voiced church (Anabaptists etc.)
have all been labelled as ‘radical’ groups.
Chapters 4-7 explore key aspects of church life and how they might look in a multivoiced context; worship, learning (preaching & teaching), community, discernment.
Multi-voiced worship means “>equipping many voices to express praise to God in
many ways, to share their own stories as they retell the big story of God>this does
not abolish the role of worship leaders, but it dramatically reduces dependence on
them.” There is no doubt, based on available evidence, that the early church, for at
least three centuries the church practiced a multi-voiced form of worship though the
content and format probably varied from place to place. The reasons for its decline
and eventual replacement with mono-voiced worship is succinctly and eloquently
explained by Alan and Eleanor Kreider in their book Worship and Mission After
Christendom (chapter 7), the influence of which is evident in this volume. The key
factors that they list are:
1. Persecution: The Roman authorities were always worried about private
associations and at various times and to different degrees they forced
Christian communities to cancel their evening meal services.
2. Scale: multi-voiced worship works best in small groups (40-50 max) but by the
third century Christianity had spread rapidly and congregations literally were
47
outgrowing the domestic setting in which they had been meeting and in which
multi-voiced worship was possible.
3. Time pressure: Christian worship services gradually shifted from evening to
morning, from dinner to breakfast. By necessity these services were shorter
and would have left little time for congregational participation.
4. Issues of power and control: a professional clergy began to emerge and take
control.
5. Changes in charismatic practice: except in a few areas this seems to have
declined.
6. Issues of doctrine: the clergy feared that wide participation could lead to
heresy being promoted.
7. Christianity as the Imperial religion: this led to a break away from meetings in
homes to purpose built ‘church’ buildings.62
In multi-voiced worship the role of the worship leader is more that of an empowering
facilitator, creating space and opportunity for the congregation to contribute and
participate in the worship, rather than as a director of the worship. As in other
chapters the authors provide a wide-ranging list of practical examples of how multivoiced worship might actually operate. However, this is not a starry-eyed or naïve
promotion of multi-voiced church, at every stage in their thesis the authors are
careful to point out the disadvantages and difficulties of the proposals they put
forward. It is helpful therefore that on each area of church life under discussion they
also list some basic ground rules to ensure orderliness in the church services.
62
Alan and Eleanor Kreider, Worship and Mission after Christendom, Milton Keynes: Paternoster,
2009, p95ff this book is essential reading for anyone interested in developing multi-voiced church.
48
Multi-voiced learning means being more concerned about what is learned and put
into practice than how it is communicated or presented and it takes into account the
fact that people have diverse learning styles. It does not abolish preaching but
reduces dependence on a preaching monologue. Any pastor/preacher reading this
chapter will find it very unsettling.
The authors provide some statistical evidence for a truth that most preachers
instinctively know; the vast majority of people listening to our sermons are
unchanged by them and in fact can barely remember them only a short time after we
preach them. No matter how theologically correct or carefully prepared monologue
sermons have a limited ability to bring about any deep transformation in the lives of
their recipients. Furthermore, because of foundational shifts in the postmodern world,
monologue sermons may be incapable of bringing about this change.
Quoting from The Sermon Under Attack by Klaus Runia they cite three shifts that
have become increasingly apparent since that book was written:
1. A cultural shift from passive instruction to participatory learning, paternalism to
partnership, monologue to dialogue, instruction to interaction
2. A societal shift from an integrated world to a world where networks overlap, a
shift from simplicity to complexity, from stability to rapid change
3. A media shift from linear to non-linear methods of conveying information, from
logical argument to pick-‘n’-mix learning, from words to images
49
The authors also point out that people today are used to questioning and challenging
what they are told and are less willing to accept authoritative statements but
welcome
diverse
perspectives.
Given
the
post-Reformation
dominance
of
monologue preaching in churches it is ironic that the Latin word for sermon and the
Greek word for homily both originally meant ‘conversation’.
A major problem with mono-voiced sermons is that they encourage the congregation
to be passive consumers rather than active participants; it places unrealistic
demands on preachers who are expected, two or three times each week, to produce
sermons that equip, inspire, instruct, motivate, transform, challenge and comfort their
congregations. All of which is difficult to do especially considering that most
preachers are “duff to average.”63 In addition, the authors point out that we all hear
more sermons than we can possibly respond to.
The disadvantages of mono-voiced learning are well spelled out, as are the reasons
why the majority of preachers will find multi-voiced learning an uncomfortable and
difficult concept. The practical means of becoming a multi-voiced learning community
are less well laid out, but the Murrays provide some very broad guidelines and
practical ideas; pausing for reflection after a sermon, allowing feedback for
discussion, inviting interruptions etc. There is no suggestion that these ideas will
work in every local context, or that there is a one-size-fits-all means of being a multivoiced learning community.
63
Multi-Voiced Church p70
50
Rather, each local church must assess if or how these suggestions would work in
their local context. Nor are their suggestions intended to be a definitive list but rather
a springboard for reflection to help people come up with their own ideas of what
might work for them.
Having said that, I think most evangelical preachers will feel threatened and
disturbed by any suggestion that the sermon, the preaching of the word, should have
anything less than a central place in the life of the church. However, the authors are
not actually suggesting that at all. Rather the various practical proposals they put
forward for becoming a multi-voiced learning community are intended not to replace
preaching but to enhance its learning potential. Whether, we agree or disagree with
their analysis and conclusions, this chapter is not easy to ignore.
Multi-voiced community means going beyond the superficiality that characterises
‘fellowship’ in most churches, to developing deep and authentic friendships that are
characterised by mutual accountability and support. Pulling together many of the
New Testament phrases and expressions that describe these kinds of relationships
makes all the more vivid the gap between the biblical standard and our actual
experience of church.
One thing that is clear when you put these texts together is firstly that despite our
culture’s glorification of individuality, we are not meant to make the journey of faith
on our own but as part of a supportive community. The truth, though uncomfortable
at times, is that we need each other, and that we are not only accountable to each
other but that we are also responsible for one another.
51
It is interesting to note that the majority of the ‘one another’ texts in the New
Testament do not explicitly mention church leaders. In fact, nowhere in the New
Testament are church leaders given the sole responsibility for pastoral care,
encouraging discipleship or building up the church.
The authors cite church discipline and the ways that churches actually deal with
interpersonal conflicts as a perfect example of what happens when community is
mono rather than multi-voiced. The discussion focuses on the rule of Christ from
Matthew 18, a passage that raises as many questions as it answers (see p92), and
which is routinely ignored in a mono-voiced church culture.
Again there is no reference to church leaders in the passage though if the offence is
taken to the church it will presumably involve the leaders at that point. The key
theme of the passage is not so much discipline or correction but rather it is about
restoration as is evidenced by the surrounding context of the passage. Every church
leader will be able to relate to this section as they will all no doubt be able to recall a
situation in their own church where the failure of the community to love, and
admonish forgive and restore one another led to further breakdown in relationships.
Like so many other things in church, the rule of Christ is only effective when it is
practiced in the context of a community that loves and cares for one another, where
the friendships are deep and there is a commitment to one another that frees us to
offer forgiveness rather than to seek our idea of justice.
52
Multi-voiced discernment64 means believing that the whole congregation together are
better able to discern the mind of Christ and the direction of the Spirit rather than it
being left to a few on a leadership team. It does not abolish the need for leadership
direction or vision casting but it increases people’s ownership of the decisions that
are made. According to the authors, “>ways of making and owning decisions are
vital if the community is not to stagnate or disintegrate.”65 They lament the fact that
our church decision making meetings in language and form adopt the shape of
secular business meetings. The goal of the church in the business meeting ought to
be to discern the mind of Christ and act upon that knowledge. The authors look at
three different models of church governance: Episcopal, Congregational and
Presbyterian and show the strengths and weaknesses of each. It is interesting to
note that proponents of each model are able to provide support for their preferred
model from the New Testament, particularly the book of Acts.
Although the congregational model may seem to be a perfect example of multivoiced church in action, the reality is that not only can it be time consuming and
slow, in practise it can be dominated by a few loud voices, strong opinions, wounded
feelings and past hurts and vested interests. Most worryingly, it tends to lead to
conservative and safe decisions rather than bold initiatives.
The key to adopting multi-voiced discernment is firstly to focus on the idea of
discernment rather than decision, so that it is seen as seeking the mind of Christ for
his will rather than about the members making a business decision.
64
It is worth noting that multi-voiced or congregational discernment is not the same thing as
congregational government.
65
Multi-Voiced Church p105
53
Secondly, it needs, godly, creative, careful, and generous leadership. A critically
important point made in this chapter is that the task of the believers coming together
is “not simply to discuss issues and make decisions but to attempt to discern the
leading of the Spirit>[and so]>the voice of the minority may sometimes be the
voice of the Spirit. This might be so even if the minority is one person. Consensus
might mean recognising that the Spirit is challenging the community to pursue a
different path than the one the majority prefers.”66
Yet with that word of caution, we cannot ignore the fact that multi-voiced discernment
means prayerful listening to every voice from the youngest to the oldest, recognising
that God may speak through each one to reveal his will.
The final chapter is a passionate plea for multi-voiced church that begins with the
authors setting out, in a very honest way, some key objections to adopting a multivoiced church model. Immediately following this, in contrast, they set out some the
key reasons why we should adopt a multi-voiced model of church. This section is
typical of the ethos of the whole book, just as they do not avoid the hard questions of
mono-voiced church, so too they do not shrink from the hard questions raised by
multi-voiced church. In the end readers will either agree or disagree with the thesis of
this book, but whatever side they choose they are going to have to do a lot of soul
and scripture searching, and will have to ask very hard questions of themselves and
their churches.
66
Multi-Voiced Church, p116
54
It cannot be overstated that the loss of multi-voiced Church in the 3rd - 4th Centuries
was the result of social and cultural changes rather than the careful exegesis of
scripture and it may be that the current seismic changes in culture in the 21st Century
may be helping to redirect us back to a multi-voiced form of Church.
Multi-Voiced Church is a gift to the Church seeking to find its way and its identity in
the post-Christendom, postmodern world of the 21st Century; its message is
passionate, urgent and vital. It is a book that I will be pondering for a long time and
one that I will no doubt come back to again and again.
55
Worship and Mission After Christendom
By Alan Kreider & Eleanor Kreider
Published by Paternoster 2009
The book’s opening chapter presents the case that worship and
mission should be understood as inseparable dimensions of the
church’s life and witness rather than as two distinct and
separate areas of theology. The Kreiders begin by asserting the
viewpoint that worship rather than mission dominated the life and witness of the
Church throughout the Christendom era. In a society where everyone was deemed
to be Christian by virtue of citizenship, the primary task of the clergy came to be
presiding over worship services rather than equipping people to missionally live out
the gospel, “Worship was what the church in Christendom existed to do; worship was
its central activity. Mission, on the other hand, was peripheral and rarely discussed.
Mission took place ‘out there’ in ‘regions beyond’, in ‘mission lands’.”67 The worship
services in Christian churches also helped to provide cohesion for the feudal
societies of Christendom.
According to the Kreiders this separation of worship and mission is not reflected in
the Bible or in the practice of the pre-Christendom Church, and that in fact worship
and mission are so closely related that they can only be properly understood
together.68 The relationship between them is explored through three New Testament
Greek words for worship (leitourgia, proskynesis, latria), and this is further developed
through an explanation of the all-encompassing English word ‘worship’ which means
to ascribe worth to someone or something.
67 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p1
68 John Piper also brings worship and mission together with mission being predominant, although his
understanding of mission is a more of a classic Christendom one. See Let the Nations Be Glad
56
Put together these words imply a holistic approach to worship that encapsulates the
whole of life, life beyond the ‘worship’ service in church buildings. This short opening
section provides a very powerful challenge regarding the presence of idolatry in the
lives of those who claim to be Christians. The point is well made that all too often
and all too easily we ‘worship’ in our congregational services but fail to connect that
worship with everyday life, the very thing labelled by the prophets as idolatry. A
quote from Nicolas Wolterstorff drives the point home; “The authenticity of the liturgy
is conditioned by the quality of the ethical life of those who participate.”69
In other words, our worship is inauthentic when we fail to live out the truths we
proclaim in worship, and we should be in no doubt that for the bible writers,
particularly the prophets, inauthentic worship is a form of idolatry. The Kreiders
explore Jesus’ attitude to worship and effectively paraphrase Wolterstorff with the
challenge that there is no authentic worship unless there is true discipleship and so
they come to the challenging and devastating conclusion that “where this
congruence between word and life is lacking there is idolatry – false worship that
God judges.”
Even in this short opening chapter there is plenty material to challenge and inspire
anyone who would claim to be a worshipper of Jesus and plenty of material for
preachers! I was reminded here of a point made by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost to
the effect that that our churches are filled with people willing to worship Jesus but not
to follow him.70
69 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p8
70 Alan Frost & Michael Hirsch, ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, Peabody, MS:
Hendrickson, 2009, 17F
57
The next few chapters chart the conception of mission in a Christendom cultural
mind-set and the subsequent reappraisal of mission in the early 20th Century that led
to what has become known as the missio Dei understanding of mission that now
dominates theological reflection in a post-Christendom context. Key to this
understanding of mission is the idea that mission originates with God and not with
churches or individual Christians, mission in a post-Christendom context then, “is not
human work; it is God’s work. God’s missional work grows out of his overflowing love
for the world.”71 The four key aspects of a missio Dei understanding of mission may
be generally defined as:
1. Sender: God is the sender, and “his mission involves the creation and the
human practices and policies that affect creation.”72
2. Territory: in Christendom, mission was always something done ‘out there’
among the heathen whereas in post-Christendom, mission is done
everywhere with everyone even here at home.
3. Agent: in Christendom, missionaries were specialists, but now everyone is
called to be a missional agent in their own life and environment
4. Goal: in Christendom the goal of mission was the salvation of souls (and the
advancement of Western imperialism) but now “God’s Spirit animates humans
to work towards God’s goal of comprehensive reconciliation – with creation as
well as with God and with other humans.”73
71 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p24
72 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p38
73 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p38
58
Like other books in this series, Worship and Mission After Christendom is highly
critical of the Christianity of the Christendom era, however, it does not completely
write off Christendom forms of worship.
As the Kreiders put it, “To participate in God’s mission in our time, we need to
believe that there is wisdom in the past, not just in the biblical past but in the history
of God’s people, that can point ways forward for us today. God has ‘provisions’ for
the church’s future in mission that will come from the church’s past.”74 They list those
resources as: Saints of the Church (specifically their story of faith); church
anniversaries; a community’s story in ballad form; the keepers of memory (older
members who can retell the church’s story); personal testimony.
All of these (and other) resources allow the church to tell and retell the story of God,
not only in the grand narrative of human history but also in the personal history of
individuals and local congregations. This telling and retelling the story of what God
has done and is doing is critically important because “if we receive no reports from
the front in our congregations, we experience a drought, a nutritional deficit for
healthy Christian living. And the dominant cultural narratives take over. God, if not
powerless, seems inactive.” 75 This discussion reminded me of a quote from Ivan
Illich to the effect that the best way to start a revolution was neither political dialogue
nor violent confrontation, but rather to tell a different story. The basic, fundamental
task of the church in each generation and in its own way is to tell the story of God, a
story that is uniquely different from all other stories.
74 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p61
75 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p65
59
The chapter ‘Early Christian Worship’ is a lengthy exposition of the Eucharist and
how Paul’s approach in Corinth (and elsewhere) modelled the two principles that
have come to be known as the indigenising and the pilgrim principles advocated by
historian and missiologist Andrew Walls.
The discussion is thoughtful and wide-ranging and has raised a number of questions
about what is communicated when the Eucharist is celebrated within my own local
congregation. I was encouraged by the way that the Kreiders demonstrated the
relationship between the Eucharist and mission as this was one of the reasons why
my congregation changed our pattern of celebration from a separate, almost private
service, to being part of the public worship. It is generally true that in the UK our
celebration of the Eucharist we tend to emphasise the solemn remembrance aspect
rather than the missional aspects of the rite. As the Kreiders point out it is the
worship of the community that the Holy Spirit uses “to address the inarticulate cries
of the outsider. And the outsider, Paul stated, fell down in wonder-struck awe,
declaring the real presence of God: ‘God is really among you’ (14:25)>In the living
presence of God, worship and mission come together.”76
The discussion on the development of worship with the advent of Christendom is
equally helpful, especially the exploration of social, political and cultural reasons for
the demise of multi-voiced worship which in turn had serious implications for mission.
Suggestions are offered to help churches think more about how they might involve
wider participation in the worship services as a means of spiritual formation that
enables us to engage missionally with those around us.
76 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p92
60
A strong emphasis is placed on the value and importance of testimony, which may
surprise some readers especially if they have suffered the torture of terrible and
often embarrassing and superficial testimonies designed to convert the unbeliever.
However, the Kreider’s understanding of testimony is deeper and more nuanced, for
them “testimony is where Christians collect evidence of God’s generous
interventions in their lives; this is where Christians lament God’s apparent silence
and absence in their lives; this is where believers make connection between the God
of the Bible and the God who is alive in their daily life and professional experience.
In all of this, humans are responding to the divine initiative, in which the Holy Spirit
gives believers insights and words which enable them to talk about God and God’s
work>testimony renews Christians in the belief that God is alive and that God’s
mission of comprehensive reconciliation is moving forward in surprising ways.”77 The
Kreider’s suggest three ways that churches of varying traditions can open
themselves up to this kind of testimony:
1. Planned Testimonies and interviews: this can be done two ways, either by
checking beforehand the content of what someone wishes to say or by asking
someone to give testimony relating to something specific.
2. A Testimony Series: invite testimonies related to sermon series or the church
calendar i.e. people’s experience of lent as part of Lenten reflections.
3. Sharing time: invite people to reflect on the sermon or their experience of God
in the past week, perhaps even their concerns within the community etc.
77 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p113
61
All of this is linked with the apostle Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 14 about
modelling the worship service on the Greco-Roman meal with a symposium
afterwards where each one shared a hymn, word, prayer etc. Andrew Walls’
indigenising/pilgrim principle is clearly at work here where Paul assumes that the
Church can and should adopt the Greco-Roman meal and symposium (indigenising
principle) but that they should also radically alter/Christianise it by making it an
egalitarian gathering where all are free to participate and all are equally honoured
regardless of class (pilgrim principle).
Whilst the Kreiders acknowledge that the central role of worship is not to convert
outsiders, nonetheless a central part of their thesis is that worship forms mission and
they explore three specific aspects of how it does that:
Glorifying God, Sanctifying Humans: what actually happens to us when we
worship?
Actions of Worship: what exactly is it that we do when we worship?
Worshipping Christians in the World: in what ways does worship shape us for
missional living?
The Kreiders vision of what happens when Christians worship is theologically astute
and eloquently expressed, they assert that worship does not leave the worshippers
unchanged, as the psalmist says, we become like what we worship (Ps.115:8):
“When we join the church of all ages singing the hymn which Paul quoted (Phil. 2:611), we ascribe worth to Jesus who ‘emptied himself, taking the form of a slave>and
became obedient to the point of death’.
62
And when we bow our knees to the glorified Jesus in anticipation of the time when
'every knee should bow', then we are changed; then we are transformed so that we
'let the same mind be in [us] that was in Christ Jesus (Phil.2v5) so that we too are
willing to be emptied to become God's slaves for the sake of the missio Dei. Such
worship sanctifies us; it makes us holy. It conforms us to the image and mission of
Christ. To use Paul's term, worship edifies us. Worship is God's gift to us, and in
worship we receive God’s forgiveness and grace. Such worship forms us, as
forgiven people, and converts us to God’s way of operating in pursuit of God’s
mission. Such worship gets us involved as grateful collaborators with God as we
learn to live in keeping with God’s mission. Worship is the time when God trains his
people to imitate him in habit, instinct and reflex. Such worship alters our impulses
and makes them Christ-like. Such worship re-reflexes us. Such worship also
changes our faith communities. It forms us corporately.”78
Such a theologically nuanced and reflective definition of worship whilst attractive is
nonetheless somewhat idealised and far from the reality experienced by many
worshippers in churches today. I suspect that many people reading the above
description will wish that their experience of worship was more like that. However,
the Kreiders use of the phrase ‘such worship’ is perhaps itself an admission of the
disparity between the ideal and the reality of worship and hints at the work still to be
done within local congregations. The worship of the pre-Christendom church had a
social impact because it was embodied in the daily lives of the believers who
orientated their lives around the truths that they proclaimed in their worship.
78 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p126
63
Could it be that we are failing to transform society because we are failing to embody
those same truths?
In an age of growing nationalism and xenophobia, the chapter focusing on global
aspects of worship and mission in a post-Christendom world was particularly helpful
and urgent. Although it was not stated directly, the underlying implication of global
Christianity is that in the Church, nationalism must always take second place to the
reality of belonging to the Kingdom of God. This chapter was also a helpful reminder
that to a significant degree, worship forms are cultural, and that worship in Asia or
South America will naturally look very different from worship in the UK, and being
different does not make them wrong or less worshipful, just different from our own
experience. The sense that our particular way of worshipping God is the right one is
a significant barrier to bringing about change in worship practices in local
congregations. Worship forms should be flexible enough to adapt to a changing
cultural landscape without compromising core values and beliefs.
If worship and mission are inseparable it naturally leads to the question of whom the
worship services should be directed at, in other words; is the worship service itself a
missional tool? The Kreiders answer is unequivocally that the primary goal of
worship services should not be to either address the needs of nor to attract
outsiders. The worship of churches should be directed at glorifying God rather than
converting outsiders. However, that does not mean that the needs of outsiders will
not be met or that they will not be converted.
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As the apostle Paul noted in his letters outsiders will come in and so the final
chapters explore some of the diverse reasons why outsiders come into worship
services and what guidelines Paul lays out for the worship in view of the presence of
outsiders.
Within the wide range of reasons outsiders come to church it was noted that, as
studies have shown, the primary reason that outsiders come to church is friendship.
It is as outsiders have seen faith at work in the lives of their friends, possibly over a
long period of time, that they feel drawn to church, however, conversion should not
be the goal of friendship. 79 Because there will be outsiders present for various
reasons, worship services should incorporate four key elements set out by the
apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:
1. Comprehensibility: outsiders should know what is being said (v17, 19)
2. Participation: outsiders should understand enough to be able to take part in
responses in saying the ‘amen’ (v16)
3. Resemblance to non-Christian worship: the Corinthian’s worship was similar
to that of the ecstatic cults when it should have been distinctively different
(v23). Living in the post-Christendom multi-cultural, multi-faith society this
point has a renewed relevance.
4. Exegeting the character of God: whatever styles the worship may take; the
service should not be chaotic but orderly (v33).
79 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p212
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These four aspects of worship services provide a solid foundation helping church
and worship leaders to shape their services in a way that will be helpful to outsiders
and insiders alike. However, the inclusion of outsiders in the worship services raises
questions about how the church celebrates the Eucharist and how much involvement
outsiders can or should have in this ritual so central to the believing community.
As is so often the case it has not so much been scripture but the social and cultural
circumstances of the church that has historically determined the answer to that
question.
The Kreiders explore the various options adopted throughout church history and
settle for what they describe as “a sensitive application of the classic Christian
approach” of not allowing the non-baptised to participate in the Eucharist service. I
found this at odds with their view on the missional power of the Eucharist. However,
they make the point that each congregation will have to make a decision based on its
own ecclesiology and the depth of its worship of God,80 and whatever conclusions a
local congregation may come to must be shaped around both its worship and its
commitment to the missio Dei. In their conclusion the Kreiders draw on an analogy
from Cardinal Avery Dulles that likens the relationship of worship and mission to
inhaling and exhaling in breathing. One is not more important than the other and
both are necessary for healthy, vital life and as Dulles correctly observed,
“Discipleship would be stunted unless it included both the centripetal phase of
worship and the centrifugal phase of mission.”81
80 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p244
81 Avery Dulles, quoted in: Worship and Mission After Christendom, p246
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Worship and Mission After Christendom is a landmark book, engaging, insightful and
challenging. It is a masterpiece that crosses theological boundaries and its central
thesis is one of the most critically urgent messages for the church today, not the
least because “in post-Christendom – after the supports of sympathetic state and
public have disappeared – non-missional churches will not survive.”82
82 Worship and Mission After Christendom, p246
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