The Crux of the Emerging Church

The challenges for the Church at such a time are profound. A generation that finds itself in the crux of such a change has a significant responsibility for shaping the new ways of thinking that will define its own age but also that of the coming era. When Christians get it right at such times, adapting themselves to the changing culture and finding new language for timeless truths, the Gospel spreads more easily for years to come because it makes sense to people. However, when the church gets it wrong by resisting change and enshrining nostalgia, we risk apparent irrelevance and an upward struggle. (Red Moon Rising, Peter Greig and Dave Roberts, 2003)

Things are getting tense in Christendom. We are perched precariously in the balance of two periods, one waning, the other waxing. Every 200 years or so, periods change. The Age of Discovery gave way to The Renaissance which paved the way for The Reformation. The Age of Reason took the baton then passed it to Enlightenment which was followed by Romantic, then Victorian.

We are coming out of the Modern period and coming into the Postmodern period. Which, as far as names go, bothers me. Could we not have been named something more original? How very postmodern of me to even ask the question.

Postmodernism is marked by a new way of thinking, a new culture, new struggles and battles. They very way we view knowledge is different from ages past, our art is different, our very thought processes are different. Even the way we do church is different.

Before really studying the postmodern period, I thought it more a movement or a philosophy, not realizing how much I am a product of a postmodern age. But the deeper I looked, the more I realized it was me, us, we. Many of the struggles youth today face are waves in the ocean of change. The church is going to feel the turbulence of the change as well and we need to understand it in order to survive it.

The term coined to describe the church in a postmodern age, or rather, the church that fits in a postmodern age is the Emerging Church. Wikipedia defines it as such:

Though expressions of the emerging church vary according to cultural context, tradition and school of thought, they share some distinguishing characteristics including a common and unique language of discourse; encouragement of creative expression; holistic forms of worship; fluency in new media; sensitivity to postmodernity; organizational simplicity; a missional approach; an ecumenical commitment; and placing value on social justice.

The emerging church originated in reaction to many perceived problems of the late 20th century Church: declining attendance of Protestant churches, particularly amongst Generation X, concern over how the Church would adapt to postmodernity, and increasing suspicion of the missiology of the market-driven mega-church and institutionalized Christianity.

The struggle is going to be against a spirit of rebellion. I feel the much of the emerging church rhetoric is very devisive, an us against them mentality. Some of it is necessary to be able to make the shift but I belive there is a way to do it successfully. We need to convince both the existing chuch of the need for change and the emerging church of the need for accountability.

God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the God of three generations. We are in danger of forsaking Abraham and Jacob and starting an Isaac church. But many questions arise. What happends when Isaac has a Jacob and, eventually becomes an Abraham?

The brilliance in God's plan is that it allows for change and growth. It allows for the church to weather a serious storm and come through stronger. Abraham has seen the storms and is walking by the true light on the broad highway of truth. It is Abraham that can keep Isaac from falling into the ditch on either side of truth. It is Abraham who can keep Isaac from teaching Jacob the culture instead of the Word that defies it.

I always go too long on these posts but the question I have today is this. How does Abraham let Isaac change the church to meet the needs of Jacob when Abraham's thinking is of a different sort? And how does Isaac listen to the wisdom of Abraham but still adapt to the change in culture that Abraham doesn't understand?

This is going to be the stuggle the church faces in its pursuit of postmodern relevance. I keep coming back to this, if we are just real, if we can REAL-ly CONNECT with people, then it doesn't matter how relevant we are. Our success will be based on how well we do this (and again I guote Peter Greig and Red Moon Rising):

...disciple them in their own context and release them in ministry without requiring that they commit cultural suicide along the way.

The church is in anoallasso and I am right there with it. The upward change. Individually changing into the likeness of Christ so that we can touch others who will also journey with us and touch others like them.

Real.ly connecting in anoallsso.

a.

posted by Renovo Creative @ 8:28 PM