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…the traditional “Come to us” attraction model of church was successful in the past. People outside the church still appreciated our values… But when our values are opposite, or even different, it is much more difficult to find a way to be together… Cultural distance (a concept shared by Alan Hirsch in The Forgotten Ways) explains why there is room for some churches to stay the same, but also why most churches will need to make radical adjustments. It all depends on who you are called to reach. If your calling is to influence those with the most similarly held values, then you can keep providing the same thing. But if you want to influence the massively growing percentage of people who are much further from the gospel, you’ll have to provide, model, and invite people into an inclusive community that welcomes people with alternative values. (Page 72)
The problem today is not that the church is broken, rather the problem is that the culture is changing at such a rapid pace around us that we have yet to catch up. We need new expressions of church and of communicating the gospel to reach out to these new expressions of the culture. It’s hard to realize sometimes while dabbling on the progressive fringe, how important the establishment (traditional church) is and how seemingly irrelevant some expressions of traditionalism are becoming. Yet, they still reach out to and speak to the modernistic paradigm and fruit is being harvested regardless of what we may think.
By looking at things from this sort of lens I think it allows for us to approach differing expressions of the church with grace and generosity, in some instances even with a sense of appreciation. This is the lens we need to begin seeing each other through, and by doing so will allow for us all to come together with a strong sense of unity amidst our diversity, and realize that we are all called to reach different segments of this growingly diverse population called America.
Related posts:
- the tangible kingdom: creating incarnational community (pt. 3)
- the tangible kingdom: creating incarnational community (introduction)
- the tangible kingdom: creating incarnational community (pt. 1)
- the tangible kingdom: creating incarnational community (pt. 2)
- the fung wah!
barely related to the post, but on my mind lately, and this reminded me.
so, i think we’re doing a good job of refocusing the church as an effective venue to spread the gospel message to a wide range of people.
Is there anything to be said about an alternative approach. a church as a venue for hard-core meat/not milk-filled boot camp that creates christ-imitators who go into the world and spread the gospel message to a wide range of people?
my pushback would be a simple question: at what point have you created the “arrived” christ-imitators who can then go into the world and spread the gospel?
the great commission “therefore, go and make disciples…” should really be understood as: “therefore, as you are going…” there can often-times be a sense of someday in our approach for ‘hard-core’ discipleship. i think that often times we get too caught up in the idea of “feed me” and we lose sight of feeding ourselves and in turn feeding others. do i think we should be teaching in our gatherings? absolutely, but preaching lectures are not the greatest source of discipleship, rather one-on-one settings and classroom settings where there can be give and take, question and answers are the best place for true discipleship to take place.
my bent, and it’s a slight lean, is that the sermon should be used for motivation and encouragement using what is learned to go out and make a difference. then the true discipleship will take place outside the walls of the church in community with one another as you live life together.
great points.
alright, how bout this? are we ignoring the weird, supernatural stuff because it would freak our guests out?
eric, i thought about this some more and i’m not sure there would be too much disagreement that the church should be a place of hard-core discipleship… i think the disagreement comes in the question of venue: should the discipleship take place mainly in the worship service through the preaching, or elsewhere.
my vote is for elsewhere because i believe it can happen better and there is more accountability for it in smaller classroom settings and one on one discipleship/mentoring relationships. you could think of it in terms of class size. we always want smaller class sizes for our children in school because they’ll learn better and get more intense one on one time with their teacher for better learning. so, why do we want all of our learning in a class size of 100 to 10,000? that’s more like a lecture hall than true discipleship…
thoughts?
thats a loaded question!
i’m not sure that we can connect the weird, supernatural stuff with hard-core discipleship… i don’t think they’re inter-related. i’m not sure you’re making the connect, i just wanted to throw that out there.
what i find interesting is that around the world the weird, supernatural stuff is happening in the church… however, it’s not happening at the same rate in the western cultures… only the eastern/story based, tribal, more mystical-bent cultures (africa, south america, india, etc.) seem to be experiencing it more.
my question: is why is that?
could it be that the holy spirit is contextualizing himself to the western mind which values reason and rationale and discounts and discredits the supernatural?
in some ways i think “yes” we aren’t experiencing the weird/supernatural in large group settings because it would freak people out—in a not so good way. however, at the same turn i still think we experience it, but only in smaller venues like small groups when a woman is healed through prayer (happened in my small group just a couple of weeks ago!) or other signs of the miraculous begin to show themselves.
but then again just when you think you’ve got the HS figured out… you don’t. He’s going to do what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, to whomever he wants to, where ever he wants to do it and there’s nothing we can do about it!
i’m more excited about your new post now. So, i’ll move on.
Especially as I’m more confused than ever about what a weekly gathering is supposed to look like.
i’m glad the new post gave you some excitement!
I think it’s a good question to ask: What is the weekly gathering supposed to look like? And it’s this very question that sparks all sorts of debate, dissension and dissatisfaction!
I think the reason it’s so hard to figure out is because we all have a different purpose in mind for what it is to accomplish… and that might simply be because our western minds feel so compelled to have something tangible happen/accomplished in a gathering that to not experience that makes the weekly gathering a failure… not that i disagree, it just certainly throws a wrench in things!
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