Off-balanced and over-balanced Church

The church in modernity was off-balance, reeling from a culture that once revered it and now rejected it. As a result, it simply tried to keep standing, to stand firm, to not collapse to not change, because change felt like defeat or decay. While this resolute firmness is admirable, it can't be the final word for the church in the emerging postmodern world, because standing firm can too easily be an excuse for going stale.

Ultimately, the church is called to do far more than either standing firm or being willing to change itself. Like a candle in darkness, salt in meat, yeast in bread, or seeds in a field, the church is called to be a change agent, bringing positive change to Gods world.

A is for Abductive Sweet, McClaren Pp I75


Makes me wonder to what extent the church has been guilty of being pre-occupied with proving itself.

Proving itself  to each other in that ‘well we are standing firmer than you’ kind of arrogance. I was reading how in 1977 Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones appealed to evangelicals to leave their denominations to form a doctrinally pure church. Before my time but it still sent a shiver down my spine. Certainly the remnants of ‘tribalism of church’ that Maggi (here and here) has identified so well are clear for everyone to see, or feel. "You don't think like me so you must be dodgy" is quite a weighty punch to withstand. There are quite a few bruised people around...


Proving itself  to the culture that once revered it. Hence a legacy of church growth and a ‘aren’t we so successful’ mentality perhaps has given birth to church™. In an 'off-balanced' effort to succeed we have branded, re-branded and marketed a persona of success so that we the church can hold our heads up high. We present our mega-churches with their icons of musical excellence as an example of success and relevance to our culture. Equally the emerging church with their developing icons of techno excellence need to be aware of 'over-balancing'.

But all the time we spend proving ourselves, pre-occupied, we become increasingly fractured and insignificant. The longer we are pre-occupied the longer we stand still. The longer we stand still the longer creation groans with decay or as Robert Beckford (Beckford, R. (2004). God and the Gangs: An Urban Toolkit for Those Who Won't Be Sold Out, Brought Out or Scared Out.) defines as 'systematic failure'. The church being stale really isn’t much good for anything.

Missional statement – (reprise)


"Ultimately, the church is called to do far more than either standing firm or being willing to change itself. Like a candle in darkness, salt in meat, yeast in bread, or seeds in a field, the church is called to be a change agent, bringing positive change to Gods world."

A is for Abductive Sweet, McClaren
That’s what we are called to...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit of sally bashing....

Came across a good bit of Sally bashing over at salvationsoldiers I have to say we try and make sure that everything we raise goes into projects that build local community in Poplar but hopefully if you read this blog you get that sense anyway.
Read more

Lost Voices of Mission...Fred Brown

Image
Along the world famous Oxford street in London's Westend; nestled in among the classy frontage of designer shops there is almost an unnoticeable, unimpressive wooden door. It is more or less alongside The Regent Hall's main entrance onto the busyness of Oxford Street. People pass the wooden door oblivious to the equally unimpressive wooden steps that go up three storey's to what was Regent Hall's youth club. When I was 10 I played on these bare wooden steps totally unaware of the significance behind and upon which I played. Many years later I discovered a university youth work course - as an induction to Youth Work - stopped outside this insignificant wooden door to point out that Youth Work as we know it in the UK started behind this door. ...whether that be the surbanite flower people that flooded the Westend to express their free love; or the hard core drug community this unimpressive wooden door became the 'portal' that blurred encounter between church an...
Read more

Types of Christian Spirituality...

Image
It is easy to think and to limit ourselves to a single approach to Christian spirituality. A 'if it works for me it should work for you approach' tends to narrow our appreciation of other ways which actually impoverishes our experience of spirituality. Urban T. Holmes has developed a means of exploring spirituality and helps develop an appreciation through discovering links between spirituality, temperament and predisposition. The diagram illustrates his ideas together with potential inherent dangers. The vertical continuum speaks and helps us understand our relational orientation to God. This ranges from engaging with God through understanding and theological process to a more emotive response. Horizontally speaks of a persons preferred means of pursuing the spiritual life. Kataphtic speaks of affirmation and the need of something tangible in an individuals spirituality- this may take the form of worship, art, even imagination with the use of metaphors, symbols and images play...
Read more