Fad Driven Church...

There is a new book, a new program or a new emphasis every year or so. It's all anyone can talk about; it's all the preacher preaches about - for a while. Then, as quickly as it came, it's gone.

Todd Wilken writes. . . The dictionary defines a fad as "a practice or interest followed for a time with exaggerated zeal." This could just as well be a description of congregational life of many Christian churches today.

There is a new book, a new program or a new emphasis every year or so. It's all anyone can talk about; it's all the preacher preaches about - for a while. Then, as quickly as it came, it's gone. As eagerly as it was received, it's abandoned and forgotten.

Welcome to the Fad Driven Church.

For them, the long list of church fads represents their personal history as a Christian: Spiritual Gift inventories, Spiritual Warfare, Promise Keepers, Weigh Down Workshop, The Prayer of Jabez, the Left Behind Series, Becoming a Contagious Christian, a long succession of evangelism and stewardship programs, and most recently, The Purpose-Driven Life and 40 Days of Purpose.

Thanks to Bram for the tip off. Read the rest here

It worries me that people might perceive mission as a fad, I suspect for some it might be. It is bad enough that some might still see mission as a trendy euphemism for evangelism. But for mission to be a fad that is truly sad. Perhaps there is a need to remember that in the words of David Bosch "Mission is the mother of theology..."

----

I feel I should apologise for having the words bad, sad, and fad in the same paragraph!!

Comments

Andrew Bale said…
Gordon at the risk of starting another debate that gets out of hand in the amount of time it takes up.

Just for me.... (pretty please!)give me your definition of mission - what does it involve, what is its aim and objective, its purpose? How is its effectiveness measured? What is its biblical mandate?

I would find this helpful in understanding where you are coming from in some of your observations.

Love and prayers Andrew.
Gordon said…
Matt summed it up at some point in the debate last week 'Mission' is Missio (Latin) derivative from apostello (Greek): 'to send'. So a useful working definition is that mission is everything the church is sent by Christ to do in the world: "As the Father sent me, so I send you." (John 20:21)" (Clifton, M 2006!!)

So as God's 'sent' church we are called to love, to serve, to preach, to teach, to heal, to liberate and to embody the self same attributes of the kingdom that Jesus did -that is missio dei (God's Mission).

That is mission of which evangelism is an essential part.
I've long been tired of fads. They tend to cover up, or at least try to cover up, the real sad state of the church. They are usually reactionary and are almost always designed to make church life easier or 'more attractive.'

Usually, any thing that doesn't need commitment, grit and determination is embraced like the ointment for all ills.

'Authentic Community' - we'd do almost anything than try to live it out.
..oh...however, I'd disagree that Spiritual Warfare and gift orientated ministry are fads...these are an essential part of missional church. :o)

Andrew
Anonymous said…
We are currently in the midst of a huge "fad" in our territory, however we are not allowed to be a part of this as our ministry doesnt fit the model. The model involves ministry to the middle-class and growing large middle-class corps that will then allow them to provide "social funds" for the margainalized. Hmmmm I see us going back to the place where the poor have nowhere to worship. In our territory we are classed as not being able to grow church because we are growing church of people who are margainalised... Hmmm anyway you have to do what is true to your heart.

Glenda
Gordon said…
'Authentic Community' I know - but even that has been hijacked by the fad seekers!! :o0
Gordon said…
Glenda :o(
True Gordon...but thankfully my bunch are not hugely up on the latest fad to invade the church so we just get on with being who we are!

Glenda: its always been my feeling that if there is a Salvation Army corps aiming for the middle classes they are aiming in the wrong place. In my experience, even the most spiritual 'middle class' corps has a difficulty in accepting the marginalised. These are all symptoms of a movement moving away from its roots.
Ben said…
gah, I despise this faddism nature with all my heart, but so often find myself caught up in it. As a young person growing up in a 'middle class' corps, recognising that something desperately needed to change, I'd find myself jumping on the first promising bandwagon to come along.

Thankfully, I'm learning to lose that part of me.

I think that in a church culture that strives to be relevant and gets it wrong or misses the point, of course the whole idea of the fad is going to occur. I think that if we deal with one, we deal with the other.

As far as the class system goes in church, we need to lose it and we need to lose it fast. We're just adding to the consumerist (and thus relevant) nature of some choices by identifying a 'target audience'. does that mean that some are in and some are out?
Ben said…
by 'choices', I meant 'churches'

I need to lie down....
Gordon said…
'fraid so - which goes back to Glenda's point. For instance Em. Ch. it seems to me is mostly geared to designer html geeks who kind of like video editing!!!Where do the none designer people fit in?
Ben said…
Don't know what you're worrying about, you and me fit right on in there!

I think it's probably a lot of people thinking exactly that, actually.

Popular posts from this blog

A bit of sally bashing....

Lost Voices of Mission...Fred Brown

Types of Christian Spirituality...