Hmmm. Bear in mind that “Church” isn’t something you “go to” — unless you’re an “outsider,” I guess. Duane Cottrell is Looking for Church: “People keep asking me where I’m going to church. I’m only slightly annoyed by that question…” He has three primary criteria in the church he’s looking for though.
First, he’s looking for a non-self-centred gospel and the understanding that salvation is not just a future thing: “the Gospel is an invitation into a new life-God’s life-through Jesus Christ, and that life begins now.”
Secondly, he considers the way they approach spiritual formation
Most churches are places where people have to hide their sin. And when I say sin, I’m not necessarily talking about big, hairy, nasty sins. I’m talking about the fact that you haven’t opened your Bible or prayed in a month. Or, that you saw a person with a need you could meet, but instead of helping you chickened out. A real church would be a place to come and work through these issues with people who are right in the middle of it with you. Imperfect people helping other imperfect people become less imperfect.
Thirdly, reliance on “non-cognitive” spiritual disciplines. It sounds like he’s looking for a church much like the one I long for, the one which I finally decided if it was to be, it must be created by me and the like-minded folks around me. Duane notes a problem, though…
The problem I have, really, is not that churches like I have described do not exist. I am fairly certain that they might. The problem is that I am not ready for one. I understand the kind of commitment required in a church like this. I understand the level of intimacy necessary in a community that has these attributes. And, I am well aware that a church like this would completely change my whole life. The hardest part of answering the question, “Why aren’t you going to church,” is explaining the things I have attempted to explain here. The easy answer is simply to say, “I’m not ready.” Either way, I’m telling the truth.
Maybe I’m not ready for it either… but in getting together and journeying with some like-minded folks, we can probably all get there together. The alternative is extended times of not doing “church” at all… something many of us have been through, whether we stop going or whether we go and we aren’t really “there.” The other day I ran into an old college friend and had time for only a brief exchange of ‘journey notes.’ He’d taken about three and a half years “off” of church… and you know, there’s a lot of that going around. He, like many, is finding new life in ancient tradition, and is returning to “church” — but not like the one he left. In view of a mass church exodus, somebody else put the question, “When are they coming back?” The answer is, they’re not… not to anything like what they left behind.
Hey, wait a minute… Exodus …now there’s a good name for an emerging church reacting to the constraints of what they formerly knew.
“Maybe I’m not ready for it either… but in getting together and journeying with some like-minded folks, we can probably all get there together.”
Maynard,
I can tell you from experience that you can get there journeying with a small group of folks committed to each other’s formation and to mission and the kingdom, not just to building religious institutions. I say from experience not because we have arrived, but we can see that together we are in fact making progress toward the goal of being disciples. I wouldn’t go back to anything like what I left behind either.
Great post bro. But then that’s nothing new for you. :)
Uh…that last comment was me…. When am I gonna learn to fill all the info out before I hit send?!
I’ve just begun to read up on the emerging church movement, but I must say I’m just not convinced. I do believe I can honestly say I have never met anyone who was taking time “off” from Church who truely grokked little-c catholicism. There is nothing wrong with going to a church that you don’t like, really. There are alot of great local churches out there. I belong to a SBC church, and life is both simple and good. I church shopped when I first came to town, and honestly there was at least one church I liked better, but I knew where I belonged – where I filled in a gap.
I don’t think an Exodus is such a great term. Wesley, Wesley, and Whitfield all tried to preserve the communion as long as doctrinal convictions could be held true. Every generation’s fads are peculiar to it, but good doctrine endures. I don’t care if the hymns are electric or acapella, I just want a genuine congregation response to God.
Learning from the older generation and aiding them in their work is the sort of trying thing that will build patience. That’s not a bad thing. Really.
I planted a church in 2000; discovered emerging church in 2002; tried to change the church plant in 2003; the church folded in 2004.
People DO have a hard time with trying to be this. It’s fine to talk theoretically, but when the rubber meets the road, it’s just hard.
I now am moving into para-church ministry (I’ll head up a region for a major college minstry). After some time off from church, we are now moving toward membership at a church. This church is frustrating in many ways–holding on to ideas of content-driven discipleship, right-wing politics, a gospel that is mostly about getting people into heaven.
But there is hope. They are in the middle of redefining their mission to focus on service to others. They are open to new ideas about ministry and outreach and discipleship.
They are basically where I was just a few years ago.
I need to be patient. I need to be a GENTLE change agent.
I need to instill trust in them, so that the leadership will not see me as some kind of nut!
And I need to trust that the Holy Spirit is at work in mighty ways to make change in the Church.
Both camps, honorably represented in the comments above:
> I wouldn’t go back to anything like what I left behind either.
I’m certainly hearing that from more and more people–but I’ve been saying it a plenty.
>There is nothing wrong with going to a church that you don’t like, really….I belong to a SBC church…Every generation’s fads are peculiar to it, but good doctrine endures.
So we have one who wants to flee and one who wants to fight. I guess it might shake down to personality and upbringing. The irony is, those (of US) who are inclined to fleeing DON’T want to take anybody with us–unlike fractured church splits where there is division and reestablishment.
On the other hand, we have those who want to stay and fight for things to stay the same…and ironically, they want to change the minds of those who are anxious to beat feet out the double doors.
I wanna run. Well, I DID. And I’ve taken a year off from church….not every Sunday, but we haven’t been members anywhere for 1.5 years next month. I don’t think it’ll always be that way. But once you choose flight over fight, you CAN’T go back. It’s the inadvertently-swallowed red pill.
You see, THIS “thing” this “Emergent Church” is no friggin’ denomination–and I pray no one takes the creature to the taxidermist and creates yet another semblance of a living church in suspended animation.
I’m starting to think that the litmus test is that if you have fled the conventional church (and the SBC is THE MOST CONVENTIONAL cHURCH in all of Christendom) and curl your lip a bit at a label such as “emergent church,” you’re probably in it. I’m learning that I may not be practicing, for I DO HARDCORE believe in the priesthood of believers.
But come on. Votive candles, free starbucks, performance art, etc. are the “generational fads.” They’re ALREADY passé.
Whatever this stellar rising becomes, it’s LEGIT. It’s nascent and it’s hungry. It will thereby grow at alarming rate, but much more like a virus than anything before in Christendom. Viral Wayfarers, behaving akin to post-ascenscion believers who just SHARED Jesus with the people around them, singly being carriers for the invasion the Christ made in their lives.
Only in such a manner can all of us disassociated followers of the Way KNOW we’re operating with a clean install on our boot volume. No politics, no inbred philosophies we THINK are “doctrine” and plenty of wiggle room to be WRONG, to be corrected, and to experience the growth that happens when we submit to OTHERS, and hold NOTHING institutionally dear.
I’m glad I took the Red Pill.
A few good thoughtful comments here… this really is a powerful subject, and one which can be very emotive. In our experience, we are meeting with a group of like-minded folks, some of whom have left intitutional church and some of whom have not. But the biggest issue in the question is relationship, not doctrine. After being with a group of people (church) for 15 or 20 years, it’s not a small matter to pick up and move… to nothing. There’s a natural fear that you will lose the relationships you have, but the question is whether that fear (or relational bond) is greater or smaller than the gravitational forces propelling you out of the church.
Again in my own experience, I finally decided that the church was standing in the way between me and Jesus; I was drowning, and if I was going down I was going to unintentionally take people with me. Best for all concerned if I left quietly… you see I was an agent for change in a place that didn’t want to change; I was outnumbered and though some people heard my voice, the ones in authority did not. In fact, one of the ones in authority finally asked me to stop speaking. Evidently when the church meets together, not everyone has a valid contribution, and this was for me the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
A, you speak too kindly but thank-you. Rob, don’t worry, the EC really doesn’t have to “convince” you of anything… it’s more a thing that you resonate with or you don’t, and sometimes it takes longer for some than for others for that resonance to rise up in them. For some it never will, and that’s just fine: if the modern/institutional church is meeting a relational need, encouraging one’s relationship with Jesus and with the world around, then there’s no problem – you’re just wired slightly differently than some of us (or vice-versa). Bob, ouch… I wish you great patience. I was drowning while waiting, so finally have to strike out and find some like-minded people for felowship and mutual encouragement. Eric, some passionate thoughts there – I agree that EC isn’t going away and that to understand it you have to look below the surface, it’s not about Starbuck’s and candles.