David Fitch is talking about The “De-Churched” and the Future of Missional Emerging Congregations, which is interesting for the way in which he defines “de-churched” not as people who have removed themselves from organized church structures, but as people in megachurches who have been programmed not to think like the ‘real’ church should think. Becoming “re-churched” is to engage in more missional thinking.
I haven’t seen this definition for the de-churched word set before, but it’s noteworthy as an indictment against megachurches. If Fitch’s case can be made, it seems this would be a valid definition, but then I’m not sure which word would apply to those who have removed themselves from organized church expressions. Post-church?
Interesting. I heard somebody recently talking at great length about the need for “accountability”, which I generally agree with. But I got to thinking, “how many church leaders (pastors, elders, etc) would I trust to be accountable to and with?”.
I couldn’t think of many. Quite a number of friends in various congregations came to mind, though. And also numerous conversations with people saying pretty much the same thing. Very few trust leaders anymore, but have learned to be content in their churches with a new set of “expectation lenses” on.
Hmm. Got to go think some more about this. You may have just sparked a new post…
Caveat … I still have to read David Fitch’s article that you link to … this is in response to RobbyMac about accountability.
In some ways I don’t have problems with accountability. I have good friends who know me and will hold up a mirror in front of me and say, “Hey! You’re wandering off track here. Come back.” And I will do the same for them. My problem really lies with standard heirarchical church leadership who preach accountablity, but who themselves do not appear to be accountable to anyone. That it’s hypocritical is the least of the problems. To me that looks like a power trip. It’s where the whole shepherd-flock analogy breaks down.
So … I guess I’m probably just saying the same thing and confirming what he wrote. I wonder if this is a generational conflict? Or if there really is something “wrong” with church leaders in our day that wasn’t in the past? Hmmmm ….
In thinking about a new term, I thought about how emerging is really not getting past church, but getting past a certain form. New term: de-formed. Oops. No.