A few months ago I began reading Frost and Hirsch’s book “The Shaping of Things to Come”. At a gut level I felt that their conclusions are correct, that we need a radical new way of being church: revolution rather than evolution. Yet part of me was reluctant to give up on the traditional church. At the time I was hoping to get a job as Parish Mission Development officer for Chester Diocese. I was hoping that by encouraging fresh expressions of church around the Diocese new life would spring up and the church would have a future.
By the time I arrived at the interviews with Chester Diocese I no longer felt comfortable with the prospect of committing my energies to shoring up the creaking institution. My appetite for radical innovative mission had been stimulated by being interviewed by CMS for a new position fostering the development of missional cells (Andrew Jones and Richard White are going to job-share the position).
So here I am, part way through a paradigm shift. I am employed to do a job which in itself is good. People are being evangelised, blessed and saved. Mission is happening on the fringe of our church, and we are also doing some “out-there” mission amidst the unchurched youth of our neighbourhood. The church which I lead is transitioning and becoming a more effective agent of the Kingdom. It could even double in size within a few years if we work hard and put our energies into helping people to become disciples.
But … (big BUT) …. I am now convinced that because the church is an institution it is self limiting. The people of Bredbury and Woodley are pathologically adverse to institution. The few who try to do church are only able to sustain something of modest size (c 70 people) and there is considerable chaos as there are only a few professionals around. I do not believe that mega-church would fit our culture (potential for a future blog here I suspect).
And so I really do believe that we will only see massive spontaneous expansion of the Kingdom if we can foster the growth of home based churches. This is causing me a few problems. Not many other people are with me on this journey. It is going to take time to explain my thinking. I do not want to sound critical. Relative to many churches we are doing really well. My friends in the New Wine Network are growing their churches by dramatically modernising their way of doing church … but they are largely still within the old paradigm.
This morning I was reading Alexander Campbell’s Simplechurch blog. He has a diagram there about the “apostolic migration”. I am not sure where I am on this diagram. Am I at point minus 1 … moving in my spirit but not in my body/money? Or am I in the wilderness of religious detoxification? I think the past 3 months I have been in that wilderness. And I have now let go of my dream of being a “successful” leader of a big New Wine church. I am not sure if I am yet in point +1 … I am still hoping to foster new churches from my comfortable position as vicar of Bredbury….
…. interesting that God said to me on Tuesday “the Wilderness is not about going for a picnic in the countryside”. Hmm.
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5 comments:
We've been in a pardigm shift for close to eight years now and it continues to this day with a number of different issues. Some things are not yet understood or even resolved in our hearts and minds. All I am certain of is that there is no going back. I wouldn't trade the freedom found in Christ that we now experience for anything. It's as if before all this started happenning we were a bird in a cage. The Lord opened the bird cage and out we flew and don't ever see ourselves as settling back in the cage ever again. I believe God intends that birds fly not stay confined to the world of a cage.
Hi Guy, I am Ross's wife.
This morning during our worship I had a prophetic picture of a golden jewel encrusted bird cage. The cage was absolutely splendid, but nevertheless it was a cage. The Lord reminded me of a story Ross has been telling in church several weeks ago of the eagle that had been raised with chickens, so had never learnt to fly... a very poignant image of such restricted potential. I felt the Lord say "Get out of that cage and fly!" I also felt the Lord say we say we build and worship our own cages, and he is calling us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
It was lovely to read your comment to Ross about a bird coming out of a cage! It would seem that the Lord is calling His people all over the world to get out of their jewel encrusted, golden cages and fly.
Bless you brother as you find true freedom in Jesus.
Jane Garner
I have sent you and Jane a reply back to your hotmail email account. Drop me a note once received so I will know it made it all the way to faraway England! Sometimes hotmail identifies foreign emails as suspicious and send them to the SPAM folder. Have a good day!
How amazing that many precious saints of God are finding themselves in the centre of these paradigm shifts. It is not pleasant to make our way through any wilderness, but as my wife and I began the simple church journey the rabbits in Watership Down were a pattern, we know we could not go back but were unsure where we were going!
The Lord said He brought Israel out of Egypt as an eagle stirs its nest. I think we know that this mean some insecurity, pain, challenge and fears for the eaglets before they finally took to their wings. Flying is easy apparently, but learning to fly isn't!
Hi Peter
A month later your comment seems evenmore apt. I am challenging the church to let go of fundraising in order to learn how to trust the LORD. I will be preaching on the Exodus experience in the Autumn.
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