mvm issue 9 - dec 2009

© COPYRIGHT FORGE CANADA

ISSUE 9

RENOV8 OUR NEIGHBOURHOODS Cam Roxburgh A PEOPLE APART Len Hjalmarson

INTERVIEW Post-Congress – Stuart Murray REVIEW Movements that Change the World

RESOURCES The Tangible Kingdom


There has been a shift from a saturation church planting movement towards helping leaders, churches and denominations grow in their understanding of planting missional churches.

CAM ROXBURGH For two years, the Church Planting Canada team has been working at hosting the bi-annual CPC Congress with the latest edition being in Calgary. This event went over very well and was used by the Lord to carry this most important conversation to the next level.

In 2003, the direction of church planting in Canada began to change. Much work had been done prior to this to create a movement of church planting in Canada. God had used this development of a church planting movement to bring unity to many denominations across the country. Since 2003 there has been a change from being a saturation church planting movement towards helping leaders, churches and denominations grow in their understanding of planting missional churches that reach neighbourhoods and are constantly multiplying. In 2003, Eddie Gibbs and Len Sweet helped begin this conversation about what it means to be missional. In 2005, Erwin McManus and Joyce Heron helped to take another step toward a missional approach. In 2007, Ed Stetzer and Alan Hirsch pushed the movement forward and this past month in Calgary, the list of speakers helped take some crucial steps. There seems to be more unity among the Church Planting movement now in Canada that at any time in the past.

Michael Frost both led off the conference and helped to draw it to a conclusion. His challenge and

motivation brought huge benefit to the event. Glenn Smith of Montreal see (www.direction.ca), did a masterful job of dealing with the issue of a Theology of Place that is so important in helping us understand the importance of neighbourhoods. Wagdi Iskander brought a powerful word from the Lord about the cost of ministry that drew a standing ovation, not just because of the impact, but because it was clear that God was present. Right in the middle of the congress, Stuart Murray-Williams and Juliet Kilpin from England, brought some of the most important missional teaching right in the heart of the Congress (see urbanexpression.org.uk). Stuart formally led a church planting movement in England before coming to the place of believing that a whole new approach was needed to reach those living in a post-Christendom society. Church Planting Canada is well on the way to helping churches and denominations learn what it means to be missional. The goal is to plant as many churches as possible that are aimed at transforming the place where they are planted. For more information on the congress, or for resources from the congress, please check out the store at www.forgecanada.ca, or www.churchplantingcanada.ca. From a Forge Canada perspective, we continue to support CPC and look forward to resourcing leaders, churches and denominations throughout Canada in the missional journey.


The word “cultivate” shares the same root as the word “culture.” It is an agrarian metaphor, from the Latin root cultivare. It means working with soil…

LEN HJALMARSON

ENTERING OUR NEIGHBOURHOODS Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

At the close of WWI William Butler Yeats

penned the famous lines of this poem, titled “The Second Coming.” He perceived that something essential had been lost; more than a loss of innocence: something in the hope and imagination of humankind, something that upheld meaning and nurtured human community. The world had encountered the demonic in a new way, and the result was a tearing apart and a loss of coherence.

How did we get to this place? What forces

have occasioned this loss of transcendence and coherence? Why do we live such fragmented, harried lives? How have we come to be dominated by a market culture? How did our churches become oriented more around programs than people? How did the Gospel itself become reduced to ideas, and formation reduced to a “changed worldview?” How did we lose a sense of gospel telos, and disengage from the life of the Spirit in mission?

Culture is a cultivating force; therefore every

culture is potentially subversive. Western culture has been a profound solvent of the Gospel. In response we are compelled toward the memory of a peculiar people, called to embody a “kingdom” culture with more than distinctive values -- distinctive practices.

What is culture? If we seek to engage culture,

what is it we hope to engage? If we seek to critique culture, what is it that we critique? Do we create culture, or does culture create us -- human community and identity? Should the church represent an alternative culture? The father of

modern mission thought so, and he offers us a clue in The Household of God:

It is surely a fact of inexhaustible significance that what our Lord left behind Him was not a book, nor a creed, nor a system of thought, nor a rule of life, but a visible community. He committed the entire work of salvation to that community. It was not that a community gathered round an idea, so that the idea was primary and the community secondary. It was that a community called together by the deliberate choice of the Lord Himself, and re-created in Him, gradually sought - and is seeking - to make explicit who He is and what He has done. The actual community is primary; the understanding of what it is comes second.1

When Jesus invited us to receive His love, He invited us into a covenant relationship. When God’s kingdom breaks into this world it encounters the false claims of other kingdoms, other lords. If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not. The rulers of this world try to squeeze us into their molds.2 We become what we worship. The word “cultivate” shares the same root as the word “culture.” It is an agrarian metaphor, from the Latin root cultivare.3 It means working with soil, caring for plants and animals and for the environment. We all exist in a particular soil, and

1 Lesslie Newbigin, The Household of God

(Bletchley: Paternoster Press, 2003) 51. 2 Romans 12:1,2 3 Terry Eagleton, The Idea of Culture (London:

Wiley-Blackwell, 2000)


“Consumer culture is one of the most powerful systems of formation in the contemporary world… Such a powerful system is not morally neutral..” William Cavanaugh

we grow in response to the environment. The application is this: culture is a cultivating process that forms people in a certain way. Culture is such a powerful force, because it involves in an inward gaze which may be transparent to the individual. Spanish philosopher Santayana writes, “We don’t know who discovered water, but we know it wasn’t fish.”4 Culture is present through symbols like language and images, but it is also a lens through which we view the world of objects, things, people and ideas: even culture itself. We create culture, and culture creates us. The complexity of this dialogical movement is well preserved in a statement attributed to Winston Churchill, “First we create our buildings, then our buildings create us.”

It is absolutely critical that we recognize that

culture is created and supported by practices – disciplines – that form us. William Cavanaugh writes that, “Consumer culture is one of the most powerful systems of formation in the contemporary world… Such a powerful system is not morally neutral; it trains us to see the world in certain ways.”5 It does this primarily by offering a particular definition of humankind and our telos: our final destination. It tells us who we are, why we are here, and it defines the good life. Then it seeks to manufacture consent by a host of visible and invisible means, both social pressures and

4 Attributed to George Santayana 5 William Cavanaugh, Being Consumed:

Economics and Christian Desire, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2008) 11.

social practices.6 Because many of these shaping, or disciplining, mechanisms are symbolic, they tend to be transparent to us. James K. A. Smith writes,

By using representation, images, and other strategies – all of which communicate truth in ways that are not cognitive or propositional – marketing forms us into the kind of persons who want to buy beer to have meaningful relationships, or buy a car to be respected, or buy the latest thing .. simply to satisfy the desire that has been formed in us .. these disciplinary mechanisms transmit values and truth claims .. covertly. They .. form the body, as it were.7

Smith closes this thought with reference to

embodiment. This pushes us back to the very basis of life in the world: spirit that is enfleshed. This incarnational reality pushes us back to the importance of context, and the importance of concrete practices. William Cavanaugh writes,

Attraction to the Christian life occurs when one can see a concrete community of people living out salvation, living reconciled and hopeful lives in the midst of a violent world. Rarely are people converted by well-argued theories. People are usually converted to a new way of living by getting to know people who live that way and thus being able to see themselves living that way too. This is the way God’s revolution works. The church is meant to be that community of people who make salvation visible for the rest of the world. Salvation is not a property of isolated individuals, but is only made visible in mutual love.8 In every context where the good news of

God’s kingdom takes root there are two processes

6 Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomski and

the Media. Mark Achbar, Ed. (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1994)

7 James K.A. Smith, Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006) 105.

8 William Cavanaugh. “The Church as God’s Body Language,” Zadok Perspectives (Spring 2006) 150.


True desire can be distinguished from false desire by its end, so good disciplinary practices are distinguished from bad practices by their goal.” James K.A. Smith

which compete to form us. The good news is about healing, shalom, justice, wholeness, community and love. The other gospel forms a different soil: a culture of violence, consumption, competition and fragmentation. This other gospel says that western culture (or its ends: money, power, or pleasure) will bring happiness, peace and prosperity. The rulers of this world want to form us into good citizens who don’t question the status quo, don’t care for the poor, and who literally “buy in” to the program. They want us to think and act as individuals, with only our self-interest at heart.9 One writer calls this the economics of affluence and the politics of oppression.10 The only way we can preserve our consumptive lifestyles, in a world where 20% of the population consume 80% of the available resources, is by maintaining huge armed forces and continuing to rape the world, transferring wealth from the developing world to the West.11

If culture forms both true desires and false

desires, how do we tell the difference between them? In Being Consumed William Cavanaugh works out of Augustine to discuss both telos and the freedom of the will. He argues that freedom depends not on the autonomy of the will, but the direction in which the will is moved. He references Augustine’s anti-Pelagian treatise, The Letter and the Spirit, where he asks, “How, if they are slaves of sin, can they boast freedom of choice?” Freedom is something received as a gift of grace and in Augustine’s view, others are crucial to one’s

9 Ever since the fall, self-interest and self-

protection characterize our relationships. William Cavanaugh argues that fragmentation is a primary result of the fall, and new creation restores community. Ibid., 150.

10 Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2001) 28ff.

11 Vinoth Ramachandra writes, ““Despite all the rhetoric about market efficiency and foreign aid, the net financial flows in the world economy are not from the rich to the poor but from the poor to the rich. Debt repayments, tariffs on exports and falling prices of agricultural goods caused by rich nations’ farm subsidies mean that the low-income nations transfer to the rich nations around $30-50 billion a year more than what they receive in so-called aid. Did you know that the lifestyles of the rich are being subsidized by the world’s poor?” In “Christian Witness in an Age of Globalization.” Leonard Buck Memorial Lecture, BCV, Melbourne, 10 May 2006

freedom. Cavanaugh writes that, “Others from outside the self – the ultimate Other being God – are necessary to break through the bonds that enclose the self in itself. Humans need a community of virtue in which to learn to desire rightly.”12

This “community of virtue,” with its own

specific practices or disciplines, has existed since God formed a nation called Israel and set them apart for His own purposes. Those purposes revolved around two vocations: to know Him, and to make Him known.

Just as true desire can be distinguished from false desire by its end, so good disciplinary practices are distinguished from bad practices by their goal, or end. James K.A. Smith, discussing the relationship of power and knowledge in the work of Michel Foucault, affirms that there are good disciplinary mechanisms. “Discipline and formation are good insofar as they are directed toward the end, or telos, that is proper to human beings: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”13 Smith affirms that we must enact counter-disciplines to form us into the (renewed) image bearers of Christ. “Conceiving of the church as a disciplinary society aimed at forming human beings to reflect the image of Christ, we will offer an alternative society to the hollow formations of late-modern culture.”14

Early in the 20th century Simone Weil wrote, “culture is that which forms attention.” To what should followers of Jesus be attentive? First, to the voice of their Master. In Micah 6:8 we read,

12 Cavanaugh, Being Consumed, 9. 13 Smith, 102 14 Ibid., 107


The monastic movement at its best, represented by people like Bernard or Francis or Benedict, or further west by people like Hildegard, Patrick or Columba, was never about contemplation divorced from life in this world, but as rooting and enabling life in this world.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God? Second, we must be attentive to the culture in

which we are rooted, because it is in our own location and context that we must witness to the truth of a different kingdom and a different Lord. We need this double attention so that we can engage our culture with the Person of Jesus and the good news of redemption in a way that those around us can both see and hear the good news.

But how do we shape this kind of attention? We shape it by forming an alternative culture. If culture is both the symbols and practices of daily living, then we must commit to counter-disciplinary symbols and practices that form an alternative, kingdom culture, where Jesus is Lord.15 Toward a Romantic Theology – Continuing Conversion You’ve heard of “theopoetics,” but “romantic theology…?” Isn’t that just a baptism of the worst forms of sentimentalism? Or worse, another take on the “Jesus is my boyfriend” sentiment that many of us have had to endure? But maybe we simply haven’t reached far enough back. Reading the work of Bernard of Clairvaux or William of St. Thierry, one is dipping in a different stream — one that is both deep and wide. Moreover, the monastic movement at its best, represented by people like Bernard or Francis or Benedict, or further west by people like Hildegard, Patrick or Columba, was never about contemplation divorced from life in this world, but as rooting and enabling life in this world. The love of learning and the desire for God converted men and women body and soul so that all other loves were relativized; or more precisely, all other loves were embraced for and through Christ and His passion.

15 The classical disciplines of prayer, fasting,

study, and hospitality are a good place to start. The work of Dallas Willard or Richard Foster document some of the needed practices as well as a theological framework.

These were some thoughts this morning in an attempt to pull together some threads from the week before. Last week I picked up a novel that has sat on my shelf nearly thirty years - Charles Williams “Shadows of Ecstasy.” A day or two later a copy of Smith, Desiring the Kingdom, arrived. As I browsed through the volume I came across Smith’s argument that the erotic is precisely the lever we must reconsider in spiritual formation, so carefully employed by Hollywood and Madison Avenue. With our incipient dualism we have neglected this area and left the door wide open for more secular aims. Smith notes the romantic theology of Charles Williams. Then on Sunday evening we listened to Steve Bell in concert, telling the stories of his own growing passion for Christ and his kingdom, rooted in people like Francis and in the great liturgical and devotional traditions. Steve performed a number of his oldest compositions, including “Why Do We Hunger for

Beauty?” During the concert it struck me just how hungry for God “churched” people are: we are fed so much, but our hearts seem so dry. We dwell in the world of ideas, where the real is shadowed but not present. Appeals to the mind abound.. but appeals to the soul, and our ability to live in that place, seem tenuous at best. We rightly recognize and are attracted to the beauty we see around us, but it too often becomes an end in itself rather than a path to something enduring. But what if beauty -- and love -- are ikons of the true? I say “ikons” rather than shadows, because shadow implies some lack of reality or something less than good. But beauty and love are not merely shadows or less than good, they are only less than God.


We end with theopoetics, because after all there is no way to use mere words to describe the transformative power of love, any more than mere words can describe the lover’s experience of the beloved.

And while leaders bemoan the lack of discipleship evident among us, how many of us are deeply converted — converted and passionate in mind, body and soul? I am convinced that some of the greatest preachers of the last century had it right — Martyn Lloyd-Jones, AW Tozer, Oswald Chambers and others — without a vision of the surpassing beauty and glory of Christ, without that inner gaze constantly renewed by the Spirit, we are seduced by the things of this world — money, sex and power. Until we become lovers we are unconverted. Eros must order agape. This is Smith’s argument, and I think he is right. So we end with theopoetics, because after all there is no way to use mere words to describe the transformative power of love, any more than mere words can describe the lover’s experience of the beloved. So we use word-pictures and rhyme and music, because poetry and music help words take flight, and the experience of love is both rooted and wild and words need wings to approximate it. We end up in the Song of Songs, or in the poetry of St. John of the Cross, or in a modern version of it as offered by Steve Bell (”Burning Ember“) or Bruce Cockburn,

I’ve been cut by the beauty of jagged mountains, And cut by the love that flows like a fountain from God.. And I carry the scars, precious and rare..

Or as John of the Cross sings,

Your eyes in mine aglow Printed their living image in my own… Only look this way now

as once before: your gaze leaves me with lovelier features where it plays.

We become what we worship. This is axiomatic in Christian circles. But perhaps it would be better stated, “We are what we worship.” No, that isn’t quite right. Smith hits it when he says, “We become what we love.” Because “worship” in our Christian culture connotes bending the knee, or attending a meeting, but not always action in the world, and not always intimate connection. No, Smith has it right, but let me change the word to one that connotes worship but is less corrupt: we become what we adore..

I am my beloveds, And he is mine. He feeds his flock among the lilies.. Song of Solomon 6:3


REVIEW

Movements that Change the World Steve Addison

The Forgotten Ways surveyed church history, systems theory, and the practices of adaptive leadership in the context of recovering a missional ecclesiology and missional practice. Movements That Change the World eschews the systems

perspective for a social-historical survey of missional movements that have changed their world. It also incorporates some organizational theory, in particular the adaptive leadership perspective.

Addison is working at integration of theory and practice and does an admirable job. Overall his work is both inspiring and convicting: we in the west are in deep trouble and the maps we used in the recent past do not show us the way forward. Will we relearn dependence on the Holy Spirit in this liminal place?

Steve is intent on driving home his message: our task is to make disciples and to transform our world. And that is done primarily by means of living, vibrant and dedicated individuals who are part of dynamic movements. While Steve comes close to denigrating theological education, he never quite tips over that edge, but instead simply points to the data: an educated and professional clergy has always limited the expansion of the church. Dynamic movements, Hirsch or Roxburgh would remind us, always surf the edge of chaos. The balance between design and emergence, Word and Spirit, is not achieved in classrooms but by risky adventurers who are out there on the edge following the cloud.

Steve describes five common features of vibrant moves of God, and these also comprise the five chapters of the book: a white hot faith; commitment to a cause; contagious relationships; rapid mobilization; and adaptive methods. In contrast to modern trust in technology, reason and sociology, it is not money, great plans and strategies, large numbers, or academic qualifications that will ensure the spread of the gospel and the transformation of the places we live. Rather it is radical dependence on the Spirit, radical commitment to Jesus and a passion for his kingdom that will produce expansion.

Steve notes numerous individuals and groups which exemplified these traits. These include the Moravians under Zinzendorf, St Patrick, Floyd McClung and the Dilaram House movement, Wesley and the Methodists, William Carey, Tim Keller, Ralph Moore, persecuted but thriving believers in Communist China, and many others.

I was struck again by the parallel between LTGs, Zinzendorf’s bands, and the triads being employed by groups like Life on the Vine. FORGE Canada will also use triads to anchor discipleship and formation on mission. There is no better way to grow people than putting them face to face.

The last third of the book engaged me the most. It consists of two sections: Rapid Mobilization and Adaptive Methods. Steve opens with a quote from a contractor who is less interested in the buildings than in building builders. This kind of vision and passion is the sort that forms dynamic movements.

Steve relates a conversation with Des Nixon, who added an extension on his home. “I don’t build buildings, Steve.. I build builders.” Des has a kingdom vision and a plan to multiply himself. Steve follows this conversation with a look at the Methodist circuit riders and the explosive growth of the movement in the United States up to 1850. Then he summarizes some of the work of Roland Allen in The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church (a primary missions document and if you haven’t read it, find it).


In times of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned find themselves well equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.

Roland Allen describes seven ways to inhibit growth and expansion.

1. when paid foreign professionals are primarily responsible to spread the gospel, causing the gospel to be seen as a foreign intrusion 2. when the church is dependent on foreign funds and leadership. “How can a man propagate a religion which he cannot support and which he cannot expect those whom he addresses to support?” 3. when the spread of the gospel is controlled out of fear of error, and both error and godly zeal are suppressed 4.when it is believed that the church is to be founded , educated, equipped, and established in the doctrine, ethics and organization before it is to expand 5. when emerging leaders are restricted from ministering until they are fully trained and so learn the lesson of inactivity and dependency 6. when conversion is seen as the result of clever argument rather than the power of Christ 7. when professional clergy control the ministry and discourage the spontaneous zeal of non-professionals. They may protect the new believers from charlatans (Acts 8:9-24) but they also block unconventional leaders like Peter the fisherman.

This section closes with a look at Ralph Moore and the Hope Chapel movement. I love this, “we’re not smart, we’re relentless.” I was also caught by the simple little formula employed in the mini churches of Hope Chapel while reviewing bible material, echoing the Great Commandment:

What did you learn (head) What did God say to you (heart) What will you do (hands)

The final section, Adaptive Methods, opens with this great quote from Eric Hoffer (I had previously attributed to Al Rogers, so who knows?)

In times of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned find themselves well equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.

Why are adaptive methods so important? Steve writes,

“A key to the success of Pentecostalism has been its ability to bring together super-naturalism and pragmatism in a curiously compatible marriage. The intense religious experiences that vie rise to new movements would remain fleeting unless they are embodied in some form of human organization. This presents every new movement with a dilemma – how to give the “charismatic moment” expression in social forms without extinguishing it.” (107)

This is the problem addressed in part by Howard Synder in The Problem of Wineskins, and later by Charles Hummel in Fire in the Fireplace. It is the ongoing tension between design and emergence, Word and Spirit. Steve points out that sustaining a dynamic movement requires that we live in the tension between passion and discipline. A little later he notes that the decline of movements is often due to the “failure of success.” It simply becomes too costly – too risky – for some organizations to adapt. There is too much to protect – position, rank, authority, etc.

On page 112 Steve offers a helpful chart that contrasts Unsustainable Church Planting Strategies with Sustainable ones. The first three are these:

• Fully fund every church planter • Require seminary training for every church

planter • Provide a coach for every church planter

Steve closes the chapter with a note on the Adaptive Methods of Jesus.


In the conclusion (121ff) Steve relates a meeting with Oscar Muriu, pastor of the Nairobi Chapel in Kenya. This man was so successful at raising up and equipping new leaders that he faced a problem: his church of four thousand was filled with leaders. He knew that they would become bored and frustrated unless something happened, so he divided his church of four thousand into five churches, and sent many of the best interns out as church planters. He sent experienced elders, most of them in their thirties, to support the church planters. This was the birth of a church planting movement that now has more than 25 congregations eight years later. Steve asked Oscar how he figured this out. Oscar’s reply: “You don’t have to be clever. I just copy. I look at Scripture and ask, ‘What did Jesus do?’” Then he made a statement that Steve won’t forget: “Steve, I don’t plant churches. I grow sons.” And some of his best “sons” are daughters – about half his interns are women.

INTERVIEW Post-Congress Interview with Stuart Murray

Len: Thanks for taking some time to interact with us. One of the questions that came up in an evening conversation was in reference to assumptions we make about parallels in Canadian and UK culture, as well as trajectories with reference to post-

modernity and post-Christendom. Having spent some time with leaders from across Canada, are your convictions on similarities confirmed or altered? If so, in what ways?

My recent visit to Canada confirmed impressions from previous visits that Canada is on the same trajectory as the UK in relation to the demise of Christendom and the challenges and opportunities this presents, but that this process is not yet as far advanced. Canada seems to me to be between the US and UK scenes, although markedly closer to the UK experience. Church participation is still significantly higher in Canada than in the UK, but this is diminishing. In some parts of Canada the loss of church members has occurred at a much faster rate than in the UK, making the experience more traumatic. There seems to be a more thoroughgoing secularity in the UK than currently in Canada, but this may be only a matter of time-lag rather than indicating a different trajectory. One factor that might make a difference is the pattern of future immigration. Some commentators point to this factor as one of the main reasons why the US may not be on the same trajectory as Europe, with indigenous churches swelled by immigrants with a Christian heritage. In the UK, not only has immigration reduced dramatically, but many recent immigrants are from other religious backgrounds. Perhaps the number and background of immigrants to Canada over the coming years will be a significant factor in determining whether Canada more resembles the UK or US scene. Len: Along similar lines, what seem to you to be the pressing questions Canadian leaders are asking? In Canada I encounter an issue that is familiar from my visits to Australia – a history of reliance on US models and methods and a growing suspicion that these do not translate very well into the Canadian (or Australian) context. A British voice is welcomed into the discussion as an opportunity of hearing a different perspective. Canadian Christians will soon be facing the challenge British Christians are already facing – developing mission strategies to engage with the burgeoning ‘never-churched’ rather than the diminishing constituency of the ‘de-churched’. This will likely spark a debate between the leaders of large, successful, modernistic churches that continue to flourish but engage only with a relatively small (and decreasing) sector of the population and pioneers of emerging and missional communities that presently look far less impressive and are as yet unproven, but which


More recent research suggests that the ‘new age’ is ageing and that teenagers are nothing like as interested in spirituality as those now in their twenties and thirties.

might have the capacity to connect with the post-modern, post-Christendom society that Canada is becoming. Len: It was evident that for both you and Juliet the Anabaptist legacy has its own twist on diagnosis and treatment with regard to cultural shift and a faithful response. What does Anabaptism bring to the table in this new space we are in? In what ways is Anabaptism a powerful resource for us in post-Christendom? Several people have suggested (using language derived from the book of Esther) that the Anabaptist tradition is suited for ‘such a time as this’. As Christendom disintegrates and the mainline traditions that operated within a Christendom framework struggle to adjust to the new context, a tradition that for nearly five centuries has regarded Christendom as a distortion and has explored alternative ways of thinking about discipleship, church and mission may have some helpful contributions. Increasing numbers of Christians in the UK from many denominations are appropriating the Anabaptist tradition, learning from its practices and exploring the implications of its core convictions. Something similar is happening elsewhere in nations with no historic Anabaptist heritage (including Korea, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia). Most observers acknowledge that the Christendom era is coming to an end; the Anabaptist tradition offers a sustained theological critique of imperial Christianity that lays a foundation for developing a post-Christendom missiology and ecclesiology. What does Anabaptism bring to the table? A Christocentric approach that takes seriously the life and teaching of Jesus that was marginalised or domesticated in the Christendom era; an emphasis on whole-life discipleship; a communitarian approach to hermeneutics, corporate worship and pastoral care, including accountability and conflict-transformation processes; and a commitment to non-violence and active peacemaking. Len: You have been a careful observer of culture and the churches in the UK for many years now. Looking back, what changes have occurred that you

did not anticipate? What ecclesial responses to cultural shift could have been better thought out? There is ongoing debate in the UK about whether secularity or alternative spiritualities will characterise post-Christendom culture. Until the late 1980s many of us anticipated that secularity would be the dominant reality, but during the past twenty years mission strategies have often been predicated on the assumption that secularisation was under threat from the arrival and growth of other religious communities and an upsurge of interest in ‘new age’ or alternative forms of spirituality.

More recent research suggests that the ‘new age’ is ageing and that teenagers are nothing like as interested in spirituality as those now in their twenties and thirties. I am concerned that we are still prone to over-simplify a diverse, complex and changing culture and to develop missional strategies that are insufficiently attuned to different sectors of the community. I think most of us at first under-estimated the growth of mono-ethnic congregations and more recently have over-estimated their capacity to engage in mission across cultural boundaries. Len: How are UK churches faring in raising up and equipping the next generation of leaders? What is the greatest challenge you face in that task? Another legacy of the Christendom era is the preponderance of pastors and teachers in all aspects of church life and the continuing marginalisation of those with pioneering gifts – evangelists, prophets and apostles. We need to recognise such ministries,


One of the fears often expressed about pioneering initiatives and emerging churches is that they might become heretical. In my experience, this is rare – and heresy is by no means confined to marginal groups in the history of the church.

provide proper training processes for them, develop effective support and accountability structures, and enable them to flourish at local, regional and translocal levels of church life. Perhaps the greatest challenge we face is raising up indigenous leaders in urban communities. Len: How are UK churches faring in planting new churches? How many of these new communities are operating in a truly missional frame? During the 1990s, most denominations embraced church planting as a legitimate, even normal, aspect of their mission. Many hundreds of new churches were planted. But there were significant deficiencies in these developments – inadequate training and leadership, planting too quickly without adequate research or preparation; lack of strategy in relation to where churches were planted; and a tendency to replicate known models rather than creating new churches suited to their context and a changing culture.

Consequently, there was a significant reduction of church planting activity in the second half of that decade. Since 2000, there has been a resurgence of church planting, although the preferred terms are ‘emerging church’ and ‘fresh expressions of church’. Many of these initiatives have been more flexible and creative, more culturally and contextually sensitive. But most are fragile and as yet unproven. Some are operating in a missional framework; others seem to be more energised by ecclesial concerns. Len: Somewhere Sally Morgenthaler wrote that, "Groups that are too much alike find it harder to

keep learning because each member is bringing less and less to the table." In these transitional times we desperately need something like a wider hermeneutical community in order to increase our learning. The Internet and social networking have empowered some of this. In what ways have you developed a wider hermeneutical community in the UK? How do you see this issue in terms of the missional challenge? One of the positive features of the church planting movement in the 1990s was its trans-denominational nature (although it was overwhelmingly evangelical). Conversations, consultations and partnerships across denominational divides have been helpful in teasing out essentials from non-essentials. I have personally worked with more than 25 different denominations in the past few years and this cross-fertilising has been instructive. The Internet-driven ‘emerging church conversation’ is a good example of the kind of wider hermeneutical community you suggest. Another is the Share website developed by the Fresh Expressions initiative – an online and interactive knowledge bank which grows as users contribute their own experiences. And the network of teams and associates linked together through Urban Expression (www.urbanexpression.org.uk) is another example. These relational and organic forms of mutual learning seem to me to fit much better into our missional framework than the older approach of books and manuals. Len: Similarly, the church is in need of "local theologians." Is this one of the tasks you have set for yourself in Urban Expression? What kinds of efforts are going into theological work in the UK? How critical do you see this piece relative to a faithful response to the changes around us? Urban Expression has chosen not to operate with a statement of faith or summary of our theological convictions, but with a set of core values. These values are, of course, imbued with theology but values operate differently from propositional statements. We have found them to be liberating and encouraging of creativity, as well as providing a strong centre around which we can gather and a yardstick to evaluate what we do. Theological reflection on issues that emerge from the various


contexts in which our teams operate is one of the core practices our values advocate. One of the fears often expressed about pioneering initiatives and emerging churches is that they might become heretical. In my experience, this is rare – and heresy is by no means confined to marginal groups in the history of the church. Actually, I would like to see more theological creativity, not less, among church planters and missional leaders. We can, I believe, remain faithful to the gospel handed down through the generations and at the same time ask searching questions about ways in which our understanding of this gospel has been distorted or truncated by previous cultural shifts. For example, during the Christendom era the gospel was primarily understood in relation to guilt, retribution and satisfaction. While these elements are undoubtedly present in the New Testament, so are many other issues, motifs and themes, some of which might be contextually helpful today and might help us recover a more full-orbed understanding of the gospel. We need to beware confusing theological perspectives that have only 500 or 1500 years of history behind them and were developed in a particular cultural context with biblical principles that can be expressed in various ways in diverse cultures. Notes: In an article in Christianity Today in September (“The Gospel for iGens”) Scot McKnight writes,

“My own experiences teaching iGens, listening to iGens, and reading the papers and journals of iGens have confirmed that most iGens reside behind a carapace of protection nothing short of a castle wall. Older models of evangelism aimed at leading humans to a reception of God's grace in Christ by making them aware of their profound and utter sinfulness—indeed, that they were themselves sinners by nature. But a different model might be in order to "reach" iGens. This generation may need to be wooed to the castle door, the way Paul wooed the Athenians on the Areopagus, before they will hear the gospel.

“If we begin with an assault on a human's worth, Mr. Rogers' gospel of self-acceptance will come to their rescue. If we begin by claiming that all humans are depraved, Sesame Street's gospel of universal acceptance will make its defense. If we question the self's disposition, we will find that the gospel of self-esteem has created a bunker deep enough and a wall thick enough that deflection and absorption are instinctive responses. It might work to reach some iGens, but not most.

“When I saw the title of Alan Mann's book, Atonement for a Sinless Society, I knew he was onto something. The intent of evangelism that focuses on preaching the law and God's holiness, wrapping those two elements into a vision of God's wrath and hell, is to stimulate a cry for salvation out of a sense of guilt over who we are and what we have done. This model still works for some. But it may not be the wisest model for iGens.

“One of the most insightful elements of Mann's book is whether iGens feel guilt. For a person to feel guilty, that person must have a sense of morality. But morality requires a potent sense of what is right and wrong, and it needs a powerful sense of what is true and false. Contemporary culture does not provide the average iGen with a profound grasp of what is right and wrong apart from the conviction that assaulting the self is clearly wrong.

“Yet deciding to stake one's life on Jesus and the cross requires a sense that we are wrong, that we need Jesus, and that his saving death and resurrection can become effective. Mann claims that iGens are neither moral nor amoral. Instead, because of trends like the self-esteem movement and the impact of relativism, he concludes that iGens are pre-moral. Mann suggests that they do not feel guilt as much as they feel shame for not achieving what they are designed to accomplish

“Jesus is the place to begin with iGens. In fact, we can make this more precise: Jesus as lived out by a credible witness or through a community that makes Jesus real. This is not Jesus as revealed by institutional religion or churches, but Jesus seen in the lives of genuine compassion and commitment to something that transcends the superficiality of modern and postmodern culture.”


The Tangible Kingdom At the Congress in Calgary on Wednesday morning Cam Roxburgh and Hugh Halter hosted a workshop together on The Tangible Kingdom (TTK). It was a good discussion.

At one point Hugh referenced some material from TTK to illustrate a point. Translating from a missional framework, he said we must move from people to programs, from function toward structure. In the attractional, programmatic church we usually move in

the opposite direction. So, from Hugh’s perspective, it works like this: Engage Culture Form Community Form Structure In the attractional church, we do it like this: Form Structure Import People Colonize Culture In the attractional church we don’t really engage culture, instead we gaze outward on it from a position of safety and make small forays into it, usually botching it up because we have reversed the steps and never really listened. Failing to exegete the culture we instead attempt to colonize it. We come not with humility, but from a position of power, the opposite of incarnational (Phil 2). Henri Nouwen describes how listening is a form of deep hospitality:

To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept. Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that, those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.

mvm issue 9 - dec 2009

Documents

movement of church planting

church planting canada

direction of church

forge canada perspective

copyright forge canada

missional approach

missional journey

biannual cpc congress