Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs interview

Some interesting stuff...

We have been raised with the idea that much of our life and our responsibilities as Christians are reflected in the weekly church service. It is how we think as Christians in Western cultures where 'going to church' has been an essential part of being a Western citizen. Our context has changed, Christendom is crumbling, but the shift to missional living is a huge shift for Western Christians. It might take the Western church fifty to a hundred years to make the shift, and many won't make the journey. In contrast, those Christians outside the west, who have never lived within 'Christendom', do not think of the church service as the connecting point. They have no illusions that those they are serving would be remotely interested in a church service. Instead, they embody the gospel through serving, both in deeds and words.

..the only thing I would say is that I'm not sure how much terms like "the west" apply anymore in the same way... more and more I find people, particularly younger people, who've never lived within Christendom and others who actively reject the concept outright. I do agree that the it is a challenge for the Church in the UK... perhaps it is the challenge of coming to terms with the facts of post-Christendom itself, which necessitates a new/different missional paradigm... a new ecclesiastical paradigm... possibly even a new spiritual paradigm?

Technorati Tags: Culture: Church: Emerging Church: Mission

Comments

[blind beggar]

“We have been raised with the idea that much of our life and our responsibilities as Christians are reflected in the weekly church service.”

I humbly suggest that such “absolute” statements make good copy, but the reality is that for a large majority of Christians I’ve known over the past 40 years there is little veracity to it. Here in the Pacific Northwest part of the U.S., an active missional focus has always been what the journey is about – not attending a weekly church service. I’m not suggesting that others have had a different experience, it is the absoluteness of the statement that I object to. EM leaders need to learn not to project their own negative personal experiences on all fellow believers.

[Mark Berry]

Indeed Blind Beggar... I completely agree... we should always be aware of the danger of projection!

[Mark Berry]

but... my experience (of many churches) in the UK, is that though Churches may talk about Mission, what they 'mean' is Evangelism through Missions, not Mission in the wholistic and continuous sense, for reasons of recruitment to "church" i.e. the Sunday service. It seems to me that Cell Church has largely "failed" to take hold because Churches find it very hard to see beyond the corporate meeting/service. The 'problem' is probably equal parts affiliative community, maintenance agenda and ecclesial soteriology.

[blind beggar]

Mark: I agree completely with your comment about what is often meant by "Mission." I can't speak for the UK, but there are certainly many Christians here is the US who view themselves as "missional" simply because they financially support the missions program of the church or denomination.

Missional must be, as you stated so well, "holistic and continuous." It requires that the average Christian get off there backside and, as Ryan Bolger says, “be active, ...be a producer in the faith community, to share the burden, [these] are the birth pangs in the formation of a missional community.”