The Emerging Church in its own words 5
This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series: ‘Emerging Churches’ (Gibbs & Bolger)
Chapter 6 of Gibbs’ and Bolger’s book, Emerging Church: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures, is entitled, ‘Welcoming the Stranger’.
Here are some extracts.
I’m more convinced than ever that we don’t have a clue about Christianity. I’m not an orthodox Christian anymore; I’m not Protestant. The kinds of questions we are asking are very different from the questions asked at other times. Is Christianity necessary? Whose religion is it anyway? What does it mean for us to incarnate Christ, to live redemptively in a materialistic world? (Dwight Friesen)
The inclusive practices of Jesus
The end of exile meant that the kingdom was for all who would come. Jesus fed the hungry, included the outcast, announced forgiveness to the sinner, healed the leper, declared the unclean “clean”, and gave good news to the poor. While remaining in the culture in virtually all ways, he broke every regulation that presented an obstacle to the kingdom. (Gibbs & Bolger)
Modernity excludes, postmodernity includes
Risking oversimplification, modernity is evidenced in those areas in culture and society where control, homogeneity, and universals reign, whereas the areas that express freedom, difference, and plurality are postmodern. (Gibbs & Bolger)
Giving the Eucharist a central place
Many emerging churches place a great emphasis on the Eucharist as a central act of worship. Others celebrate the Lord’s Supper in the context of an actual meal, which was the practice of the early church. The ethos of the service is one of hospitality, and all are invited to the table. At times, the eucharistic celebration takes place in a home or cafe setting. This enables a group to demonstrate hospitality in a culturally appropriate manner. (Gibbs & Bolger)
A safe space
The worship space has to be safe for the vulnerable and not a place where people are ostracised for their gender, race, doubts, disabilities, depression, or orientation. (Sue Wallace)
We have picked up broken people along the way. We have an inclusive feel to everything we do. We attract those who can’t handle normal church. (Dave Sutton)
Devoted to Christ
Although they are inclusive with all who come, emerging churches are exclusive in their devotion to Christ. (Gibbs & Bolger)
We are very Christocentric, which means that while we recognise God’s presence in other religions and in people of no faith, we still see Jesus as the most perfect revelation of God and therefore the surest route to God. (Simon Hall)
We preach that God acted uniquely in Jesus to redeem the world and that we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. We acknowledge that trying to figure out what that means, especially in relation to our activity in the world, is a little bit of a wild ride. We are definitely not out on the streets trying to get people to accept Jesus into their hearts so that they can be saved from hell. We are hoping and praying that we will be able to live and act in the world in a way that witnesses to God’s mercy in the world and by so doing point to Jesus. (Debbie Blue)
From arrogance to humility
Standing up for the truth or fighting the culture wars has no appeal to emerging church leaders. (Gibbs & Bolger)
We are not very oriented toward apologetics…We’re highly aware of our need for God to speak to us and disorient us from our ways, confound us, smash our idols (all the images of God we create and believe in), and we don’t feel very suited to the task of defending God. We are comfortable with having a lot of unanswered questions. We think maybe that’s what it’s like being in relationship with a living Being. We think it’s more honest than providing a lot of answers, abstract notions of truth. (Debbie Blue)
From verbal apologetics to embodied apologetics
Traditional apologetics offer a reductionist approach to God, ignoring Christian’s spiritual and communal way of living in favour of a cognitive approach to truth. (Gibbs & Bolger)
In a world that is increasingly spiritual and less secular, our apologetics has more to do with helping people discover the truth that is near them. Our biggest critics and persecutors tend to be the Pharisees and religious rulers. (Andrew Jones)
We are not evidentiary apologists and don’t feel we can reduce the Christian faith to an irreducible point of certainty and build up from there. To borrow a phrase, “community is our apologetic”. (Brad Cecil)
With recent epistemological shifts and cultural change, we find it easier to look for patterns…These indicate where the Holy Spirit could be at work in the lives of people and interpreting that for them. Generally, this happens relationally over pizza in our homes, the local pub, or wherever. Apologetics for us…has moved from atomised abstract presuppositions to narrative-based apologetics of building plausibility structures using narrative and in particular the biblical narrative. (Si Johnston)
Questioning evangelism
Much of my church is into incarnational living, but they are concerned about seeing people as objects and marketing God. Can I have an agenda with someone and sill be genuine? Can I be truly loving when I want to convert someone? Can we love people and let the Holy Spirit do the converting? (Rachelle Mee-Chapman)
The concept of friendship evangelism has always been something we have struggled with, as this is hardly unconditional love! We feel the call to serve the community and to be a presence for good, and our prayer is that along the way we will see people find faith. (Chris Matthews)
From salesperson to servants
Jesus did not push for a decision in order to promote a hidden agenda. He expressed the welcome of the kingdom and embodied the end of exile and the forgiveness of sins. Christians should strive for nothing less in their communities. (Gibbs & Bolger)
From changing beliefs to changing lives
Emerging churches focus on changed lives rather than changed beliefs. (Gibbs & Bolger)
(Doug) Pagitt believes that the old view perpetuated the idea that changed ideas (conversion) lead to changed behaviour. Pagitt believes, however, that a changed life (conversion) leads to changed beliefs. “We are much more involved in inviting them to live differently than to believe differently.”
From speaking about grace to grace speaking through love
For emerging churches, evangelism takes the form of presence rather than proclamation. (Gibbs & Bolger)
We don’t like rigid barriers between the ins and outs. We will welcome everyone equally. We believe faith is a pilgrimage that we are all on. (Sue Wallace)
From privatised faith to public faith
My own vision is simply to put the people of God out there in the marketplace and hope that we live a life that attracts people to God. (Simon Hall)
Evangelism for me is no longer about persuading people to believe what I believe…It is more about shared experiences and encounters. It is about walking the journey of life and faith together, each distinct to his or her own tradition and culture but with the possibility of encountering God and truth from one another. (Pip Piper)
From evangelising to being evangelised
Christians cannot truly evangelise unless they are prepared to be evangelised in the process. In sharing the good news, people are enriched by the spiritual insights, honest questions, and depth of devotion demonstrated by those of other faiths. Including others involves listening to them and, in so doing, learning from them. Much of what exists in other faiths may not necessarily be hostile to the kingdom. Christians can learn much from other walks of life. (Gibbs & Bolger)
We deemphasise the idea that Christians have God all others don’t by attempting to engage in open two-way conversations. This does not mean we have lapsed into relativism, as we still believe in the uniqueness of our own tradition, but we believe that it teaches us to be open to all. We are also genuinely open to being wrong about parts and perhaps all our beliefs – while at the same time being fully committed to them. (Pete Rollins)
God brought me to San Francisco because I needed to learn the ways God’s Spirit moves apart from Christians. God has used other religions and other persuasions to draw me to him. God works in these religions in mysterious ways. (Dieter Zander)
One week, we pulled quotes from Christian, Hindu, and Muslim mystics, and we engaged in conversation. What does it mean to be a spiritual person from that tradition? We learned that the teachings are similar on a mystical level. How these traditions approach mystery is very similar. It shocked some of us. (Dwight Francis)
(Spencer) Burke’s community is prepared to learn from faith traditions outside the Christian fold. There is a Buddhist family in their church. As a community, the church visited a Buddhist temple. They participated in a guided meditation with this family. Burke celebrates the many ways God is revealed. He recognises that the Spirit has been with these people all along. The community celebrates other traditions. They reach out to other traditions, and they see them as beloved children of God. (Gibbs & Bolger)
The underlying values that determine their relationships with sincere adherents of other faiths are respect, humility, and inclusivity. (Gibbs & Bolger)
Conclusion
Modernity teaches its inhabitants to exclude and to conform. Members of emerging churches, however, display the hospitality of Jesus and include and welcome others into their midst who are different from them. Emerging churches hold to Christian orthodoxy, affirming the uniqueness of Christ. This understanding, however, rather than being a reason to exclude, empowers them to include those of other faiths, cultures, and traditions. Because of their confidence in Jesus, members of emerging churches venture out and truly listen to those of other faiths and even seek to be evangelised by them. They no longer feel that they need to argue for the faith. Instead, they believe their lives speak much louder than their words. They do not believe in evangelistic strategies, other than the pursuit to be like Jesus in his interactions with others. They do not target people or have an agenda but rather seek to love all those whom God brings to them. They do not hope for a belief change for their conversation partners as much as a life change. Because of their high level of engagement with other cultures, the sacred/secular split is overcome as they practice the kingdom in their midst, in community. (Gibbs & Bolger)
Comment
Welcome the stranger. Respect people of other faiths and none. Don’t shove religion down people’s throats. Walking the walk is more important than talking the talk. Jesus is unique. Yes, of course. And God forgive us for all those times we have neglected these things.
But look more closely at what these emergent folk are advocating. Evangelism without a gospel. Apologetics without evidence. Behaviour without belief. Inclusion without conversion. There seems very little left that is distinctively biblical and Christian. In rightly distancing themselves from the doctrinaire and unlovely aspects of evangelicalism, have not many of the emerging church people quoted here cut themselves off from their moorings; thrown the baby out with the bath water? I fear so.