BACK TO THE FUTURE I: the church of the future will need to look like the church of the past
I was mindlessly watching (for the fifth time) random scenes of the contemporary movie version of the Christmas Carol wondering if the Church would have a story similar to that of Scrooge. Church past, present and future. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made.
The irony is that the church of the future might actually have to look like the church of the past — way past, right back to the beginning of the early church movement! Let’s unpack that in what follows.
If there is to be a fighting chance for the (organized) body of Christ in the West to play an effective role in the transformation of society (body, mind and spirit), she needs to go back to the principles and drivers that guided the early church.
From the Church past (the great unravelling) to the church present (the great re-formatting) and the church of the future (the great re-forming), I believe that God is calling us back to a version of church that relied not on it’s institutional might and strength nor its specialized human resources but on the faith and passion of ordinary believers and their extraordinary dependence on the Holy Spirit to disciple one another into living and proclaiming the gospel.
Church past (the great unravelling)
Here’s what we know from research and anecdotally, about the state (trend) of the western church over the past few decades. The list is by no means exhaustive but generally speaking:
1) We have lost our relevance, credibility and increasingly isolated
2) We lag far behind in responding to societal and demographic needs and trends
3) The vast majority of our church (laity) feel under-equipped, dis-empowered and dependent on the clergy for spiritual guidance and support
4) Generations of Christians feel detached from the foundations of faith and core spiritual practices
5) We are trapped in a downward spiraling circle of dwindling resources and membership,
6) We are more occupied and absorbed with issues of viability (what to do with our buildings for e.g.) than vitality and health.
Church present (the great re-formatting or, an even greater disruption)
1) Pastors are weary and feel inadequately resourced and unsupported with many considering another career or quitting ministry altogether.
2) The pandemic has contributed to congregational members feeling distanced and disconnected from each other
3) Although we have found ways of adapting (online and hybrid services for e.g.), we are not coping well.
4) Positive trends indicate increasing openness and conversations about alternate ways of being church (small groups/home church), lay leadership development, faith formation and discipleship
5) There is heightened awareness that Being the church is more important than Doing church.
Church of the future (the great re-forming)
The strength of the early (first generation) church lay not in their ability to exegete the Old Testament nor in their beautiful church buildings (because they had none) but in living out core principles and practices that we (the institutional church) seem to have lost along the way. Yes, I recognize that the early church faced many challenges, far greater than us but, the one thing they did not have to worry about was a lack of believers being added to their numbers.
Here’s what they had going for them.
1) A personal, contagious faith that was lived out in community
2) Ordinary believers who were zealous about sharing faith, resources and practicing generous hospitality
3) An implicit trust and dependence on the Holy Spirit to transform themselves and others
4) A commitment to study, obey and live out the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles
5) A simple but effective approach to multiplication by discipling
We seem to have lost the plot over the centuries. Many of us do not have a story of faith to share and much less know how to share it. We, the laity are more familiar with church rules than the Bible and have an unhealthy dependence on clergy to do the work of ministry on our behalf. We have an inordinate preoccupation with buildings and money and an indifferent attitude towards the transformative power of the Holy Spirit.
Health and vitality: what next?
Well, we’ve tried lots of strategies, some good, some not so good and some just plain ineffective. Since the 1960s’, North American and European mainline and mostly white, Anglo churches have experienced decline in numbers, still used as a major metric to measure growth.
Five decades in and we’re still struggling with the same issue, although methods of evangelism have changed, worship styles have evolved and some congregations have engaged more with their neighbourhoods. We have cycled from missional to discipleship and faith formation and in doing so churches have become more missional and ethnically diverse. However, notwithstanding the innovation and albeit welcome shifts that have taken place, the western church in general is still struggling.
Enter Covid-19. This invisible virus seems to have thrown the church from the proverbial frying pan into the fire. Practices and beliefs deemed inviolable have been challenged and simply broken down: in-person gathering for worship, challenges in celebrating the Eucharist/communion in person and a host of others.
But being in the fire has its advantages. Fire purifies, gets rid of dross, and renders elements pure. Perhaps it is that time for God’s church. The key is whether we are prepared to accept the discipline and work our way through the fire.
Kurt Lewin’s Change Management Model often referred to as “unfreeze, change, refreeze” is a method for managing change within an organization. The method involves disrupting the current state (unfreezing), making the changes (change) and finally integrating and normalizing those changes within the organization (refreezing). Despite it being a linear approach, it is nevertheless a way of approaching change. We all agree (I think it safe to assume) that the church, especially at an institutional level needs to change if it is to stay relevant. For those who have resisted change, the pandemic has forced upon it, the unfreezing stage. For example, it has challenged deeply held beliefs about the nature and practice of Sunday worship: i.e. the need to gather weekly, in-person inside a building, a belief that used to be a non-negotiable requirement for doing church. That myth has been blown to bits.
When we claim that the church is not expressing vitality and health, here is what we are likely to hear from those within and without the church community. “The church is not active in the neighbourhood”, “it’s members are not engaged in activities that transform society”: “ there is no life in it”: “where are the young people?”: “it’s a bunch of older folk who meet every Sunday …”, “ worship is boring”…
What we should remember however, is that the church is made up of individuals and that if the church is not healthy or showing signs of vitality, it is really a reflection of the health and vitality of its individual members. Even if we have the most hard-working, charismatic and loveable minster as its leader but if her members are not living spiritually healthy and robust lives, the church may seem to be “programmatically alive” for a season but will soon (or over time) become tired and worn out. There is a biblical metaphor for this. In fact, there are many. One is that we (believers, followers of Jesus) are compared to trees. For a tree to be healthy and produce fruit in and out of season, it must be planted by sources of waters that do not dry up. Its roots must have access to a consistent supply of water: Jeremiah 17:8 — “For they will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.
Psalm 1: 3 …that person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither: whatever they do prospers.
Consider this for a moment. Where have our roots been drawing from? Church tradition and practices? Rituals? Charismatic leadership? The news? Facebook? Church order? Diversity? Doing good? Social justice? Anything but Jesus? And interestingly enough, Jesus refers to himself as the “Living water” who assures anyone who drinks (draws) from him, that they will never thirst again. The church of Jesus Christ must have Jesus as her only focus and centre. Anything else that has taken his place constitutes a shift away from what church is supposed to be — the church that Jesus himself said he would build. When we proclaim Jesus as Lord, we are acknowledging our inclusion in the kingdom of God as citizens of this new kingdom. This translates then to our role in his kingdom — to live as ambassadors and agents of this alternative kingdom in our ordinary lives — i.e. in our workplaces, schools and neighbourhoods (Hudson, 2012).
So, let us not be deceived or fool ourselves. If we do not equip our congregants/parishioners/members to be connected to Jesus and draw from him, we cannot expect to grow a healthy congregation. That is a fact that can hardly be disputed unless of course, one has some other definition of what constitutes a “church” or “congregation”.
So, while innovation and new ways of DO-ing and BE-ing church are good, I believe that there are no shortcuts to growing health and vital communities of faith. Healthy trees take time to grow and mature.
Churches are trying. We hear and read of churches needing to innovate as they seek ways of going forward in meaningful and relevant ways. Innovation straddles the spectrum of doing church worship services differently to engaging in social innovation efforts and finding ways of being church in the world. Through the pandemic we heard of churches pivoting and adapting constantly but as a wise pastor commented, “we are losing ground”. Churches are in more rapid decline than before and there are only so many holes you could plug before a boat sinks. The good news is that many congregations are realizing the truth that personal growth/discipleship, i.e., a hearkening back to spiritual discipline and practices such as prayer, bible study and being in a living relationship with God is an indispensable part of being a Christ follower. The pandemic has exposed the divide between institutionalized (transactional) religion and life giving (transformational) faith. The bad news is that we are still not out of our precipitous downward slide and not likely to be, for the foreseeable future.
So where to next? Is innovation the antidote for a church in decline and under attack? Has innovation become another word for adaptation which is really a type of change that is an incremental re-alignment? And will re-alignment alone be enough to take us to where we should be?
Let me posit that what we really need is a reconstruction or revolution: i.e. transformational change; one that of course needs courage and wisdom.
I grant that innovation and adaptation are important if our churches are to be relevant and contextual and functionally effective. However, innovation still sits at the level of behaviour and strategies: the “how” we do our work as a church. There is something more important to be considered if we are going to really make a difference in growing healthy and flourishing congregations. We need to take a deep dive into examining the assumptions that drive our actions and determine our behaviours, perceptions, thoughts and feelings. Innovating without paying attention to our deeply held assumptions is really like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
This is going to be tough. It is not easy or comfortable to examine our assumptions and more so, to change them because re-examining them temporarily destabilizes our world and pushes us towards anxiety, the last thing we think we need at this time. But, if we are honest and want to change the way we are the church, we need to muster the courage and will in us to do just that.
Over the next few weeks and months, I will post articles and thoughts regarding all of this. Stay tuned …
