Learning from the Emerging Church

There is much that the inherited, established churches need to learn from the Emerging Church movement. My own analysis has led me to believe that, among other things, we must learn from them how to be faithful, creative, missional communities.

Being faithful …
We must learn to push the boundaries of our church traditions. Much of what we do in church, and many of the ways we do it, are simply one form, one expression of our faith. We have been conditioned by Christian-subcultures which can trace their roots back hundreds and hundreds of years, and there are things that are worth holding on to. But we must begin to discern which elements of our church lives are unneeded clutter, and which are necessary for the faithful continuation of our religious faith. We must ask ourselves to what we will remain faithful. Faithfulness to outdated, centuries old church traditions may well simply keep us locked in the past. But true Christian faithfulness is to the person and way of Jesus Christ. It is true that Jesus continued to go to the synagogue and temple, as did His followers in the early church. But it was Jesus’ whole life that witnessed to the love of His heavenly Father. One hour a week is simply not enough; Christianity is more about a lifestyle than a worship event.

Being creative …
Having said that, worship is important. But we must not use the worship event as an opportunity to slip back into language and ritual that none but the ‘insiders’ understand. The Gospel must be communicated in the language of the contemporary world, not just so that ‘outsiders’ can understand what we are talking about, but so that ‘insiders’ are able to relate their faith to what they face in the world outside of church. Worship should also provide space and opportunities for all people to reconnect with themselves, with other people, and ultimately with God. This is where some of the practices of the ancient church (meditation, silence, etc.) can help us by acting as a corrective to much of our modernist ‘churchy-ness’.

Being missional …
The cenripetal (outward) focus of the emerging church also acts as a corrective to much of the centrifugal (inward) forces in the established church. We tend to focus on ourselves and our needs first, and only secondarily (and if funds allow) do we consider those outside of our four walls. But this preoccupation with ourselves is a denial of the generous nature of the Christian Gospel. Arguably more time, more effort, more finances should be committed to connecting with those who are not yet a part of the church than to anything else, and where our buildings, our worship events and our preoccupations hold us back we must urgently reprioritise.

Being community …
Another corrective offered to us by these new expressions of church is their emphasis on community and relationship. We in the church are too quick to judge others, to fall out, to hold back from genuine openness with one another (the standard Christian response to the question, ‘How are you?’ is ‘Fine’). We must learn to ‘be’ Christian in our whole lives and in all our relationships, rather than ‘go’ to church.

A challenge to leaders …
Of course, for a church to operate in anything like this way will involve a re-imagination of the role of the leadership, from authority figure to facilitator, from controller to mentor. It is perhaps this that will present the greatest challenge of all – to our churches, to our denominations and to our ministers themselves.

But, surely, faithfulness to the Gospel of Christ, along with a passion to communicate it to all those whom God loves, compels us to begin to make a journey of change in all aspects of our Christian lives together. The Gospel is as relevant today as it has always been, and the Gospel remains the same. But the ways in which we communicate God’s love must change if we are to reach as many as possible with the Good News in this current culture and age.