Church Next – Quantum changes in christian ministry
Eddie Gibbs and Ian Coffey
“On the UK scene, the Church of England has given its endorsement to new expressions of a missional church in its report, Mission Shaped Church.”
“During the past four decades, churches have found themselves increasingly marginalised and their influence on society considerably weakened.”
“Now we are faced with a generation of people under thirty-five who are turning away from institutional expressions of Christianity and opting to define their own spiritual journey.”
“We are increasingly aware that our world has become a global village and that lessons learned in one place have an application in another. This is true for the church of Jesus Christ, and missiologists are constantly reminding us that the church in the non-western world has important truths to impart to the rest of us.”
“Church attendance in 1851 was about the same as the current figure for the United States, at 39%. From that time church-attendance increases more or less kept pace with the rate of population growth until the First World War. After that traumatic experience, church attendance registered an ever-increasing rate of decline. By 1998 it was down to 7.5%.”
“The writings of the late Lesslie Newbigin have become obligatory reading for perplexed and discouraged pastors searching for new insights to apply to the challenges they face.”
“The tragic fact is that so many churches are failing to discern the signs of the times and neglecting to seek the spiritual discernment and vitality to meet the challenges.”
“At the brink of the twenty-first century, the king who knew not Joseph is the collective culture of which we are a part. The combined impact of the Information Age, postmodern thought, globalisation, and racial, ethnic and religious pluralism has displaced the historic role the church has traditionally played. As a result, we are seeing the marginalisation of the institutional church.”
“Mike Regele issues a wake up call to Christians in The Death of the Church, in which he alerts church leaders to the fact that they minister in a world out of control, characterised by stress and uncertainty.”
“During the 1990′s there was a sea change in the attitude of governments at both local and national levels to the presence of churches and willingness to work with them.”
“Within contemporary evangelism there is a wistful but persistent voice calling for a return to a past era of privilege and prestige when there was a more broadly accepted Christian ethic and culture.”
“The human carnage experienced by the troops in the trenches exposed the patriotic propaganda of both sides in the conflict, replacing naivete with anger and cynical distrust of both government and established church.”
“The interaction between the gospel and all human cultures is a dynamic one, and it always lies at the heart of what it means to be the church.”
“There are those churches that claim they are committed to evangelism but conceive of evangelism only in terms of inviting non-attenders to swell their ranks. In so doing they have reversed the command of the Great Commission, replacing ‘going into all the world’ with ‘inviting all the world to come to us’.”
“Some men would live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I’d rather run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. – C.T.Studd, founder of WEC.”
“Mission can never be reduced to marketing.”
“The house-church movement has also brought a radical challenge to the established churches…the congregations were characterised by a more expressive, exuberant and participatory form of worship.. Some groups became introverted and disbanded..”
“Networking partnerships are here to stay. Over the next twenty-five years I foresee that churches and denominations will form alliances and networks across denominational lines.”
“For believers themselves, an unchanging diet of praise songs can cause adoration to degenerate into religious sentimentality and emotional self-indulgence, which is so self-absorbed that it alienates the visitor…Christian worship must reflect a range of responses to God.”
“In time new expressions of worship became predictable with the routinising of charisma. This has led to the children of liberated, mainline churchgoers becoming just as bored with the new forms as their parents were with the old…There are many now attracted back to liturgical worship…A further significant trend is the extent to which churchgoers will draw from a variety of traditions with the mix-and-match mentality characteristic of postmodernism.”
“Gary Burge laments the poverty of worship in so many evangelical churches and the attraction of worship traditions that bring the worshippers into touch with mystery and the transcendent.”
“Holy Joe’s is a worshipping group that meets in the upper room of a pub and attracts disillusioned former evangelicals as well as seekers who are not yet prepared to darken the doorway of any church but who want a place to go where they feel comfortable and can raise honest questions and get honest answers . Dave Tomlinson’s background and spiritual pilgrimage started in the Christian Brethren and went to the house-church movement where he became a prominent leader.”
“Five generations characterised by a prevailing attitude:
Builders (born 1901-1924) tend toward defensiveness as lived through a lot of change
Silent Generation (born 1925-42) characterised by resentment and in many ways more resistant to change than previos generation. The silent generation presents the greatest challenge to the younger entrepeneurial church leader, largely because they enjoy the benefits of the church renewal in the 1960′s. They are suspicious of anything more radical. Perhaps the most effective way to challenge them is by asking them why their children left the churches that meant so much to their parents.”
Baby-Boomers (born 1943-1960) characterised by insecurity and the desire to achieve.
Generation X (born 1961-1981) characterised by resentment and suspicion.
Millenials (born 1982+) are largely a mirror of their parents, the boomers.”
“We must develop contemporary models of discipleship by building authentic community.”
“Within the evangelical tradition there has been an undue emphasis on the conversion event, to the neglect of an understanding of conversion as a lifelong process.”
“Let us imagine thousands of communities whose members in an intentional, discipled fashion do the following things: pray together, share their joys and struggles, study the context in which they find themselves, listen for God’s voice through the Scriptures, discern the obedience to which they’re called, engage in common ministry. If such a vision is to be realised, church leaders will have to make a number of significant changes, including the pruning of programmes, which have become ends in themselves. It is the very programmatic mindset of the church that has led to departmentalisation and fragmentation. In other words, many churches have any number of specialised programmes for different interests and age groups. The scriptural models of the church call for a more holistic approach, which is also the heart cry of most postmodern people. We are not re-emphasising the need for small groups, rather we are arguing for basic communities to become the very building-blocks on which the church is built and is able to expand.”
“The modern tendency to separate the spiritual. From the practical is played out in the church.”
“The disadvantage of networks is that they are a poor substitute for community.”
“Groups that promote discipleship tend to focus on the personal, spiritual growth aspects. Their concern is more with the inward journey of faith than the outward venture of communicating that faith in all its dimensions. In contrast to this introspective model, we find in the New Testament that discipleship was linked to apostleship.”
“The church began as a movement driven by a vision. It consisted of small groups of people who believed that Jesus was the Son of God and who had committed themselves totally and unreservedly to him as Lord and Saviour. These groups replicated themselves throughout the Mediterranean world and beyond. They had no buildings. Their leaders were, for the most part, local people whom the apostles appointed and empowered. The movement had no social prestige or influential patrons. It operated from the margins and succeeded in infiltrating every level of society and department of life.”
Church Shift by Sunday Andelaja.
