Converging Streams
A guest speaker preached Sunday morning. He is our pastor’s church-planting coach (I don’t remember the guy’s name, though). He delivered a message about the necessity of the continual multiplication of new churches – standard new church mantra. During his sermon, he quoted this from the book Lost in America:
“The unchurched population in the United States is so extensive that, if it were a nation, it would be the fifth most populated nation on the planet after China, the former Soviet Union, India, and Brazil. Thus, our unchurched population is the largest mission field in the English-speaking world and the fifth largest globally.” (emphasis mine)
I thought, “hmmm…that’s worth remembering.” So, I wrote down the basics of that statistic. His conclusion was that newer churches are necessary because the mission field is huge in the States.
Yesterday, I was reading The Emerging Church, a book that has a lot to do about the need for a cultural shift in the way most churches “do” church. Without beginning to understand postmodernism, the church in the U.S. will become less effective in reaching future generations than it currently is. He used that same quote to show the fact that the United States really isn’t a “Christian” nation anymore. Since I had heard that quote the day before, it really popped out.
On top of that, I had a conversation a few days ago with someone at school about my church planting class I took last week. I told him about our group project and how we were helping create a proposal for a church planting strategy in Portugal. He said to me with a smile, “Good. America doesn’t need any more churches.”
I think these three instances have helped to solidify my position a little bit. While I understand and agree with the necessity to continue to reach out to the world, we cannot neglect the “homefront,” too. If the quote that the “single, most-effective form of evangelism is in church planting,” then doesn’t that support the argument that America does need more churches?
What about trying to revitalize older churches, though? Isn’t there a place for that? God is the God of resurrection. He can resurrect dying congregations and breathe new life into them. There has to be some type of balance somewhere.
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I would say that established churches still have a lot to offer, though they need to get rid of their “this is the way we’ve always done it” mindset. I think we’ve talked before about what older folks can teach us wee chicks. A lot of new churches seem to lack that kind of wisdom.
Will someone PLEASE define postmodernism? People love to throw the term around like everyone knows what it is, but I don’t.
Postmodernism
If you don’t know what postmodernism is, then you can’t be part of our little club. 8{)}
You’re right – too many people use the term without really knowing what it means. It’s like if they don’t understand something, they say, “oh, it’s just postmodernism.” Or something like that.
I’ll post more later. Gotta get ready for class.
I think if done correctly and intentionally, there can still be the older, more wise Christians (although age doesn’t always equate wisdom) in a newer church. I’ve seen it happen. They tend to have the attitude that they might not like all of the music, but they appreciate how much the community is being impacted. You’re right, though. New churches, in general, are lacking in mature Christians.
On the other hand, established churches, as a whole, aren’t getting the job done on the evangelism side. Too many are stuck in the rut of thinking that their church has always been there and people will always just knock down the doors, desperate to hear the gospel. All they have to do is unlock the door and make sure the preacher looks nice. That might have worked 50 years ago, but that mindset is what’s killing a lot of churches right now.
Again, I’ll post more about postmodernism later (probably in a “real” post), but I do want to say this about the main issue of postmodernism. Modernism (pre-postmodernism) is considered the age of reason. If you could prove it logically, then you won the argument. In postmodernism, personal experience trumps reason and logic almost every time.
Here is my dream church: a place where everyone belongs and everyone can worship together. that has a full mix of ages and races and backgrounds, and where there is dialogue concerning the differences, and a sincere and stumbling effort make to find points of reconciliation. Where individual gifts are appreciated and actually used. Where music is chosen for appropriateness of emotion and message, not worship style. No more clubs! Where the leadership finds a way to build community and draw in people who won’t necessarily put themselves forward. What do you think- is it just a pipe dream?
maybe
OK, I know this conversation began over a year ago, but I happened upon it while I was putting the finishing touches on my Integration Paper for your favorite class.
Is this a pipe dream? Maybe.
Should you abandon it? Absolutely not! It sounds like a great thing. It actually sounds like what a church should be!