Innovating Church for the 21st Century - notes part 1

(St Ps and Gs, Edinburgh)

I had a really good day yesterday in Edinburgh at this Willow Creek event. (See previous post) Here are the notes I took:

“New Culture, New Methods” James Emery White

Innovation = renewing,

Innovation does not equal tips or schedules or strategies

Culture is the world we live in and the world that lives in us

What kind of culture have we made for ourselves?

6 identifiable ages of Christian Church each lasting approx 300 yrs and each ending in crisis which birthed innovation

Are we at the beginning of a 7th age?

Nature of 7th age ... A second fall

Western culture is now operating with no reference to God. We try to arrive at truth starting with ourselves, divorced from any transcendent truth. God is not referred to or acknowledged.

People are increasingly defining themselves as non-religious. The good news is that this creates a fantastic mission field. While people are not interested in religion they ARE increasingly interested in spiritual things. People are seeking meaning and this provides a perfect landscape for evangelism.

'God is dead and it is we who have killed him...' said Nietzsche '...how shall we find comfort?'

In the age of the metrosexual we are seeing more and more 'metrospirituals' (consumerist egocentric approach to life now permeates spiritual things)

3 areas where we can innovate:

1. Mission

2. Strategy

3. Method

1. Mission

The average church is full of rhetoric about mission but not mission itself. The lost should be our driving force. Jesus hung about with people who didn't care about God.

Luke 17 – ‘compel people to come in' - go out aggressively and don't stop till they come in. Church should not be comfortable, but it should be full.

Great commission - start off with those who are not in relationship with God and bring them into relationship with those who are.

Lots of churches are specializing in different parts of the mission and discipleship process, in maintenance mode, keeping polished Christians pristine. That's not the mission. We have a mandate to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Christ. From atheists to missionaries. Easier to get BA passengers onto Air France than a non-flyer onto a plane.

2. Strategy

Strategy gives the 'whys for the methods. The biggest strategic innovation is that we have moved from an Acts 2 model to an Acts 17 model.

Peter was able to speak to a people who were monotheists and expected a Messiah. Oh for people like that today. Paul in Acts 17 could not give an Acts 2 message. The pluralistic culture of Mars Hill could only agree that none of them were certain they were right. Paul skilfully laid a foundation for the roots of belief to take hold.

We need to build a bridge for people to walk over in terms of where they start from and where Christ is.

If in the 1950s people were at 8 out of 10 in terms of their pre-conversion understanding of faith, church, God, salvation, sin, doctrine, then the average person in 2009 would be 1, 2 or 3 at best.

The evangelistic strategies of the ‘50s worked for the people of the time.

Change happened thru 60s and 70s as people dipped to 2 or 3 on a scale of 1-10.

Event evangelism grew.

Today's climate means that we have to do work on the 2s and 3s to get them to an 8 or 9 before we can then get them to commit to a 10.

Strategy now becomes process and event.

A.

No longer can you have a mentality that 'if we build it they will come'. It needs to be about investing and inviting. Working through relationship, 1 by 1. Befriending leads to relationship which leads to invitation.

B.

Move to open your front door. Invite people to events which have been designed with them in mind. Create your own 'Mars Hill' where people can go through the process which leads to the event. Designing a service does not mean you dumb down the gospel, but it does alter how we say what we say. It kills in-jokes and jargon-laden talk. Church must be culturally relevant and doctrinally correct.

In 1 Cor. Paul tells people to stop doing certain things in public worship in case people think you're insane. Be sensitive.

The message of the gospel is unchanging; the method of communication of that gospel must change in order to be culturally sensitive and relevant.

Translation of gospel must be pursued. Transformation of gospel must be avoided.

C.

In our apologetics we must move away from 'reasons to believe the Bible' to 'this is the Bible'. Instead of 'did Jesus rise from the dead' to 'so what if He did'?

D.

From relevance of faith to experience of faith. People are hungry for community even though they're dysfunctional in community. People want to experience spirituality before they are spiritual. Taste before they buy.

People used to believe their way into feeling. Now they feel their way into believing. This is seen in all world religions. Journalling, prayer etc is appealing to the atheist because of the feeling, the buzz, the experience.

E.

From being real to giving an example. Acting like you've got it all together is disingenuous and unattractive.

'A sinner needs to lead this church otherwise we add deceit to our sins'

But today people want more than simply that...they need to see a living example of God in us... and that should be attractive.

We have to be the good news before we tell the good news.

3. Methods

Small groups, weekend services, anything aimed at community is cheap. It’s not the main thing. It’s expendable. The method is only there to reach your aim. The method can be junked anytime.

New methods include using IT, branding the church and seeing each teaching series as a marketing campaign opportunity. Pouring money into kids ministry and turning kids evangelism on its head so that kids bring parents to church, not the other way round.