Posted on November 16, 2007 - by Anthony
Come here often? Prt 2
This is a follow up on some thoughts i have had after posting previously on visitors in our churches. In those posts it was helpful to look at church services from the actual view point of the visitor, instead of trying to guess what they might think and feel about coming to church. One theme of the two posts that i picked up on was the desire for the visitor not to embarrass themselves! That really got me thinking because some of the horror stories coming out of the article about “hugging churches” made me cringe…a lot…a lot. So in a sense it seems that for many, visiting a church means being unseen and yet also feeling welcomed. For some of the journalists who had a good experience it boiled down to a sensitive Christian community that did not ignore them but made them feel welcome. Easy, right? Not quite, as i said before there is no formula because we are dealing with people and as much as humans exhibit the characteristics of the legendary lemmings, we cannot predict how people will react when they come into our meetings.
Yet, i think we need to start with what i mentioned earlier, sensitivity to the visitor. This is key as i think for many churches we may have fallen into the trap that we are not expectant of the visitor, particularly the sceptical visitor. Maybe we have stopped asking friends, maybe we have stopped listening to the world’s questions, or maybe we see services as times for Christians and should in no way should cater for the visitor. For the Christian? Yes, first and foremost it is a time for us as Jesus’ disciples to meet together, encourage one another, hear from God’s Word, prayer together and generally fellowship. But, our scheduled meetings are not some mystical time where God’s people are meant to meet “behind closed doors” ignoring the outside world. Paul says to the Corinthians that there will be outsiders in their midst (cf. Paul’s assumption of the presence of unbelievers in the congregation in 1 Cor 14) and so as a church who meets together we need to be sensitive to this fact. Here’s an example that i know got me every time when i first started going to church meetings. For instance, the service leader may tell the congregation that later we will “hear the Word of God” from the “preacher” who will come up and explain the Bible. Now, try and put yourself in the visitors shoes and imagine what they might think of language like that? This takes us back to a questions i had in the previous post; What then is the purpose of our meetings?
Paul has one goal for for the public gathering of believers: to build one another up. As Christians do this in love, it becomes a massive witness to the outsider. However, what ever we do in our meetings needs to be intelligible and helpful for the outsider in order for them to simply understand what is going on. This seems pretty obvious…until you think through the various practices we have at our Church meetings that we understand, but for outsider is completely irrelevant.
Which leads us to the question: how much should the outsider’s perspective shape the way we do our church services? (or do church as a whole?) Is it just an issue of the language we use? or does it go even further to mindsets?
Here’s my take for what it is worth: sensitivity means understanding that there will be outsiders in our midst. The cultural and perspectival gap between the believers and non-believers will be massive, that gap needs to be lessened. So yes, the outsider should have a definite say as to how we do our meetings in order to make it relevant, fresh and missional. If it becomes a “locals” club for Christians with only their preferences then how are going to connect with the unbeliever?
Lets try and be sensitive to the outsider and purposeful in bringing them in!
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Stephen Murray
Christian, husband to my beautiful Robin, missional dreamer, pastor, church planter, Arsenal, Sharks and Springbok supporter, surfer (in the real sea), patriotic South African, Capetonian. Find out more about the church planting work I'm involved in at my support blog.
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November 23, 2007
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Peter Sanlon said:
I applaud your desire to reach outsiders – the worrying thing is that in the UK evangelical churches have been attempting to let the perspective you share shape our meetings for a number of years….
It is difficult to be certain about the result, but there are indications that the outcome has not been increasing conversions but rather a weakening of the convictions and distinctiveness of evangelical practice and belief. It is now possible to enter a conservative evangelical church in the uk and listen to leaders say and encourage things that 15 years ago would have only been said in wooly/middle of the road churches.
This is done in name of making things more accessible to outsiders. It does attract a certain number of people and create a sense of dynamism in a church. Sadly it also eviscerates the heart of the evangelical Gospel.
Now I realise that you would not approve of that situation -the worrying thing is that where the project you are suggesting has been embarked upon, that has been the result. People said that it would not happen, but it has.
I guess that makes me want to raise two questions:
1. What controls or protection ought to exist to prevent endeavors to be outsider friendly degenerating to pragmatic shallow superficiality?
2. Is there a sense in which we can trust outsiders to expect church to be genuinely different from other secular experiences and therefore uncomfortable and strange? For example – a man saying that God speaks through preaching – very unique strange experience, but surely what one should expect to be unsettled by in church?
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November 23, 2007
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Anthony said:
Peter,
Thanks for the helpful reply and the questions. A couple comments and i’ll try and answer the two questions.
I’m not sure the experience you have had in the UK but if its anything like the end results we have seen with the seeker senstive mega church movement, then i am in total agreement: losing theological & Gospel conviction for the sake of relating to a particular group is a disastrous error.
Now, my perspective is not to allow the “outsider’s” or the culture’s thinking to shape me or the church in such a way that the Gospel is lost in translation. However, i think we need some level of contextualistion that allows for the translation process to make sense to the people coming. So in other words i want the people sitting in the pews or the plastic garden furniture to feel like God speaks their language. This is why being sensitive to the outsider is my governing principle in a sense. But yes, not at the cost of what is most important, we must find what is flexible and inflexible.
Your questions are great here are some thoughts;
1. Preserving our church praxis from degenerating into pragmatic superficiality hinges in a conviction that the Gospel is the foundational reason as to why we meet, what we do and what we say when we meet. So our theology will inform our methodology. Our meeting structures (or Church life in a wider sense) are to serve this end, they have one goal: to make sure those engaging with us are not scandalised by our ways but rather scandalised by hearing the Gospel. Not sure if thats very clear, but i would prefer having a guy walk out on my service because Jesus demands everything as a disciple, rather than leave because i am wearing Jeans while preaching or because we meet in groups to discuss the Sermon etc.
Ensuring this will depend on a couple things; leadership that sees methodology as serving the evangelical Gospel. A conviction that missional contextualisation is just as important in your local suburban church as in outer Mongolia. Trusting in the Spirit working through the Word proclaimed (in whatever form) and not my ministry style. Developing communities that are adaptable to thier culture and are “missional” in thier own mindset. I think just working hard at understanding ones context with its postive and negative ideas. And so by doing this you can sift out what is good and bad about culture and which ideas can be used to connect with people.
2. Yes, absolutely. My own experience was that of being completely freaked out by a guy claiming to speak for God. He meant it through the Bible but i didn’t understand so it was very odd. Which means its almost impossible to guess what a person will feel or experience when they come to church. So at my church the other week, a girl who has been attending an evangelistic Bible study we run at a local pub came to church and sat through 1 Cor 11!!! I mean come one! I was ready to pull the fire alarm and get her out of there. But at the end she turned to me and my wife, and we had the most awesome conversation where she was totally open, inqusitive and positive about what Paul said. I amlost fell over. But it was great, the Spirit of God was working amazingly in her.
All i think, is that we as the leaders are too often concerned with our preferences in how we do church and miss being sensitive to the fact that outsiders might (SHOULD) be there. Thus we create a Christian sub-culutre that alienates outsiders but we like. We need to balance it out without reacting too far the other way.
Any thoughts? would like to hear more of what you are going through in England. Besides a crisis in international football!
Ant
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December 25, 2007
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Peter Sanlon said:
Ant
I am so sorry I failed to check your reply and get back to you sooner- my fault for losing myself in the international web!!
Thanks for your detailed and prompt response.
I fully agree with you in what you say – I guess that the challenge we face in whatever context we are in is to ensure that our aspirations are realised.
Perhaps we need to ensure leaders are trained and encouraged to really think carefully and theologically about things? That would help preserve the core theological comitments that matter to us. I have noticed that the evangelical churches in the UK which manifest the problems I noted are often run by men who play down the need for theological education and do not themselves read widely in theology (or literature etc).
Anyway – it is Christmas day so I will leave it there!
Have a good Christmas and God bless.
By the end of Feb I hope to have a new web journal set up – to encourage people to think more deeply and theologically about issues. Come visit us when we are live. Our home will be http://www.stilldeeper.com
God bless
Peter