The Shaping of Things Now: Questions of Emerging Churches

Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Winter 2007

Over the last few decades John Smith has started God's Squad, Truth and Liberation Concern, and Care and Communication Concern as attempts to contextualize church and the gospel for Australians. Athol Gill founded the House of the Gentle Bunyip in Collingwood as an intentional Christian community. Different groups of people have been seeking to follow Jesus in radical ways and have been striving to shape church around mission. They have avoided a one-size-fits-all, get-the-latest-programfrom-overseas approach to church. They could be seen as forerunners of the missional church movement. Emerging church practitioner Mark Sayers suggests thee is something unique about Melbourne's openness to the emerging church because of the pioneering groundwork done by leaders like John Smith, Athol Gill and the radical discipleship movement. 13

Questions emerging churches asks

Case studies

My commitment to mission and cultural studies, my de I have visited four main congregations over six months in 2006. They are a Church of Christ, Pentecostal, Baptist and Anglican church spread across the eastern and inner north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. I participated in their gatherings, collected documents, interviewed key leaders and conducted focus groups. Here is a brief overview of their stories, followed by questions their experience prompts me to ask, and questions other churches might ask of the emerging church movement.

Connection Community -Connecting with God and people

Urban Life -Living for the wellbeing of our community

Urban Life is a reinvented and relocated Christian Revival Crusade (CRC) in Ringwood. In February 2005 they left their old 4.5 acre facilities on the outskirts of Ringwood, and leased an old night club in the centre of Ringwood. They describe their journey as 'from the country club to the nightclub'. They explain to visitors that 'The Urban' is a café, community centre and children's play area that also has church here on Sundays. They have revisioned what they do as a church around the twin priorities of community and mission. They describe community as 'doing life deeply together', and a key part of that is their new small group structure 'Get-Togethers' (GTs) which have only two rules -there must be some shared meal, and there is no Bible study. They describe mission as 'being found about our Father's business'. As well as their global mission that they have traditionally prized, they are freshly looking at ways to serve and reach their own community. Community ministries include a soup kitchen, high school ministry, a craft group, book club, Prime Timers social group (50+), role-playing games and an exercise group. Another radical part of Urban Life's story is that when they moved, they had a smooth leadership transition. Fifty year old Doug Faircloth handed over leadership to his associate, thirty-five year old Anthea Smits. Doug continues in a two day per week coaching role. They also changed their name -from Christian Life Centre to Urban Life, suggestive of their new location and an acronym for: 'U R Beginning A New Life'. They are looking forward to the hoped-for growth that they expect their obedience and openness will bring. They are characterized by creativity in worship, community and hospitality, and engaging the world. They seek to engage world at a variety of levels -cultural awareness, high school groups, a creative group for people with mental illness, a soup kitchen team which now runs a sports team, rent relief and assistance for Sudanese asylum seekers, and basically supporting anything people want to get involved in. One of their first socials was the harbor deepening protest rally, which they went to out of a keen sense of social justice and because one of their members felt passionate about it. They meet at Wyreena Community Centre, but early 2007 were planning on moving to the larger Yarunga Community Centre in Croydon Hills. They look forward to the flexibility and room for growth that more space will offer them.

Eastern Hills -Creating lives which reflect the Kingdom of God

Solace -to enable a people to thrive as followers of Jesus, celebrating and re-making their everyday world

Solace is a congregation planted in 2000 within St Hilary's Anglican Church which has since branched off on its own and meets at Balwyn Baptist (in the east) and St Paul's Anglican, Fairfield (in the inner north-east). They were started by Olivia MacLean with a focus on interactive worship -for all ages and all stages of faith and learning styles. Their Thursday evening and Sunday morning gatherings tend be interactive and contemplative. They started with a vision for the unchurched but found they attracted a lot of de-churched and over-churched people who appreciated the space to be free to question and explore their faith dilemmas. Their distinctive is celebrating a spirituality of everyday life and vocation. They have developed this with a Remaking course and book about seven Ways of Jesuscentered spirituality, based on Richard Foster's writing on historical spiritual traditions and Dallas Willard's concept of 'transforming grace'. 15 Another unique feature is their 'Dreaming' nights to help people think about questions and plans (including business plans) to remake their world. They are looking forward to 'bridging the gap' between their ideals and where what feel they are now.

After visiting them, I have considered what participants consider are the strengths and weaknesses of these four churches. Drawing on their strengths, I have considered what these emerging churches have to say to other churches? And considering their weaknesses, what might other churches question and critique in them and the broader emerging church movement?

Is your mission primary?

A foundational question the emerging church asks is whether mission is primary, rather than our inherited traditions of church. Or Forge takes it a step back further to ask 'is Jesus primary'? Frost and Hirsch, inspired by David Bosch, urge Christology to inform missiology, and then missiology to inform ecclesiology. 16 So instead of starting with church forms, they would say start with understanding Jesus, then develop an approach to mission and then form church around that.

For example, Urban Life asked about all their programs, 'how does this help us with community and mission?' Their senior leader Anthea says they are operating almost none of the programs they were doing five years ago. Their missional refocus has prompted a reallocation of resources -planned and unplanned. As people respond the new challenge for local mission, they report plenty of people volunteering for the soup kitchen, community ministries and helping in the café, but are starting to feel an almost gratifying shortfall in worship team numbers! 17 As well as prioritizing mission activity in church programs, some emerging churches are beginning (at least in their aspirations) to refocus on mission of the whole people of God -in their families, community groups and workplaces. 18 Some emerging churches are better at celebrating this than others. Solace is a great example, which is forming their whole network and ethos around encouraging one another in their everyday mission roles.

The theological basis that emerging churches are inspired by is incarnational mission. Rather than bringing people in with an 'attractional' model of church, emerging churches espouse sending their people out in an 'incarnational' mission. Thus Frost and Hirsch encourage joining community groups and building friendships through those networks, more than attracting people to join church groups. 19 Solace, for example, was recruiting board members and talking to someone about that until the potential recruit told the pastors that he was considering either the Solace board or the local school board. They encouraged him to join the school board. 'Is your mission primary?' is the key question.

Is your leadership permission-giving?

As I talked to leaders and participants of emerging churches, a recurring story of what they say is important in the growth of their church and in feeling valued is a permission-giving ap- Wayne and Paula at Connection said a lot of their time, from the green-light brainstorming at their first retreat through to an intern program that has developed, has focused on encouraged people to dream and think innovatively about church. When people have a passion to do something, as long as it is within ethical and broad vision boundaries, they are generally given permission to implement their ideas. There are no committee and church meeting structures that new initiatives have to be cleared through. One of Connection's interns, Yasmine, is among those who appreciate this aspect of Wayne's leadership:

Wayne never said to me "Oh, you have got to do this and you have got to do that". He just asked me where my heart is and then said, "Okay, cool, let me find something for you to do in terms of your passions and what you want". 20

Is your leadership permission-giving (and empowering)?

Are you engaging culture?

Part of incarnational living and non-dualistic spirituality is to explore how God connects with contemporary culture. Emerging churches want to engage their culture in worship and evangelism. Eastern Hills was started by a group of young adult friends who were wrestling with questions of how the gospel engages culture. Toli said they were asking:

How do we do Church in such a way that it is connected with the world in which we live, with the community in which we live? How do we do this stuff? How do we actually make this connection between our Worship on a Sunday and what happens in our world? 21 Drawing on the inspiration of Saint Paul the Apostle and his understanding of how the gospel touches culture, one Sunday morning Toli urged the congregation to grapple with questions of our culture. He suggested going to public lectures, spending time in pubs, visiting galleries and watching films as a way of engaging culture and not just plundering it for gospel illustrations. Bible study takes time and so does cultural analysis, and Toli argued both are as important as the other to allow the Word to become flesh and blood in our culture. His potentially controversial challenge was: 'Don't think that seeing a movie is less important than reading the Bible.' 22 Are you engaging culture?

Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Winter 2007

Are you interactive in worship?

One of the most formative aspects for me of the six months of visiting emerging churches was participating in their interactive worship. For example, my daughter and I visited Solace and participated in the 'Solace liturgy' which invites six or seven people to lead different parts of the service. People mingled or sat around St Paul's on various lounges, chairs and steps. Stuart Davey, one of the pastors, greeted us and explained we were free to go to different parts of the room to prayerfully read the papers on the wall (which included articles about the deaths of Steve Erwin and Peter Brock), make an offering in one of many offering boxes (with symbols of our money, time, environmental care or encouragement of others), respond by writing, painting or molding play-dough, help yourself to a coffee (fair trade), or engage in quiet conversations. After this choose-your-own adventure 'liquid church' experience, Stu called everyone together and asked, 'Where have you seen God at work this week?' Con had visited a church in Queensland and appreciated the welcome and love he experienced. Someone else had just got to talk to their Dad before he died. Stu had weeded his garden and reflected on what God was taking out of his life.

This was the first of a few questions through the morning, interspersed with songs, teaching about transforming grace, 23 and a Leunig poem. 24 Maybe only a third of people present contributed to discussion, but most listened with interest. Well constructed questions led to thought-provoking discussion, and I noticed people did not criticize responses or seek to immediately resolve dilemmas. I also noticed people were reasserting their commitment to traditional evangelical practices like prayer, Bible reading and compassion to the needy, but wanted to do these things with right motives and not out of obligation. Stuart summarized the morning, closed in prayer, and invited everyone to contribute to the six or seven things that needed doing to tidy and clean up. 25 Solace gatherings have always tried to be 'informal, participatory and authentic'. The symbols that represent the culture of Solace include mugs, candles, tables not pews, play dough, and (relative) absence of music. 26 Olivia says worship becomes like a game of Hacky Sack -anyone can start or contribute to the conversation. 27 As well as teaching input with occasional lectures, they have an open microphone and lots of encouragement to ask and explore questions. As well as practicing communion traditionally, at times they instead share whole meals together. Instead of meeting inside for worship every Sunday, once or twice Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Winter 2007 per year they plant trees or participate in Clean Up Australia. 28 There was question about what people might say in the open mic, whether lunch can replace Eucharist, or whether Greening Up Australia can replace a service. But participants say these practices helped them connect with God and one another in new ways, and they continue to explore interactive and diverse expressions of worship. Are you interactive in worship?

Are you doing life together deeply?

Emerging churches, at least those I have visited as well as the rhetoric I read in the books, give priority to building authentic community. Some have explored intentional community and living together. Others have reevaluated or built their programs with a focus on community.

Urban Life, in their small groups, wanted to get away from singing and preaching at one another without knowing one another. They wanted to move away from what they called the craziness of telling each other how to live without being prepared to (or having the format to) open their lives to share life together. Inspired by Acts 2:42-47 and the vision of a group of friends who would bleed for one another, they started asking 'What would a group look like that we could not wait to get to?' and 'Into what sort of a space would we be comfortable inviting our friends?' They dreamed that they would want good food, a big table and lots of laughing. They were not convinced they needed Bible study and singing, and got that input at other times. And so they refocused their small groups as 'Gettogethers' or 'GTs' with only two rules -there has to be a shared meal and no Bible study. 29 GTs have become a primary context for community care. Anthea visited a man in hospital after a heart attack. She started with, 'Oh, I'm sorry I haven't been to see you, how are you doing? I heard you had a heart attack.' He said, 'Oh, you didn't need to come and visit me, it was fantastic, the GT group they just came in and they brought communion in for me and I had so-and-so come in and they have been coming in regularly to have prayer with me and oh it's just fantastic'. 30 Authentic community is seen as worthwhile for its own sake but also an appropriate expression of mission, especially in a postmodern world where relationships are so valued. Aaron was a young person who basically walked in off the street one morning and came to Christian belief through belonging to the Urban Life community. In some church cultures it is very important to believe (and/or behave) before you can belong, but Urban Life seeks to prioritize welcoming people to feel they belong irrespec-Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Winter 2007 tive of their beliefs and behavior. In the case of Aaron, this led to him finding faith for himself and his behavior is changing as he learns about following Jesus. 31 It is difficult to do effective mission without community. Are you doing life deeply?

These are some of the questions that my visits to emerging churches suggest to me. But there are also questions to address to emerging churches suggested by the potential weaknesses and shortfalls that participants identify.

Questions to ask emerging churches 1. Have you forgotten the importance of nurture?

Emerging missional churches place an emphasis on mission, sometimes to the neglect of nurture. Missional emphasis is actually one of the things that attracts many Christians who like to be part of the action and long for more relevant expressions of church. However, a disappointment of some emerging church participants is lack of nurture. 32 Part of that may be the 'mecentered' generation of Christians who are used to being 'fed' in other churches. Part of it is preoccupation with Bible-teaching sermons as the form that helps people feel nurtured and a reluctance to appreciate more interactive forms of nurture. Sometimes people do not realize the value of missionary spirituality and that they will grow best by actively living out their faith. But sometimes people's concerns do reflect an actual lack of focus on teaching and spiritual formation. Some leaders aren't nurturing their leaders and people as much as they could.

I am committed to the church and its purpose to glorify God through worship, mission, pastoral care and spiritual formation. Church is not just about mission. And in fact to do mission effectively, we need to give attention to the other aspects of church. Emerging church practitioners sometimes say they are focusing on mission because it is the first thing that needs focusing on, or because the church has been so imbalanced on looking after itself that it needs a recalibration in the other direction. But an imbalance in one direction does not justify an unhealthy imbalance in the other direction. Rowland Croucher's main reservation with The Shaping of Things to Come is that church includes four essential activities-worship (to God), formation (in ourselves), koinonia (with Christian others), and mission (relating to those outside faith). Renewal requires the integration of all four. 33 Have you forgotten the importance of nurture?

What are your processes for innovation and change?

Emerging churches value being on the edge of change and Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Winter 2007 developing programs (and shutting them down) depending on the needs of the context. Sometimes they hold on to their denominational tradition, but often they question it or at least want to transform it. They often move, are regularly changing, and aspire to innovate further. Some emerging churches have thoughtful processes for this, and take the time to carefully plan consultation. Others are more ad-hoc and have left people with their trust undermined and their efforts unappreciated. This is not unique to emerging churches but because of the importance they place on innovation it is particularly important to pay attention to. Emerging churches may attract a greater proportion of innovators and early adopters. 34 Yet this does not excuse emerging church leaders from ignoring appropriate process. People still expect to be consulted when change affects them, even if they are in a congregation without decades of tradition. One of the best resources for emerging leadership is chaos theory and living systems thinking. 35 What are your processes for innovation and change?

Are you fostering evangelism?

Emerging churches say they place a high priority on mission and are often starting new community programs. They tend to express a commitment to holistic mission. When asked about mission, Solace refers to the $10,000 raised in 2006 for Opportunity International, Eastern Hills refers to their advocacy for asylum seekers and Connection prizes 'The Dining Room'. At Urban Life Anthea is clear to explain their holistic approach to mission as involving both proclamation and social justice or acts of mercy. They often talk about their desire to see people come to faith through verbal witness. But they also have a clear commitment to service and demonstrating the gospel in action. Anthea says, 'Christianity is often about populating heaven, where it needs to be about transforming earth.' 36 The commitment to holistic mission is noteworthy and perhaps particularly appropriate in Australia where we value serving those in need and standing up for the battler. 37 But I am interested how much evangelism emerging churches are actually doing. Some groups shy away from evangelism because of past experiences of insensitive programs. Sometimes they question it as part of re-evaluating beliefs about the gospel and the uniqueness of Christ. 38 Some groups avoid evangelistic programs because of a commitment to relational evangelism and inviting people to belong to the community before they are expected to believe. Most emerging churches say they design their gatherings to be more accessible to people outside the church, but this Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Winter 2007 sometimes is more effective for attracting back over-churched people back than drawing in unchurched people. Troy Arnott at New Community Ringwood has a refreshing focus on evangelism. He has done a lot of theological reflection on how to share faith in a postmodern setting, and runs seminars for his people to encourage and empower them. 39 I am looking forward to comparing National Church Life Survey (NCLS) data on evangelism and new Christians to see whether Troy's efforts have made a noticeable difference when compared to other emerging churches. It will also be interesting to compare the evangelistic effectiveness of more mainstream church plants or national averages with my four case studies. Are you fostering evangelism?

Do you recognize the broader body of Christ?

A strength of emerging church thinking is encouraging diversity of models, but a weakness is that this can be perceived as questioning the validity of mainstream churches. One of Alan Hirsch's criticisms of the contemporary church growth movement (CCGM) is that however good their typically 'attractional' approach is, they will only reach a certain segment of the population. 40 Contemporary seeker-style churches need to be complemented with incarnational models. But emerging churches with their incarnational rhetoric need to evaluate how incarnational they actually are and would benefit from considering their attractional influence. 41 Emerging churches have prophetic challenges that mainstream churches need to hear, but emerging churches need to be listening to and appreciating the place of mainstream churches too. 42 And, from my perspective in Forge, we are always seeking to balance the tension of being prophetic about the need for incarnational mission and new church plants, and respecting the broader body of Christ and celebrating mission wherever it is. One of Solace's founding principles is that they want to stay connected to helpful traditions and 'hold the hand of the historical church'. 43 There is also a challenge at an individual level; some leaders can value innovation in theology so much that they start to ignore the body and the importance of traditional boundaries. Do you recognize the broader body of Christ?

How much does your reality match your rhetoric?

Solace has an expression 'mind the gap', echoing the London Underground, or more philosophically the theory of cognitive dissonance; because they acknowledge that there is a big gap between their ideals and who they are. 44 This is something that motivates them to change, but identifying the gap (and for some Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Winter 2007 emerging churches being more honest and acknowledging that it exists) is an important stage in their 'becoming' who they want to be.

I am fascinated to explore what mission and innovation is happening in emerging churches. My hypothesis is that emerging missional frameworks are releasing new expressions of mission in innovative ways, but I want to explore that further with congregational studies and seek to understand the gap between reality and rhetoric. In the form of more questions I am exploring: How are mission and innovation being cultivated? How else can it be encouraged? What similarities and differences occur in understanding innovation and mission between pastors and congregation and between different congregations? How have existing churches been remissionalized with emerging church frameworks, and how does this compare with planting churches that are intentionally mission-shaped from the beginning? What can other churches learn from emerging churches and what have emerging churches still got to learn from other churches?

In terms of mission in particular, how does the theology of mission that emerging churches espouse help foster the mission of emerging church participants, and how do they express their mission? What are some of the motivational factors that encourage church participants to engage in mission? What factors detract from missional activity? What forms does mission take, in the lives of individuals and through the life of the congregation? To what extent can emerging church mission be described as 'incarnational', and how much 'attractional' mission occurs?

In terms of innovation, how do emerging churches deal with management of change and the diffusion of innovation? What is participants' experience of innovation-decisions? What frameworks do leaders use? Are people satisfied with the frameworks? What can emerging churches learn from the sociology of innovation in religion, and the new science of chaos theory? Do emerging churches attract people who are innovators? Do they intentionally build a culture of change that increases organizational innovativeness? What can other churches learn from emerging churches about how to lead churches through change and into innovative new approaches to church life? It may also be fruitful to ask whether emerging churches are a fad, a missionary movement or a revitalization movement, why people decide to attend emerging churches, and how their renewal and innovative practice may be sustained.

How much does your reality match your rhetoric?