we did not see you
One of the driving forces behind the emerging church is mission. For the record I even prefer the term the ‘missional church’. Yet, despite this being one of the driving forces and despite it being the articulated (and much discussed) purpose, I wonder if we are achieving what we set out to do.
As I look around at the many emerging church expressions in Melbourne, I see them filled with predominately people who have moved from a more established church. Some of them may have not made the jump directly but have perhaps left a few years prior and re-engaged with the church through a more emerging expression.
At our nexus congregation initially these were the people we connected with. We used to say that our nexus congregation was pitched at the ‘post-church’. It is true that our tangent congregation which was given birth from nexus has now connected with people who did not have a Christian background, but they are still the minority.
Is this a problem? Is the emerging church simply reaching those who are turned off the established church? Possibly!
However, I think there is a segment of our society who are finding the emerging church a place that they can express their spirituality, community and compassion in Jesus, that would not have done so if the established church was the only option. So, kudos to the emerging church – it is filling a need.
Yet, I think we can do better. I think we need to move out of our emerging church holy huddles and expose ourselves to more connection with people who have not grown up in the church. This will be a challenge as just like the established church most of our relationships are either within the church or with people who we used to know from church circles.
I also think that the emerging church needs to focus more on the mission as outlined by Jesus in Luke 4: “to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”.
As I look around at the emerging church scene I see little of this. Perhaps I am not looking in the right direction, so correct me if I am wrong. But I do think we need to hear again the challenge by Jesus in the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matt 25).
Let us not reply: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you? For when we were sipping our lattes, watching video clips, engaging in discussion and reading blogs – we did not see you’
April 26th, 2005 at 10:08 am
Anthony I would say it is a good expurgated version of what the cross and resurrection is all about.
April 26th, 2005 at 7:01 pm
I’m sorry Homer - I don’t know what you mean.
April 27th, 2005 at 9:03 pm
sorry mate but I don’t know how I caan make it any simpler.
both Phil’s lines have affinity with the Sermon on the Mount which confirms again Jesus wasn’t talking about generic altruism.
poor of god!
April 28th, 2005 at 9:42 am
Ah that made me laugh, you use a sentence with “expurgated” in it and you say you don’t see how you could make it more simpler.
Easy - rephrase, use different words, put effort into understanding so you can be understoof. Well, ok, maybe not easy but a worthy pursuit.
April 28th, 2005 at 9:58 am
Okay a very short version of the cross and ressurection.
He is being forward looking.
May 1st, 2005 at 9:17 am
The concept of feeding the hungry, clothing those who are naked, social injustice etc continues to be a frustration for me with the church. It seems that with both traditional contemporary and emergent types, that their focus is on themselves, finding more importance with how their services are defined and reinforcing their worlds with ‘leadership meetings’, music practice and many conferences and retreats that at best push a personal spirituality.
In contrast to this I see Jesus with people in the street, serving, meeting need with food and healing, challenging stereotypes of what it means to be a believer, showing what God really looks like, doesn’t tell people that God loves them…just shows it, getting angry with the structured church with its barnacles of religiousity.
He leaves our time and says we will do even greater things…I don’t see us doing even these things …we subcontract this out to the relevant ministries and Govt. agencies so that we can live comfortable middle class lives. As individuals we don’t need to get dirty with such things.
If we all did what we were called to do…perhaps there would be little need for the Govt. agencies, perhaps Jesus would be walking the streets again very visibly, perhaps the church wouldn’t be suffering the declines it has known for too many years. The kingdom of God is not about words, but power and action.
May 1st, 2005 at 10:14 am
I think you are right Garth. What concerns me is the focus (of any flavors of church) on the event. The idea of getting people to a certain place, at a certain time is very strong. And while we should not overlook the important need for this - if this is all - then we have missed the point.
May 2nd, 2005 at 3:23 pm
I can only agree and enjoy hearing these ideas being persued. I have long been troubled that church focus is on church function…the event. All the energy that goes into a service week in week out, only adds to peoples busy lives, when we should “make it our business to lead a quiet life”. Unyoking people from the many unecessary church activities would enable them to better persue their destinies in his service. Yet most of us have been brought up in the church, converted by our parents and we don’t stop to question that the ’service’ has replaced real ‘church’. We now call a place ‘church’ when in in Acts the assembly of people were known as the church. But I think that’s covering old ground for anyone who blogs on the EC.
I still hold that the church service can form an important and integral role in the lives of people, but it shouldn’t replace the biblical concept of it. Interestingly we are often not given the grace to question and rediscover what real church is without being thought of as backslidden. Ironically it is the opposite.
May 3rd, 2005 at 11:17 am
Yes, I can agree with that Garth. (Which of course makes us right! lol)
Part of my struggle is working within the existing paradigm and model (established or traditional) and become a church that seeks to serve the poor and oppressed, while deepening in our relationship with God, others, and ourselves. I find that this is not an easy task because some don’t know why we need to change, and others condemn because we do not change fast enough. A curious situation . . . Where is the grace . .
May 28th, 2005 at 1:45 pm
[…] archives/2005/03/01/tired/ McCredden, P. (2005b). we did not see you. Retrieved May 10, 2005, from http://www.signposts.org.au/index.php/archives/2005/04/19/we-did-not-see-you/ Filed under: challenges for the church — phil @ 1:00 pm […]