More on evolution

Earlier, I spoke about evolution.

So I was doing some further research about this and I found a couple interesting thoughts by Len Hjalmarson of Next Reformation. While I don't know whether he would agree with me about the idea that the EC is partly about preserving the church to endure persecution, I do think he believes the church is "evolving".

Here is my confession, which some of you well know: I like to quote people when they say things better than I do. I sometimes am not able to be as articulate with my ideas as I would like, so I borrow from someone who said it better.

From "UK Church faces life underground", Monday December 13, 2004

“Christianity in Great Britain is imploding, fragmenting and will soon be driven underground, says a senior adviser to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

“Jayne Ozanne told Williams and Archbishop of York David Hope that a time of great persecution for the church is coming, reports the Times of London.

“While the established Church will self-destruct, “fragmenting into various divisions over a range of internal issues”, she predicts that a new “Church in England” will take root, consisting of non-denominational cell groups throughout the country…"

From "The Year 2002 - A Time of Transition". I could not find this in Len's archives, but found it via Google cache. I asked Len if he could find a link to the original, and although he was gracious enough to look, he could not find it.

"We aren't concerned with size: we are concerned with impact. We want to see lives changed, people healed and delivered, and their lives transformed. Concern with size has almost always been a worldly priority and it has distorted our focus. In order to grow large groups we tend to focus on management; but managers solve problems, they don't build community. Community priorities are different than institutional priorities. Community priorities are nurture, mission, transformation and the life of God. We don't need more managers; we need more mystics. We need to draw on the life of God and see His life take flesh in our communities."

I think in this paragraph he sums up well the changes the EC is bringing about, and in my opinions these characteristics - community, nurture, mission, transformation, mystics ... these things will help the church to be resilient in the face of adversity.

He goes on to say:

"In times of rapid change we need to be able to respond quickly. Small groups are flexible and mobile. Small boats can turn quickly; it takes forever to turn an ocean liner.

The future of the church is not in trying to change existing structures. That is slow and painful work, and rarely successful. Don't try putting new wine into old skins. Forget the renovation job.. build something new on a new foundation. Only what we build into the lives of people will last."

That's what I'm talking about. Building something that lives in us, that will go wherever we go ... something that it mobile, not dependent on a building or a structure, or even on certain people (like a Pastor).

"I sense a growing grass roots strength in the Christian underground. More and more of us are getting back to the simple truth of the gospel and allowing it to change the way we live. More and more of us are saying goodbye to the old ways and searching for a new and authentic expression of kingdom values. We are tired of marketing hype, consumer christianity, lecture halls, program oriented and leader centered structures. We want to be families to each other, we want to do justice and we want real diversity instead of standardized, mass market christianity. We want to connect with God and discover what it is to be disciples 24/7."

These are the positive side effects of "going underground". When all the systems and structures we rely on are removed from us, we have to build something else, something more organic - family.

Len posts a quote here:

"All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted as being self evident." -Arthur Schopenhauer

Which I think outlines what the evolving church is enduring right now - those that have been involved in it for some time certainly know better than I do in my meager year-or-so experience ... but I think we moving from ridicule to opposition. This is a sobering thought. But I do see it becoming self-evident at some point that the way we have been "doing" church no longer works well. That's not to say it did not ever work, only that church must move with the times in order to stay alive.

"There is always resistance to change. Those in power resist change because it threatens the established order on which their employment or prestige is built. Those who follow those with power resist change because they are followers and they love their own comfort more than they love truth and reality. Others, even when uncomfortable with the current order, resist change because they fear the unknown. But when a certain momentum is reached, when a certain mass of people embrace change, a new order suddenly appears alongside the old one. Then the old order gradually disappears."

Momentum. I know it has been said a million times in a thousand different ways, but this is the punchline. I know I am experiencing it. I hope to be able to spread it around a little someday. I want to see that certain mass be reached. I want to see Christianity survive the next millenium. I not only want to see it survive, but thrive. Even if that means going "underground" I want us to be willing to grow and change, to do what it takes to keep in step with the changing world around us, so we don't get trampled by the marching of time. To not be afraid or resistant, but to embrace the building momentum and roll with it.

That's what I'm talking about. Thanks for listening.