The longer we are engaged in missional church planting, the more I find myself going back to Reggie McNeal's,
The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church. This courageous book first came out in 2003, and has been challenging my thinking ever since. In the book McNeal describes the church in terms of six "new realities." The related questions to each of the realities are ones we find ourselves struggling with in our own life and ministry.
1. The collapse of the church culture.
- Wrong question: How do we do church better?
- Tough question: How do we deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?
2. The shift from church growth to kingdom growth.
- Wrong question: How do we grow this church?
- Tough question: How do we transform our community?
3. A new reformation: Releasing God's people.
- Wrong question: How do we turn members into ministers?
- Tough question: How do we turn members into missionaries?
4. The return to spiritual formation.
- Wrong question: How do we develop church members?
- Tough question: How do we develop followers of Jesus?
5. The shift from planning to preparation.
- Wrong question: How do we plan for the future?
- Tough question: How do we prepare for the future?
6. The rise of apostolic leadership.
- Wrong question: How do we develop leaders for church work?
- Tough question: How do we develop leaders for the Christian movement?
Of these six, the one that grabs my attention is #4. We are passionate about developing followers of Christ who understand the difference between religion and relationship. In our own context there are 800,000+ believers sitting in the pews of churches all across this nation. It is my conviction that followers of Christ are not made to sit in pews week after week. Their relationship with Christ calls for a response like that of Isaiah,
"here am I, send me." Seek to deconvert believers from "Churchianity" to Christianity.
Which of Reggie's six points above resonate with you? What are you doing to address these issues in your own life and ministry?
3 comments:
I love these questions, Guy. Thank you for sharing them.
I would like to add that, when it comes to sitting around a table and answering these questions, the participants must not be limited to church staff and pastors.
In Churchianity the five-fold ministry teams have been reduced to: Lead Pastors, Executive Pastors, Worship Pastors, Youth Pastors, and Student Pastors.
In Jesus' Kingdom the five fold are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. We must include everyone around the table to change the world, especially those who are not on staff.
Gabe,
We too believe that "we must include everyone around the table to change the world..." The APEPT are there to equip the saints for the work to which the church has been called to do. When ALL of the church is on mission with Christ we will see the great final harvest.
McNeal asked the tough questions back in 2003, but did he actually use the word "churchianity?" My first exposure to that term came from Michael Spencer's book Mere Churchianity which critically examined church culture and is of course a play on the C.S. Lewis title Mere Christianity.
http://www.amazon.com/Mere-Churchianity-Finding-Jesus-Shaped-Spirituality/dp/0307459179/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397047412&sr=8-1&keywords=mere+churchianity
Post a Comment