| In Great Emergence, The: How Christianity Is Changing and Why (emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith) Phyllis Tickle documents how every 500 years, civilization experiences a massive societal upheaval that transforms technology, science, politics, religion and the global culture at large. During this shift, the institutional structures of the church become shattered and a renewed form of the church emerges. Religion scholar Harvey Cox reflects in The Future of Faith “The era of Christianity as a Western religion is already over. Instead of “Western Christianity,” we now witness a post-Christian West (in Europe) and a post-Western Christianity (in the global South). America is somewhere in between.” Following are a few snippets that highlight some of the global changes I’ve noticed in my recent travels.
United Kingdom: With the blessing of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Church of England has endorsed a mixed economy of church whereby new ways to worship God co-exist alongside more traditional churches. Every August around 20,000 Christians gather together at Greenbelt (Greenbelt.org.uk), a Christian arts and social justice festival. Jonny Baker (Jonnybaker.blogs.com) has his feet in both traditional and alternative settings as he trains pioneer leaders with the Church Mission Society and leads worship at Grace, a London based community. Also, he co-founded Proost, a collection of creative resources from a range of communities based in the UK and elsewhere that help spurn new ways of thinking about how Christian communities live out their faith. As Jonny observes on his blog, “I have always understood the term emerging church to be a description of the church responding to the challenge of the wider cultural changes. So the church in that sense is going to be emerging for quite some time yet. It's never been about a particular denomination or style, there's never been anything to join that has owned the name.”
United States: In the Fremont section of Seattle, forward thinking monastics breathe new life into ancient rituals over at the Church of the Apostles (COTA) (http://www.apostleschurch.org/about.php). This liturgical community picks up on the ethos of the UK Anglican emerging church by breathing new life into ancient rituals and traditions. Similar to the first apostles (from a Greek word that means “those sent out”), who were blessed by Jesus to carry on his mission, COTA’s apostles are regular people who heard God calling and decided to answer. These contemporary apostles remain committed to servring God in real life within their neighborhood. In carrying out the apostle’s mandate to go forth and spread the gospel, the Rev. Karen Ward, Abbess for COTA, recently launched Episcopal Village (http://episcopalvillage.org), This grassroots endeavor seeks to provide support and funding that will enable fifteen to twenty new and fresh expressions of church to be birthed across the nation via a grants program for emerging mission.
New Zealand: When Christmas comes to town, one church opens its doors, enters the streets and throws out hay bales in a city central park that form the shape of a labyrinth. Another might buy space and offer prayer candles to festival-goers wanting to pray. Another, on a quieter Tuesday night, invites seekers to a couch and coffee conversation about their faith questions. Steve Taylor is a pastor, theologian, author of The Out of Bounds Church?: Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change and writer at Emergentkiwi.org.nz. In our email exchanges, he observes how each of these emerging shapes are bound by a realization that God speaks in diverse ways coupled with the desire to go to people, rather than invite people to come to us. He reflects, “When I see such shapes, I am reminded of the church in Acts 2, when bystanders from many places, from Parthia to Elam, were stunned to hear God in their own language. Throughout history, across times and culture, the spirit has continued to take the shape of a missionary God, not limited by culture, nor reduced to buildings. In New Zealand today that spirited impulse continues, no longer in the language of the Medes and Parthians, but in creativity, couches and prayerful hospitality.”
Going Global: In Summer 2009, about 5,000 mostly young adult Polish Christians explored ways to artistically express their faith at the Slot Art Festival (http://www.slot.art.pl) in Lubiaz, Poland while the Global Roundtable of Emerging and Underground Ministries held a gathering of international ministers. One of the key points raised during this discussion was how Christianity is growing like wildfire in the Global South and Asia. How Christianity has been informed by these continents looks much different than the Westernized interpretations that have functioned as the dominant narrative since the time of Constantine. Historically, the West has assumed the role of giver by sending out missionaries to these areas. The question is how Westernized churches will respond when these missionaries come back to them? Will they be able to assume the role of receiver? Cyberspace Connections: While the world goes digital, so does the church. International missiologist Andrew Jones (http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com) has been documenting the history of Christians operating on the fringes of the faith throughout history while connecting with people of faith both on and offline.
Instead of eschewing culture, these new forms of church seek to follow the example of Jesus, who both immersed himself in the culture of his day and challenged it. Each service is informed by the uniqueness of its specific setting; a gathering in New York City, London, Christchurch, or Seattle will be take on the vibe of the community’s particular milieu. While Jesus’s face changes according to the cultural context, the message of the risen Christ continues to resonate throughout the world.
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Becky Garrison is the author of
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