It’s been a quiet month blog-wise, mainly because I don’t really get time to process some of my thinking these days. This college thing seems to have taken up all my free time!
Anyway, today was our Sure Foundations class, which is basically a Church history class. We were given a handout that included some text from a book that believe it or not was published in Godalming, which both Zoe and I have had a look at during our research for an essay. That’s beside the point a little I should get on with the actual post!
This handout included the following:
“[The Church] did not see the need to go to the people on the streets but took the view that the people must go to it.”
I couldn’t help but be struck by the similarity in many places today. There are still churches and corps across the country that seem to think that people will just instinctively come into them and see no reason at all to reach outside the building, which of course many actually think is the church in the first place. In fact what is becoming clearer as we study the history and circumstances leading to the birth of The Salvation Army is that little seems to have changed in the last 200 years. Society has moved on but the Church is still stuck, by and large, in a bubble that seems to protect it from the world outside it. This is true of the Army whether we like to admit it or not.
There are corps in our Territory, and across the western world, which are quiet simply so stuck in their way of doing things that God basically doesn’t get a look in. It’s not that the people aren’t Christians, it’s just that many of them long since gave up listening to, or at the very least acting upon, the voice of the Holy Spirit. They are almost exactly like the churches that William & Catherine Booth despaired so much of when they set out on their God ordained task. Ironic isn’t it?
However, there is encouraging news. Many of those who are training have some sort of experience of this sort of corps and none of them, or at least those I’ve spoken with, want this malaise to continue. I suspect though that there will be some difficult times ahead, when many ‘Army’ people lament the loss of ‘the Real Army’ yet I suspect that the real ‘Real Army’ will start making an even bigger impact than it already is!
For the last year I’ve spent my Friday nights out doing the pubs with the War Cry, something I personally don’t really enjoy, so last Friday it was nice to get a chance to go and do something different. So it was that I found myself at a church in Peckham which I remembered from my days living in the area, listening to Tom Sine.
Sine describes himself as a futurist, which apparently means that he looks into what trends will do in the future, which sounds like quite a cool job! Anyway he was in Peckham to plug his new book, which I had found on the shelves of the Christian Bookshop in Godalming about 4 months ago!
The book is basically about the new trends in church, emerging, missional, mosaic (what is that I thought until I realised that this actually meant multi-cultural) and new monastic. Its about what these 4 new(ish) streams of renewal can actually offer to the wider church. One of the things that I discovered is that I’ve been involved in these sorts of churches for the last 13 years or so without ever really realising I was!
There was some good conversation, often sparked by the sizeable college contingent, and Sine himself raised some good points. Two quotes that stood out and which were on his Powerpoint:
“Rediscovering the kingdom - not only is it theology for Sunday, but a new reason to get out of bed on Monday.”
That these new streams offer an “opportunity to rediscover the good life of God is found not in seeking life but in losing life in the service of God and others.”
The only problem with the whole evening is that I felt Tom Sine could have spoken more and given a few more answers. Then again despite the fact that he is a really nice guy and it was great to get to speak to him directly, this was about promoting his book so he couldn’t give too much away! So I better get the book off the shelf I suppose!
One of the biggest problems I think we continue to face within the Church is the traditionalism that is so destructive to the Gospel message. I recently read a blog post that touched on the subject from a viewpoint of liturgy and worship, but it made me think about how traditionalism actually acts to hamper mission.
Maggi Dawn, who wrote the piece says this at one point:
At the same time, though, there are aspects of our tradition that are not as traditional as you might suppose. As Anglicans, we are famous for our “Choral Tradition” – something so well established we usually never question it as the backbone of our worship. Yet this form of worship is significantly different now than it was a couple of centuries ago. Much of the music we now consider standard is actually very young. And the use of the organ in Church is a surprisingly modern innovation. At one time parish churches had a musicians’ gallery where strings and wind instruments were played, and singers would lead. When the first pipe organs were installed in Churches there was outrage! Letters were written, and petitions made against this modern innovation that was (so it seemed at the time) incapable of conveying the beauty of worship,. Yet gradually it was recognised that the grandeur of the pipe organ offered a new and apt way of sounding the praises of God.
Of course the argument over styles of worship is one of the favourite battles of the traditionalist elements within the church. We have them in The Salvation Army, and the Anglicans have them. In fact I remember a situation from my time working for the Anglican Communion when a colleague was lambasting ‘happy-clappy’ worship yet when their style of worship was described as ‘bells and smells’ they were horrified by such a disgraceful attack on the way God had spoken to them on numerous occasions!
Traditionalism tends to want to keep the status quo. It seems that its scared of anything new; anything that could alter that status quo! The saddest thing is that they put so much energy into defending their position and end polarising the views into either ‘you’re with us or you’re against us’ type attitudes. This always hampers what is really important and that’s growing as disciples and reaching out to make new ones!
From what I can tell there is still lots of discussion about the place of contemporary music within the church. I know this because of a conversation I overheard a relatively short while ago. So here’s something I read yesterday on the subject of modern worship!
There are several reasons for opposing it. One, it’s too new. Two, it’s often worldly, even blasphemous. The new Christian music is not as pleasent as the more established style. There are so many new songs, you can’t learn them all. It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than Godly lyrics. This new music creates disturbances making people act indecently and disorderly. The preceding generation got along without it. It’s a money making scam and some of these new upstarts are lewd and loose.
Who were these words written about? Well it appears that they were actually written about Isaac Watts, the 18th Century writer of classic hymns such as “When I survey the wondrous cross” and “Joy to the world”. Strange how things seem not to have changed much for well over 250 years!
Here is the start of a Mission Statement that I saw recently in a church:
As a Christian Church and an integral part of the [denominational name] we offer…
I won’t go on to say the 3 things they offered because these in themselves are of significant difficulty to me. The real reason I raise the statement is to explore our attitudes towards mission.
Personally, I’m not sure whether I am comfortable with the word ‘offer’ being included in a mission statement for a church. It suggests a passive attitude in terms of the gospel. It suggests a come and see attitude towards church, rather than a get out into the world and live the life type attitude.
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