We live in a time of extraordinary change. Everything is shifting so quickly, it feels impossible to keep up.
In times of rapid dramatic change, institutions are hit particularly hard. Adherence to traditional paradigms can no longer be taken for granted. We cannot assume that the familiar ways of doing anything continue to be viable. It is easy to feel threatened when the ways we have always conducted our life together are all open to question.
Recognizing the realities of our changed situation is not a counsel for despair. Viewing the realities of our culture honestly and openly is part of listening sensitively to the context in which we struggle to do ministry. The history of the church is filled with the violent actions and arrogance of church officials who have failed to take seriously the life situations of those among whom they were seeking to do ministry.
We in the church must not turn a blind eye to the reality of the changes that are happening in every area of our society.
We might wish it were not true; but it is impossible to take for granted allegiance to the comfortable patterns of the past. We can demand that people honour the way things used to be done all we want. This will not change the fact that people are going to make up their own minds about how they choose to live.
Medical professionals who follow traditional western practices can rail against alternative medicine. This will not prevent patients from consulting a Naturopath or going for accupuncture. Teachers may object to families who choose to diverge from the normative educational path. But the professional educators’ objections will not stop parents from choosing to homeschool their children. Elected officials may complain that alternative political parties have no value in the system. But people at the polls will still vote Green.
Church is not exempt from the impact of massive cultural shifts.
Church professionals may lament the reality, but nothing is going to change the fact that in our communities we now share Sunday morning with many other activities. We may object, but are powerless to alter the fact that, even among those who do choose to attend church on a regular basis, weekly attendance is increasingly rare and institutional loyalty is a charming relic of the past. Spiritual consumerism may be unfortunate; but it is a reality we are powerless to undo.
We might wish that people would continue to dedicate ten percent of their income to the work of our churches. But, economic challenges and an increasingly competitive market for charitable donations, mean that such an expectation may no longer be realistic.
We might hope that parishioners would dedicate regular hours to volunteer work in the church. But, in a world where many families depend upon two incomes, and in which time pressures are excessive, it may simply not be possible or even healthy to demand that parishioners dedicate their few discretionary hours to volunteer church work.
At a deeper level, churches can no longer expect that every person who connects with the church will necessarily follow the prescribed pattern of spiritual life.
We can pontificate all we want about the authority of the closed canon of Scripture. This will not stop people from finding spiritual nourishment in “The Gospel of Thomas.” We can demand that worshipers stand up and recite the Creeds. But the average person in the pew will continue to interpret these words according to their understanding regardless of how the professionals demand the ancient words be understood. We can teach that the pattern for Eucharist is baptism prior to reception; this will not prevent parents from sharing their bread with their unbaptized children, or unbaptized adults from participating at the Table as freely as they choose.
The world is changing at an incredible pace. If there is going to continue to be any corporate expression of Christian faith in the changed realities we face, the church must pay attention to the changes it is powerless to prevent. We must find the voice of God’s Spirit speaking in the midst of change.
Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God said,
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:19)
If our hearts are not open, we may fail to “perceive” the “new thing” God is doing. We need to trust in God’s faithfulness and listen carefully to the message of the changed realities of our culture. There is nothing to fear. God is at work. The only question is whether we will cooperate with the “new thing” God is doing or continue to resist the movement of God’s Spirit.
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
July 13, 2012 at 8:39 am
lindsay
I suspect some of the answers lie in the changes themselves … to find the answers we need to accept the changes and once we do that a whole new world opens up …
as an example … large extended families in close proximity are not as common as they once were … this leaves grandparents with love and time but perhaps no grandchildren to dote on, this leaves children without uncles, aunts, grandparents and all the other significant adults who might have been available to give them a sense of community … and a longing for these things … this leaves parents, often single parents. overworked but also lonely for social connection … Yes, there are a lot of other organizations out there that can fill the gaps, but I know of very few organizations that provide a community of people spanning all age groups in regular,ongoing relationships over many years … I can’t think of any, come to think of it …
July 13, 2012 at 9:00 am
lindsay
So why are people not flocking to churches to fill this gap? … I think there are 3 main, big reasons …
1) out there church is perceived as a finger-wagging place where people are told in no uncertain terms they are sinners and have to repent of their evil ways … Life is hard enough – that would be a real downer for most people ….
2) church is perceived as a place where people and children are abused but no-one, not even the Pope takes strong action against the abusers … Boy Scouts has the same historic problem … For people on the outside, without any experience, it takes an extreme amount of courage and convincing that such organizations are a safe place to send one’s children … and
3) church is perceived as a place which is only interested in taking people’s money and filling it’s own coffers ….
Yes, these perceptions might be unfair and unfounded, but perceptions are hard to change without significant, absolute and persistent evidence to the contrary …. I’m not sure how anyone can provide this kind of re-assurance … today …
July 13, 2012 at 10:32 am
Steve
I see the Christian faith as especially well adapted to handle this accelerated and fluid world as you have described because it gives us a center of permanence or familiarity but with a framework to revaluate as we are constantly faced with change. There is much good news in The Good News. I can see this clearly but I fear I am among the few.
Doesn’t the reality you’ve expressed here just press us towards rediscovering the reality of the teaching of Jesus? More and more our rituals, conventions, traditions and doctrines are being challenged and I can see that as a good thing. That the church should change is evolving into the church must change. With Jesus as our center we need not fear change, we need merely follow Him and He gives us the way. He teaches life isn’t about following conventions, traditions, rituals or doctrine; it is about following the heart where He, the Spirit of truth, the living Jesus resides. In modern parlance we would express it as “calling it as you see it” or “following the dictates of your heart” but guided by light of the truth or the spirit rather than tradition, doctrine, dogma, and prejudices. These are killing the church because they are not life. Jesus is life and He beckons us.
Now is not the time to look back, let the dead bury the dead. Will it take something as radical as a statement like that to break loose? In my own mind I try to visualize how that would happen and what it would look like if that was the case. I would fear some leader rising up, rallying the masses to take the church in a new direction. That thought scares me. I see it as something more spontaneous. The terms flash mob, critical mass, bandwagon effect come to mind. Or could it come from something unexpected like the International Arts Movement? The IAM is a Christian inspired movement and part of the IAM mission statement reads “International Arts Movement works as a catalyst to inspire people to hope, engage deeply into the depth of culture’s critical zones, and create a world that ought to be. We believe that artistic excellence as a model of “what ought to be” paves the way for lasting, enduring humanity”. As a part time artist/craftsman I would be comfortable with that. The more I think about it the more it makes sense.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Romans 12:2
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”
John 16:13