Prophets and practitioners

It is a truism that the church in the first world is losing numbers and influence. Arguably it has lost its way in a postmodern, technological, pluralist landscape.

Yet we have prophetic voices pointing out new ways that can revitalise the church. Generally people who have tried and tested their ideas. Both prophets and practitioners.

Six books have something to tell us if we have ears to hear. Three are truly radical and prophetic. Three others add to the picture.

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Seeing the future

Liquid Church, Pete Ward, 2002

More than twenty years ago, Pete Ward recognised the way our postmodern western culture was moving. We live in a “liquid” culture – pluralist, part-time work and variable working hours, rapidly changing technology, instant communication and information, etc.

Just as business and government organisations have had to become more adaptable, so must churches. Just as people have to learn to be flexible, so do christians.

He predicted that christians would be less regularly committed to attending a church meeting at a fixed time and place, but instead would likely have fellowship and seek spiritual formation and information in less regular and informal networks, occasional meet-ups, podcasts, one-off events, etc.

He didn’t say this was a good or bad thing, just a future reality. He introduced the concept of “flow” to describe how a liquid moves and shapes according to the container or environment it is in. The new liquid church, he suggested, would need to similarly flow into new spaces and new forms.

His book outlines ways in which all this can be achieved and keep within the plan of God. When I first read the book a decade ago, I felt it was too radical, too far removed from what would successfully promote the kingdom of God. When I re-read it a few years ago, I thought how right he had been and how much we should have been heeding his wisdom all these years.

A vision of what could be

The Shaping of Things to Come, Mike Frost & Alan Hirsch, 2003

This is probably the most comprehensive book I have ever read on how the church needs to change to adapt to the twenty-first century western world..

Mike Frost & Allan Hirsch have had heaps of experience in teaching and mentoring church panters and innovative christians, as well as being part of new style churches.

They start from the observation that the twenty-first century western church is no longer addressing the felt aspirations of the post-Christendom culture around us. Everything we do must be re-examined. We must become a missional church again. They offer plenty of ideas and examples of how to do this:

• christians need to go where people are (incarnational) rather than hope to drag them into church (attractional);
• the church will try to reduce hierarchy and structure in order to involve people more in “multi-dimensional leadership”;
• we need to be more concerned than we have been about “justice-seeking and mercy-bringing”;
• more use of neutral spaces and involvement in shared projects with non-believers;
• recognising that we cannot easily divide people into the ins and the outs, but should rather focus on whether people are moving towards Jesus or not;
• risk-taking rather than safety – “a ship is safest in port, but that isn’t what ships are made for”;
• be more accepting of diversity and difference.

There is theology in this book. And so many examples of people already applying some of these principles: the church in a pub, the shoe shop church, a creative co-op, a community-based business, christians “embedding themselves in poor communities to help make change, incarnational evangelism in cafes and a strip club. Twenty years later, it is still an inspirational read.

Getting involved, doing good

Underground Church, Brian Sanders, 2018

And this is probably the most radical and practical book I have read on a new approach to a church that serves and missions in our pluralistic western culture.

A bunch of students, active at university, return to their home churches and find limited opportunities to serve the community around them. So they begin several “microchurches”, each one aiming to serve a specific segment of the community around them in the name of Jesus

Out of this grew the Underground Church, a collective of over 200 microchurches supported by a central core that only exists to support the microchurches.

The microchurches minister to so many different “tribes” – single mothers, artists & musicians, addicts, sex workers, beer drinkers, black schoolgirls, the poor, foster carers, the homeless, survivors of human trafficking, and more.

Brian was the leader of the church when he wrote this book, and gives us a guide to values, structure, innovation, leadership. Get inspired by watching their 40 minute video, Underground People.

Three more to add to the picture

I’ve read many, many books on the church and mission, but these three caprure something that is helpful and innovative enough to merit inclusion here.

Church Unplugged, David Male, 2008

This practical book is a guide to planting a non-traditional church in a neutral environment. It grew out of Dave’s own experience in starting a new kind of church in industrial England.

This church met in a neutral venue, was tailored to the needs of the local community, was built more around mission that services, was team-based and consultative, and learn through sharing rather than just listening.

Organic Church, Neil Cole, 2005.

Neil is a leader in the US organic or simple church movement. He has helped christians start numerous churches.

This book shares some of his insights into how christians can be evangelists while being salt and light in their local networks – “growing faith where life happens” – and gives ideas about how a church might best meet the needs of these christians.

Quantum Mission, Martin Bragger, 2022.

Martin is an adult convert and a retired minister. His book highlights the weakness of the current “SIC” model of church (Sunday-centric, In-drag and Christendom-form) and the need for something completely different to connect with the kaleidoscope of urban tribes and “live, work and play” micro-cultures that surround us. He outlines how missional communities might meet: “their place, their time, their language and their style”.

Main photo by Pixabay.