Time to move on

Tony Campolo tells a story of Booker T. Washington, born a slave, but who became well known and loved as an educator and author. Booker T., said Campolo, once said that he prayed, “God, help me to know Your mind”. And God answered him. “Booker”, He said, “That’s a little too much for you to handle. Let’s try a peanut.”

That is a bit how I feel as I think about setting out some of my thoughts about this thing known as the “church”. The issues of what the church is, and what it should be are many, and they are complex. It's really too big a subject for me, and I wonder if I can write anything worthwhile. But, maybe I can, and perhaps it might contribute to positive change.

As I have said before, I was impacted by McLaren’s book, The Secret Message of Jesus. It has prompted me to follow some blogs which talk about the “emergent church”, a move of people from established church denominations who are unhappy with the mainstream, the traditional and the mega-church. While it’s hard to describe the movement in a few words, (and I am not well qualified in any event), I think it’s generally accurate to say that “emergent” people genuinely believe that there is much more to our relationship with God than they have experienced in their denominations, and that God is calling us to a greater work than attending church and being involved in its mainly self-serving programs. Their churches have failed to understand their concerns, or dismissed them, and they are moving to another place. I am interested in this movement and I share the feeling of discontent, even despair with church and some of its mission work, at least as I have experienced them in the past few years.

I decided to set out my thoughts, after reading a "series" of recent popular posts on the subject in Blogs I have followed for a few months. The ferocity of the language in some of these will give some sense of the disillusionment felt by many of with our traditional structures. They are:

1. The People Formerly Known as The Congregation @ http://www.kinnon.tv/html
2. The Underlying Issues @ http://emerginggrace.blogspot.com.html
3. The Community Coming to be Known as Missional @ http://emergentvoyageurs.blog.com/ and three subsequent more detailed post called Exploring the Community Coming to be Known as Missional – Parts 1, 2 and 3.

If you want to read more, these blogs will link you to others that discuss further aspects of the concerns that are held.


Those that know me, know that I have attended and served in most capacities in a single traditional Baptist church for probably 20 years. I have also longed for a greater work of the Holy Spirit in my life and the church, and have explored and agree with much of the thinking of the charismatic church. About 2 years ago I left my job as a lawyer to do volunteer mission (English teaching) work with AIM, working for some 8 months in Kenya. My daughter lives in South Africa and so my wife and I have had the opportunity to attend a variety of churches in a number of African countries. Presently we live in Slovakia (where I teach some English), and attend a small English speaking church. There have been exceptions (which I expect I’ll discuss at some time), but particularly in the last few years, my relationships with the institutions (but not necessarily the people they have tried to serve) have been extremely disappointing, so much so that I have at times considered that my faith in a God must be misplaced. I admit that maybe I am the problem, but I think not. I’m really pretty sane. The problem in my view is that in many cases the church and its mission groups, and many of those who belong to these, have been an extremely poor model of a powerful, dynamic, joyous, mission-oriented and people-loving God. And so I agree with the emergents that something is terrribly wrong and needs to change.

In spite of this background, I was mostly unhappy with the first two posts in this so-called series. I don’t agree with Bill Kinnon’s contention, (at least for most of the churches I attended) that money was a unhealthy concern, that building projects were more important than people, that the contemporary worship music I loved to sing was simply a bunch of “silly love songs”, or that a desire to grow fast was a result of greed or misplaced competitiveness. Nor do I agree with EmergingGrace that the traditional church did not seriously carry out its duty to go to the lost, or that that there was a lack of loving involvement by both the leadership and many individuals in the lives of others. To me the claims of a need to “detox”, and some of the criticism of church leadership is inflammatory, unnecessary, unloving and prideful.

You see, we, (that is, we who are now complaining), were the church when we attended our mainstream organizations. We gave gladly, we served willingly when called upon, led as best we knew how when asked, gave generously because we were often served by church programs and its leaders, and saw that others were also served in some way. We followed our leaders because we believed they were trying as best they could to lead wisely, and for the most part they were, although many were blind to their own inadequacy, strongholds and failings. What we got was what we wanted in large part. Much of it was good and valuable, even though we now can see the many faults of the organizations we supported. They helped us to where we are now.

As a result I think it would be better for those who are part of the emerging church to set out a positive vision of what their “church” or alternative will be in coming years, and stop looking over their shoulders, shouting negative comments to the institutions they have left. And I know there are those that are being positive and moving on with new ideas. I hope to find some of them. I’m looking forward to the future. Time will tell if I/we have anything better to offer.

Which brings me finally to the third post in the series . The Emergent Voyageur has a generous way of focusing on the positive in a situation and encouraging reconciliation. It’s a challenge to me to communicate in this way and I admire his ability to do this. In particular he zeroed in on the need for the emergent church to be missional, a matter which was sorely absent in the other posts. And finally, in the last two posts he offered some material with substance to assist in moving forward. At last someone is talking about a positive future instead of a negative past.

All of which has led me to wonder what I have to offer to the discussion, and so I thought I would “give it a go”; reflecting on what I think was wrong and should be changed in the church I loved and maybe offering some ideas as I look to the future. I’d like anyone who might read this to be involved in this discussion with me, and look forward to your comments. Remind me to be sensitive as I do this. I don’t want to simply criticize, but rather I want us to be Spirit-led to a different and better future.