BLOG 10/12/14. COLONISTS WHO ARE ARCHITECTS AND ARCHAEOLOGISTS

BLOG 10/12/14. COLONISTS: ARCHAEOLOGISTS AND ARCHITECTS

In my last blog I was reminding myself, and my readers, that even while I am seeking to provoke an alternative narrative about the church and its form, its mission, its message for the emerging post-Christian culture … that we are also indebted to those faithful folk of former generations who sought to be faithful in many diverse, and often very hazardous contexts. For the most part I wandered us around among episodes and personalities of centuries past, upon whose shoulders we stand today. It is a vast and thrilling and challenging study.

Several years ago I had an ongoing conversation with a very insistent and gifted group of younger adults who were all about one-third my age, who were pressing me on how they could be authentic and effective as followers of Christ in the context of so many confusing elements both in those traditional institutional churches (which have often lost their way) and amidst the cynicism and agnosticism of so much of their 24/7 lives. I loved what they came up with (and wrote of it in The Church and the Relentless Darkness): they decided that they were both archaeologists, retrieving the treasures and contributions of the church’s past, but also architects of its incarnation in a totally new and uncharted future.

There is a whole lot of wisdom here. It is shortsighted on our part to neglect the lessons of our history. Every different cultural setting has imposed upon the church its own ethos and requirements. It is a fascinating and informative history. There is so much that we need to have learned, and I highly commend to my readers the scholarly but eminently readable study by South African David Bosch: Transforming Mission, in which he traces the church history and mission from apostolic times to its post-modern present. Anyone who desires to give wholesome leadership to the church of today and tomorrow will hugely benefit by the insights and wisdom recorded in Bosch’s volume.

But again, as we look forward into our role as architects, to be giving self-understanding of the colonies of God’s new humanity (or the communities of the Kingdom of God) in the ‘whitewater’ of our own present incarnation, we also need to realize that in the last century there has been a two-fold seismic shift from the familiar understanding of the church dominated by the west, and by the Christendom patterns (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and Independent) of the west. The center of gravity has shifted to the emerging and vigorous church of the two-thirds world of the south and east. This shift has been from Christendom patterns of ecclesiastical institutions, to a more spontaneous and culturally sensitive and diverse set of forms in Asia, Africa, India, and Latin America. Bosch will help in your understanding of this.

The other seismic shift has been, for us, philosophical and cultural as we have moved into a culture that is basically illiterate of Christendom, if not hostile to the residue of so much of the Christian faith, and the caricatures thereof, that is replete in the atmosphere. To help our architects here, the classic introduction would be Lesslie Newbigin’s The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. (I am also very biased in favor of Jacques Ellul: The Subversion of Christianity.)

Some of our Latin American friends have described the church as: the missionary arm of the Holy Trinity. I like that. That is why I have chosen to use the description of God’s people-in-Christ as: Colonies of God’s New Humanity … because that indicates that we are to be not only a visible demonstration of the love and grace of God in our relationships, … but also those who can be wholesomely and contagiously in conversation with those “spiritually confused God-seekers” with whom we rub elbows everyday in school, in the neighborhood, the lab or office, or in the local pub or coffee shop. Yes: we are archaeologists of the rich heritage of the church’s past, but also stewards and architects of its future. Our only reliable guide will be the teachings of Christ and the apostles in Holy Scripture, so we need to nerd-out on those teachings.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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