Church Paradigm Shift.
A few weeks back I shared a sermon at Church on Paradigm
shifts. I used Saul as an example, who went out to persecute the Christians but
after an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, completely changed his ways and
became known as Paul. Many things changed in Paul’s life, but the key is that
there was a Paradigm shift! The set of understandings that he had based his
belief system and actions on, changed, resulting in an entirely different way
of looking at things!
Many years ago I shared a vision. In it, I was walking
through the desert, initially on my own but over time other people joined me –
ones and twos, that at first I hadn’t noticed, but were there in the desert,
until eventually there was a vast group of people determinedly walking together
through the desert. Until now it hasn’t made a lot of sense to me, although I
have gained some encouragement through it.
One thing that I have constantly asked and struggled with is
the question, “What is Church?” Most readers at this point will be able to give
an answer, based on their understanding and experience, which I have come to realise,
is exactly my problem. My understanding of Church is, like most of yours, based
on the Paradigm that we hold. Even when researching and studying types and
forms of Church or the Biblical examples, I have still been operating from this
Paradigm. So when it came to changing things in Church, the changes had to fit
into this Paradigm, for if they didn’t, what I ended up with, wasn’t Church! To
further complicate this issue, I, like most of us, was completely unaware of
the Paradigm that I was operating from, and seeing that it formed the
foundation of my belief system about Church, was powerless to think outside of
it!
The strange thing is, that I thought I was thinking through,
and leading the Church differently. An example of this would be the desire to
have a mission and presence focused Church. Mission in that the Church is purposely
outward looking in what it does and Presence focused in that it seeks and
waits on the direction and confirmation, (the presence) of the Holy Spirit. The
problem: my basic paradigm understanding is of an attractional model Church.
That model says that to be Church, there should be feeding – through the Word
of God (Bible study, preaching etc), there should be prayer and definitely
corporate worship with some form of fellowship and outreach activities. The
typical model Church that we all are accustomed to! To make this Church more Mission and Presence
focused is to try to add this to the mix, giving greater priority to these
components, while maintaining the basic underlying understanding of what Church
is. The problem is that the model looks the same, just tweaked to reflect a
slightly different style.
So people are confronted with a range of Churches that
fundamentally are built on the same Paradigm, but are diverse in the style they
portray. The Attractional model – common to virtually every Church, simple says
that people should come to our Church because we are attractive – either
because we are friendly, or accepting, or modern, or run great events, or have
a charismatic leader, or have great programs, or are Spirit filled, or whatever
you want to put in the box! Our outreach programs, diverse as they are, still
carry the idea that some people will be led to come to our Church through our endeavors.
That is the underlying hope and often is the measure we use for the success or
not of the venture, and the justification for the expense involved.
Before I go any further, I don’t want you to get the idea
that I am trying to criticize this model. It has been around since the early
Church and I expect it will be around for a lot longer. The point is however,
because we are accustomed to this model, it is very difficult to think outside
of it, and therefore to offer any type of alternative! Most alternative
Churches, start up churches and house Churches etc, still have this idea at
their heart. Because this Paradigm exists in the vast majority of Church going
people, most of you won’t understand a different paradigm! I was the same! This
Paradigm forms the tint on the lens through which we view any new idea or
thought. To get a hold of what I want to share, we need to look through a
different lens!
This is the realization that I have finally come to, that
all this time, as I was desperately seeking to bring about change, I was
limited by the underlying understanding I had of Church and therefore unable to
see anything fundamentally different, other than some variation on the status
quo!
The other day I was listening to a gentleman, outlining an
idea for getting alongside of Maori people. As I listened to him and to the
comments from others presence, something clicked into place in my thinking. It
was like my experiences, the lessons I was learning, even the way I was now
approaching things, suddenly made sense!
The gentleman was speaking about journeying together,
terminology I have heard many times, even used myself on occasion. The
difference was that he was speaking about doing this as an end in itself, not a
means to an end. This is the fundamental difference! To journey with people,
not in order to get them to come to our Church, or be part of our group or even
to get them to commit to our particular doctrine or way of thinking.
This is when the vision that I had so long ago came back
into focus. I remember a friend of mine once speaking about Church as a “People
movement!” This is the concept, but for it to make sense, the understanding of
Church must change. The Journey is Church! End of story! It is not a journey to
get people to Church, it is Church complete in itself! I’ll refer to this as
the “Journey Church” JC for short. Isn’t it
interesting that those initials might also refer to Jesus Christ, and what did
he do with his disciples but literally journey with them!
So what might this look like? A group of people sharing
their lives with one another, with a special emphasis on what God is doing/not
doing, in, through and around them.
Anything else would come out of that simple idea.
How is this any different from a fellowship group or some
other group you may ask? First, a fellowship group is part of Church – not Church
in itself. Most groups have an emphasis on some aspect of the Christian faith –
Prayer, Bible study, worship, fellowship, outreach etc. They often carry an
underlying belief that people must be “fed” so some verse or truth is shared by
a leader.
Journeying is about each person sharing and reflecting on
what the Spirit of God is saying to them individually and as a group. It
doesn’t carry at its heart a need to “feed” people, rather the idea that the
Holy Spirit is at work in each person, and each has something to add, with the
group helping the individual discover God’s will and presence in their lives.
There is essentially nothing new in this concept. The
Brethren Assemblies worked and in most part still work off this premise. The
concept (widely accepted today) of the priesthood of all believers is rooted in
this ideology. So if it has previously been so fundamental to our understanding
of Church, why is it no longer practiced? I need to write another complete
article to answer that fully, but it short, the answer is simply because it
doesn’t fit neatly into an organized, structured Church. Think on Church as we
know it. It probably has at least one paid staff member, many volunteer staff,
a building, many ministries and programs to support. It is structured in a
certain way and the people that attend are fairly happy with that structure –
woe betide anyone who tries to change it! It’s success can be measured in three
broad categories. Firstly it is measured by the numbers attending the Church’s
programs and services. Secondly it is measured in monetary values – is it
paying its way? Thirdly it is measured by peoples progression, from outside the
Church to belonging to the Church, then to its programs and possibly to leading
a program. The Journeying
Church isn’t easily
measured! It won’t fit neatly into a denomination’s statistics, because it can
and should cater for people from a multitude of theological backgrounds. Unless
a particular group choose to support a person for a specific function, there
won’t be any employed staff, and the very nature of a group that can share,
listen and walk together will limit it’s size to an amount that can be
accommodated in a home, so there is no need for a building.
This model isn’t without problems and creates as many
questions as it answers. Where does worship fit in? What stops each group from
going astray? What about tithing or ministry unction’s? How does evangelism and discipleship fit in?
I have written these questions, not to suggest that they are
without answers, but to suggest that the answers can only be arrived at, when
we make the Paradigm shift, otherwise we again are looking at these things
through a different lens.
The better question at this stage is what is required for
this model to work?
Commitment! Commitment to live out your life with Christ at
the center, by seeking after Him, By being open and honest about what is and
isn’t happening, By regularly attending and contributing to the Journey Church.
Everything else comes out of those three fundamentals.
One last word. The Journey Church
must remain Christ centered! The temptation will always be to have it revolve
around my issues, wants, needs or desires. Without a purposeful focus on being
Christ centered, it will quickly turn from a Church into a support group. As a
Church it can certainly offer support, but it needs to be within the context of
what Christ is saying and doing in the midst.
So please feel free to comment or post questions. There is a
lot more that could be said but hopefully I have said enough to make you
think! Blessings Greg.
