Reviving the near-dead

I've just started reading Kester Brewin's book "Signs of Emergence". I'm only 30 pages in but already convinced it's brilliant, it has to be, it agrees with many of my own preferences...

I wish I could write half as eloquently as he does, he explores so beautifully the situation of the contemporary UK church. One passage I wanted to share with you comes in the middle of the introductory chapter. Brewin has challenged the opinion that the route to the revitalisation of church is the personal holiness of members, arguing that it is because what churches offer is "boring, unchanging, irellevant, says nothing to them (church leavers) about their life, and was completely unconnected to their experience" that church attendances have declined so sharply. (by the way, is there any kind of matrix developed that could chart the pace of change in western society? I have a hunch that if we could compare the stats on church decline with the rate of change in society we'd see a pattern - the church shrinking at the rate it refuses to adapt to societal change)

It's not individual holiness levels that need to change, he argues, but our corporate actions. He goes so far as to suggest it is outrageous to continue taking people's resources and pouring them into "ruptured wineskins". Strong stuff.

And then..

People love to talk of revival, but fail to grasp that things that need reviving are by definition close to death. Yes, I believe the church needs to pray for revival, but I would like to reclaim the word from the ribbon dancers and charismatic sensationalists. When we talk of revival we should not think of some joyous time with thronging masses of people spontaneously coming to our doors. Rather we should wince at the prospect of the rib-cracking pain of emergency resuscitation as this dying body is shaken back to life. Put the discipleship books back on the shelves for a while and get down to the drawing board, for this is not going to happen through a an upsurge of personal holiness but by a radical transformation in our corporate practice.

Is emerging church a kind of near-death experience? Is it only when we come face to face with the near extinction (I struggle to believe that the church can fully die, as Jesus proclaimed to be continually building it) of the body that we are ready to deal with the pain of reviving it? I wonder how many of our fellowships will indeed die instead of changing before the wider church gets a clue and takes the leaps of imagination and faith necessarly to replant the church in contemporary Britain.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

World Book Night, One million Book Giveaway

Image
So, it's the first World Book Night tonight, and the organisation aims to give away one million books. There are 25 titles being given away, and folks wanted to be part of the process were invited to make contact a few months ago, indicating which book they'd like to give away and why. I applied, and asked to distribute the book "One Day" by David Nicholls. I'd picked up a copy whilst on holiday a couple of months ago, a friend had suggested it, and said there would be a particular reason I'd like it. It's a book that is set on July 15th, St Swithin's Day, my birthday, and follows the relationship of two very different kind of people. It wasn't the usual kind of book I'd read, but I found it terrifically moving, very funny, and quite insightful about human relationships, life, and slowly growing older. Here's the blurb from the World Book Night site: I can imagine you at forty,’ she said, a hint of malice in her voice. ‘I can pictur
Read more

An outpouring on outpourings

I guess many of us will have been looking with a mix of interest, curiosity, hope, bewilderment and maybe amusement at the events taking place in a conference centre in Lakeland, Florida, USA. For a few of weeks now, nightly “Revival” meetings have been taking place there, led by Todd Bentley. A google or youtube search on “Florida Outpouring” will give you a flavour of what's been happening. There are now reports of a “Dudley Outpouring” as well as others around the globe as leaders who have seen what’s been happening (normally on godtv.com or the God Channel on satellite) go to Florida and bring back what they have “caught”, and impart it to the folks at home. So, what to make of this? I’ve been asked for my reflections by a few folks, possibly because when the Toronto Blessing movement was at its height in the UK I was involved with a ministry (that I deeply appreciate and love) that sought to introduce people to what God might have been doing in that time. As I reflect on those
Read more

Communion service at Baptist Assembly

This last weekend saw approx 1300 baptists joining together in a very sunny Blackpool for the annual Baptist Assembly; a time for us to gather in prayer, celebration and reflection about the life of our Baptist Union of Great Britain , and the work of BMS World Mission. For the last few years I've had the privilege of being one of those who gets to shape some of the larger sessions, we have the somewhat utilitarian title of "session Design Group". It has been a thrilling experience seeing words we've crafted and laboured over be used in ways that have brought joy, peace, hope, laughter, as well as creating space for people to encounter God or access his word afresh. This year I had the task of shaping a communion service that would be intergenerational, that is to say would speak in some way to people of every age. For various reasons there were some constraints (getting more than a thousand people moving around in a fairly full space can be tough, and we needed t
Read more