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PART ONE
THE CHURCH IN A NEW AND CHANGING WORLD
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.
â2 Corinthians 3:14
On September 8, 2001, outfitter and wilderness guide Don Wade and a client packed gear into the small float plane of pilot Buck Maxen, stationed at Kotzebue. This was the third aircraft into which Don had transferred the gear since leaving his Texas base for Northern Alaska. The craft would land on a small lake near the Selawik River, just beneath the Arctic Circle. From there Don would guide his client in a challenging trek through some of the most pristine and unspoiled terrain in North America. Without radios or satellite phones, he would be responsible for ensuring the safe and timely rendezvous of his expedition with the pilot thirty miles downriver and fifteen days later. He had filed the drop-off and pickup locations with the Alaska Fish and Game Department. They were the only documentation of his intended itinerary.
It took two full days to transport the gear from the small lake to the river less than a mile away. Because of the ubiquitous marshlands, Don and his client lived in hip boots for fifteen days. With every step, feet sank up to ankles in mud. Nights proved threatening, with temperatures that could plunge as low as sixty degrees below zero. Each day the absolute quiet of the undisturbed environment, the bounty of nature, and the evening meal of fish taken moments earlier from the river, rekindled Donâs appreciation of his precarious position in the world.
Late each evening he thought of his family, thousands of miles away, and prayed all was well with them. Then, weary from his responsibilities, he would doze off. The next morning he would make coffee and hot cereal before breaking camp and continuing downriver. Each night, he would lie down again and fall into deep sleep.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, he was preparing hot cereal in the pristine and timeless wilderness, while those of us with access to radio and television were witnessing, over and over again, the horror of commercial airliners flying into the Pentagon and the twin towers of the World Trade Center, destroying the lives of thousands of people, and changing our own lives forever.
For Donâoblivious to the tragedy that rocked the nation, and to the heightened security that grounded all planes for three daysâSeptember 11 was simply day four of a journey down the Selawik River. It was another day to guide his client and enjoy the beauty of Alaskan wilderness. It was another night to lie down and wonder about family and friends, remembering them in darkness.
On September 21, Buck Maxenâs plane circled another small lake and then landed to begin the process of retrieving Don and his client. As the propellers stopped turning, Buck stepped out and began telling them about the events of September 11. That night, Don was alone for one more night, as Buck continued the long process of removing the client and his gear. Don lay awake, trying without success to grasp the reality of what had happened to the world.
While Don was away in the harsh beauty of the natural world, our world had changed. The change was so dramatic that his isolation from the worldâs reality made it almost impossible for him to comprehend.
Don Wadeâs experience may seem extreme, but it has much in common with the situation in which many of our churches now find themselves. Born into an ordered world of accepted rules and expected outcomes, enjoying many years of success and sameness, they suddenly find themselves with little that is familiar, to sustain them in a world that seems to have changed overnight.
Today, while the U.S. population soars, the percentage of those who hold membership in the Christian church continues to decline. Yet people still seek answers to deep questions of the soul, answers to the âWhy?â of existence. As our traditional idea of church seems to be losing ground, a new and still forming movementâthat of the missional churchâseems to understand not only how to respond to these eternal questions but also how to ride out the waves of a changing culture.
You may find missional churches hard to identify. Some look very traditional, with church buildings and stratified leadership and social groups. Others look very untraditionalâperhaps meeting in homes, or in community venues, in bars after hours, ministering to people on the margins, acting on âradicalâ ideas. Still others combine both ways of being in the world. New movements are by nature chaotic, ever-growing, and changing. The same can be said of missional churches. Yet the passion, commitment, and sheer aliveness of these churches draws us to them again and again as the new harbingers of Christianity in this brave new millennium. In the first chapters of this book, weâll take a look at how the world is changing, and how missional churches are responding to the challenge.
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CHAPTER 1
FROM MAINTENANCE TO MISSIONAL
THE CHURCH IN A WORLD OF CHANGE
And just as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
â1 Corinthians 15:49
We face a choice to be worldly Christians or world Christians.
âPaul Borthwick, A Mind for Missions
The protestant church in North America was born into a comfortable and familiar environment that was favorable and respectful of its presence. For many years, new churches enjoyed the luxury of acceptance and power. They enjoyed what George Hunter called a âhome-court advantage.â
While enjoying the beauty of their religious experience, however, they became increasingly isolated from the world. Some were adamant exponents of this separation, citing such biblical admonitions as âCome out from among them and be separateâ (2 Corinthians 6:17). They enjoyed being with their group on a spiritual journey and sought to add others along the wayâespecially those who were comfortable in the church environment. Over the years, this separation encouraged members to adopt a specialized language. In some churches, the phrase âShe walked the aisleâ indicates coming to faith. In other communities church members call others âBrotherâ or âSisterâ even though they are unrelated. Unless one is familiar with the intent, being asked to âgive your heart to Jesusâ might sound like a request for organ donation! Active members learned such churchspeak as natives of the culture. Inevitably, perhaps, their relationships were primarily with other members of their faith family, and their activities increasingly involved these people with whom they held much in common. They thrived.
By the middle of the twentieth century, however, this relatively peaceful existence was beginning to fracture. The times were changing, and changing fast. Young people, once relatively obedient to their elders, found themselves in an exciting new teen culture. Television, radio, and newspapers communicated startling world events with an immediacy that brought the brutalities of war right into the living room. Violent and non-violent protests challenged national interests. Social balance was upset. What was once considered right was now wrong; what was once considered blasphemy was commonplace. Graphic sexuality found its way onto movie screens. Risqué language crept into television programming. Challenges were met with claims of First Amendment freedoms.
As divorce and cohabitation became more commonplace, traditional family units seemed the exception rather than the rule. Racial and linguistic diversity was accompanied by growth in non-Christian religions. Many felt uncomfortable with mosques and temples constructed in their communities. Court cases challenged prayer in public schools, the Ten Commandments on courtroom walls, âso help me Godâ in courtroom oaths, âone nation under Godâ in the pledge of allegiance, and âin God we trustâ on U.S. currency. Litigants sought to erase all evidence of Christian bias. It seemed like the end of the world for members of many Protestant churches. To some degree, it was.
Fighting Change with Maintenance
For many church members and leaders alike, these events seemed beyond comprehension. Impossible. Unreal. Even if they tried, they felt incapable of relating in the changing environment. Some longed to engage the changing culture and share with those who had never experienced the serenity and peace found in relationship with God and the members of His church, but to their surprise other people did not seem to see their church in the same way. They felt bewildered and under fire. In response, they retreated to the sanctuary, their place of comfort, growing ever more inward in their orientation. They maintained the status quo.
Not surprisingly, they found themselves increasingly out of touch with the rapids of cultural change and the real world in which their neighbors lived. Most cared about those on the outside, but they felt impotent to connect and share with unchurched persons in any significant way. Consequently, their churches no longer anticipated having a major impact upon society and hoped only to reach enough people to help the church survive. I call this prevalent consumer orientation, isolation from society, and associated lack of belief in capacity to have significant influence a maintenance mentality.
The culture in which the church exists is a changing river, charting its own path without regard to the preferences of previous generational or cultural systems. Members of todayâs churches, who once felt that they held the high ground in a vast Christian nation, now feel cut off and isolatedâislands in a fast-flowing stream. Clearly, the Christian church in North America no longer possesses a home-court advantage.
Where, now, is our home? As more and more people live their lives in their cars, and constant migration from town to town and even country to country becomes commonplace, communities have naturally become less cohesive. Churches, once perceived as the center of community life, have become progressively irrelevant in increasingly diverse communities. Many people are clearly still interested in spirituality, as witnessed by the growing interest in Eastern and Native American religions, contemplative and monastic environments, holistic health, and nontraditional expressions of connection with the environment. Yet the percentage of the population practicing their faith within local churches continues to decline.
Given this situation, itâs not surprising that many Western churches are now focused mostly on survival. These churches are no longer storming the gates of hell. They are simply trying to outlast the onslaught of secularism that threatens their existence. These churches are filled with members who have adopted and adapted to consumer culture. Just as they count on Wal-Mart meeti...
