Participating in God's Mission

A Theological Missiology for the Church in America

Craig Van Gelder, Dwight Zscheile

• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780802874986
• eBook ISBN: 9781467449670
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Explores how the church has engaged—and should engage—the American context

What might faithful and meaningful Christian witness look like within our changing contemporary American context?

After analyzing contemporary challenges and developing a missiological approach for the US church, Craig Van Gelder and Dwight Zscheile reflect on the long, complex, and contested history of Christian mission in America. Five distinct historical periods from the beginning of the colonial era to the dawn of the third millennium are reviewed and critiqued.

They then bring the story forward to the present day, discussing current realities confronting the church, discerning possibilities of where and how the Spirit of God might be at work today, and imagining what participating in the triune God's mission may look like in an uncertain tomorrow.

PART 1

DEFINING THE CHALLENGE

The first part of this book sets up the argument that is being made throughout the whole. It does so by introducing the significant changes that now appear to be taking place within both the culture of the United States and within the church in that context, and by developing a missiological framework for engaging this new reality.

Chapter 1 discusses the changes that are taking place today in both the US context as a whole and the church within that context. While life is always dynamic, there have been certain periods of time throughout the history of the church when disruptions and the scope and pace of change in the culture have contributed to substantive and systemic shifts within church life. During these periods of time, many of the core narratives and sustaining practices of the church are challenged and fundamentally changed. These are times in which what has been can no longer hold, but what is emerging is not yet clear. The church as we have known it, the church that was built up over the past four hundred years in America, now appears to be going through such a period of change.

The changes taking place are occurring, first, in both the denominations and their congregations that came into existence in the wake of European immigration (what we refer to as the “Euro-tribal faith traditions” in this book) and, second, in the denominations and congregations that were given birth within the new nation (what we refer to as the “made-in-America” faith traditions). This chapter provides an overview of these macro-shifts and also offers examples of what is happening today to congregations on the ground by relaying some stories of what lay leaders, pastors, and denominational executives are experiencing.

Chapter 2 develops a framework for engaging these changes missiologically. Missiology offers a vital lens for understanding what is happening—and for engaging it. The missiology developed in this chapter, however, does not begin with the church; rather, it begins with understanding the mission of the triune God. The conversation is framed in terms of God’s mission within all of creation, where the church that is created by the Spirit of God is missionary by nature. In light of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the church embodies the presence of God in the world and has the ability to come to a contextualized expression in every, and any, culture. The missiology framework we present argues that God’s mission, lived out in the world through a Spirit-created church, bears witness to a gospel that is multidimensional. It relates to every dimension of life and comes to expression through a variety of redemptive strains and emphases.

We all live within a world of meaning consisting of multiple narratives. This chapter explains how a Spirit-created church and the multidimensional gospel that it proclaims has the capacity to both challenge and change the deep cultural narratives that shape our world of meaning. We provide examples of some of those narratives within the United States that have shaped and continue to shape our culture and influence church life. In this chapter we also examine how the church lives with the tension of either overcontextualizing the Christian faith or undercontextualizing it. We argue that there is an inherent dynamic that the Spirit provides the church to empower it to live within this tension: it is always forming even as it is always reforming. This chapter explains how this inherent dynamic given to the church by the Spirit lives itself out in relation to seven missiological capacities that the church possesses to help it navigate the challenge of being contextual without becoming either over- or undercontextualized.

CHAPTER 1

Why a Theological Missiology for the United States?

The Great Unraveling

The seventy-five pastors gathered for an annual judicatory clergy retreat had come from urban, suburban, and rural congregations of varying sizes in a Southeastern state. On the second day of the retreat, the senior pastor of one of the larger churches spoke up: “Can we name the elephant in the room? Our church is one of the largest and seemingly most ‘successful’ represented here, but what we’re currently doing doesn’t have a future. We’ve tried all sorts of things, but people aren’t joining, participating, volunteering, or giving like they used to.” Heads nodded around the room.

Others expressed a sense of weariness about pouring energy into efforts to sustain inherited patterns and structures of church life that seemed increasingly disconnected from their neighbors. A younger pastor wondered aloud, “What does it look like when there are no longer professional jobs for clergy here?” Pastors shared stories of meaningful connections with neighbors, but most of these happened outside of—and sometimes in spite of—established church programs and activities. These congregations had existed and thrived for decades, some even for hundreds of years. But many of them now seemed rather fragile as they faced a precarious and unpredictable future.

Over the past several decades, churches have experienced an era of rapid and unsettling change. We refer to this as a “great unraveling.”¹ This includes both an unraveling of many of the assumptions and institutions of modernity within the broader culture and an unraveling of the church systems as they have struggled to adjust. From the 9/11 terror attacks, through the Great Recession of 2008–09, and into a decade that is being defined by random acts of terror, resurgent populism, and ever-increasing technological change, this new century has ushered in a deep sense of insecurity in American life and a new set of challenges for local church ministry.

Globalization and technology continue to disrupt established economic structures and diminish the middle class in the United States. A culture of individual autonomy that has been taken to an extreme trajectory has eroded many traditional structures, institutions, and ways of belonging. Immigration and changing demographic patterns have increased cultural, ethnic, racial, and religious diversity in American neighborhoods. And diverse voices and perspectives are increasingly being expressed within a democratized, participatory social-media culture that offers new kinds of connections. The nation increasingly finds itself splintered into cultural micro-tribes, fueled by the rise of social media. Common spaces and structures that once connected Americans are disintegrating amidst a new pluralism that celebrates and promises freedom, choice, and ease of expression but struggles to discover unity or foster communities of trust. Taking polarized positions without listening to one another is now pervasive. Cultural narratives that once provided meaning and cohesion are fraying or are being eclipsed, and it is not clear what will replace them.

A “great acceleration” of technological progress, following an exponential curve, has outpaced the capacity for people and existing human institutions to adapt.² People find themselves constantly caught off guard, as if the settled points by which to orient life had disappeared or were just now set in motion. Instead of occasional periods of disorientation and disruption, destabilization has become a constant state.³ And many people experience this dizzying pace of change as overwhelming.

Churches and church systems are being caught in this unraveling alongside other structures and institutions in society. Long-established patterns and practices that worked for decades are now failing to connect internally or with the larger world. Many people, especially those in younger generations, are not joining or participating in church organizations and institutions as they used to do. Christian influence in the wider society has weakened and is contested. Questions of the church’s identity and faithful engagement with a changing cultural context have become paramount. What was built up over the past several hundred years—and what churches have been trying to revision, renew, or restructure for the past fifty years—is now coming apart at the seams.

On the one hand, Christian witness within America has always been a diverse, dynamic, and complex phenomenon. The churches have always wrestled with changing social and cultural circumstances and have adapted their missionary engagements accordingly. On the other hand, the first decades of the twenty-first century appear to represent something of a turning point. The transitions now underway represent systemic challenges for many established forms of church life that were inherited from very different eras. This is especially true of the churches descended from European Christianity, which have played such a prominent role in American history—the Euro-tribal faith traditions.⁴ Their legacy structures and standardized procedures, largely rooted in Christendom, increasingly are at odds with the changing and emerging cultures now present. The chapters that follow unpack these dilemmas more deeply. But before proceeding to tell this story, we find it worth noting at the outset some key shifts that frame the scope of the challenges now facing the church in the United States.

Population Trends and Demographic Shifts

Rosedale Lutheran Church was started in the early 1950s in a first-ring suburb on the edge of a large city. It was a typical suburban church of that era with lots of young families who helped give birth to the baby-boom generation. Typical of suburban churches of that period, Rosedale peaked in membership growth in the early 1980s and began a slow decline, a decline that has become increasingly precipitous in the early decades of the twenty-first century. Sociologically speaking, many families, as they experienced the “empty nest,” moved out to second- and third-ring suburbs.

Some of these families continue to drive back to attend Rosedale, but these faithful few are becoming fewer and fewer each year. Quite a number of younger families bought the smaller starter homes that were left behind in the immediate neighborhood of the church; but the church is struggling to connect with those families. This is partially because a large number of these families are African American and Hispanic, and since Rosedale has been historically white, they just aren’t connecting with each other. The congregation continues to struggle on by reducing staff and cutting programs to balance the budget; but the church council now realizes that, unless they begin to significantly change their ministry, the church will not survive.

This congregation is all too typical of what is happening today, largely the result of population changes. This book traces the patterns associated with these population shifts over time, as well as the changes occurring in the demographic composition of the American population that have also greatly impacted the church. We provide details of the history of the church in the United States in chapters 3–7 below. Here we simply identify a few of the more pronounced patterns that illustrate the unraveling of the key narratives within which the church in the United States functions.

Growing Population of the United States⁵

The population of the United States experienced substantial growth during the last half century, increasing from about 180 million in 1960 to over 320 million as of 2015. This represents a nearly 80 percent increase during that fifty-five-year period. Much of this increase resulted from changed immigration laws, beginning in 1965, that opened up increased flows of persons from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The total population is projected to be about 400 million by 2050, which would represent another 25 percent increase, with a large portion of this anticipated increase of 80 million persons coming from continued immigration, especially from countries in the Global South. The number of foreign-born Americans between 2014 and 2060 is projected to grow from 42 million to 78 million, an increase of 85 percent. This presents a significant challenge and opportunity for many of the historic faith traditions in the United States, who built their membership primarily around white European immigrants from previous decades.

Changing Composition of the US Population⁶

As suggested above, a significant change is occurring in the composition of the population in the United States, partly as a result of increased immigration among people of color. But this is also due to lower birthrates among the non-Hispanic white portion of the existing population and higher birthrates in most communities of color. This is especially true in the Hispanic/Latino proportion of the US population, which was under 4 percent in 1960, but increased to 17 percent by 2014. It is anticipated that the Hispanic/Latino population will nearly double by 2060—to 29 percent of the US total. While the non-Hispanic white population is still projected to be the largest ethnic group in 2060, it is projected to become a nu...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword by John R. Franke
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part 1: Defining the Challenge
• Part 2: Understanding the Challenge
• Part 3: Engaging the Challenge
• Appendix: Ecumenical and Evangelical Mission Conferences of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries
• Select Bibliography
• Index