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Last month we left the Roxy. The nightclub we've been meeting
in for the last two years, where God has met powerfully with
many 100's of young adults, closed in preparation to be knocked
down. We've lost our strategic city centre venue, which has
allowed our church to have up to 1500 people through the doors
on a Sunday (with over 70% under 40). As we worshipped there
for the last time, many of the 400 young adults present graffiti-ed
every available wall with what God has done in their lives
in that building. The openness & emotion in what was daubed
by fingers dipped in paint was amazing " Thank you for
·Meeting me ·Speaking 2 me ·Healing me
·Filling me ·Changing me ·Loving me ·Giving
me life….". So what will happen to these people
committed to church in a new generation? How will they 'be
church' without a place to meet for a big weekly celebration?
What do they want church to be about anyway?
What is the challenge?
There are few models of vibrant faith community to the emerging
generation. 88% of teenagers in church in USA now leave at
the end of secondary school & don't come back. The message
seems to be that until they get a mortgage, a wife, 2.4 children,
a decent job, and buy-in to middle-aged, middle-class christianity
then there is no place for them to live out their christian
life meaningfully. Our understanding of a church response
to this generation can be limited to 'alternative worship'
services or 'twenties groups' which have gained a reputation
for either being a place for the socially "challenged"
or a place to pair off the younger singles in the church!
Over the last 30 years under 35's have haemorrhaged from
the church. We cannot cosset ourselves in the belief that
the small minority of young adults who are comfortable in
the retreating paradigm of church defined by their parents
will arrest this decline. Before most of our deaths there
will be no church left at all in this country if current statistical
trends continue.
Our world is ever increasingly post-modern, post-christendom
and fragmented, with people in 'tribal' networks of like-minded
worldviews & emphases rather than in neighbourhood communities.
Irvine Welsh the novelist & playwright who captured the
amoral yet 'feeling' dissatisfaction of a generation in the
1995 movie 'Trainspotting' summed up the ship in which we
sail & the lack of places of anchorage when he noted:
"consumer capitalism has eaten up the church, the state,
the trade unions, extended families, everywhere that people
learn morality."
So in response, is God raising up a church that is evocative
& representative of the culture to which it relates?
What is church in a new generation?
It's less about age, than worldview - people who have the
same cultural reference points, interests or style. Every
emerging expression of church I see God has given 'wise old
heads', people wanting to relate in that generation's context
& willing to fit with their emphases & agenda. For
some, a focus on emerging church will not be their bag. That's
fine as long as detractors remember that whatever they do
also has a culture, style & emphasis that engages some
but not all, especially those in the emerging cultural paradigms.
My experience is that the word 'church' is a real stumbling
block for church leaders. We all have our conditioning of
what this word means: this amorphous, hard-to-pin-down concept
that we are supposed to lead! In a deanery chapter there is
the potential for as many different definitions of what is
the essence of church as there are people in the room. The
reason I believe it is so hard to pin down is that church
is essentially relational. There are 96 images of church in
the New Testament in four main spheres but all of them are
relational. This has to be the starting point for our questions
about church. How do we express our relationships? With God?
With the people who share our faith journey? With our world?
So what are some of the new things God is doing in these 3
areas?
1) relationship with God: New Ways of Worship
I would identify four arenas of worship that groups are using
that reflect cultural meeting points:-
1. The concert: the primary form of worship style
for the last 30 years. A band or orchestra led concert, with
a stage & a focus to the front.
2. The museum: where the worship leader becomes a 'curator'.
Prayer stations, celtic pathways like the 'labyrinth' used
at St Pauls Cathedral & other installations that allow
people to interact with God in their own time & space.
The arena where liturgy is used most effectively.
3. The night club: DJ led either in your face or more
ambient - taize with attitude! Repetitive dance music, loud,
anonymous & spiritual, that allows people to individually
commune with God.
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4. The café bar/pub: Worship in community -
small groups of friends who relate to each other as they relate
to God in informal ways in small informal settings.
2) relationship with other believers: New Forms of Community
The 40 odd small groups that made up our celebration at the
Roxy have been able to re-structure themselves in new ways
to reflect what they are trying to do. We perceive four different
forms of church expressed in our lives (which we see reflected
in scripture) that all have a different purpose. The four
'vehicles' we use are accountability, small group, congregation
& celebration. Each different size has a different dynamic
& role, with different emphases & purpose.
How we do church
Accountability - I believe is the most important for
us, because it's what stops people from having a 'rollercoaster'
faith where high points of closeness to God are superceded
by events around them or failure to live a life of holiness.
This is the place of greatest trust & openness where closest
friends hold one another to account for the life choices they
are making. Small group - we think of as an 'extended
household', a family unit who share lives, walk into each
others homes without knocking, eat together lots and support
each other. A meaningful community or 'belonging place' that
is vibrant, fun, and attractive to others. I believe the heart
cry of this generation is to belong - and God's promise (in
Psalm 68) is that He sets the lonely in families.
Most of the young adult forms of church I have seen have
started as small groups (often sub-divided into accountability
2's & 3's), and as they have grown and multiplied have
seen a congregation develop which is big enough to
make an impact on their community (run programmes, have a
football team etc) yet is small enough for people to feel
like they belong. We have found this size is the key mission
vehicle to a generation - 'small enough to care, big enough
to dare'! This means about 30 - 70 people, anymore and you
lose the community dynamic and have the demands of the biggest
size. We call this the celebration level in which we
join with the wider church for the bits that are high quality
& high organisation, in our context band led worship,
teaching & prayer ministry.
Some of our people only engage in one or two of these, but
most attend more as there is something different to be received
from all four. Jesus operated on these four levels with his
close confidants, his group ('the 12'), the wider group ('the
72') and the crowds. The problems come when we think we're
supposed to do the same thing in different sizes - the worst
small group is one that tries to replicate big church with
a 40 minute 'sermon' & 'big band worship' by those who
can't sing or play instruments! The smaller the size the higher
the level of intimacy in how we relate, the bigger the group
the less inclusively participative it is, but the higher the
quality of word & worship. Big choirs & organs are
for cathedrals - not the aspiration of small group worship!
It's all about horses for courses…
3) relationship with our world: New focus on Mission
Mission, whether presence, persuasion or proclamation is
different in a world of no absolute truths, where "it's
great if it works for you, but that doesn't mean it has to
work for me'. Someone in the emerging generation would seem
to have one of 3 different responses to how they want to be
involved in mission:-
i) mono cultural - looking to reach 'people like us'
with an emphasis on common reference points (eg TV programmes),
shared story, culture, or interests. These reference points
rarely have anything to do with church and lead to expressions
of church & engagement with culture that are quite different
from what has gone before! Tend to be experimental, and able
to adapt & change - not necessarily there for the long
haul.
ii) multi generational - a commitment to 'family'
church, normally defined culturally by the retreating paradigm.
In my experience the majority of those in the emerging generation
who are more comfortable with this are those who have grown
up in the church & are used to a culture that is formed
by the generation older than them. For those who didn't grow
up in church this is neither a culture to which they aspire
or relate. Tend to be a more stable environment, but slow
to respond to change.
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iii) cross cultural - those whose heart is broken
for the poor. Unconcerned about 'cultural relevance' like
the first group, we are seeing many young adults choosing
to move into the inner city. The most famous example is the
Eden Project in Manchester but there are many less feted examples
of young adults moving into poor, urban communities. Tend
to be 'underground' and sacrificial in sharing their lives
with those they are amongst.
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An emerging generation checklist
A generation looking for…
· Community (a place of belonging &
ownership)
· Accountability (a place of complete
openness, 'monsters disappear when you turn on the light')
· 'Wholistic' Spirituality (seeing God
in the whole of life, sacred & secular)
· The chance to make a difference (being
involved in seeing God's transforming power in the world)
· a Challenge (a small challenge leads
to small commitment, a big challenge leads to big commitment).
· Experience (that validates the spoken
concepts - interpreting theology through experience)
· 'Fruit' (that's fine, but does it work?
A pragmatic approach that leads people to go more where
they see God is working .than with denominational allegiance)
· Time (to make a difference - more concerned
about being 'time rich' & 'money poor', than 'money
rich' & 'time poor')
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