This is one of those posts that in the years to come I might consider fundamentally wrong. Le roi est mort, vive le roi! "The King is dead, long live the king" was first used with the accession to the French throne by Charles VII in 1422. It's a phrase that has passed into our common lingo ... simply substitute "king" with any other noun. Is the classic expression of church dead? Has succession been passed on, is succession beginning? And if so, passed or passing on to what? Has the dominance of yesteryear's Christian institutions already been replaced by today's relativism and post-truth post-christianity ... a post-postmodernity? Or is it merely that the form of the church is being reconstructed by those who seek to respond to a world of ultimate connectivity and isolation; an increasingly virtualized, globalized, and vulnerable society. Is God in this change, driving this change? Is God walking ahead, waiting for us to follow, or is he standing way back elsewhere calling "Stop, come back" (and come back to what)? I don't see a whole lot of God in much of the present institutionalized church. If anything, I see much of the institutional church's energy focused on maintaining traditions that have become barriers to the outside world, while alienating those of their own leaders who desire to reach into culture. In this the church increasingly loses both relevance and authority to speak to modern issues. The visible face of Christianity has historically undergone many fundamental changes while the core theology remained secure. From it's beginning as a radical, persecuted, and Spirit filled movement into a sanctioned and structured national religion, from suffocating legalism into an age of reformation, from bloody inquisition to a freedom in revival. My own lived experience is mild in comparison, going from an indoctrination of (charismatic) evangelicalism to ... well, I'm not sure what yet. My theology has not changed, how I walk is changing. Is the global face of Christianity in the middle of another transition? It's always hard to tell when one is in the midst of the situation, because then perspective is hard to find.
We are taught a paradox that we have only ourselves to rely on, even though our desperate desire is for community. On one hand individuals are encouraged to look inward in order to find an impossible strength, to fight for self and win. At the same time we see the rise of atheist church services alongside a dilution of orthodoxy, or a regression into a mysticism of labyrinths and halucinogenic substitutes, or religious institutions trying to be "seeker friendly". In the process this removes any threat from Truth while creating a perception of comfort in community.
Is (western) society in "its decline-and-fall stage, its Caligula stage, its Donald Trump stage" (and is the east rapidly following)? If so then "this isn’t just an issue for political and financial [or religious] elites. It’s also a problem for the ‘experts’ who crawl around after these elites, massaging their egos and defending their interests." This quote, made in relation to science and climate change, applies equally to the institutional church, and to those of it's formal and informal leadership. Think about that for a moment. We live in a world of multiple contradictory 'truths' that the institutional church is trying to mediate into a consensus - and it is failing hopelessly in this impossible quest to find a common home for monogamy alongside polyamorism, hetero-sexual marriage alongside LGBT????, relativism alongside orthodoxy, and a competative hunt for membership while supporting a virtualized faith of disengagement. This impossibility stands against the uncomfortable reality that we live with an incomplete understanding of truth (but truth nonetheless) and an irreducible uncertainty which used to be called faith. If God is changing things around, then what is he changing them to? For when a house is being renovated it is a hard place to inhabit, yet inhabit it we must. But if a new house is being built, one can slowly and pragmatically relocate one's abode while continuing to function. What then is this new "church" in our evolving society, if indeed a new church is emerging? Truth is truth, whether one likes it or not. Truth does not change; only ones perceptions of truth. The truth is that we are relational, with God and with one another. It is our expression of truth that changes, and must change if we are to engage with the world, because expression is communication, and communication is the heart of community. If the expression fails to communicate, we lose community. The world desires community, for it has been largely lost. And the world hungers for spirituality, for they know that what we touch is never enough. Maybe in 10 years time (if I am alive) I can revisit these thoughts, and with the wisdom of hindsight see then what I only dimly sense now. For now I do not see a future for orthodox faith within the inertia of most current church expressions. Not when orthodoxy necessitates going into the world. I know of few church leaders who, after a short time in leadership, can still really comprehend, empathise with, and have compassion for the realities of secular life. Secular life is so enourmously different from religious institutional cultures, that the future priests and ministers of this age need to come from the streets. Next steps: find sustainable community conversation while I (we) search for God's footprints to follow as he walks ahead into the world.
A requiem for the institutional church?
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Why?
Probably the best therapy is to express yourself. Why do you think psychiatrists make you lie on the couch and talk, while all they do is murmur "hmmm", "uhuh", or "go on"? Archives
May 2017
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