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Last month I talked about some general parameters of what is
understood as “Emerging Church.” In places these new forms of church
as known as “Fresh Expressions”.
The latter is in particular a joint expression for the Anglican
and Methodist churches who have launched a web-site under that name
www.freshexpressions.org.uk
If you are on-line have a look at is on offer there, it is
fascinating and intriguing. What we are moving towards is a “mixed
economy” of forms of church instead of “one size fits all.” The latter
refers to the fact that all denominations have essentially offered the
same sort of format which can be understood as an attractional way
of working i.e. “Here we are. Come on in and you are welcome.”
By
contrast the mixed economy (a term coined by the Archbishop of
Canterbury and used in the U.R.C.s
Catch the Vision has a much more missional quality to it.
This means there is a real sense of going out and beyond the four
walls of the church in a very intentional sense. Because our society
is now so diverse, the church also has to diversify to meet the
challenge.
So last month I listed various of these forms.; They
include:
- Cafe Church
- Cell Church
- Multiple and midweek congregations
- Seeker Church
- Youth Congregations
- Network Church
In all these
forms there is a particular commitment to evangelism and that is part
of the secret of their success. Now, mention the word “evangelism”
and what does that do to you?Does your blood run cold? Do you get
images of embarrassing street corner evangelists? Do you recoil? For
many that is a very common reaction and not surprisingly many get no
further.No wonder most churches do not evangelise!
But I’d like you to
think about evangelism very differently. I’d like you to think about
it in terms of story telling. Evangelism, truly understood, is all
about telling our story of faith as we have experienced it. The Bible
is best understood as “God’s Big Story.” It is a story that tells why
and how things are the way they are. Into this big story is woven the
story of all our lives. We all have a part to play in this story and
telling this story.
So evangelism is no
longer to be understood in the way of bible-bashing.Instead of that
it becomes something that is very genuine and deep-rooted. It is
fundamental to real friendship It is about sharing our lives and our
stories with others so that they can connect with God’s big story for
themselves. After all we have gained so much from what we have
experienced of God. Don’t we want others to have that same
possibility?
So often in the
mainstream churches we have shied away from that very thing. We have
done mission in the way of practical acts of kindness, social justice
etc, but we have not been very good at evangelism. That has been a
major part of the reason for our decline. We have been sitting in our
churches waiting for people to come into us, but we need to be going
out to them.
Emerging Church, or
Fresh Expressions of Church, embraces the need for evangelism. To
begin with it is all rather intimidating because it is new. But then
things start to fall into place.I have no doubt that at Redland Park
we have some very gifted evangelists, it is just that they may not
know it for themselves as yet. Now is the time to discover those
gifts. We shall be doing that in and through Cell Church. So, come
and discover!
Dougie Burnett
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