Snapshot #3 Outside The Square

The ‘Rebels’ Group. Many years ago now, my family attended what was then one ofthe larger congregational churches in Australia. This was (and still is) an excellent church, with a wonderful menu of effective ministry programmes and all manner of groups and people networks ranging from playgroups to craft groups, from financial advice to low cost accommodation. Back then, there was a large staff team and on weekends, we scheduled five or six different worship services, a massive Sunday school, and youth programmes. To serve there was exhilarating, worthwhile, but exhausting.

This was a fascinating time as that congregation had slowed growing numerically and had been on a plateau for at least five years. I saw how challenging it is for a large and successful church to appraise and change its paradigm. I also learnt, back then, how church growth and mission were closely related to strategic planning and corporate management. Back then, we often assumed the presuppositions, methodology and practises of the large, successful (mostly Northern American) regional churches.

Whilst we were great at asking demographic, marketing and organising questions,  we struggled to do the deeper work of thinking through together what our theological 'lenses' should be. We engaged in little contextual theology or in challenging unbiblical cultural traits. Instead, we tended to imitate the approach of other larger churches if they increased numbers. I recall planning meetings where issues were raised such as whether we ought to remain a geographically “local” church or evolve into a “regional” church; whether demographic segmentation was appropriate or not; whether we ought to implement a central, top-down management structure or rather decentralise through becoming a more inclusive home group network; whether we ought to organise functionally or organically; or whether the cultural assumptions under-girding suburban Australia ought to be imitated or challenged. 

The telling thing was not what was decided, but that nothing was decided on most of these questions. These issues were benignly seen as irrelevant to the process of articulating a strong mission statement, core functions, long term goals, growth and so on. Provided we were reaching out and moving off the plateau, bringing people in, then that was more the priority.  

After five years, I had moved into different vocational work, but we remained at the edge of this very large congregation. In the midst of this massive professional effort, we came to miss that sense of localised, permanent, intimate, and messy community. 

Snapshot #2 Outside The Square

The East German Fellowship

In the 1970s, when I was in high school, I vividly recall travelling to East Germany (when it was behind the Iron Curtain), with my family and visiting a small evangelical church in the south. A group of twenty or so adults and children gathered in the living room of an older, meagre home. Though my German was poor, it was good enough to follow the service, which was more a gathering of extended family than a public event. The singing was bright and heartfelt; there were tears of devotion in the eyes of some, singing about their Lord. 

The testimonies came thick and fast, and passionate prayers of gratitude for the Lord’s provision were offered. The sermon was grounded in the testimonies, connecting the passage to the congregation’s experiences. The pastor was more like a conductor who unpacked the stories and grounded them in the Scriptures than the 'professional' preacher. “This scripture is just for us for this week!” The prayers were not about security or protection but for courage to live authentically in the face of a truly hostile regime and the powers that supported it. Their clothes were not stylish, the communal meal was plain, but the stories of courage and grace in the midst of difficulty were inspiring. I learnt much later that the high school children present had been denied tertiary enrolment on graduation because of their disavowal of the communist youth league and their profession of faith.

Here was a community of faith whose faithful living marked it out as a joyful and appreciated witness to its locale, and also marked it for vindictive opposition from the State. It thrived in weakness in a way that I have not seen readily in our 'Christian' west. 

A number of years later, after the fall of the Berlin wall, we heard from the pastor’s wife who told us how they had so hoped that the collapse of communism would free the churches there to more powerfully witness. Instead, it had the opposite effect. Everywhere the churches were emptying as people pursued the lure of western materialism. Western Christians brought  aspirational lifestyles and conformity to consumeristic values. The young people were no longer discipled to carry their cross. Spiritual entertainment was, she felt, becoming endemic.

As I reflect on this story, I am reminded of a comment by Os Guinness, at a conference some time ago, to the effect that, wherever Western modernity takes hold, it undermines the integrity of the local church. How ironic it is that the non-western church, weak and marginalised, with few of the accoutrements of the western churches, knows little of the lassitude which besets us.

Next time: The rebel’s group that grew by accident!