Stop Dancing the Old
The need for new models of church to emerge is becoming more evident, especially in the midst of cultures that seem so apathetic toward the church and the very structures upon which it has been based. People are tired of being told what to do and how to act. Instead, they are searching for a spirituality that is real and transformative. Rather than sitting in church for an hour on Sunday morning and getting your Jesus fix for the week, our culture deeply desires something that has the power to bring about transformation for every day of the week. Something that transcends our lives and meets us in the very situations in which we find ourselves. Yet, that isn’t happening. In fact, church attendance, if we care to admit it, is drastically decreasing in the U.S.. It’s obvious that the way in which we are doing church is not working.
Kester Brewin, a writer and church planter from London points to this reality and the fact that we do not know what this new expression of church will look like. But in order to make God real again, we must be willing to step out of the current containers of church. Writing in Signs of Emergence, Brewin notes, “The perception of the new step will come only to those brave enough to stop dancing the old.” In other words, we have to be willing to leave behind those systems and structures that aren’t working in order to form something new.
God has revealed himself in different ways throughout history. The Bible is a clear indication of this. The perception Moses held of God was different than David’s perception. Which, in turn, is a completely different perception than the one in which we have of God today. Why should we be so naïve to assume that systems and structures put in place from years past will still be relevant today? This isn’t to suggest that God has changed over time, but rather our perception of who he is and how he is revealing himself is ever-changing. And the church must recognize this and meet God in what he is doing in order to be the life-transforming force it is intended to be.
This evolving view of church is what we will be exploring in the coming year.
