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INVADING SECULAR SPACE Strategies for Tomorrow’s Church Martin Robinson & Dwight
Smith Monarch, 2003, 221 pp.
ISBN 0-8254-6050-6 |
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Robinson
is the director of Together in Mission, an organization that facilitates
saturation church planting in the United Kingdom and worldwide. Dwight Smith is the founder and president
of Saturation Church Planting International.
Both authors have a passion for church planting. The book represents primarily, but not
exclusively, a British orientation. The
book “begins with the missionary context of the church and moves towards a
discussion of the nature and purpose of the church. Out of that flows an extended reflection on the nature of
leadership and its intended outcomes.
The final two chapters address both church planting and the consequent
people movement that church planting on a significant scale hopefully
produces.” (12) The
mission field of the West “has been dominated over the last several hundred
years by the framework of the Enlightenment which constantly seeks to
separate the sacred and secular realms, consigning the sacred to the realm of
the private and so the unimportant.” (12) The
church in the West is in deep crisis.
It must rediscover its life and witness around the centrality of its
call to mission. (15) By
contrast, “the worldwide church has demonstrated astonishing life and vigour
in precisely the same period that the Western church has suffered reversal
and decline.” (17) “Christian
values and teaching no longer impact the public life of many Western nations
today. Indeed it is possible to argue
that there is a deeply ingrained prejudice against Christianity on the part
of many policy makers in public life of the West. Christianity is scorned, derided and ridiculed.” “Why are church leaders not entirely
occupied with asking how such a situation can be reversed?” (21) “Unfortunately,
most pastors and church leaders have had no missiological training. Consequently, pastors in North America
resort to marketing strategies....” (24, quoting Eddie Gibbs, ChurchNext, p.
41) “The
transmission of a missionary DNA is more biological than technological. It has more to do with life and vision, with
community and authentic lifestyle, than with techniques and methods
alone.” (31) “The
secret question on the minds of many leaders is the very simple issue: ‘How
do I grow my church?’” (31) “A better question would be: ‘How can I
ignite a movement round here?’”
“Igniting movements happens primarily through the Christians we
mobilize in their spheres of influence.” (32) “The
primary focus for many ministers is to organize the gathering of
Christians.” “However, somewhere
along the way we have lost sight of the reason for gathering.” (33) “...how do we encourage the church to
discover how to live the story? If we
can succeed in leading our people down such a road then we are on the way to
producing a movement....” (34) In
the first few centuries the church thought only of mission; spreading the
faith was urgent. The church was
shaped by mission. After the church
achieved social status mission became one of its many functions and not its
sole activity. “The nature of the
church began to shape the mission..., a subtle but crucial change.” (46) The
Reformation resulted in a series of religious wars and power shifted from
church to state in what may be the origins of the modern secular state. (54) “For
evangelicals there came a separation in their thinking between evangelism
which was to be conducted in the hinterlands of Christian Europe and North
America and mission which was to be conducted outside of Christendom.” “Mission was seen as a means of growing
the church overseas and evangelism as a means of strengthening the church at
home.” “Expansion of the church
tended to become the chief end....” (55)
“Evangelicals did have a vision of a changed society but that tended
to be an outcome of a strengthened church and not a part of mission as such. For evangelicals evangelism and mission
were essentially programmes of the church, something that faithful churches
did.” (56) “The
challenge for the church now is...to reconsider the basic purpose and call of
the church. To return to mission as
the core raison d’etre of the church will inevitably mean that the shape of
the church will change.” “What flows
from mission will still be the church but it will be a very different kind of
church.” (56) The
core interaction with the culture must be changed. (59) The church needs
to be well regarded by the surrounding community in order to grow. (60) In the early 19th century the
interactions of the church and social environment changed so that the church
lost perceived value to the culture. (72)
During the revivals, the church shaped itself around mission and
transformed both individuals and society.
(73) The
authors suggest three elements to move the church to where it should be: 1.
substantial church planting (church planting skills are also church renewing
skills!), 2.
intentional leadership development focusing on missional leadership
including all the gifts described in Ephesians 4. The church has focused on pastor and
teacher and ignored the gifts required for pioneering: apostle, prophet, and
evangelist. 3.
local coalitions of churches cooperating for evangelistic
purposes (80-88) It
is easy to confuse the growth of numbers in the pew with the success of the
mission of the church. (93) The
early Christians believed their purpose was the same as Israel’s, “not to
exist for themselves but to be a light to the nations.” (93)
The
five marks of mission from the Lambeth conference of 1988. ·
To proclaim the good news of the gospel ·
To teach, baptize and nurture new believers ·
To respond to human need by loving service ·
To seek to transform unjust structures of society ·
To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, to sustain and
renew the life of the earth. (94) “The
emphasis on mission began to shift towards the preservation of emerging
structures and so to maintenance.
With this transference, the significance of God released in and
through each of Christ’s people is lost.
The world is asked to come and see, rather than the church going,
living and telling in and through all of its normal daily activities and
relationships.” (99) “How
can we then prevent ourselves and each other from slipping so easily from a
concern for mission (ends) to a preoccupation with church (the means)?” (99) The
unchanging central purpose of God is for human beings to reflect his image
and be known personally and know him personally. “For this time and place, the church is God’s chosen
instrument.” (100) “The
goal of good leaders is to bring the whole membership of the body of Christ
to the maturity of its purpose.” (Ephesians 4:12,13) “The success or otherwise of leaders in
mobilizing the giftedness of the whole church is the single biggest factor in
determining the effectiveness of the church in mission.” (103) “No
matter where in the world you look, those who have become Christians have
overwhelmingly made such a decision because of the actions of ordinary people
in their circle of influence.” (105) In
the existing paradigm the growth of the local church is the focus of our
concern and activity. Those drawn to
the church become active participants.
The new paradigm requires us to shift “from institution to movement,
from structures that invite people into sacred space to an infectious
spirituality that invades secular space.” (109) What
is required to produce the new paradigm? 1.
Personal Transformation.
Lively worship provides more transfusion than transformation. The worship experience can function as a
substitute for a well-developed spirituality and may tend toward dependency
and a consumerist approach to worship.
It may provide a refuge from the secular rather than a resource to
inhabit the secular. (110-11) a.
Knowledge of God through the Scriptures b.
Listening to God c.
Personal relationships d.
Using our giftedness
(110-115) 2.
Genuine diversity in Leadership 3.
Creating Organic Movement 4.
The Church as a Dispersed Presence The New Testament picture of leadership is painted
in Ephesians 4:11-12 (purpose), I Corinthians 12 (descriptions), and Matthew
20 (essence). (127) “Leadership that does not result in empowerment is
severely lacking.” (128) “I have rarely if ever found a megachurch in a
non-Western context that was not systematically planting daughter
churches. Most of them could point to
hundreds...” “They did not exist to
build a megachurch, but to extend the gospel into a people, nation, state,
city or neighbourhood. They did not
have to be taught to plant new churches: for them, planting new churches, by
the releasing of new leaders, was like breathing.” (130) “The average Western church is led by a pastor or
a teacher,...(and) they focus on caring for truth and people.” “Leaders in such non-Western churches are
not pastors or teachers in function, but apostles.” (131) Principles of leadership: (135) 1.
Leadership is widely distributed in the church 2.
Primary leaders model and create a culture in which everyone
naturally expects to find and use their gift. 3.
The shape of the church responds to the gifts rather than forcing
people into structures. 4.
Mobilization occurs when people use their gifts. “True
leadership is first and foremost relational and influential.” (141) Descriptors
of the art of leadership: 1.
Seeing differently and expecting God to be active in and through them
daily. 2.
Living with vision, not necessarily the author but the carrier of the
vision. 3.
The confidence of conviction that God is going to do something and
that people will be led. 4.
Making the Christian message accessible to people where they are,
i.e. taking it to the people rather than inviting the people to us. 5.
Releasing responsibility to as many as possible 6.
Finding a way to continue among the many obstacles 7.
Staying the course and being persistent. 8.
Being inspired by God’s previous actions in history. 9.
Having generous hearts, giving away more than is humanly reasonable. 10.
Practicing authenticity first 11.
Burning the rule book and keeping the ends the ends and the means the
means. 12.
Starting a fire and fanning the flames (149-159) “We
should be encouraging the people of God to speak about the actions of God in
ways that allow a significant multiplication of witness to take place.” “The principle of multiplication needs to
be embedded in all that we do....” (165) Principles
of Multiplication (165- 1.
The church is intended to multiply and grow. We need to find a way to make it happen. 2.
God uses ALL of Christ’s people. 3.
He works primarily through a decentralized structure. 4.
Multiplication begins with prayer – visionary, targeted, expectant
prayer 5.
Do good research. Research
focuses prayer by presenting real people. 6.
Broad-spread, proactive evangelism is required. 7.
Organize people into small groups for harvesting, discipleship,
sharing the good news, and initiating more leadership. 8.
Train new leaders to spread the responsibility. 9.
Organize around purpose, vision, and values. 10.
Build in every church the vision to multiply itself. (165-179) “The
number of churches in India has grown from 150,000 20 years ago to some
400,000 today. That vast expansion
means that there are more churches in India today than in the United States
of America.” (204) ***** |
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