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Introduction:
The Church and the Kingdom of God
Derek Poole
Comment:
A Question of Belonging
Peter Wilson
From
the Director
David Porter
Colosse
Michael Whitley
Revisiting
the Kingdom of God and the Church
David McMillan
Faith
and Practice - Baroness May Blood
Ruth Hutchinson
Ephesus
Heather Morrow
Lead
us not into temptation
Alan Wilson
Galatia
Priscilla Reid
CEPU...a
personal testimony
Ken Irvine
Econimail
- Fancy Models or Straw Dolls?
Book
Review
Ethel White
FROM
THE DIRECTOR
It is a question of our times, a good sound bite. It resonates with enquiry
and the search for relevance and credibility in a sceptical community.
It betrays a self awareness that is, at one and the same time, self confident
and self conscious. And it is on the lips of an increasing number of informed
influencers in our churches. How do we do church?
The response ranges from the purpose-driven to the seeker-sensitive, from alpha to community, with a pause for biblical in between. To those out to show a more spiritually and globally sensitive grasp of the real issues behind it, the question is reframed to reflect a less activist and more expressive mindset – how do we be church?
You would think that after two thousand years we would have cracked this, that by this stage in the long and varied history of the church militant on earth there would be a clearer consensus on the central rationale for our existence and mission. The rise of such questioning of previously understood certainties reflects the deep changes that are taking place in our world. We are at one of those junctures in history that can be described as something of a civilisation shift. The impact is global but also intensely local, and forces us to re-examine the presumed structures and patterns of behaviour that shape the reality we call church.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like the question in both its doing and being formats. Indeed by my reckoning it is probably the most pertinent question that followers of Jesus need to address in our times. It goes to the heart of the missiological task of every generation of Christians, which is to make the good news of Jesus real to their world. That job has been given to us as the church and how we structure and live our life as a community of God’s people impacts in a big way on how meaningful the good news appears to those around us.
The culture we live in at the beginning of the 21st century causes great angst in many Christian circles. ‘Post-modern’ has become a term to strike terror into the hearts of good Christian people. The baby boomers who increasingly provide a generational coherence in the leadership of our denominations (those in their 50’s) seem as perturbed by the Generation X’ers of today as the pre-war generation were by them in the swinging sixties.
As someone who is neither a boomer nor a ‘Gen Xer’, born to live in that in-between half generational wasteland that defies trend setting labels, I find myself in an interesting observation post. Someone has called us the Busters, the rebellious Punk Rockers and monetarist Thatcher’s children. As a ‘good’ Christian I was neither. I prefer the concept of us children of the late fifties and early sixties being the ‘Bridgers’, building bridges between the world of certainty and the world of change, having an intuitive sense of belonging to the world as it now is, and yet sensing some of the legitimate concern that our leaders have for the future.
From where I sit it seems to me that this question concerning church is a central key to unlocking today’s culture for the kingdom. It is how we ‘be’ and ‘do’ our life together that is going to count, that will show we have something to offer that is indeed good news. And getting it right is going to be painful. More so in Northern Ireland, for how to be and do church must directly relate to the fact that we live in a divided society. How we have answered the question in the past has often done much to fuel that divide. We can only hope we are not too late as increasing numbers move beyond the influence of any community of faith who may point to a better way than the growing polarisation that is evident around us.
This question forms one of three strategic questions that will inform ECONI’s programme over the next three years, reflected in the magazine and Pathways booklets. It specifically informs the coming conference in September. It is a question that, once asked, leads to the inescapable conclusion that you and I are an integral part of its answer.
David Porter - ECONI's Director
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