Is there anything that your church community is doing on a Sunday morning that Jesus would be doing if he were physically present?
It’s an important question driving much of the philosophy embodying emerging expressions of the Church.
Note: This essential question comes from Joe Boyd, of Apex, Las Vegas, in the book Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community In Postmodern Cultures by Ryan K. Bolger and Eddie Gibbs. I would highly recommend this more objective and lightly academic book (when compared to some – not all – of the books written from strongly within the emerging Church movements) for those wanting to understand more of what is going on in our postmodernly contextualized communities.
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The problem with going about answering this question has to do with our often malformed Christologies. We can use this kind of question to attack the liturgy and miss that Christ himself was often found in the synagogues. We can use it to speak ill of the non-Charismatic, the non-Evangelical, whatever happens to grate against our particular vision of Christ. McLaren does a great job of exposing the many Jesuses that we build up in our church cultures. It makes this question really only expose our operative Christologies instead of any real deficiency in our ecclesial experience. We can look at the life of Christ and come up with a list of things He did when in community: eating, washing feet, worshipping, teaching, praying, healing, giving thanks, etc. But how he did these things is varied and inculturated. So maybe a better question would be: Is there anything in your Sunday service that Jesus would not be doing if he were physically present?
worship in song – don’t know: did Jesus sing, wave flags, dance?
offering – would he be giving? he did pass the baskets for the loaves and fishes…
announcements – did he clue the disciples in to what the plan was? sometimes yes, sometimes no
announcements build community, did he do that?
message – well he did teach a lot
visiting with others, chit chat etc. I think so, he was pretty relational
prayer and ministry – did that, albiet in an unpredictable way
coffee? – don’t know
servant evangelism? – did he do things with an ulterior motive? did he care for people’s physical needs or just their spiritual needs? or both?
small groups – he did that with the 12 all the time
traditional celebrations such as communion – started that, did celebrate the jewish feasts
taking care of the buildings, property etc. – don’t know, he and the boys did go fishing, presumably to keep food on the table, other people like the women cooked and cleaned for him
I must confess I don’t really get the point of this question. I think that if the church is all we are doing we have missed it. If we are expecting one institution to set up and provide opportunity for us to live our whole christian life out, that is not the purpose of the church. And that is the more valuable question – what is the purpose of the church?
Good thinking, Shelley. How about miracles? Technological bridge building, money usage, traditional rituals of worship, activities in synagogue vs. activism outside of it?
That is a challenge. Thanks. Well we don’t meet on Sundays…but we do drink wine
Look forward to seeing where this goes.
Peace,
J
I think “activities in synagogue vs. activism outside of it” is a point…I don’t know that I would call it activism exactly, but Jesus celebrated the feasts and came to the synagogue to worship, but lived his purpose out “in the world.” I think today we tend to want to live out our whole christian life within the church and its programs…where we feel safe and someone else does the planning for us. Do we who are leading church stop providing those opportunities, and merely be a place of worship and refueling? Some of us are so busy with work plus church programs, we don’t have time to chat over the fence with our neighbours or coach community soccer…etc etc. That is why I ask: What is the purpose of the church?
cbc.ca/news/media/seven.html
Scrool down to episode 3, Dec. 19th. (a recent segment of the national on CBC). Mark Kelly spent 7 days with evangelicals in the U.S. HIs goal was to find out what they are about. His conclusion is respectful but frank: Something like “all this stuff is for you guys, and not for me at all, is it? No wonder I don’t really get it.” The motivation of self-preservation he observed is striking, but not surprising, sadly. I have been thinking about it ever since I first saw it air…
Off topic, but wanted to thank you for your role in last Sunday’s service. I was there, visiting with the Turner’s.
It was a beautiful time.
Perhaps Jesus would have enjoyed a turn at washing up the mugs
Peace-
Erin; what a gift to have you with us. Did we meet? Thanks for the compliment, too; the set of worship times between Christmas and the first Sunday of January is traditionally a tough time for me to do anything public and church related, but its always a gift to be a part of a community alive to God and worship.
Shelley, good thoughts from the CBC. You should read “Emerging Churches” by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger. I think you’d like it.
no … ha, ha, ha
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