Monday, 08 January 2007
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what are missiontribes?
Welcome to the conversation.
I thought that I'd write up a new blog entry after the last few posts, in order to dig deeper into what we might call missiontribes: groups of people who are meeting together with the aim of dreaming up, planning, and even doing mission together.
Here are the books I'm reading at the moment:
- THE PRESENT FUTURE (Reggie McNeal)
- THE POST EVANGELICAL (Dave Tomlinson)
- SOUL CRAVINGS (Erwin McManus)
- GATEWAY COMMUNITY CHURCH: A2 CASE STUDY (Willow Creek)
It's over a year since I read George Hunter's 'The Celtic Way of Evangelism', so Anne's posting sent me back to the bookshelf so I could check out what might have struck me from chapter seven to the end. Here's what I found.
Hunter talks about the notion in many churches - unverbalised, mind you - that the new barbarians are unreachable with the gospel; as it were, they have to become civilised before they can come to faith (pre-evangelism). Hunter's personal experience is that this couldn't be farther from the truth. Interestingly, Vincent Donovan ('Christianity Rediscovered') came across the same ideas in others when it the Masai people he was seeking to evangelise (his book is a fascinating journey of sharing the essential gospel into new cultures - not wrong cultures but different cultures).
In another place, Hunter cites Methodism as an example of Celtic Christianity, that is, understanding the culture it was seeking to reach. Is it too unfair to suggest that a quick scan of today's Methodist churches would suggest that we think the culture sings 18th and 19th century songs, frequents public buildings with the least comfortable seating possible (and I'm just thinking about the knee room), involving itself in meetings that are time-wasting and often pointless, and dare we say it, boring?
Shane Claiborne, in his painfully challenging but excellent book, 'The Irresistible Revolution', talks about how the most telling thing is not that we are not concerned for the poor (we often are) - the poor being the people Hunter says Methodism made contact with - but that we don't know any poor. A few weeks ago I was talking with a true-hearted Celt, concerned to reach the estates of Edinburgh, knowing that what so many of us are about in our churches has nothing to say or do with the people living in them. (This links up with the other point, above.) Dave Tomlinson ('The Post Evangelical') makes the same noises; we have created what Tony Walters calls a "culture religion". Tomlinson quotes Walters when he says: 'Christians may not be aware of the extent to which they have conformed to a middle-class lifestyle. So many of the public values of society are middle-class that they values, which are far from inevitable or God-given, are taken for granted'. As Tomlinson follows on to say: 'The consequence of confusing Christianity with middle-class values is that people who do not identify with that culture reject the church and, in many cases, the gospel too'.
However, there are clearly cultures that are not good for people, like addictions, which carry whole culture-systems with them. Here Hunter talks about the crucial need for an alternative culture for people to be brought into if they are going to leave the old culture behind. Ethan Watters writes insightfully in his book, 'Urban Tribes' about tribes and new families in today's Western world. Watters claims no faith allegiance and his writing allows a glimpse of a new world.
A final thought pulled from Hunter's final pages, asks, What might a truly Scottish church look like, grown out of the new-found faith of the people being reached by missionaries seeking to understand the culture in which they find themselves. This is the exploration of the missiontribe and I look on it with much fear, for whatever it is we find we must do will not be easy - but it might just be glorious.
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Comments (4)
I've written comments under parts of what you wrote:
Hunter talks about the notion in many churches - unverbalised, mind you - that the new barbarians are unreachable with the gospel; as it were, they have to become civilised before they can come to faith (pre-evangelism).
Yes I agree much of the church thinks like that!
Hunter's personal experience is that this couldn't be farther from the truth.
I agree with him.
Interestingly, Vincent Donovan ('Christianity Rediscovered') came across the same ideas in others when it the Masai people he was seeking to evangelise (his book is a fascinating journey of sharing the essential gospel into new cultures - not wrong cultures but different cultures).
In another place, Hunter cites Methodism as an example of Celtic Christianity, that is, understanding the culture it was seeking to reach.
It certainly was when it started, that’s partly why it was so successful.
Is it too unfair to suggest that a quick scan of today's Methodist churches would suggest that we think the culture sings 18th and 19th century songs, frequents public buildings with the least comfortable seating possible (and I'm just thinking about the knee room), involving itself in meetings that are time-wasting and often pointless, and dare we say it, boring?
No that’s not unfair. I could add a lot more to this list, but won’t.
Shane Claiborne, in his painfully challenging but excellent book, 'The Irresistible Revolution', talks about how the most telling thing is not that we are not concerned for the poor (we often are) - the poor being the people Hunter says Methodism made contact with - but that we don't know any poor.
We tend to prefer our poor (for whom we are concerned) to be far away in exotic places, then we can comfort ourselves by being very concerned/give money etc without ever meeting them. I think I possibly know a wider range of people than most people in our Edinburgh churches, but they are rather spread around the country. We were down in Liverpool after Christmas visiting the in-laws, and the estates where they live in Halewood and Speke are not what most people in the churches up here are used to. St Marys (joint Methodist/Cof E) in Halewood (Steve’s church when he was at home) has a very different mix of people to Nic Sq. However the most thriving churches in those "poorer" areas of Liverpool tend to be independent/house churches which don’t come with all the cultural baggage. (I hear bits about some of those from my one brother in law).
A few weeks ago I was talking with a true-hearted Celt, concerned to reach the estates of Edinburgh, knowing that what so many of us are about in our churches has nothing to say or do with the people living in them. (This links up with the other point, above.) Dave Tomlinson ('The Post Evangelical') makes the same noises; we have created what Tony Walters calls a "culture religion". Tomlinson quotes Walters when he says: 'Christians may not be aware of the extent to which they have conformed to a middle-class lifestyle. So many of the public values of society are middle-class that they values, which are far from inevitable or God-given, are taken for granted'. As Tomlinson follows on to say: 'The consequence of confusing Christianity with middle-class values is that people who do not identify with that culture reject the church and, in many cases, the gospel too'.
Yes I would agree with all that! And am glad I can still relate to my own working class roots
However, there are clearly cultures that are not good for people, like addictions, which carry whole culture-systems with them.
This concerns me a lot but I don’t have any experience in this area (I know a lot about the theory, I teach the brain chemistry, pharmacology and theories of addiction to my OU students).
Here Hunter talks about the crucial need for an alternative culture for people to be brought into if they are going to leave the old culture behind. Ethan Watters writes insightfully in his book, 'Urban Tribes' about tribes and new families in today's Western world. Watters claims no faith allegiance and his writing allows a glimpse of a new world.
A final thought pulled from Hunter's final pages, asks, What might a truly Scottish church look like, grown out of the new-found faith of the people being reached by missionaries seeking to understand the culture in which they find themselves. This is the exploration of the missiontribe and I look on it with much fear, for whatever it is we find we must do will not be easy - but it might just be glorious.
Which of the many books uses the term missiontribe?
Which one book would you suggest I read next? (one about mission).
I’ve been reading Jonah this week, it relates quite well to some of the above!
concerning the name - it stems partly from a sermon I remember from several years ago, using Exodus 3 vs 5.
Which led to me taking off my shoes in the pulpit when I preach, someone noticed this (when I was only behind a lecturn and not up in a pulpit) and called me their bare footed preacher the next time I went there to preach.
and partly from an involvement with sacred dance (always bare footed).
Thank you for all your comments. There is so much that we can only begin to think about through the blog.
When it comes to books to read: I've mentioned Shane Claiborne's 'The Irresistible Revolution' in the posting above. This is an uncomfortable book to read at times but diving into the challenges and controversies is well worth it; I think you'll re-surface inspired and changed.
Others to add to consider are John Burke's 'No Perfect People Allowed', which bravely took me to places I once would not have gone. (I'm presently reading the case study of Burke's church, Gateway Community Church.) Neil Cole's 'Organic Church' would make a great follow-on from George Hunter's book - I think it has not only shaped my thinking but also my heart.
One that does my heart so much good is Erwin McManus's 'The Barbarian Way'.
I'd better stop there.
Hello again, BareFootPreacher (thank you for letting me know where this comes from),
I forgot to say that missiontribe is just a word I made up to describe a group of people who feel they need to be about mission together.
I read somewhere, recently, that to give people time off from church things to make contact with people outside of faith and church just meant they catch up with all the chores they have to do at home; this began me thinking about how we have to be more intentional about using such time for mission and how we can help one-another to do this.