Discovery Number One: Think Differently about Church
As I begin this post, I'm in Ravenna, Italy. If you don't like history, you might want to skip the first three paragraphs. I was unaware of Ravenna's significance until recent years. Perhaps I was taught this crucial piece of history long ago and didn't absorb it. More likely, though, is the idea that this town is forgotten by many who teach Western or religious history.
Ravenna was the western seat of the Roman (or Byzantine empire by then) for a few centuries. After the sacking of Rome, Ravenna became the ideal spot for the empire's western capital because its marshy, seaside location made it easy to defend. The city was easily accessible from the Byzantine capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). Great buildings, palaces, and cathedrals were built in Ravenna in the 4th-8th centuries. It was the last Roman or Byzantine foothold in an Italy dominated by Lombards, Goths, Vandals and so forth.
Much of ancient Ravenna was destroyed over time. Allied bombing in World War 2 ruined some of what was left. The primary remaining symbols of the past are the church buildings. Their interiors are decorated with elaborate mosaics and have gained UNESCO world-heritage status. Maintaining them as cultural treasures is crucial, yet these buildings no longer contain worshiping communities.
My fear is that if we don't begin to think differently about church in the US, our buildings and institutions will be nothing more than relics of a bygone era. Our assets won't receive UNESCO world-heritage status. Some of our best universities and non-profit organizations may survive as pseudo-Christian institutions. But the differences between us and places like Ravenna will be increasingly minimal.
What is necessary to change this dismal outlook? Here is one key shift that I have (re)discovered on this sabbatical. We must give space for new expressions of church. The Spirit of God often works outside the existing structures, but God's people often fail to go out and join God's work. We cannot expect new things to grow using the same seeds and same techniques in our existing, overworked soil.
The late Ralph Winter was a well-respected author and professor of missions studies. He wrote about the two historical structures of the church, two synergistic ways of being that supported one another over the many centuries of the church. These are helpful in understanding this key ingredient that I think needs to happen in our church work today.
The first he called the "modal" way of being. It's the default way of being church. It involves pastoring, nurturing, teaching, and fellowship. This is what happens in a gathered community of Christians.
The second is what he called the "sodal" way of being. This is seen in the work of pioneering or sending people out. It exists outside the default ways of doing church. "Sodal" happens when pioneers leave the safe communities of faith and try to build new communities in new ways among new people. As I'll explain below, this isn't just church planting as most people understand it.
If we look at the history of Christianity's massive expansion across Roman Europe and then throughout the world, it was the "sodal" structure that was responsible for the spread of the Christian faith. Monks like Patrick, Cyril, Methodius, Francis, and so many others left the safe structures of "modal" church and operated in spaces where faith in Jesus did not exist. They didn't hide their faith in Jesus or try to disguise what they were doing. But they also didn't try to evangelize the world by being pastors, vicars or more effective church leaders. They had to be pioneers working outside those existing structures.
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| illustration from https://thejazzgoat.wordpress.com/2017/07/05/being-modal-or-sodal-fresh-expressions-pioneers-and-the-future/ |
This explains why I'm not talking about church planting as most people think of it. Most church planting in the US has the goal of quickly producing a gathered community that pays for and supports the "modal" operations of a new church. This belies the problem. Our definition of "church" in church planting is the same as what we use in our traditional forms of church. My discovery is that we need to think differently about church, not just multiply or tinker with what isn't currently working.
What might church look like in a "sodal" sense today? During our conversations in England and Scotland, we were exposed to a bunch of new concepts that don't look anything like what I have previously considered as church. Some of the pioneering people doing these things used names like Messy Church, Wild Church, Forest Church, Lego Church, Muddy Church, Cafe Church, Yoga Church, Quilters Church, Renew Wellbeing Church, etc.
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| from Messy Church at St Nicholas Church in Marston, England |
I'll talk more about this in coming articles. But imagine a scenario where your primary goal with a non-believing person is NOT to funnel them into the traditional church. Not now. Maybe sometime. But perhaps not ever. Instead, the goal is to form new kinds of Christian community that are nurtured in new soil outside traditional worshiping communities. This is a monumental shift for church leaders like myself, and I don't think we easily grasp what this is about.
Would your existing church even know what to do with such a thought? Who are the people in your church who discontentedly sit at the fringes, unhappy with the status quo of doing traditional church? What frustrations do you have about trying to bring unbelieving friends and family members into church as you know it? Which church leaders might grasp the importance of what I'm trying to describe here? These are things for you to ponder.
I want to explore this together with other folks like you. More to come.
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