Skip to main content

Pandemic Ecclesiology

 The enforced closing of Sunday and other "in-person" gathering led to many churches experimenting with online and alternative methods of working.

But I wonder if enough reflection has been done theologically, and ecclesiologically around this.

I wonder what moving forward post-covid will look like, or will the moment be lost in the haste of re-opening, of going back to our old ways?

Frost & Hirsch in their influential book from a few years ago now, "The Shaping of Things to Come". raise some questions worth reflecting on


  • Do you need to meet in a church building? Not necessarily.
  • Do you need to meet weekly? Not necessarily. The first Christians met every day. A church can meet as often as it needs in order to fulfill the above commitments. 
  • Do you need a minister? Not necessarily. The New Testament is clear on the need for accountability, admonishment, and learning. It does speak about leaders (elders) exercising humble and loving care for a community. But you don’t need an ordained minister for that.
  •  Do you need to sing hymns? Not necessarily. There is mention in the New Testament of the value of singing spiritual songs. But if the goal is that worship and learning occur when you meet, you can use as few (none?) or as many songs as you need. 
  • Does someone have to bring a sermon? Not necessarily. As long as people have an opportunity to hear from God, through his Word and other means, it doesn’t matter whether one person speaks for thirty minutes or thirty people contribute a minute each. Learning, worship, and the opportunity for God’s Word are essential. How they play out is entirely open to experimentation. 
Ask yourself, “If we could start church all over again from scratch, would we do it the way it’s currently being done?”

Frost, Michael. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church (p. 106). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hypermarket or corner store?

 Many years ago it seemed to me that churches were heading the way of supermarkets! Either large "hypermarkets": stock everything, well staffed, bright but impersonal, or corner shops: local, convenient, potentially connecting personally but limited offering. The struggle is the middle size, not quite one thing but not quite the other. Maybe it feels uncomfortable to speak of churches in such consumer, market driven terms. But for the UK church that is in many ways the reality. These 2 articles, from quite different "tribes", articulate some of the issues this raises: https://www.londonseminary.org/goodbye-local-church/ https://www.baptist.org.uk/Articles/663265/What_would_it.aspx  
Post a Comment
Read more

Opportunity or Threat?

 It's amazing to still be hearing some church and ministry leaders talk as if online is a threat to church as we used to know it! The reality is that church as we used to know it, pre-Covid has gone. Online was not just something we did for the pandemic, but is here to stay. Yes there is a danger that it creates consumers and spectators, but then many of our models of church were doing that anyway. Part of the issue, I think, is the rush to equate online with streaming what happens in the building. The rhetoric then becomes around those who can't or won't  return (and I have heard it said with an slight air of superiority, are too "fearful"). But digital engagement can be so much more, an opportunity to connect in new ways, to communicate beyond our boundaries. As Brady Shearer and others have said, Social Media is not about advertising ministry, it is  ministry. So what if we stopped talking in terms of threat and started thinking in terms of opportunity. What if...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Memory of Faith

 It is common to think of the UK as "post-Christendom", or even post-Christian. Census and surveys paint a picture of church decline. Faithfully following Jesus, yet alone seeing those from outside the church come to faith can be tough. Daniel Strange describes it this way: "The good news of Jesus is deeply implausible  in our culture at the moment...the cultural air they have breathed all their lives has shaped them to assume Christianity is irrelevant, untrue and intolerant" ("Plugged In", p32). Yet the memory of faith lingers, in music, in culture, and beyond in ways that keep popping up. I was recently at a secular event where the crowd participation moment was to get those gathered to join in singing "Come and go with me to my Father's house". It was quite something to hear the room belting out the words of there being joy in the Father's house forever! Did anyone even notice the good news they were singing? This weekend was Glastonb...
Post a Comment
Read more