Thursday, July 16. London. Continued.
When I arrived at the Spirituality Centre for our appointment, Ian was on the phone with the Bishop of London, so I had some time to look around the room again.
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If you immediately turn left after entering the former nave you will see an ancient baptismal font with a chain mechanism to lift the ornate cover:
Deeper into the room, and to the right of the center aisle, is a section of the room for meditation and prayer. Beginning on the left, there is an icon of the Virgin and Child with post-it prayer requests, and a notebook of intercessions; a display of chalices, patens, and other ecclesiastical accouterments; and in the foreground a meditation station, with earphones for auditory centering, and computer screens for visual centering:
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Looking back toward the entrance of the church and upward, you can see the skylight which marks the place where the First World War missile pierced the once-solid ceiling:
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And here’s the magnificent stained glass window above the altar and reredos:
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When his call ended, Ian came down from his security-locked office in the balcony (just visible on the lower right in the photograph of the skylight), and suggested we go for a cup of coffee. So we headed out into the back garden, through to the next street, and crossed to . . . a Starbucks! On our way over he told me the exciting news that a neighborhood bank executive had seen one of the Meditation fliers and attended the latest Meditation, and that he wanted to talk with Ian about ways to encourage other employees to attend.
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Provisioned with coffees, we made our way back to the garden and settled in for our conversation about the Emerging Church and Moot.
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He began by expressing regret that the Fresh Expressions initiative is so inadequately funded (which I already knew from previous exchanges with Ian Marsh and Bob Franklyn), and admiration for Bishop Graham Cray and the minimal staff who are accomplishing so much with so little.
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Considering the continuum of “Fresh Expressions” from more traditional models to very experimental ones, an important question to ask is “What kind of staffing is needed to build ecclesiastical communities out of contextual mission?” Some “Fresh Expressions” may take place in and be funded by a local congregation; others may need regional, diocesan, or private support. (In fact, most of the initial money to support the Archbishop of Canterbury’s call for a “Mission-Shaped Church” and “Fresh Expressions” was privately raised.)
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Emerging Church communities are trying to respond to the challenge of “Spiritual Tourism.” There are several causes for this phenomenon:
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1. post-secularization: the dramatic rise in spirituality and spiritualism in reaction to the secularization of society
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2. post-traditional church: the shift from church as a cultural “given” to a church where people choose to affiliate
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3. globalization, new technologies, and social networks: the shift from geographically-centered communities to values-centered communities
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As a result, there is a need for lay and ordained “pioneers,” for people engaged in the Fresh Expressions’ Pioneer Ministry. In elaborating this need, Ian described two essentially different ministries and callings: pastors and pioneers. Pastors have personalities and gifts which are crucial in sustaining and leading congregations amidst all the complexities of parish life. Pioneers have personalities and gifts which are crucial in founding new churches amidst all the frustrations and difficulties of evangelizing new communities without churches and old communities with abandoned churches. Pioneers also need to be able to cope with the tension between contemporary culture and traditional church models. He pointed out that Britain was evangelized by monks, visionaries who moved into pagan communities and did the hard work of building relationships and ministering in ways that were relevant to the people’s lives. In short, pioneers are attempting to recover the apostolic energy of the church.
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People who think they may be called to Pioneer Ministry undergo extensive discernment and special training, both on a residential and part-time basis, spending half of their time in training and half of their time in pioneering. He mentioned a pioneer ministry in Rochester in which the pioneer spent his first year just getting to know people.
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Ian recommended that I read Vincent Donavan’s classic work on evangelism, Christianity Rediscovered, for insights into the approaches of the Emerging Church movement.
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There is an evolution in the Emerging Church movement from what Ian termed an “Attractional Model” and a “Missional Model” of the Church. He took my brown leather notebook and drew two concentric circles. In the outer circle he wrote “worship,” and in the inner circle he wrote “life of the community.” This, he said, represents the Attractional Model. The aim is to attract people through alternative kinds of worship, and then bring them into the life of the community. This can be very effective for the “de-churched,” those who have been raised in some sort of church community but who had been turned off by some aspect of it, and are looking for, or could be attracted into considering, a new way back into the church.
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The Emerging Church effort so far, according to Ian, has been primarily with the de-churched: “we know something about this group.” But, “we have been over-focused on the de-churched. The real effort has to be among the un-churched, because their numbers are growing rapidly, while the de-churched are a dwindling number as time goes by. The problem is that we don’t know much about bringing in the un-churched, except that the primary issue among the un-churched is the issue of Trust, and negative stereotypes about the Church and Christians and Christianity."
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So the answer lies in the Missional Model. Ian drew two new concentric circles, and this time he put “life of the community” in the outer circle, and a trinity if circles within the inner circle. “The un-churched first need to have positive experiences in a Christian community, and then, when they see the life in the community, they will be able to turn to questions like, ‘Is there a God?’”
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At that point, they will be ready to try (and now Ian labeled the three inner circles): Worship, Mission, and Community. When I asked him the difference between “life of the community” in the outer circle, and “Community” in the inner circle, he explained that “life of the community” is what the un-churched person experiences, and “Community” is the DNA or rhythm of life that nourishes and sustains the life of the community.
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This is the sequence Ian has developed for the work of Emerging Church communities:
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1. Listening
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2. Responding in loving service to real needs
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3. Building community
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4. Agreeing on and adopting a Rhythm of Life or Rule of Life for the community
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5. Discipling (depending on one’s church tradition, this may be called “Catechism” or “Discipleship”
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6. Worship, appropriate to the community’s context
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We ended our conversation by talking about his immediate hopes for Moot. Until recently, the only two recognized forms of ministry in the Church of England were the Parish Church and Chaplaincy. Now a new entity, known as a Bishop’s Mission Order, has been established, and it will enable Emerging Church communities to have an official status commensurate with a Parish Church or Chaplaincy. Moot has applied for such a designation. In the meantime, they are trying to raise money to support three members of the community to rent and “develop an art gallery space, café, bookshop, and performance venue to promote the Christian faith to London’s post-secular unchurched culture of spiritual seekers.” If you would like to see their Mission Sponsorship Programme, please click here.
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Here is a picture of Ian after our interview, seated in front of the church, with a flyer for Moot’s Meditation Hour behind him.
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My work in England is done. Off to France and Madagascar!
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