Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon begin their book Resident Aliens (1989) with a story from their youth: “Sometime between 1960 and 1980, an old, inadequately conceived world ended, and a fresh, new world began. . . . When and how did we change? Although it may sound trivial, one of us is tempted to date the shift sometime on a Sunday evening in 1963. Then, in Greenville, South Carolina, in defiance of the state’s time-honored blue laws, the Fox Theater opened on Sunday. Seven of us — regular attenders of the Methodist Youth Fellowship at Buncombe Street Church — made a pact to enter the front door of the church, be seen, then quietly slip out the back door and join John Wayne at the Fox. That evening has come to represent a watershed in the history of Christendom, South Carolina style. On that night, Greenville, South Carolina — the last pocket of resistance to secularity in the Western world — served notice that it would no longer be a prop for the church. There would be no more free passes for the church, no more free rides. The Fox Theater went head to head with the church over who would provide the world view for the young.
That night in 1963, the Fox Theater won the opening skirmish. You see, our parents never worried about whether we would grow up Christian. The church was the only show in town. . . . Church, home and state formed a national consortium that worked together to instill ‘Christian values.’ People grew up Christian simply by being lucky enough to be born in places like Greenville, South Carolina, or Pleasant Grove, Texas. . . . A few years ago, the two of us awoke and realized that, whether or not our parents were justified in believing this about the world and the Christian faith, nobody believed it today. At least, almost nobody. . . . All sorts of Christians are waking up and realizing that it is no longer ‘our world’ — if it ever was.”
It is obvious to anyone paying much attention that we are no longer a “Christian nation” — if we ever were. There are a many different world-views and culture 'shapers' amongst a wide variety of people groups, ethnicities and neighbourhoods. Most people no longer have a vague lingering loyalty to the faith of their grandparents' or their church. As Alan Roxburgh writes in The Sky is Falling (2005): “We need a movement of God’s people into neighbourhoods, to live out and be the new future of Christ. It must be a movement that demonstrates how the people of God have a vision and the power to transform our world. …”
What does that mean for us as 21st century Christians?
- We need to recognise that there are many, many people groups around us!
- One size congregation and ministry-approach will not connect with all these groups.
- It wouldn’t ‘work’ to just revisit the proven programmes of the past.
- We need to move out of the building into our neighbourhoods and patiently make real friendship and take real interest in community life.
- We can’t really live into several neighbourhoods all at the same time, any more than a cross-cultural missionary can live into 2 or 3 villages at the same time, so we will each need to make choices.
- Our ‘neighbourhoods’ are often non-geographic. Interest groups and age-groups are more often the neighbourhoods in which people live – each with their own ‘lingo,’ interests, rhythms and stories. Sporting clubs, schools, hobby groups, cultural centres, art groups, retirement villages, shopping strips, music groups, motor vehicle groups and so on are the new neighbourhoods around town.
- These activities are not an end in themselves, but a catalyst around which a wide web of relationships form. For example, in a child’s sporting team, the parents, siblings, school-friends, former players, coaches and interested schoolmates form the network. It’s not just the 10-20 players, but maybe 40-70 people who connect around the activity. They do so, not just at the sporting-courts, but at practise, after-game supper in cafes, BBQs at family homes and so on. Relating to such a ‘neighbourhood’ means you need to be in some way a part of the team or having a significant other who is.
- We need to be released to serve in the group for which God has given us an affinity. It takes real time and may require being released from other church-based activities to make time. For example, you may need to give up running the church's mens’ breakfasts to really find the time to engage that model aeroplane ‘neighbourhood.’ Not just by attending the formal meetings they run, but the broader, more relaxed and personal times they and their families connect.
- Being a ‘witness’ is not done on a soapbox or pulpit. As mates share about the challenges and joys of life and what’s got them through – they compare notes about what’s important. Not as sales-reps, but humbly, with a curiosity to learn in turn how the others get by. These are the conversations that can change both our and others’ lives!
- ‘Church’ in these settings may never become a Sunday gathering with pews, pulpits, singing and preaching! A chat around a kitchen table where bread is broken, prayers murmured shyly and the scriptures are read and talked before the group heads off on their bike ride – this may be the sign of the Kingdom in that neighbourhood.
We’ll look at these in the next blog post....
