Faith
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This series of posts ponders the future of our collective faith from primarily Christian lenses. I do not want you to think I am going to be uncritical. Much of what I write stems from a heart that is dissatisfied with the way things are today in the church. I long to see a fuller expression of faith that approximates the vision of Revelation 4 and 5. All tongues, tribes and nations gathered together in corporate worship.
What will the church of the 22nd century believe? The inevitable technopolistic society that is emerging will create greater challenges for the global church than we have faced in our two thousand years as a Christian body. Technology is increasingly taking a transcendent place in public consciousness. So much so that there is now vision to embed microchips in human brains to create a cyberspace on the level of human consciousness. In 2007, PBS proposed a series that would address this technology entitled "22nd Century." Such technological advances have stormed on the scene so quickly that one may wonder what will the Church do in the face of such morally and religiously challenging possibilities? This blog will address these issues and more to awaken our Christian consciences to consider today the potentialities that our children's children will face. Leaders must envision today a strategy to sustain the Church of 22nd century.
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I propose the face of our future faith needs to be something like tinnitus. Since my open heart surgery, I have had a perpetual ringing in my ears that is due to the increased flow of blood as a result of my new and improved mitral valve, ticking away in my heart. I now realize how persistent, how constant, our future faith needs to be. The dull, "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" in the background that I hear right now is like my faith. I am aware of it when I take the time and silence to consider what is happening. Faith in a similar manner requires stillness and rest to consider its place in our lives. I pray that the 22nd century faith is a constant presence, and that we take the time to hear its soft voice calling to us, "Beleieeevveeee." Maybe something like that.
Part One
This series has been a long time in the making. I warn you in advance that it will be fragmentary at best since it is one of the most difficult relationships I have now in my life. I have documented this in my online autobiography entitled "an unconventional life." To speculate about the church of the future is well and good, but one aspect of our future faith must be addressed - church.
What will the church of the future look like? It is difficult to imagine the Evangelicalism of our time having a long enough future to reach the 22nd century. I pray that I am right. I believe we are in a time of flux within Christianity. Evangelicalism is no longer relevant. It does not move the hearts and minds of the average European, and increasingly the average American.* With the church in decline in the Western world, there is a tremendous move in the East because it is new and fresh compared to the other alternatives of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Shinto, etc. This is wonderful since the gospel needs to advance throughout the Earth.
In the post-Christian Euro-American world there is a desperate need for the church experience to be real and relevant. I would venture to guess that the average non-Christian would struggle to understand the point of a Sunday morning service. Whether it is the clichés, the central focus upon on man's opinion about the topic of the day, the music that seems a bit behind the times. . . the experience is lacking for most. Even among my peers who are Christians I hear complaints and criticisms abounding when they are honest enough to express their dissatisfaction with the current state of things.
This leaves us with a need for transformation that will alter the structure of the Sunday morning event. I believe the church service of the future will be more focused upon the corporate experience of worship. I believe the church needs to break to some degree with the sermon based event that is our church service today and to create a unique opportunity that engages all participants and affords the opportunity to share in some way with their fellow members. This will be less comfortable that the current spectator in a service, but it will create more impact, more life challenge, more relevance.
Consider that the Internet is our social platform for engaging in life issues that we find particularly pleasurable. The Church needs to consider why this is. People need forums to vocalize their hopes, fears, frustrations, excitements. People need community where anything spoken is safe and where love is the norm. Small groups are one way the current structure enables this to occur, but I propose a revolution in the Sunday morning event. I am not offering a one-step fix, but I propose a process needs to being, starting with the emergent generation. I laud efforts to reintroduce the arts more in the worship service, but I believe there is more needed.
Church means literally "called out ones" in Greek. This is time for a call to be different. A call to be able to accept any who may walk through the doors of the church building. A call to love the unlovable and to give a voice to the oppressed. This revolution, like any other, will be hard, costly and self-sacrificial in order for it to become relevant in outreach. The alternative is to decline and to decay as our society evolves. I pray that is not the case.
Part Two
If the sermon is not the central focus of the future worship service, what is the alternative? How can there be church without a sermon? - the average Evangelical mind would immediately respond. Anyone from Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Quaker, Amish, or Mennonite traditions would say, "We've been doing church this way for centuries." Where does this leave the future church service?
Let's consider what the purpose of the weekly gathering is - a worship gathering. God must be central to this event. Focus upon Him, His revelation, His salvation . . . Him. Worship does not merely happen when one man discloses his hermeneutical biases to an audience. The pastor or lecturer may experience the act of worship - and there may be some who also experience a sort of residual encounter from this one man's act - but the majority of participants are not. Consider this Christian today article if you may doubt this statement. So, what does this leave us with?
I propose the future church service will be less structured - less "Stand up, Sit down, Fight, Fight, Fight." The environment needs to be restructured so that worshipers can collectively focus attention upon God. Historically, this happened through architecture, art, ritual, conveying of religious myths, meditation, prayer, contemplation, group silence, singing, Scripture reading, and teaching. This is a richer expression of worship that has been pared down in the present era to a music band playing a few songs before a leader gives a Bible message. This is a tragic happening that needs to be rectified in our future church services. A return to all or most of these elements will aid the worshiper of the future to re-enter a place of worship and to collectively experience the joy of exalting God.
Part Three
Once the purpose of worship is restored and the service becomes more participatory with aspects of the arts, religious ritual, service, contemplative exercises, etc. there is still more to be desired in the Sunday morning event.
Church should be a place where people feel accepted just as they are. Popular Christian music mentions this often, but it is rarely embodied. I believe the future church service needs to be welcoming - a hospitable place. It should feel like a warm and cozy den where weary souls, ecstatic souls, indifferent souls, perplexed souls can be just what they are. The worship event should delight the soul, release the soul, embrace the soul.
This is a high and difficult thing to realize. There will be a measure of discomfort since it will be more intimate and more engaging in contrast to the current focus upon one man's delivery of a sermon. The participatory nature of the service must never create a fear or aversion to join in the collective actions of the group. In other words, the casual visitor should be eager to join in and feel as though she belongs right from the start. This means grace and acceptance must be the norm.
Christians should be like their Savior in welcoming the outcasts into the worship experience. Coercion is not welcome in the future church service. Guilt trips, obligation to conform, or peer pressure are antithetical to the greater goals of this event. When the service is a grace based event where all willingly engage, there is an atmosphere where God is exalted in His variegated character as see through this diverse group gathered together to exalt Him.
Once the future church service is a collective event that engages and embraces its entire audience, worship, community, grace and celebration emerge.
§§§
Proactive Faith
Today may seem like an odd time to read a blog about the 22nd century. On the contrary, in light of the age in which we live, this is the perfect time for the global Church to consider what the future will look like. What will the Church experience on a daily basis? What moral implications will the earth shaking technologies create? Since my son was born two years ago, I have been increasingly thinking about the world in which my son and his children will live. How much of science-fiction today be a reality in his lifetime? This consideration of future realities provoked me to do some research about the 22nd century. I was shocked to see that science and business were at the forefront in considering what the future entails. I was grieved to see a complete lack of Christian thinking upon the future. If scientific and business minded individuals are already considering the next century, why is the North American Church still wrestling with post-modern philosophy and post-industrialism?
Faith and Certainty
The first point of the 22nd century manifesto is simple, but extremely difficult to live, to follow, to embody. Faith does not mean correctness. Just because our Christian faith is something that we are certain about, does not mean that our faith is the world’s faith. Our faith is certain for us. Our faith is sure for us. This is a hard thing for many to embrace. The world’s faith is not our faith and ours is not the world’s.
Global Stewardship
The 22nd century Church must see we are all global citizens of God’s great Earth. We share this gift with Atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Taoists, even, Satanists. The Earth is God’s gift to us all. We are called to be stewards of it. To enlighten others that God’s Earth is ours to enjoy, to protect, to cherish. Faith is not a free pass to irresponsible and haughty living. May we see that our faith must consider all of life as sacred, all of Earth as our mission, all peoples as our Masters. For are we not Christ’s servants to the ends of the Earth? Didn’t He Himself say, “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet” (Jn. 13:14)?
Peaceful Faith
Why We Fight is a powerful glimpse of the difference between 21st century faith and 22nd century faith. The only way that the Earth will have a peaceful future is if the Church will rise up against the “military-industrial complex” that President Eisenhower warned against. 22nd century faith proclaims peace. As global citizens, it is never right to bomb any country on the Earth into the Stone Age as we have done in Afghanistan and Iraq in the past decade. Vengeance is not a justification for Christians to act violent against another. 9/11 is not a justification for the killing of innocent men, women and children in the Middle East. We must proclaim a gospel of peace. We must turn the other cheek as we are attacked by our political enemies. I am speaking as a Christian, not an American. Although this will inevitably offend others, I am willing to put my neck out and say that the future Church must step away from the American Right Wing Evangelical Movement and reconsider the words of our Lord, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Jesus has overcome. Jesus has given peace. Let us remember these truths. The military-industrial complex of 21st century America will not overcome; it will not give peace.
Militant Faith
Our real fight is one that spans the globe. Not against terrorists. Not against Muslim governments. Our real battle field is far more judicial and far less militaristic. This manifesto logically follows the others. As global stewards and peace makers, 22nd century believers must fight for justice, liberation and equity. There is a global war being fought right now and the battle lines are not as clearly drawn as those in Iraq and Afghanistan. A brave few stand up today in court rooms, police stations, and Parliaments pleading for the liberation and empowerment of the weak, voiceless, oppressed men, women and children in developing nations, preemptively waging war with few resources and little public attention. Christians need to declare war against child prostitution, sex trafficking, oppression of the poor, exploitation of widows and orphans. May we realize our true battle and transition from the 21st century war on terror to the 22nd century war on injustice.
Visit http://attheendofslavery.com/ for an example of one 22nd century battle front.
Diverse Faith
Since there is injustice in the farthest reaches of our Earth, we need to not only fight for the liberation of these victims, but also provide them a voice. The time has come that the silent majority must speak. We in the developed world have had ample opportunity to speak and voice our concerns. Our time to listen has come. 22nd century faith appreciates, even yearns for, diversity. The global Church is a beautifully diverse body of individuals whose functions are essential to the total working of the whole community. Far from alienating the lesser heard voices in the developing world, the Church of the future needs to be a forum for the downcast, oppressed, overlooked masses of men, women and children. Our teachers are among the impoverished, illiterate, abused, exploited, and enslaved. The outcasts need to be brought into the fold; for their message speaks loudly and clearly. This is the collective voice of the very ones whom Jesus acknowledged, ministered to, healed and empowered. Oh, that the Western world would set down the megaphone to pause and to listen to genuine tales of perseverance, faith and love.
Humble Faith
The culmination of these manifestos should be a humility and recognition that God is the one who is worthy of our attention as a corporate body of faith. In humility, may we realize that the Earth needs us as a unified, diverse whole to work together as one Body. We have the potential to transform the world with our corporate love if we would merely set aside our petty differences and start working together. We need to acknowledge our true war against injustice and see that it is only by the grace of our Lord that we can fight. We need to see the Earth as a gift that we receive in all humility to be stewards and guardians for our children and children's children. Let us be one Church with one Baptism and one Lord. Soli Deo Gloria.
Hope-filled Faith
The New Year has made me realize another important facet of our future faith. Hope is essential to the success of Christianity in our time. Apocalyptic movies like 2012 have brought an interesting hype about the end of the world that preempts this contemplation. Our future faith must be one that inspires hope in its adherents. We cannot possibly know what the future holds for our planet. We undoubtedly have left a mark upon the environment over the past century that will inevitably have consequences for our children and children's children. This uncertainty about when and how the world may end is important to give us all pause for a moment. What is it that makes Christianity significant in light of this impending doom that can be so overpowering, even crippling? Hope. Christ's return is certainly unclear, but, whenever or however it may occur, it inspires hope to believers. There is a Savior who is going to right the wrongs, bring justice, deliver the oppressed, reveal the oppressors. There is a coming Savior whose rule and reign is righteous, true, sure. This fills my soul with the utmost hope. In the midst of a generation where human trafficking has seen its reemergence through Cyber space in new ways that are unimaginable, it is awesome to take comfort in our future faith. We can have the certain expectation that things will be made well in the end. Come Lord Jesus to make this planet a place of holiness and purity. Even so come!
§§§§
I have found the conversation that I have been looking for and it appears to be growing. The future of faith is not such an absurd concept. I appreciate my friends at Patheos for bringing this into our collective consciousness in a larger scope than I have been able to. Please visit their site and contribute to this larger dialog about where we all are headed as believers.
Since stumbling upon this today, I see that some of the contributors to First Things, Homebrewed Chrisitanity and Emergent Village are beginning to consider our future faith.
I feel like my work here is nearly completed. Thank you for reading, commenting and sharing your lives with me in this journey of Our Future Faith.
This series has been a long time in the making. I warn you in advance that it will be fragmentary at best since it is one of the most difficult relationships I have now in my life. I have documented this in my online autobiography entitled "an unconventional life." To speculate about the church of the future is well and good, but one aspect of our future faith must be addressed - church.
What will the church of the future look like? It is difficult to imagine the Evangelicalism of our time having a long enough future to reach the 22nd century. I pray that I am right. I believe we are in a time of flux within Christianity. Evangelicalism is no longer relevant. It does not move the hearts and minds of the average European, and increasingly the average American.* With the church in decline in the Western world, there is a tremendous move in the East because it is new and fresh compared to the other alternatives of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Shinto, etc. This is wonderful since the gospel needs to advance throughout the Earth.
In the post-Christian Euro-American world there is a desperate need for the church experience to be real and relevant. I would venture to guess that the average non-Christian would struggle to understand the point of a Sunday morning service. Whether it is the clichés, the central focus upon on man's opinion about the topic of the day, the music that seems a bit behind the times. . . the experience is lacking for most. Even among my peers who are Christians I hear complaints and criticisms abounding when they are honest enough to express their dissatisfaction with the current state of things.
This leaves us with a need for transformation that will alter the structure of the Sunday morning event. I believe the church service of the future will be more focused upon the corporate experience of worship. I believe the church needs to break to some degree with the sermon based event that is our church service today and to create a unique opportunity that engages all participants and affords the opportunity to share in some way with their fellow members. This will be less comfortable that the current spectator in a service, but it will create more impact, more life challenge, more relevance.
Consider that the Internet is our social platform for engaging in life issues that we find particularly pleasurable. The Church needs to consider why this is. People need forums to vocalize their hopes, fears, frustrations, excitements. People need community where anything spoken is safe and where love is the norm. Small groups are one way the current structure enables this to occur, but I propose a revolution in the Sunday morning event. I am not offering a one-step fix, but I propose a process needs to being, starting with the emergent generation. I laud efforts to reintroduce the arts more in the worship service, but I believe there is more needed.
Church means literally "called out ones" in Greek. This is time for a call to be different. A call to be able to accept any who may walk through the doors of the church building. A call to love the unlovable and to give a voice to the oppressed. This revolution, like any other, will be hard, costly and self-sacrificial in order for it to become relevant in outreach. The alternative is to decline and to decay as our society evolves. I pray that is not the case.
Part Two
If the sermon is not the central focus of the future worship service, what is the alternative? How can there be church without a sermon? - the average Evangelical mind would immediately respond. Anyone from Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Quaker, Amish, or Mennonite traditions would say, "We've been doing church this way for centuries." Where does this leave the future church service?
Let's consider what the purpose of the weekly gathering is - a worship gathering. God must be central to this event. Focus upon Him, His revelation, His salvation . . . Him. Worship does not merely happen when one man discloses his hermeneutical biases to an audience. The pastor or lecturer may experience the act of worship - and there may be some who also experience a sort of residual encounter from this one man's act - but the majority of participants are not. Consider this Christian today article if you may doubt this statement. So, what does this leave us with?
I propose the future church service will be less structured - less "Stand up, Sit down, Fight, Fight, Fight." The environment needs to be restructured so that worshipers can collectively focus attention upon God. Historically, this happened through architecture, art, ritual, conveying of religious myths, meditation, prayer, contemplation, group silence, singing, Scripture reading, and teaching. This is a richer expression of worship that has been pared down in the present era to a music band playing a few songs before a leader gives a Bible message. This is a tragic happening that needs to be rectified in our future church services. A return to all or most of these elements will aid the worshiper of the future to re-enter a place of worship and to collectively experience the joy of exalting God.
Part Three
Once the purpose of worship is restored and the service becomes more participatory with aspects of the arts, religious ritual, service, contemplative exercises, etc. there is still more to be desired in the Sunday morning event.
Church should be a place where people feel accepted just as they are. Popular Christian music mentions this often, but it is rarely embodied. I believe the future church service needs to be welcoming - a hospitable place. It should feel like a warm and cozy den where weary souls, ecstatic souls, indifferent souls, perplexed souls can be just what they are. The worship event should delight the soul, release the soul, embrace the soul.
This is a high and difficult thing to realize. There will be a measure of discomfort since it will be more intimate and more engaging in contrast to the current focus upon one man's delivery of a sermon. The participatory nature of the service must never create a fear or aversion to join in the collective actions of the group. In other words, the casual visitor should be eager to join in and feel as though she belongs right from the start. This means grace and acceptance must be the norm.
Christians should be like their Savior in welcoming the outcasts into the worship experience. Coercion is not welcome in the future church service. Guilt trips, obligation to conform, or peer pressure are antithetical to the greater goals of this event. When the service is a grace based event where all willingly engage, there is an atmosphere where God is exalted in His variegated character as see through this diverse group gathered together to exalt Him.
Once the future church service is a collective event that engages and embraces its entire audience, worship, community, grace and celebration emerge.
§§§
Proactive Faith
Today may seem like an odd time to read a blog about the 22nd century. On the contrary, in light of the age in which we live, this is the perfect time for the global Church to consider what the future will look like. What will the Church experience on a daily basis? What moral implications will the earth shaking technologies create? Since my son was born two years ago, I have been increasingly thinking about the world in which my son and his children will live. How much of science-fiction today be a reality in his lifetime? This consideration of future realities provoked me to do some research about the 22nd century. I was shocked to see that science and business were at the forefront in considering what the future entails. I was grieved to see a complete lack of Christian thinking upon the future. If scientific and business minded individuals are already considering the next century, why is the North American Church still wrestling with post-modern philosophy and post-industrialism?
Faith and Certainty
The first point of the 22nd century manifesto is simple, but extremely difficult to live, to follow, to embody. Faith does not mean correctness. Just because our Christian faith is something that we are certain about, does not mean that our faith is the world’s faith. Our faith is certain for us. Our faith is sure for us. This is a hard thing for many to embrace. The world’s faith is not our faith and ours is not the world’s.
Global Stewardship
The 22nd century Church must see we are all global citizens of God’s great Earth. We share this gift with Atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Taoists, even, Satanists. The Earth is God’s gift to us all. We are called to be stewards of it. To enlighten others that God’s Earth is ours to enjoy, to protect, to cherish. Faith is not a free pass to irresponsible and haughty living. May we see that our faith must consider all of life as sacred, all of Earth as our mission, all peoples as our Masters. For are we not Christ’s servants to the ends of the Earth? Didn’t He Himself say, “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet” (Jn. 13:14)?
Peaceful Faith
Why We Fight is a powerful glimpse of the difference between 21st century faith and 22nd century faith. The only way that the Earth will have a peaceful future is if the Church will rise up against the “military-industrial complex” that President Eisenhower warned against. 22nd century faith proclaims peace. As global citizens, it is never right to bomb any country on the Earth into the Stone Age as we have done in Afghanistan and Iraq in the past decade. Vengeance is not a justification for Christians to act violent against another. 9/11 is not a justification for the killing of innocent men, women and children in the Middle East. We must proclaim a gospel of peace. We must turn the other cheek as we are attacked by our political enemies. I am speaking as a Christian, not an American. Although this will inevitably offend others, I am willing to put my neck out and say that the future Church must step away from the American Right Wing Evangelical Movement and reconsider the words of our Lord, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Jesus has overcome. Jesus has given peace. Let us remember these truths. The military-industrial complex of 21st century America will not overcome; it will not give peace.
Militant Faith
Our real fight is one that spans the globe. Not against terrorists. Not against Muslim governments. Our real battle field is far more judicial and far less militaristic. This manifesto logically follows the others. As global stewards and peace makers, 22nd century believers must fight for justice, liberation and equity. There is a global war being fought right now and the battle lines are not as clearly drawn as those in Iraq and Afghanistan. A brave few stand up today in court rooms, police stations, and Parliaments pleading for the liberation and empowerment of the weak, voiceless, oppressed men, women and children in developing nations, preemptively waging war with few resources and little public attention. Christians need to declare war against child prostitution, sex trafficking, oppression of the poor, exploitation of widows and orphans. May we realize our true battle and transition from the 21st century war on terror to the 22nd century war on injustice.
Visit http://attheendofslavery.com/ for an example of one 22nd century battle front.
Since there is injustice in the farthest reaches of our Earth, we need to not only fight for the liberation of these victims, but also provide them a voice. The time has come that the silent majority must speak. We in the developed world have had ample opportunity to speak and voice our concerns. Our time to listen has come. 22nd century faith appreciates, even yearns for, diversity. The global Church is a beautifully diverse body of individuals whose functions are essential to the total working of the whole community. Far from alienating the lesser heard voices in the developing world, the Church of the future needs to be a forum for the downcast, oppressed, overlooked masses of men, women and children. Our teachers are among the impoverished, illiterate, abused, exploited, and enslaved. The outcasts need to be brought into the fold; for their message speaks loudly and clearly. This is the collective voice of the very ones whom Jesus acknowledged, ministered to, healed and empowered. Oh, that the Western world would set down the megaphone to pause and to listen to genuine tales of perseverance, faith and love.
The New Year has made me realize another important facet of our future faith. Hope is essential to the success of Christianity in our time. Apocalyptic movies like 2012 have brought an interesting hype about the end of the world that preempts this contemplation. Our future faith must be one that inspires hope in its adherents. We cannot possibly know what the future holds for our planet. We undoubtedly have left a mark upon the environment over the past century that will inevitably have consequences for our children and children's children. This uncertainty about when and how the world may end is important to give us all pause for a moment. What is it that makes Christianity significant in light of this impending doom that can be so overpowering, even crippling? Hope. Christ's return is certainly unclear, but, whenever or however it may occur, it inspires hope to believers. There is a Savior who is going to right the wrongs, bring justice, deliver the oppressed, reveal the oppressors. There is a coming Savior whose rule and reign is righteous, true, sure. This fills my soul with the utmost hope. In the midst of a generation where human trafficking has seen its reemergence through Cyber space in new ways that are unimaginable, it is awesome to take comfort in our future faith. We can have the certain expectation that things will be made well in the end. Come Lord Jesus to make this planet a place of holiness and purity. Even so come!
§§§§
I have found the conversation that I have been looking for and it appears to be growing. The future of faith is not such an absurd concept. I appreciate my friends at Patheos for bringing this into our collective consciousness in a larger scope than I have been able to. Please visit their site and contribute to this larger dialog about where we all are headed as believers.
Since stumbling upon this today, I see that some of the contributors to First Things, Homebrewed Chrisitanity and Emergent Village are beginning to consider our future faith.
I feel like my work here is nearly completed. Thank you for reading, commenting and sharing your lives with me in this journey of Our Future Faith.
