ALLELON Ministries - Companions in the Gospel
This looks interesting. Jonny Baker blogged about an article on here by Brian McClaren - i thought it looked good and so in my blogging time (postmodern for quiet time?) I travelled over to the states to have a read. Of course, i had to sign up to be part of the community and answer a thousand questions in order to do so...but now I am a bone fide member of the Allelon Community. Whoopee. I've always wanted to be part of the Tribulation Force!
The article is good - although brief. I felt a bit cheated in doing the whole sign in thing and then getting just one html page of wisdom. But actually the whole website is packed with stuff. Although it is ironic that it is packed with exactly what Brian McClaren is talking about - ways to perpetuate the church rather than ways to reconnect with what God is doing.
As I kind of inveigle myself more openly into the emerging church scene, I continue to be unsurprised that the scene tends to focus on the dechurched rather than the unchurched. In his book Moynagh talks about this phenomenon and suggests that new churches really have to be led by the needs and aspirations of the indigenous population rathe than the colonising population. I wonder whether there is something here of what Brian McClaren is saying - Clause B is about being a blessing to the world rather than being blessed by God.
Of course, all this is a tad un-evangelical and certainly counter to some of the stuff that is going on in the church. If you look at the facts, Alpha and Soul Survivor are the great popular traditions of the late nineties. This is where the numbers are. Churches like Abundant Life in Bradford and Hope of Sheffield and St Thomas Crookes and St Andrews Chorleywood and HTB and so on, are the churches which are drawing in both dechurched and unchurched. Abundant Life in Bradford have a great record in drawing in kids off the local housing estates and introducing them to Jesus.
Now we might get all snooty and say that they are proclaiming a gospel of wealth creation and blessing which is pure Clause A - but by doing this they are actually being Clause B. But I have a problem with these mega-churches because I don't think this is church. I don't think that they instantiate what Jesus is really all about. I want to say that emerging church, small, communal, family is the Jesus model. But if something is a Jesus model then it is not going to be small for long and it is not going to be focussed on the same small group of people. The Jesus model goes to the crowds, spends time with the marginalised, mixes in both irreligious and religious circles, eats drinks and is merry, overturns the tables, declares what truth is and is crucified. Clause B with a good dose of Clause A?
Dunno...
Pete
"good - although brief. I felt a bit cheated" - Me too! THis was a teasing introduction for an article. Surely there's enough room on the web for a 3000-worder.
Can't help noticing, though, from my recently acquired site meter that the average visit to the site is just under 3 minutes. Maybe Allelon only publishes stuff that takes 3 minutes to read?
Posted by: maggi | July 13, 2004 at 12:50 PM