In the life of the church in North America we move from one "fad" to the next. In the 80’s and 90’s we were into "worship". A very proper concern. As we moved past the original innovators, we began to deal more with style than with the essence of worship. Wars began to emerge — traditional music vs. contemporary. Liturgy vs. free form. Just enough differences to make life unbearable for some. The exodus began while some people flooded into local churches. While I think of it, the charismatic movement was probably a reflection of the same sort of "faddishness" as the Holy Spirit was emphasized.
Now, we are moving into the missional wars. The need to reach out to our neighbour next door has been strongly stressed, and rightly so. But now we are considering what programs best fulfil this desire. Is it Alpha, or H20 or lifestyle or emergent or . . . ? In the end what you have is vying for programs and not for the essence of mission.
What is my fear? Over the commandment to go into all the world, we will divide over style, once again.
Am I seeing things rightly?
Hi Ron:
perhaps stylizing the tensions in outreach as ‘missional war’ is stating it overly strong.
style of outreach is only the vehicle by which you want to reach your intended group. without defining your group then everyone will be thinking of a particular group and the style appropriate to that group. however, if there is agreement on the group then it is easier to develop a consensus regarding style.
so, the question for the church is: who is our intended group? how best do we reach them? are we suited to reach this group, and do we have the necessary resources (lots of things to discuss here). through studying the intended group, an effective strategy may be developed to reach the hearts and minds of the intended group.
invite me for coffee should you want to discuss this and some strategies to determine the direction of outreach, a study of the group (should you decide on specializing rather than generalization), and related issues.
is this what the leadership is currently discussing?