The Parish is Perishing (PART I)

The Church is in transition.  What it looks like, how it feels, how it’s defined, are all in a state of transition, redefinition, and renewal.  This happens from generation to generation, era to era.  And as we’re moving away from modernism, into post-modernism, this transition becomes heightened and even more necessary.  These can be both challenging times, as well as times for rebirth and recommitment to it’s mission and work in, and throughout, the world.

Specifically analyzing my particular context in St. Louis, Missouri, I will describe the current state of the church – what it looks like, how its perceived, who and how its participated in and with, and its basic structure.  I will use St. Louis as a barometer to gauge its current practices of development, discipleship, and engagement.

I will then define the next generations of un-churched individuals, how they learn, speak, think, interact, and will finally provide executable environments and communities, which will help the church bring them into the fold, which will thrive into the future.  This will require a look back, but will more importantly require redefining current assumptions regarding the church, so as to positively impact the future of the church.

The driving thesis is: to develop, disciple, and engage the growing un-churched culture in St Louis, we must redefine church as a user-generated, creative, and dialogue-driven environment, participating in missio dei.  In doing this, I will show how new and innovative ways of “doing and being Church,” is actually a necessary and pivotal shift for the future of the Church.

Continue reading...

PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V

Peace,
Ross

TRANSFORMATION

In church-culture, we tend to toss around the word "transformation" with an inappropriate flippancy and tone, that rips from it the provocation and power for real change, renewal, and redemption.  When we talk about repentance, we speak of changed hearts and minds - transformed to the likeness of Christ.  But are we really a transforming body?

Recent polls and surveys have shown a pervasive disconnect between relevance, context, and the church.  Yet we continue to speak of transformation.  Is it not contradictory to speak publicly of transformation, yet be known as a body that is "behind the times" and "out of touch with reality?"  How can the church expect people to take our message(s) of transformation seriously, when we refuse to transform our liturgies, our gatherings, and our leadership structures?

I would assume that it's not too far a jump for someone un-churched, post-christian, or "none," to assume that the same church that preaches transformation and yet lacks any resemblance thereof, to worship a god that likewise cannot truly transform.  Because how we transform is a lived-theology to the very nature of God.  If his body and bride (the Church) do not transform, perhaps God can't either...

So boldly live the messages we preach and teach.  Embrace change.  Repent for something new and truly refreshing, so as to transform our churches, communities, and humanity, and to live a theology that resembles the truest nature of God!

Peace,
Ross

You Gotta' Fight For Your Rights (or do you?)

I think that young folks today tend to think outside of the box more than the previous generation. We often look at a question, talk about it, and solve it in ways that seem illogical or wonky. This kind of thinking infuriated our parents when we were young and frustrated us when we took multiple choice tests. But now it has the potential to open up new possibilities for how we see the world and work to bring about God’s Kingdom.

I’ve lived in China for 9 years and during that time I’ve become really suspicious of our society and its love affair with “rights”. It seems like every argument in society revolves around rights – the right to life, the right to an abortion, the right to bear arms, the right to eat Grade D beef on a taco, etc. And a lot of the time when we find ourselves getting angry during the day it’s because someone has violated our rights, whether by intruding into our carefully painted lane on the road, breaking into line at the store, making us waste our precious time because they’re late, or worse.

And that’s why I love Paul’s words to some Christians in 1 Corinthians 6. The people he’s writing to are struggling with the exact same thing. They’re all caught up with defending their rights and arguing about who’s right and who’s wrong according to the law of the land. But Paul (in a very postmodern way) offers a totally different way of thinking. To those people caught up in the argument he says, “Who cares? Who’s right, who’s wrong – does it matter? Isn’t it better to just drop the issue and love each other?”

And as simple and unappealing as it might sound, I think there’s a bit of wisdom in there for us as Christians today. Instead of getting caught up in debates and trying to prove the other side wrong, I think that we can cut across the very current of the debates rather than getting caught up in them & we can short-circuit the whole situation by living out alternatives that are completely unexpected. What would it look like if Christians suddenly dropped out of the political debates surrounding gay marriage, guns, abortion, etc and instead started living out their answers? Is it realistic to think that we could actually address these questions in legitimate ways through love and creative action instead of arguing about our rights?

For too long, the typical response of the Church has been to dive head-first into these debates and try to prove our idea based on political ideas, logic, and “rights” language. But what if we just quit trying to be right and instead did like Paul said to those Christians in Corinth? What creative, love-filled, and Christ-like answers can you think of to the pressing issues of our society today?

**TODAY'S POST was written by PMP contributor Dale Taylor.  Dale is a Fuller Theological Seminary student, mission practitioner, and all around awesome guy...follow Dale here!

The Parish is Perishing (PART V)

The Parish is Perishing
Because the structure of the traditional, parish-model, church in St. Louis hasn’t developed with the ever-changing cultures and surroundings, how it is able to effectively develop, disciple, and engage with its community is suffering.  This crisis is leading the average St. Louis church into a free-fall.  Churches are closing nearly every month, as young worshippers are leaving the church in droves.  Older worshippers are becoming more and more home-bound, moving to fixed incomes, and can no longer support church budgets, building campaigns, and missions.  Because the average worshipper in St. Louis is 61 years old (and getting older), the church is literally perishing. 

The spider-model of church structure has also prevented adequate development of future leaders.  The spider-model thrives with the paid-professionals, and as more and more congregations are laying off their staff(s), it is apparent that the model of Pastor or Priest determining belief, behavior, and belonging, has also prevented the laity from effectively developing a future plan, discipling others, or engaging their communities.  The heads are being cut off, and the organisms are dying.


Mosiacs, Busters, and the Future Church of St. Louis
Gabe Lyons, in his book Un-Christian, paints a picture of American Christian culture and perception by his survey work with Barna.  He shows the "Mosaic" generation (born 1984-2002) and "Buster" generation (born 1965-1983) as a growing un-churched population.  He focuses on the perceptions that have caused this fallout, as well as the reality of the future demographics of the “church,” should no changes be made to its definition, practice, and inclusion.  Lyons shows how changing the perceptions, definitions, and practices of the church among 16-35 year olds can dramatically change the future (Lyons 2007, 17-19).

Lyons’ surveying is especially important to the church-culture in St. Louis, because it correlates almost perfectly with the disconnect in the average age of those that claim to be churched.  Lyons shows an aging American-church, with a growing, younger un-churched population.  This is a portrait of St. Louis.  His surveying asked 16-35 year olds for their top ten perceptions of the church. Christianity's image problem is not merely the perception of young un-churched individuals either. Those inside the church see it as well -especially Christians in their early 20's and 30's (Lyons 2007, 18).  The survey of perceptions is overwhelmingly negative (Lyons 2007, 29-30):

Anti-homosexual: Un-churched-91% Churched-80%
Judgmental: Un-churched -87% Churched -52%
Hypocritical: Un-churched -85% Churched -47%
Old-fashioned: Un-churched -78% Churched -36%
Too involved in politics: Un-churched -75% Churched -50%
Out of touch with reality: Un-churched -72% Churched -32%
Insensitive to others: Un-churched -70% Churched -29%
Boring: Un-churched -68% Churched -27%
Not accepting of other faiths: Un-churched -64% Churched -39%
Confusing: Un-churched-61% Churched-44%
Table 2.0

Lyons continues, by better defining the backgrounds of those surveyed (Lyons 2007, 31-32):

1. Perceptions not formed in vacuum, most Mosaics and Busters have enormous experience with Christians and Christianity.
2. Experiences at churches, relationships, input from other religions, and what their parents have told them are all major factors.
3. Secular media does affect how outsiders view Christianity, but less than you might think. 9% of outsiders and 1/5th of young churchgoers said that Christianity has received a bad reputation from television and movies.
4. Painful encounters with the faith.
5. These painful encounters are more common with young people than the older.
Table 3.0

Background information matters, because it speaks to the structure of the organization.  Because St. Louis is primarily a spider-structure, younger Christians have little to no voice in affecting the change that will positively influence their futures.  Not only is there a disconnect between the young and the church leadership, but there isn’t a working culture to develop, disciple, and engage younger (potential) leaders.  As I have shown in previous sections, the traditional parish model places the formation of all belonging, belief, and behavior in the hands of the dwindling paid staff.  


Lyons’ data also shows us that in previous generations of churchgoers, these starfish models haven’t been as important, or even seen as necessary.  However, moving out of modernism and into post-modernism, culture is changing, and the Mosaics and Busters think, communicate, learn, and interact, very differently than their predecessors.  Finally, understanding the perceptions of Mosaics and Busters allows us to understand St. Louis in 2012.  The average age is 38 years old, and the future of the church culture lies in the fate of these groups.

**more to come in a few days!

Peace,
Ross

The Word.

[Today's blog is by Postmodern Priesthood Contributor, Kevin Syes - read his bio at the end of the blog]

John 1:1-2
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
2 He was with God in the beginning.

Postmodernism is defined like this in “Stanford’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy”: a set of critical, strategic and rhetorical practices employing concepts such as difference, repetition, the trace, the simulacrum, and hyperreality to destabilize other concepts such as presence, identity, historical progress, epistemic certainty, and the univocity of meaning.

If that doesn’t make a ton on sense, don’t worry. The univocity of meaning isn’t on any life-exams anytime soon, but you might want to throw it out there in conversation just to impress your friends. Despite this crazy definition, at the heart of postmodern thought is a shift in the way people view language. From a postmodern perspective, words begin to lose their objective meaning as they are changed by each person’s framework of understanding. This is often referred to as a shift towards relativism.

Language is so important. Words give meaning and value to the world around us. Words have so much power. I don’t think we often fully realize the power words hold in our lives. Whole cultures are changed by words wielded by news agencies. The life of a person can be forever altered by a few choice words delivered by the right person.

When God sent his Son, he sent the Word. That’s interesting. There are many ways the Scriptures describe Jesus, but “the Word” may be one of the most compelling in my book. In a world that is forever tossed in a sea of uncertainty, here is a word that is always true. In a world lost in translation, here is a word that is always clear. In a world that is looking for meaning, here is a word that is truly significant. Jesus, the Word, who spoke the world into existence.

-Kevin Syes

::FOLLOW KEVIN HERE::

{***Kevin Syes is the Youth and Young Adult Pastor at Frederick Church of the Brethren, a large and vibrant congregation located in Frederick, MD with 1000 in weekly attendance. Kevin is also Contributing Editor at Crossings Book Club, the largest Christian book club in the country.}

The Parish is Perishing (PART IV)

The Parish: A Spider in Disguise   
Because St. Louis is predominately made up of Catholic and mainline churches built in parish-style fashion over 100 years ago, the way of the typical St. Louis parish was to attract and serve its surrounding community (consisting of several blocks or miles).  They served the influx of German, Irish, and Scandinavian immigrants that were calling St. Louis home.  The churches simply built their parish and the community attended.  This went on for years.  The members came to hear from the Priest or Pastor, and understood that he was the spiritual authority of their given Parish.  This mentality of outsourcing their faith experience meshed within Modernism.

This Modernist-Outsourcing mentality fully embodies itself within St. Louis by what Shenk names in his lecture, “The Long Shadow of Christendom,” as: the common belonging, belief, and behavior paradigm, as it puts the onus on the shoulders of the paid professionals and spiritual elites (Shenk 2011, lecture at Fuller Theological Seminary).  Over time, the paid professional’s faith became the faith of its congregants.  The highly traditional styles, preference, and liturgical setting of the early 1900’s, which was determined by the paid professional, now was the future setting of the community.  Likewise, the kids programs, education, and discipleship that worked in the early 1900’s became the standard for the future of the St. Louis church.


The Pastor and Priest as the Spider’s Head
Shenk discusses the common belonging was that of the paid professional’s dictation.  The pastor determined the leadership model, the initiation of citizen to members, and the overall size of the congregation (Shenk 2011, lecture at Fuller Theological Seminary).  He would control all methods and models that worked with or, conversely, threatened his understanding of what “church” should look like.

Shenk argues that the common belief determined what was to be believed of all things – civil, state, and religious.  The notion of a common belief created a rudimentary approach to what was understood – that we all knew it to be true (Shenk 2011, lecture at Fuller Theological Seminary).  Because churches in St. Louis had placed this role of determining these sets of rudimentary knowledge on the paid professionals, it is now up to them to define the belief of all of it’s congregants, and also to protect it, by calling whatever belief’s that threaten his rudimentary belief as heresy.

Shenk also argues that a common belief deems what is both appropriate and enforced.  The church can act much like a civil court when disciplining behavior (Shenk 2011, lecture at Fuller Theological Seminary).  When the Catholic and mainline churches decided to outsource its local influence to the paid professionals, the Priest and Pastor is now the chief enforcer for all things behavioral.  

In The Starfish and the Spider, entrepreneurs Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom show how traditional organizations, which have rigid hierarchy and top-down organizational structures, are fading in the new post-modern world.  They analyze a number of organizations and corporations that have resisted changing into more “starfish,” or networks-based and user-generated structures, and find that the traditional model is ending and is no longer efficient.  Just like the spider, once the head is removed from the body, the organism perishes (Beckstrom and Brafman 2006, 6-74).  So it goes with the traditionally structured church.  When the paid professionals no longer are in congruence with their communities, the belief, behavior, and belonging also dies.  This is the diagnosis of the typical church in St. Louis.

The Parish is Perishing (PART III)

HOW DID WE GET HERE? (The Structures of Modernism and Outsourcing Faith)


You don’t have to look much further than the tags on your clothing, computer, fruit, or vehicle to understand that the cultural practice of outsourcing is alive and well.  Outsourcing is the mechanism that allows us to continue to live out our deeply consumer tendencies.  Outsourcing came to being as its modernist society embraced a systematic way of doing life.  Rather than spend time and money to understand and accomplish a trade or task, one can outsource that trade or task, and still call the final product, his or her own.  It can certainly speed up production and efficiency, but outsourcing isn’t all positive. 
   
As numerous the reasons not to outsource may be, as demand rises and consumers are willing to pay, it is the inevitable consequence.  But this is not merely a phenomenon of the for-profit sector.  This is a cultural reality that began in modernism, became pervasive in the church, and is now finding itself crashing into the post-modern church. 

The notion of outsourcing one’s faith is alive and rampant in St. Louis.  Because of the structure that runs the Catholic and mainline denominations, this attitude of expectancy, commodification, and consumerism has engulfed the church and plays out no different than in private companies.  Our “church shopping” culture has somehow forced the hands of leaders to play into the power of the executive business models, where we now treat ministry as an assembly line.  The more people we can turn on and turn out, the better off we are.  It’s a numbers game, and quantity seems to be the driver. The church, unlike the rest of the world, has often turned the inclusive vision and call of being Jesus’ hands and feet to the world, into an executable machine, with certain 10-step programs guaranteed to grow your congregation.  But this isn’t completely a get-rich-quick scheme of the church.  Its not an evil plot sought out by seedy church leaders.  It’s a deep and interconnected problem that society expects and the church caters to.  The modernist structures simply do not work with post-modern individual thinking, learning, communicating, and relating.  The result is a growing un-churched population that sees “church” through a definition of the past - one that thrives on outsourcing development, discipleship, and engagement to the paid professionals. 

Post-modernism is rising from modernism and the changes are significant.  These changes will require rethinking and re-ordering the way we go about, and lead in ministry, and will eventually create a broader dialogue that can shift this culture away from its modernist, outsourcing, and consumerist tendencies, and begin to create a healthy, user-generated, creative, and dialogue-driven environment, participating in missio dei.

Who's Most Social?

Postmodernism has brought us social media. 
We're more plugged in than ever before. 
But how well do you know social media and its users?
And how does social media impact the church, our communities, and humanity?

Peace,
Ross