Wednesday
Oct042006
The future of the American church
Wednesday, October 4, 2006 at 9:52AM At TallSkinnyKiwi, Redeemer pastor Tim Keller comments on the future of the American church:
I think it's premature to say what the future of the American church will be. Frankly, almost every model you can think of is 'working' here--seeker services/traditional church growth, attractional/hip, classic charismatic, non-attractional Hirsch/Frost, traditional Reformed/puritan, L'Abri cultural engagement, Sojourners-like social justice, --I mean everything. Like you, I have my private guesses about where things will be going, but my biggest problem with (nearly everyone !) is how confident we all are that 'that's not the future.'
Reader Comments (4)
But is it working. Sure there are A LOT of people in the seats but then you read Ron Sider who reminds us that Christians are by in large more pagan than the people they are trying to convert. Is that working?
30 years ago, I had a church in a small conservative town in Virginia, where most of the church members had lived all their lives, where the sense of intimate community was very strong,and where I as pastor was able to spend lots and lots of time personally with everyone. And I've also pastored a very large church in a super-high mobility mega city. Despite the differences, in Virginia I struggled with all the lapses in ethics and Christian practice that Ron Sider details in his book--just as I have in New York City. In short, I haven't seen that smaller, incarnational, relationally- strong, community driven models of church deliver greater holiness of life than do the large, attractional models. I am unconvinced by sweeping claims that 'this way of doing church will revolutionize' or 'that model of doing church will be obsolete soon.' For a much more balanced view of church models look at Avery Dulles' 'Models of the Church.' Anything you think you are doing 'new' ecclesiastically has been done before, and it's only going to be partially effective.
Hi Tim, I hear what you are saying and I have served in both large and small rural contexts as well but there is something that knaws deep inside of me that if we are having no impact at all on our congregations (at least none that Barna and Gallup can figure out), then something is wrong. Whether it be Hauerwas' idea that the church has so borrowed from the American ideas of liberal democracy that all one has to do is be a good American to Peterson's "whoring after other gods" and the consumer church is the anti-Christ, to what Webber suggests in Ancient Future Evangelism and that is too many churches just ignore discipleship, the end result seems heart breaking and I just can't see a model of church that doesn't address that as being successful. (I am not saying that small house churches do this any better either... big or small, both seem to have failed). There are a lot of people who claim to be following Christ but it seems to be from quite a distance outside of Sunday mornings.
Jordan--I'm looking at the other side. I see some churches (of all models) 'working'--both in producing some numerical growth and some character growth, and I see many churches (more of course) of all models failing in both regards. That is why I'm so wary of taking about one particular model as 'over' and another as 'coming,' as so many in the emerging church do, (ironically) just like so many in the church growth movement did 25 years ago.