Monday, October 13, 2008

What type of church are you?







I was told yesterday that there were 2 types of churches. there are Attractional churches (defined as, those churches which seek to create an physical environment which would attract an unbeliever.) and a Missional (defined as, going out beyond the church walls and being the church in the wider culture). With the inherent self-centeredness of human-nature (and American frontier can do spirit) this sounded so right. I can be the church apart from the assembly of the saints? Sounds good to me. What is my primary need on Sunday? To get trained and equipped to be the church to my neighbor and co-workers. Wow. So...when do we get around to being a covenantal community? Sorry, I'm to busy being the church out here in the Styx.

The term missional is what has been coined a "hurray-word". Ken Myers speaks of the term "Kingdom" in the same way:

Some Christians today use the word ‘kingdom’ like a magic adjective that sanctifies any noun it touches. We read of ‘kingdom ethics,’ ‘kingdom theology,’ ‘kingdom values,’ ‘kingdom justice,’ ‘kingdom love,’ ‘kingdom caring,’ ‘kingdom priorities,’ and ‘kingdom relationships.’ All of these terms might well be referring to some good thing. But the glib transformation of a noun into an adjective is almost always an alert that jargon has replaced thinking, and one gets the impression that ‘kingdom’ is being used incantationally, as what New Testament scholar R.T. France calls a ‘hurray-word.’ S.H. Travis has written this warning: ‘Indeed, the current danger in some quarters is that a few mentions of the word ‘kingdom’ in any theological document will be enough to guarantee that it be received with uncritical enthusiasm.’”

Am I only limited to 2 types of churches? I am just mulling this but I suspect that there is a 3rd alternative.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So what are you apart from the assembly of the saints? What are you at your workplace, at a restaurant, at a ball game, or anywhere that isn't your home, your friend's home, or church?

Are you not a subject of Christ's kingdom commissioned to baptize and disciple the nations?

Anonymous said...

I take issue with this quote too (and the quote from Calvin right below it):

“The great irony is that the message of the Kingdom of God has profound cultural and political consequences precisely because it is not a cultural or political message. It cannot be defeated by cultural power.”

It is very much a cultural and political message. It had profound cultural and political consequences because it is THE cultural and political message. This dude wants the message of the Kingdom of God to be some sort of gnostic transcendency. But the message of the kingdom of God is the most real thing there is. All competing political and cultural efforts are as shadows compared to the ultimate substance of the Kingdom of God. We ought to be working in culture and politics to conform it, adapt it, and redeem it into the the politics and culture of the Kingdom. What is the message of the Kingdom if it isn't political - Christ is King of all things? What is the message of the gospel if it is not cultural - a life shaped and connected by the worship of our king?

Or at least that is how I see it today.