Category Archives: Church

In the church but not of the church or vice versa

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Went to look at some houses today and saw a great one just need to sell ours. The state of flux around moving has been triggering all sorts of thoughts about church. Dropped in on some friends in Chard and Mark came out with the statement as joke that we need to be “in the church but not of the church”. Reflecting I was unsure whether it was the right way around. The alignment of church and state, the issues around what church has become, and the need for a new theology of church, has all caused me concern over the past few weeks. I want to be around the people and explore and grow towards community but am not sure of the current associations. All this reminded me of the Anabaptists, and I came across the article by Anne Wilkinson-Hayes
“>The key task of the church in this era is to reinvent herself for mission With the history of the Anabaptist’s I was encouraged to see the continued movement that the title of the article suggests. Following on this theme I am really into a notion that I am currently calling Process ecclesiology that sees the missionary endevour (when well thought out and open ended)as church. I am yet to fully develop the concept but began to explore it in Off the Beaten Track. But I think Howard Snyder is spot on who states “The church needs liberating from it has become in order to be that which God intends.â€? Whilst the concept is hard to address in brief the key points would be
1. Holistic mission is about changing society, ourselves and individuals.
2. Mission should happen in-front of church not out-from church, and the danger is the latter holds back real change and reinforces control.
3. An acceptance of the Regnocentric position means that Tacking is about helping society and individuals become fully human which is also being and growing church.
4. Church is a broad concept that is about process and outcome, and tacking is church.
5. All of this is framed by the ethics of Christ with Orthopraxis being a key concept.

So where too next with Process ecclesiology?

Labelling and praxis

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Ben raises some good points (see comments on last post) and the praxis issue got me thinking. Thanks Ben I love your input keep it coming. So two points.

1. Ben raised a great point about people doing the restorative kingdom thing and that maybe that can only be described/labelled as church. But in someways Bens description of this, reinforces the need to move beyond labels that are used for shorthand. He laid out a case and his description of church is quite long, needs unpacking and processing through an irratative praxis that roots out what is really meant. This will lead to diversity, and growth.
2. I agree with Ben about the need for praxis, but just as the process (in bens terms the need for a powerless revolution) can change or corrupt the label, the DNA of the reflective cycle will mean the label can equally change or corrupt the process.

So are we back to the need for the long hand, labelless approach that starts with a clean sheet process, rather than a labelled process? Is this back to the post on constructive deconsruction? Hope all that made sense I have just got back from a retreat.

Relabelling church

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I have been thinking there is a link between our need to label church and the laziness of labels and how that post (labels) this links with the last post on painting over the cracks. I have been reading another Susan Howatch novel and in this one, one character refers to Jesus as the bloke, because as you read you have got to know the character Gavin, and you have got see his construct of Jesus, the bloke label fits perfectly – you understand Gavin’s worldview, and because of the process it becomes useful as a label rather than lazy shorthand. The Bloke language is also outside our names for Jesus so only works if know the process – maybe there is something here about re naming church. I always liked the names like Vurch as it resonated with the past label but was clearly something else. The issue/problem maybe when we go to the next stage to explain Vurch and use labels like emerging church

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