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The Great Emergence
Phyllis Tickle, #dmingml Coming from a large family with six children, it was highly probably that one of us had an affinity for garage sales. Calling either my brother or sister and letting them know that there was a huge garage sale in the area with great bargains typically resulted in an immediate, “I’m coming now!” Some people always seem to be on the lookout for a bargain: It doesn’t matter if they need the item or not, it’s a bargain! Similarly, having recently relocated the family from Colorado, U.S to Melbourne, Australia, we went through a massive cleanout and hosted a garage sale for the neighborhood and our friends. The actual sale was relatively painless. Determining what things to keep and what to sell or give away, required some serious thinking about whether or not we needed it, was it redundant, would we be better buying something that had superseded it, did it have sentimental value, and could we possibly sell something that cost us so much to begin with? In her book, The Great Emergence, Phyllis Tickle presents to readers a view of history that they have unlikely had before. Rather than focusing on single, major events, she focuses on 500-year terms as cultural snapshots where she claims all of the events, intellectual debates, evolving scientific discoveries culminate in such a way where the Church is forced to have a huge rummage sale. Consequently, the Church is confronted with the need to ask of itself some serious questions: Are we still relevant? Has this practice become redundant? Do we still need this? Is there a better way to function? Are we presenting the gospel and living it in a way that is challenging and relevant all at the same time? What should be unique and distinctive about the Church? Is it time to change the way we do church to reach people with the gospel, and so on? Not by any stretch of the imagination does Tickle downplay the significance of such questions, but equally as much, she does not attempt to find potential solutions to the problems she identifies. Rather, Tickle creates a construct or framework that shows periods of historical upheavals and their relationship to the church and how over time this created pressure on the Church to adapt and find more meaningful ways in which to engage the culture. The immediate challenge she proposes is, that the church currently finds itself in another 500-year period where change is imminent. What is not clear from Tickle, is how the Church should change, and how will that change be facilitated. While I didn’t particularly find Tickle’s construct of “500 years” to be terribly profound or helpful, it does encourage the reader to engage history and understand how the Church responded to various crises (or not), and carefully consider how the Church might respond to present day challenges. The “500 years” construct also came across to me as a little simplistic and taken too far would likely result in us missing how God was at work outside of the construct, and during the in between times. Given that her construct is built around key historical events, there are many years that fall between the cracks of when one 500-year period finished and a new one began. In the first scenario I opened this blog with, I wrote about my siblings’ positive response that a garage sale was to going to be held. In this case, they would be the recipients.
Today, the Church is going through a social upheaval where it is arguable that for many churches the focus is not adequately centered on the needs of the recipient and their ability to engage those needs, but instead on their own insecurities and concerns about maintaining denominational integrity. The second scenario at the beginning focused on my wife and I needing to determine what we needed to keep and what we wanted to sell. The emphasis is on us as the host. They were questions we asked of ourselves. Similarly, the Church must ask of itself some important questions. Is there in fact a way to engage the culture without compromising its integrity and commitment to biblical doctrine? What are some of the denominational practices we are holding onto for dear life because we fear by letting them go, we will lose our distinctiveness, or worse, lose worshippers who routinely turn up each week? Given my reading of the gospels, I am of the opinion that Jesus would not hesitate to leave the ninety-nine worshippers for the one that is lost, and he would choose to invite those who would not be found in a church to eat with him, rather than attend a party sponsored by the Pharisees. One certain truth that Tickle highlights is that change is ever present, and for the Church to remain static and unresponsive to those changes will result in irrelevance and ineffectiveness in fulfilling the mission that Christ gave to his disciples and to us. We may as well just shout from the rooftops that God is dead!
Phyllis Tickle, #dmingml Coming from a large family with six children, it was highly probably that one of us had an affinity for garage sales. Calling either my brother or sister and letting them know that there was a huge garage sale in the area with great bargains typically resulted in an immediate, “I’m coming now!” Some people always seem to be on the lookout for a bargain: It doesn’t matter if they need the item or not, it’s a bargain! Similarly, having recently relocated the family from Colorado, U.S to Melbourne, Australia, we went through a massive cleanout and hosted a garage sale for the neighborhood and our friends. The actual sale was relatively painless. Determining what things to keep and what to sell or give away, required some serious thinking about whether or not we needed it, was it redundant, would we be better buying something that had superseded it, did it have sentimental value, and could we possibly sell something that cost us so much to begin with? In her book, The Great Emergence, Phyllis Tickle presents to readers a view of history that they have unlikely had before. Rather than focusing on single, major events, she focuses on 500-year terms as cultural snapshots where she claims all of the events, intellectual debates, evolving scientific discoveries culminate in such a way where the Church is forced to have a huge rummage sale. Consequently, the Church is confronted with the need to ask of itself some serious questions: Are we still relevant? Has this practice become redundant? Do we still need this? Is there a better way to function? Are we presenting the gospel and living it in a way that is challenging and relevant all at the same time? What should be unique and distinctive about the Church? Is it time to change the way we do church to reach people with the gospel, and so on? Not by any stretch of the imagination does Tickle downplay the significance of such questions, but equally as much, she does not attempt to find potential solutions to the problems she identifies. Rather, Tickle creates a construct or framework that shows periods of historical upheavals and their relationship to the church and how over time this created pressure on the Church to adapt and find more meaningful ways in which to engage the culture. The immediate challenge she proposes is, that the church currently finds itself in another 500-year period where change is imminent. What is not clear from Tickle, is how the Church should change, and how will that change be facilitated. While I didn’t particularly find Tickle’s construct of “500 years” to be terribly profound or helpful, it does encourage the reader to engage history and understand how the Church responded to various crises (or not), and carefully consider how the Church might respond to present day challenges. The “500 years” construct also came across to me as a little simplistic and taken too far would likely result in us missing how God was at work outside of the construct, and during the in between times. Given that her construct is built around key historical events, there are many years that fall between the cracks of when one 500-year period finished and a new one began. In the first scenario I opened this blog with, I wrote about my siblings’ positive response that a garage sale was to going to be held. In this case, they would be the recipients.
Today, the Church is going through a social upheaval where it is arguable that for many churches the focus is not adequately centered on the needs of the recipient and their ability to engage those needs, but instead on their own insecurities and concerns about maintaining denominational integrity. The second scenario at the beginning focused on my wife and I needing to determine what we needed to keep and what we wanted to sell. The emphasis is on us as the host. They were questions we asked of ourselves. Similarly, the Church must ask of itself some important questions. Is there in fact a way to engage the culture without compromising its integrity and commitment to biblical doctrine? What are some of the denominational practices we are holding onto for dear life because we fear by letting them go, we will lose our distinctiveness, or worse, lose worshippers who routinely turn up each week? Given my reading of the gospels, I am of the opinion that Jesus would not hesitate to leave the ninety-nine worshippers for the one that is lost, and he would choose to invite those who would not be found in a church to eat with him, rather than attend a party sponsored by the Pharisees. One certain truth that Tickle highlights is that change is ever present, and for the Church to remain static and unresponsive to those changes will result in irrelevance and ineffectiveness in fulfilling the mission that Christ gave to his disciples and to us. We may as well just shout from the rooftops that God is dead!
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