Deep Church: Two poles and a middle ground of the Emerging Church
15 Jan 2007
I was having a conversation on email a few weeks ago with a friend about Emerging church, the usual question about what it might be, and ways to navigate what is happening. Here was a suggestion that came from that conversation.
Pole A: Post/Anti-Church
This includes Anti-church, anti-congregation, and anti-denomination, anti structural people etc. For this polarity, they argue that all/most existing forms of church should be abandoned. Church as we know it is axiomatic to all our problems of church, church is bankrupt and we need to be post-church with our new forms church.
Pole B: Renewal
This polarity might include people who are more positive about existing church, and are passionate about seeing these churches engage in renewal and restructuring, but without being anti-other churches in their formation, or trying to find/define the correct/authentic model/mode of emerging church.
Polarisations
Pole B, is offended by the reactionary anti church nature of Pole A. Pole A is disdainful/cynical of Pole B seeing them as invalid and inauthentic to genuine emerging church.
Variations
Over the last few years in my limited travels there does seem to be a difference in various countries. In the UK Pole A is much stronger and a dominant voice in emerging church. Whilst in the USA Pole B seems to be the dominant voice. At least they are the ones I think I have frequently heard.
Deep Church
One of the values that drew me to Emergent, is at the heart of our hopes and aspirations is a middle ground between these two poles. Much of church is in dire need of moving beyond, with new forms of church needing to be found. But much of church can still be renewed and restructured. What we need is not an either/or, but a deep church approach, that values the emerging church from is most naissant to the most established in seeking to respect and work together in missional engagement. We might have sympathies with one pole more than the other, but surely the way ahead is together?
Our Postmodern milieu makes it possible for us to stop a pathological policing of the validity of our expressions of church (which is such a waste of time, energy and distraction from real mission) and engage in a shared positive ecuminism that leads to real kingdom engagement.
What’s been your experience, have you seen this, or something different? How has it affected you?
Tagged: Emerging-Church
17 comments
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Comment by Paul
9.59 am on 15 Jan 2007
For me it is has depended on how i felt about church at the time – when i was really frustrated if felt like all church was pointless but then on the up-curve i’d think about how even my frustrations were constructive in terms of me engaging with God, if only to ask why. I had my an epiphany that rather than wait for church to validate my thinking i should get on and do it and think of frustrations has the best sounding board of all time :)
I agree with you that we can waste so much time redefining church, what is and isn’t valid, who is and isn’t on the right jargon/form/structure/approach – that we don’t bother so much with the actual being/doing what we believe is important – spitting out camels and straining gnats comes to my mind :)
Because when it comes down to it, beyond the argument about form most christians are likely to find that they have a lot more in common about what they believe then they don’t and in our western post-christian world I hope we can support each other, be generous, seek the best for either end of the pole and hopefully have some constructive conversation in the middle which might shape and influence both ends…
Comment by GMD
11.53 am on 15 Jan 2007
I think when I first came across emergent I was a carrier for both poles (so to speak). At first pole A came out fighting and then later as I read more, heard more and joined in with the conversation more I slowly switched to pole B. Like my walk of faith it wasn’t some overnight conversion and there were some definite growing pains along the way. Of course to some people I’m wrong no matter what pole I’m gunning for!
Comment by steven hamilton
2.51 pm on 15 Jan 2007
today, even at this moment, i am feeling the tension of being between the two poles. the church at which i pastor is much more Pole B, but i am comfortable with Pole A and B, but recently i am feeling the tension, and it can be agonizing. i think it is utterly necessary to stop policing expressions of church, yikes i see too much of that going on. but the tension i am feeling has to do with local expressions that just cannot join hands and further something God might be doing in their region.
in the agony
steven
Comment by steven hamilton
2.58 pm on 15 Jan 2007
OK, one additional thought from me on this…i recently had a conversation with a friend of mine. He calls himself a ‘former-catholic’, which seemed a bit humorous to me at that moment, but he was speaking of growing up in the Roman Catholic tradition, of which he no longer associates, but has become ‘evangelical’. anyway, he was saying that one of the things he missed about being catholic, was that no matter where he was he could find the local catholic church and thus it was easy to ‘join the local family gathering even if i was a distant cousin’, so to speak. this made his life in a transient culture easier, especially since he travelled for business a lot. he described how it was easy to plug into a community he knew was going in the same direction, even if it was slightly parallel to his home community. it made me think and share about my own family, and how the Hamiltons from kentucky were different from the Hamiltons in indiana…rural versus urban, republican as opposed to democrat. we cooked differently, ate differently, and yet we were all still Hamiltons, because we identified ourselves as Hamiltons (some by marriage, some by blood). all to say, right now, i’m terribly conflicted about the conversation. it’s probably me, but i think perhaps i can only begin by describing it in the way that gandalf describes the shire and hobbiton in the lord of the rings: a charming, warm, community isolated from the larger world [thanks be to illuvatar for that]. as i connect with some of the Pole A communities in my area, they make me think: charming, warm community…all things i long and seek to be a part of. its the isolated piece i can’t quite shake. not necessarily isolated in an electronic sense…probably well connected in that sense, and not certainly not isolated from friendship. maybe its my own angst of being where i am and seeking to see both sides?
Comment by Helen
3.29 pm on 15 Jan 2007
In general I like the sound of ‘middle ground’ (and that rhymes :-))
It’s where everyone has to go to the edge of their comfort zone, instead of some people being in the middle of theirs and others being way out of theirs – which isn’t fair.
I found out in December I can easily go to an emerging church book discussion
But I don’t want to go anywhere largely based on me talking to God (or singing to God) since I don’t do those things. I think puts me off the map of ‘doing church’ myself – emergent, conservative, whatever. So I’ll just talk to you and watch you all do your church thing (and attend the occasional emergent church book discussion).
Comment by Bryan Riley
5.32 pm on 15 Jan 2007
I’m thankful that God uses the poles to help our frail minds see that we need to keep moving toward Him. In my personal walk I moved from the pole of legalism to the pole of anything goes. Then, God in His remarkable grace, kept loving me in spite of both of these errant ways and moved me toward rest in Him, freedom in living as He designed me to live, and a balance of Truth and Love. I still mess it up terribly, but He remains the same and beckons me to draw near.
In church I see much the same. I grew up going to very fundamental Southern Baptist churches. It was through growth in that environment that I began to crave grace and freedom from the grip of religion and human ideas of what church should be. But, one can go to an extreme and polar opposite of that to the point where one forsakes assembling together or where one rejects all things religious.
I’m not so sure that it is middle ground we are seeking, although one can look at it that way. It really is that we must fix our eyes on Jesus and follow wherever He leads. At times that may be a pole with respect to culture, religion, and humanity, but if it is with Him it will always be True.
Comment by Rick Meigs (blind beggar)
6.28 pm on 15 Jan 2007
Having lived through and participated in many “movements†within the Body starting with the Jesus Movement, I can tell you that they almost always start as a reaction to something that is not right within the existing institutional church. They become a Pole A: Post/Anti-Church. As this pole gains a voice, it begins to resonate within the church itself which gives rise to many who would be Pole B: Renewal. As time goes on, the efforts of both Pole A and B begin to have an impact on the Body and a middle ground is found and the church as a whole is better for it. I have no doubt at all that we are currently (and will continue to be) engaged in a “shared positive ecumenism that leads to real kingdom engagement.†This doesn’t mean that Pole A and Pole B go away, but the church does shift towards the vast middle ground – until the next corrective comes along.
Comment by Jason
10.07 pm on 15 Jan 2007
Paul (1): I’m sure if it wasn’t for dissatisfaction, there would be no change! Yet so often it leads to a pathological reaction, rather than real construction. Thanks for sharing your journey in this process here Paul.
Comment by Jason
10.08 pm on 15 Jan 2007
GMD (2): Hi Gary, your comment makes me wonder if we oscillate between poles, and need to be intension between them? Maybe that gives us energy for real change/mission etc.
Comment by Jason
10.13 pm on 15 Jan 2007
Steve (3&4): Thanks for sharing your personal story, and experiences.
Helen (5): Hi Helen, thanks again for being honest. some us still love confessing Jesus, and want to worship him :-) Your welcome any time ;-)
Comment by Jason
10.14 pm on 15 Jan 2007
Bryan (6): Your comment made me think some more, I don’t think there is a middle ground, i.e a place to stand of land, it’s more that we live in tension between the two poles, almost an unrealised ecclessiological tension.
Comment by Jason
10.15 pm on 15 Jan 2007
Rick (7): Great analysis and observation, thanks.
Comment by Helen
11.34 pm on 15 Jan 2007
Jason, thanks for your response and thanks for the welcome! I’m fine with you worshipping Jesus – I hope I don’t come across as objecting to that.
I don’t feel comfortable saying “I love Jesus” but I’m not sure it would be strictly correct to say I don’t, if all ways of loving him are taken into account. Which is confusing and why I generally avoid that subject these days.
Comment by Jason
10.37 am on 16 Jan 2007
Helen (13): You came across as honest and vulnerable, thank you! Just being friends, and tongue in cheek know I feel I know you some more :-)
Comment by Helen
1.48 pm on 16 Jan 2007
Thanks Jase :)
Pingback by Subversive Influence » Blog Archive » Random Acts of Linkage
5.12 am on 17 Jan 2007
[...] Jason Clark’s post yesterday… Deep Church: Two poles and a middle ground of the Emerging Church — this one puts the USA and the UK tending toward opposite poles… but seeking middle ground. [...]
Comment by Adam
6.02 pm on 17 Jan 2007
I really appreciate this post. In the past (even recent past), I have been towards “Pole A.” I don’t go to a regular institutional church and I didn’t have much hope for those who did. However, I am more and more convinced that it is not an either/or but a both/and. There is room for both. I was really struck by this just over the past couple weeks as I read Diana Butler Bass’ Christianity for the Rest of Us (on the Pole B side of things). I was really encouraged to read what God is doing in mainline churches in the US – an area of church I have little experience with. In reading it, I was reminded of Gibbs and Bolger’s Emerging Churches (more towards Pole A) and was struck by the man similarities. It just really convinced me that there is room for both.
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