The Church

Several months ago a small group from Christ’s Church decided to take a Sunday night fieldtrip down to Massachusetts. We had heard about a church that offered a ‘post-modern’ worship experience. As we made our way there we laughed at what had become an inside joke for us, that for many ‘post-modern’ seems to mean simply adding candles and goatees. When we arrived at the advertised post-modern service we found a service that looked and felt very much like a Christ’s Church Sunday service – with added candles and an assortment of goatees!

Mike and Germaine recently stumbled upon a passionate debate at a Christian college about the merits of the ‘emergent church’. As I’ve entered into that conversation with a number of my pastoral peers I wonder if any two proponents or opponents of the ‘emergent church’ would actually agree on what it means to be ‘emergent’.

A couple of weeks ago I referenced a ‘seeker-sensitive’ church model in an article here on the blog. I’ve discovered that most who read that article were confused as to what identifies a church as being ‘seeker-sensitive’. The truth is that many churches that call themselves ‘seeker-sensitive’ would have a tough time explaining what they mean.

I want to invite you to join me in conversing about the church. In the coming weeks I will endeavor to post a series of articles to take us beyond a surface labeling of church by cosmetics and move to a more meaningful discussion of the church in mission, calling and culture. Your willingness to add in your thoughts and experiences will make this conversation more meaningful for all.