Preface

“What seems clear is that we are entering into the last quarter of this twentieth century with both a profound consciousness of the utter futility of life without God, and at the same time an altogether new hunger and thirst for spiritual reality. What is equally clear is that the old order of the established and organised church, relying on its structures and traditions instead of the renewing of the Spirit of God, will not do. The formularies and creeds of the church, devoid of spiritual life, will never satisfy those who in their own different ways are searching for the living God.

“If, however, the church is able to rediscover its identity, as originally given by God in the Scriptures and made alive and relevant by the Spirit of God for every generation, we could be in the most exciting and exhilarating time in the history of the church that has ever been. Humanly speaking, everything depends on our ability to catch a new vision of the church where necessary, and above all on our determination to keep our lives continually open to spiritual renewal.”

David Watson, ‘ I believe in the church ’ 1978.

Introduction

I am currently doing church very differently than I was a year ago. This paper lays out how and why my thinking has changed, how I now see and do church and how this relates to the bigger picture of what God is doing in our nation.

It is important to understand that this was written primarily for my own benefit in order to attempt to articulate some of my own thinking on this theme. Its scope and depth therefore will obviously reflect my rather limited knowledge, reading, thinking and dialogue to date.

It is not an attempt at anything definitive, quite the contrary; it is a work in progress; its purpose is to serve as a starting point from which my thinking and understanding can develop and expand as I learn and interact with others. Beyond this it will also hopefully enable me to better articulate to others what I am doing and why, and thus I hope be a little more helpful.

What am I doing?

Firstly, I need to clarify what I believe God has called me to do.

Here is a summary:

I believe that God has called me to be involved with extending His Kingdom, where the needs are great and the people most open, by sharing the Gospel and working for multiplication through planting small, simple, self reproducing churches;

Or put a little bit more technically:

God has called me to be involved with extending The Kingdom by helping to initiate and fuel a grass roots, organic church planting movement consisting of small, simple churches in line with the DAWN vision of discipling a whole nation through saturation church planting. For more on the DAWN vision click here (http://www.dawneurope.net/vision.htm).

We are attempting to implement this on four levels;

1. Within our own home with the intention of influencing our immediate friends and neighbours.

2. By helping others locally (Bath) to do the same in their homes or circles of influence.

3. By serving others on a national basis directly or indirectly through providing information, support, resources and networking.

4. By helping others do the same on an international basis.

Why am I doing this?

The church is God’s means of bringing the gospel to the world through which His Kingdom is extended and His family grows. Therefore how we understand and do church is crucial to God’s strategy. This is the focus of this document. I believe that over the past 2-3 years God has been in the process of transitioning me into a whole new understanding and expression of church. Why the need for a new expression of church? Because ultimately He is determined to see as many people as possible embraced into His family. I believe He is reshaping the church in such a way that will not only better connect with our rapidly shifting post modern, post Christendom culture but could also potentially prepare the way for a nation wide God-ward movement. The research, interpreting and reporting of this potential movement represents part of what God has called me to do.

My hypothesis is that God, through a totally new paradigm, is birthing a new church wineskin outside of existing structures in order to both initiate and help support a potential church planting movement here in Britain .

At this point I need to make it clear that I am not of the opinion that the existing church has had its day. Quite the reverse. However, you will have to read on to the end to find out my thoughts on this!

Cultural Context

I only began to take notice of what was being said and written about our rapidly changing cultural climate after God began to shift my thinking in terms of church. But having started to read, it didn’t take long to work out why it was so crucial to rethink things! We are in the midst of some very significant cultural shifts. I still have a lot of reading to do in this area, and although not the focus of what I am doing it is clearly important to grasp the broader context of where the church now finds itself historically, politically, sociologically and culturally.

‘Post Modern’ seems to be the tag attached to this current turbulent and as yet unresolved period. At some point over the last 50 or so years in Western Europe we began a move away from modernism. We began to cut loose our anchor points and travel in search of new experiences and thinking. Reflected in some of the unrestrained expressions in the 60’s this new breed of cultural pioneers have paved the way for something as yet undefined.

Additionally in Europe we are now in a ‘Post Christendom’ era, where the church is in the minority and no longer determines the morality, shape or direction of our culture. This is an extraordinary situation when one stops and considers it. If one accepts that Christendom began with Constantine ’s Edict of Milan in 312 AD it is only in our own generation, some 1600 years later that we find ourselves back in the position that only existed for the first 300 years of the church. The church in Western Europe now finds itself once again surrounded by a mission field rather than an established part of the fabric of society. Unfortunately much of the established church is still stuck firmly in it’s past and has yet to come to terms with this present ‘mission field’ reality. It is no longer simply enough for the church to attempt to arrest its alarming rate of decline; it has to completely reimagine itself in terms of purpose, shape and leadership.

Against this backdrop of cultural change, and to an extent perhaps reflecting it, there has been a growing sense of restlessness, dissatisfaction and even disconnectedness within the Body of Christ. More about this later.

In light of these surrounding cultural changes and the mounting dissatisfaction felt by many within the church, it was inevitable that change was on its way.

Go to Part 2 (My own Story)