How Canadians Can Save the American Church
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Sat, February 17, 2007
- Viewed 711
- (27) comments so far
I still believe that. The American church is desperately in need of help if we are going to have any reasonable chance to do mission among Pre, Post, and Semi Christians in emerging culture. Some of that assistance might just come from north of the border. Here’s why:
1. Canada is over the horizon. If Europe is roughly 50 years ahead of us in terms of evolving into a post-whatever society, Canada might be more like 20-30 years. Moreover, Canadians were dealing with multiculturalism long before those of us who live stateside ever heard the word. If these very rough estimates are anything close to correct, that means…
2. Canadians get it. I’m generalizing on a breathtaking scale here, but my Canadian friends seem to have a perspective, a sense of humor, and a critique of the US that feels like the future to me. I do seminars aimed at helping Americans get a sense of where mission in emerging culture is headed. But I’m not sure those would have an audience if they were held in Toronto. Why tell fish about water? Which means that…
3. Canadians should advise American churches. Last week I worshipped with a group of American college students being led by a Canadian who served full time as a staff pastor in a local congregation. It’s my dream scenario. Other examples would include Dave MacDonald, lead pastor at West Winds Church in Michigan, or Sean Kelly who trains interns for the Convoy of Hope compassion ministry. When I talk to these friends, it feels like I’m in dialogue with tomorrow. They know things naturally that Americans have to be taught. Which means that…
4. The American church has an opportunity to humble itself. American leaders are barely able to accept the help of missionaries and church planters from the southern hemisphere. Imagine the sanctifying power of having to admit that the help we need has been just across the border to the north all this time? That by itself might save us. At the very least, those of us born in the USA would have a chance to reorient out leadership toward the future rather than spending whole careers exhausting ourselves trying to get ahead of something called “the curve.”
Could the Canadians light the fuse on the next great awakening? I don’t know. But I think we should find out.
About the Author: Earl Creps has spent several years visiting congregations that are attempting to engage emerging culture. He directs doctoral studies for the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri (http://www.agts.edu). Earl and his wife Janet have pastored three churches, one Boomer, one Builder, and one GenX. He speaks, trains, and consults with ministries around the country. Earl’s book, Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders, was published by Jossey-Bass/Leadership Network in 2006. Connect with Earl at http://www.earlcreps.com .
A while back at a conference I met my very first Canadian missionary to the United States. To be honest it had not occurred to me until that very moment that such a thing was possible, any more than an American missionary being stationed in Montreal. Aren’t both of us supposed to be “sending” nations? After I recovering from the shock, I muttered something like, “Please go home and round up about 1000 more people like yourself and send them. We’re in trouble down here.”
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John Stackhouse on Thu, February 22, 2007
As a Canadian whose graduate training in church history, theology, and philosophy was taken in the States and who regularly is called upon by Americans to talk with them about changes in North American religion and society, I appreciated Earl’s suggestion that Americans consider a Canadian perspective.
May I agree that national differences are important, and go one to suggest that regional differences are important as well. Partly because North America historically has had, and still has, important north-south corridors of migration, trade, and cultural exchange, Vancouver is much more like Seattle and Portland than it is like Calgary, which is much more like Dallas than it is like Winnipeg, which is much more like Minneapolis than it is like Halifax, which is much more like Boston than it is like Toronto….
One other observation, just to add to the discussion. As I showed in a batch of research I published a decade ago, Canada, like Britain, did not endure a large-scale fundamentalist-modernist controversy. The relationships of evangelicalism, cultural influence, and political power are importantly different on the national, as well as on the regional, levels. American evangelicalism continues to be deeply affected by worries, strategies, and aspirations forged in the f-m controversy that just don’t affect us Canadians as much. So far fewer of us see creation science, for example, as a kind of marker for cultural power and religious fidelity—which I daresay it is in the States. (I say this as someone who thinks both creation science and Darwinism are both bad science and bad theology.) And far fewer of us even aspire to “making Canada Christian again” in a resurgent theocracy. Such “dominionism” is seriously considered in the American Republic, but not (ahem) in the Dominion of Canada. George Marsden’s classic study, Fundamentalism and American Culture, continues to illuminate this territory.
This is not to say that the Canadian church is stronger, wiser, or humbler (!) than our American counterpart. It isn’t. But we’re different, and we’re similar, and we could have more and better conversations on that basis than we do, couldn’t we?
Pastor Bill on Mon, February 26, 2007
Friends
Help from the North….............here on Cape Cod, MA, we have pastors from South Africa, Brazil, Portugal, Jamacia, and parts of Eastern Europe with the intent of saving America (actually the US). We as “Americans” have become for the most part very self-centered in “our” desire for riches, a mega church, perfect singers, etc. Although I do not see anything wrong with a large church (for God did add 3,000 in one day (Acts 2:41) our hearts need to be softened. From where should the next awakening come from,...........from where ever God wants to send it, and let be soon so that we will be in compliance with 2 Chronicles 7:14.
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