New Movement Spurns Megachurch Model
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Mon, July 25, 2005
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- (9) comments so far
Allison belongs to Symphonic, a church launched last year that meets at Orapax in West Ghent. Inside the taverna, rambling faux grape vines and Ionic columns suggest souvlakia more than salvation.
But regulars such as Allison aren?t put off by the absence of religious symbols and church conventions ? to the contrary.
?The Bible never says anything about there having to be worship bands or choir robes,? said Allison, a 27-year-old restaurant deliveryman. ?A lot of us are tired, in a way, of having churches where those things tend to be a distraction away from God. God is the point.?
Stripped-down Christianity is the goal of the decade-old ?emerging church? movement that spurns the model of jumbo congregations, corporate-sized staffs and choreographed services.
With no central leadership or denomination, the movement is hard to measure, and emerging churches can differ widely. But most offer ?radically nontraditional worship? that appeals to a young crowd, said Scott Thumma , a scholar at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut who studies megachurches.
?There is a segment of the youngest generations, in their 20s, who think megachurch pastors are pass e and insincere, and they?re really not into large-scale, organized church life,? Thumma said.
The Rev. Ron Jones , Symphonic?s founder, is 42 , but he shares the critique of megachurches, and speaks from personal experience: He spent seven years on the ministerial staff of Atlantic Shores Baptist Church, a Virginia Beach congregation with about 2,000 members .
Jones contends that big memberships and too much structure inhibit the growth of intimate, supportive relationships that should be the heart of any Christian community.
?The megachurch movement, which I think is the current vogue in western Christianity, is way too top-heavy,? Jones said. ?I don?t think it can sustain itself ? it?s too much like warehousing. It doesn?t give people a place where they can spread out and be the ministers.?
Though he leads Symphonic, Jones is the antithesis of the CEO-style of pastoring often seen at big churches. He writes a blog (www.
symphonic.blogs.com) that is part diary, part confessional as he muses on God?s presence in ordinary lives. Humbleness and occasional self-doubt percolate his prose. So does a strong belief in the truth of Christianity.
Nor did Jones stand out from the crowd on a Sunday morning. Amid a congregation dressed in everything from cargo shorts and tank tops to khakis and dresses, nothing about Jones? blue
T-shirt and jeans, short brown hair and closely trimmed Vandyke screamed clergy.
While many churches follow worship services with a coffee hour, Symphonic?s service starts with brunch ? this Sunday, biscuits and ham. Tunes by Sting and Nat King Cole played in the background as members chattered away around tables in the Orapax dining room. The restaurant?s owner, a Symphonic member, provides the meeting space for free.
Within a half-hour, Jones settled onto a bar stool and led with one of Symphonic?s few rituals, a call to ?turn off your cell phones, turn off the chip in your head.?
There are no Bible readings, no passing the offering plate, no memorized prayers and no music ? at least, not today. ?I honestly don?t know what?s going to happen on a Sunday morning,? Jones said.
It may seem that ?disorganized religion,? as Jones calls it, puts few demands on participants. But Symphonic does rattle comfort zones: Churchgoers are urged to be unflinchingly open with everyone else in the flock.
On this day, noticing new faces, Jones launched a mixer that had each person talk with two others, learn their middle names and exchange hugs.
A prayer followed and then one of Jones? favorite questions: ?Where?d you meet God this week??
Answers ranged from the celebratory ? one man landed a job, another found an affordable car from an honest seller ? to the more personal.
Sitting next to his fiancee, Maureen Keklock , Allison admitted, ?Anybody who knows me knows I don?t have that great a relationship with her family.? But in a recent visit with his future in-laws, he said, ?I was able to foster some relationship with her parents. It was definitely a God thing.?
At a back table, a woman admitted she and her husband had bickered so much that they went to Jones for counsel ing. ?We really met Jesus there,? and the couple drew closer, she said.
The morning rounded out with Jones? extemporaneous sermon exhorting Symphonic members to love each other with the same intensity they had for their own children and spouses. ?We?re supposed to be starting with a real God, and finding real relationships,? he said.
Several weeks ago, Symphonic also inaugurated weeknight meetings for small group Bible study and an even more intimate atmosphere than Sunday?s service.
?Everyone is very real and open and just lays their life out there,? said Allison, who helps lead the Monday night meeting in a rented former garage. ?We feel that if you don?t know people in a real way, you can?t meet their needs as the church should.?
Symphonic has no other activities, though Jones is open to anything that cultivates relationships. The church has about 70 regular participants, but no firm plan for finding a building of its own. ?I guess when this building gets too full we?ll have to decide what to do,? he said.
Though emerging churches may seem startlingly new and bold, Thumma said that shucking conventions and tradition is hardly unknown in Christian history. The 16th-century Protestant Reformation was, among other things, a renunciation of what many reformers saw as unnecessary trappings and rites of Catholicism.
?There?s always reaction against ritual as some sort of dead rote without life to it,? Thumma said. ?But I don?t think that?s going to spell the end of megachurches.?
While Jones may critique megachurch ways, he is not hostile to big churches. In fact, Symphonic was launched with the blessing of the Rev. Jim Wolfcale , Atlantic Shores? senior minister. Atlantic Shores also gives the young congregation financial aid.
Wolfcale said Symphonic realized his and Jones? vision of a new church for people dissatisfied with big congregations or traditional styles of worship.
?It?s absolutely different than the megachurch, but that?s OK,? Wolfcale said. ?We can have a diversity of style. I believe that,? he said, adding: ?A lot of people don?t.?
Jones readily concedes that megachurches have nurtured a generation of modern evangelicals like himself.
?The megachurches are like the mother,? he said. ?I love my mom ? but I don?t want to grow up and be my mom. I think the next generation of churches will look like Symphonic: a lot more simple, mobile and relational.?
Your thoughts?...
This just in from PilotOnline.com… Another interesting article on the emerging church. NORFOLK—To Nathanael Allison , Sunday worship means dropping in at a Greek restaurant where the congregation looks like a Starbucks crowd, the service is ad-libbed, and the minister preaches evangelical Christianity minus the trappings of the modern megachurch…
Comments
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Ellen on Mon, July 25, 2005
Just a question to make sure of terminology.
Are “emergent” churches different than “emerging churches”?
Peter Hamm on Tue, July 26, 2005
Thank you for getting me thinking early on a Tuesday morning.
I’m hopeful that this article doesn’t represent the whole picture of this congregation, because it doesn’t sound like an “emerging” or “emergent” church to me. It sounds like a lazy one. He says that when the building gets too full, they’ll figure out what to do THEN! I’m sure glad Moses didn’t lead the Israelites into the wilderness and say, “Yo, dudes, let’s go into the desert and see what happens.” They wandered… but they had a goal and destination. I’m glad God had a plan for Abram when he sent him out. This leader sounds like he has no vision whatsoever.
That said, the question, ‘Are “emergent” churches different than “emerging churches”?’ is a good one. I for one am getting a little tired of an entire movement being defined by what it ISN’T instead of what it is. Maybe growing up Catholic helps me here. “Getting back to the ancient faith” doesn’t seem so radical to me. I’m calling myself “post-emergent” right now because this whole movement, or “discussion” as McLaren likes to call it, seems so undefined that I’m not sure it exists. http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/wink.gif
I’ve been part of a church that fancied itself as “emergent” but wasn’t, and now I’m part of a church that is “emerging” in that we are growing and attracting people to Christ, or to return to him, but isn’t “emergent in any sense of the word. (Incidentally… any of y’all visited the church McLaren founded? It struck me as pretty “modern”, but I only visited once.)
Sorry. Maybe I got off point, but I think the problem of the question ‘Are “emergent” churches different than “emerging churches”?’ is that, for me, despite the best efforts of McLaren and Kimball and Sweet and others, “emergent” hasn’t really defined itself all that well, imho, and the example in the article that was posted seems so poorly executed and so short-sighted that it can’t serve as a frame of reference. Sounds like a “Christians Anonymous” support group to me. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but I don’t know that I’d even call it a church.
Jan on Tue, July 26, 2005
I’m certainly not an expert on “emerging” or “emergent” church but from what I’ve read and heard, the attempt to “define” or “categorize” the movement into a specific model goes against the very reason for the movement! The articles example sounded alot like the “emerging” church that meets in my home, but un-hip 34 year olds like me call it a “small group”.
Shreck on Mon, August 01, 2005
Sounds like someone has a chip on his shoulder and really doesn’t like what the Lord loves. The Lord want a church that is fashioned after Himself, not humanity and the wants of man. When we all come together, some have a testimony that builds faith in others, the resources of the body become available to do GREAT and MIGHTY things.
I wonder about this type of “gathering”… is it spreading the ideas of the Gospel or is it giving place for the worship of the ways and wants of Man.
Mike on Mon, August 01, 2005
I think Jan brings up a good point. What are the distinctives of “church” vs. “small group?”
Is there a irreducible number of essentials that would make up the nuclear core of a church, where if you removed one it would become a small group—a function of the church but not church itself?
I’ll stick my neck way out and offer my list…
“Apostolic” teaching
Sacraments—including baptism and communion
Elder structure—offering spiritual oversight and accountability
I know that is really basic, but maybe that’s the point. Take one away and maybe it’s not “church.” But when those three elements are in place so much can flow out of them.
Maybe what the “emergent” movement is offering is a reducing of all the structure that has grown up around these essential elements and obscured them. By stripping away the cultural elements they reveal how powerful and profound these essential elements are in our lives and how clearly we can see Jesus.
Thoughts…
Mike
Mike on Mon, August 01, 2005
I think Jan brings up an excellent question about the defining difference between “church” vs. “a small group.”
It got me wondering if there is a irreducible number of essentials that make something “church” that if we remove even one it no longer would be “church” but a “small group” or just another function or part of a church?
I’ll stick my neck way out here and offer my list…
“Apostolic” teaching
Sacraments—including baptism and communion
Elder leadership—providing spiritual direction, prayer covering and accountability
That’s it. I know it’s only 3 items (with some clarifying words) but these seem to be the absolute essentials. Take even one away and you’ll no longer be distinctly “church,” but think of all that can (and have) flow out of them.
When I think about those essentials in light of the emergent or emerging movement maybe that is what they are trying to recapture…
Removing so much of the structural and cultural forms that obscure those essentials that evangelicalism takes for granted but for them creates “noise.” And allowing those essentials to stand more clearly on their own in the hopes that it allows for a clearer picture and aroma of Jesus.
Thoughts…
Mike
Mike on Mon, August 01, 2005
DOH!! Sorry about the repeat but I didn’t think the first one posted…
Mike
Norm on Tue, August 02, 2005
As a charter member of Atlantic Shores, now serving a church in Georgia, I was extremely excited to see my former church is so willing to take a risk and support something so contrary to their “normalized” church life. Go God!
Ron on Mon, August 15, 2005
thanks for all the insightful comments on our church! God bless you all (us all) as we follow Jesus!
-r
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