The Out of Bounds Church? - Book Review
BOOK REVIEW
THE OUT OF BOUNDS CHURCH? LEARNING TO CREATE A COMMUNITY OF FAITH IN A CULTURE OF CHANGE.
Steve Taylor (blog for the book, here)
Emergent YS / Zondervan, 2005.
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Given that you have eyes to see, and given that you are reading something of the world in which you live, Steve Taylor’s opening statement, “We live on the fault lines of widespread cultural change,” won’t come as any kind of surprise, nor will the resultant challenges we face as churches in our, at once, global / local (“glocal”) contexts.
Taylor writes, from within the church, both gathered and dispersed. He writes, as he himself says, from the “border country” between church and culture, and has an obvious commitment to ensuring that “the postmodern or emerging church” doesn’t become “a fad.” He contributes to this aim by articulating a missiology of the emerging church and by offering “theological resources to nourish, deepen, sustain, and strengthen what God is breathing.”
That said; I would be concerned if mention of the so-called “postmodern or emerging church” limited this book’s audience. It has wide appeal and usefulness beyond this particular church grouping.
Taylor writes with his senses attuned to “what’s going on out there.” He writes in order to help us do what Olive and John Drane (in one of the two forewords to this book) describe as finding “new ways of expressing and celebrating Christian faith in a world that is increasingly interested in spiritual meaning, whether that is demonstrated in the search for life-giving ways of nourishing [their] own lives, or as a concern about the apparently destructive capabilities of spiritual fanaticism.”
They write (and I wholeheartedly agree) that Taylor’s book “will speak to all who share these concerns, and do so in innovative ways that draw us deeper into the gospel story, and consequently, closer to Christ.”
Taylor’s book offers his readers a series of “postcards from the edge”:
Here we find commentary on the societal / cultural changes themselves and what some of those changes might mean for churches wanting to ‘gospel’ Jesus Christ faithfully and creatively. His use of the contrast provided by Franco Zeffarelli’s 1968 version of “Romeo & Juliet and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 version of the same movie, is compelling.
Postcards 3 and 4 (“Koru Theology” & “Creativity Downloaded”).
The second set of postcards help us to think about and explore the metaphors of “beginnings,” “birth,” and “midwifery.” They also remind us that God is Creator, and therefore the source of creativity, artistry, and re-creation. Taylor uses these postcards as a means of exploring, both the beginnings of possible responses to cultural change, and also in order to talk about birthing the kinds of communities that will fruitfully communicate and embody Christianity in the cultural milieu of our day.
Postcards 5, 6, 7, and 8 (“Spiritual Tourism” (traditionally rendered “pilgrimage”), “Redemptive Portals,” “Missional Interface,” and “Culture Samplers”
These offer possibilities and content for any church congregation seeking to become mission-shaped. There’s much on offer: tourist spirituality, spiritual tourism at gathered worship, creativity as consumptive product, navigable space, souvenirs, spirituality2go, building community, pegging communities, ethical communities, festival spirituality, postmodern monasteries, DJ’ing and the sampling of biblical txt and culture, and ideas for creating well-lit pathways from church in the world, to church as a particular community being formed and shaped by the biblical txt, by sacraments, by Christian practices, and by God in their midst.
Postcard 9 (“Keep the Home Fire’s Burning”).
Recounts a wonderful story from Outback Australia and reminds us, in what is the final postcard, that “Ours is the task of being Christians today and following Jesus into the future.” He tells us “we can’t go back [but we can keep the fires of our Christian tradition alive]. We can’t delegate. All we can do is be responsive to the wind of God [God’s presence] in our culture. And that wind is inviting us to playfully birth redemptive communities of Christian faith that will confidently DJ, extending spiritual tourism to [Baz] Luhrmann’s world. All we have is faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.”
So, in the end, it’s an innovative book. It does well at weaving together and engaging afresh with the metaphors, symbols, and narratives of Scripture and culture. It is a book that expresses, celebrates, and creatively gives away Christian faith. It is a book that will nourish Christian faith and encourage us to join in on what God is doing in the world. It is also a book that will helpfully provoke, prod, and invite us to step “out of bounds” in order to recover something of what it means for the gospel, centred on Jesus Christ, to again be a source of creativity, innovation, new-birth, passion, redemptive-freedom, and life in the much changed landscape of what many, myself included, would describe as the post-Christendom Western world.
My hope is that a thoughtful engagement, with “The Out of Bounds Church” in one hand, and the biblical narrative in the other, will help Jesus-followers to wonder and imagine how God might be inviting new and existing expressions of church to faithfully enact, embody, and communicate unchanging “good news” in a changed and still changing world.
I found it extremely useful in helping me to stretch, think, dream, and act in response to my invitation to follow Jesus into the midst of a landscape that is not the sixties into which I was born.
Whilst I need to be very clear that I'm biased in favour of the book, I can honestly say that in its ‘weight class’ it's a real standout. We're invited on an adventure, and I for one appreciated it very much - the adventure continues.
Reviewed by Paul Fromont
October 2005.
Postscript - Out of interest, Steve makes some comments about the audience for his book here - creatively 'framed' by U2.
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