John Drane - Community Mystery and the Future of the Church

I have reflected much on these three ‘pointers’ for church in this postmodern age within which we find ourselves. The points are attributed to John Drane and are contained in his essay Community Mystery and the Future of the Church (previously mentioned here).  Much resonates negatively in terms of my own experiences, and positively in terms of my own thinking and posture with regards the future and church belonging for me.

“…What signposts can we identify as a guide to the future? I want to suggest three things, not as a comprehensive checklist, but as a starting point for further discussion, and hopefully action…

• …We need to reaffirm the church as a locus of mystery, a place where God is at the centre…the emphasis on rational faith that has dominated the last two or three centuries has ignored (and sometimes denied) the transcendent dimension of Christian faith. The appropriate balance between beliefs and experience has been disturbed, in such a way that we have elevated dogma at the expense of discipleship. This is getting things the wrong way round. Theology in its most pristine form starts not with rational reflection, but with discipleship. We are called to follow Jesus, and ‘theology’ is what emerges as we reflect on the meaning of the experience. The earliest disciples followed (and were, therefore, ‘real’ disciples) long before they had any ‘beliefs’ about Christology, salvation, the sacraments, or indeed any of the other things we imagine to be so central today…

• We need to rediscover how the church can be a place of community, nurture, and personal growth…In a fragmented society people are looking for a place to belong, a place of safety, a place where we can be empowered rather than stifled, a place where we can be open with others, acknowledging our needs and inadequacies with an expectation of support rather than a fear of condemnation, and finding acceptance for who we are rather than having to conform to images of who other people think we should be…This will inevitably be challenging – more for some than others – because it requires us to value one another as persons made in God’s image, regardless of class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality or other characteristics that may appear to divide us. This seems to be a particularly problematic area for the church, for as Walter Wink has eloquently reminded us, ‘the vast majority of people in churches are not there to be changed but to shore themselves up against the too-rapid changes of a souped up society.” Nevertheless, to be effective in mission we will have to recognise that the struggle to be human, spiritual and Christian is part of life’s journey, and we do not need to have our own lives in order before we can effectively witness to others…Evangelism is more about inviting others to join us on the journey…

• Finally, we need to rediscover church as a focus for witness and service. Christians love to correct other people. But an appropriate prophetic attitude for a renewed and faithful church will begin with the recognition that we can only effectively challenge others to follow the way of Christ if we are continually hearing God’s voice for ourselves, and allowing our own understandings to be changed in the process. We have something to share with others not because we are different, but because we are no different, and we can become credible witnesses not as we condemn others and dismiss what we regard as their inadequate spiritualities, but as we constantly listen to the gospel and appropriate its challenge in our own lives…. ‘God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in that world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing the things that are…(1 Cor. 1:27-28). In our struggle to find new ways of being church in a context of rapid cultural change, that is perhaps the best news of all, and the most truly empowering message for the postmodern age…” (pp. 98-100)

Comments

[Gary Manders]

Great article and confirms the maxim seeking first to understand and then to be understood (S Covey) as the way forward for Christian discipleship. We influence others by understanding their perspective first and earning the right to question. Wasn't that the case in the film the Last Samurai? We tend to be too confrontational and believing we are right, rather than being open to challenge, change and growth trhough listening to the others viewpoint.

[bill]

Fantasic! I love the quote about the first followers and theology though it occurs to me that some of them were already operating within a prior theological context. In other words, they brought a particular sort of theological understanding to their following. Right? I mean they didn't plan on worshiping a god other than Yaweh. That being said I still think the quote is right on target.

Why does some of this stuff seem so obvious now? Wouldn't I have agreed with these thoughts 5 years ago? It's hard for me to imagine that I wouldn't and yet I suppose I wouldn't have. At least my life was saying I didn't "get it."

Of course I still feel like I don't "get it."