Humiliation of the church in the west

Alan writes - This line brought me up with a start as I listened to Charles Ringma using it recently. Charles, who has been Professor, Missions and Evangelism at Regent College Vancouver, was talking about building Christian communities today. Ringma’s basic thesis suggests we live in a Post-Christendom World which is multi-cultural and in which the church is being pushed to the margins of society. This is he says “a wonderful, weird transition space” in which the presenting question is “can the west be re-evangelised?” As he went on to point out re-evangelisation is much more difficult and complex than first evangelism.

He drew on the work of Karl Rahner who foresaw the collapse of Christendom. Rahner argued for the church to express a fundamental ethos or posture (rather than a specific shape or form) of vulnerability and fragility. This meant the church needed to experience a period of humiliation. Catholics might describe it as a ‘period of purgation’. Others may describe it as a desert space or wilderness space. As I listened to Ringma speak two thoughts buzzed in my head:

Firstly surely this is the way of the cross and the way of Christ, the way of the early church and the way of all new forms of Christian community.

And secondly, maybe those who have been heavily involved in the church and subsequently left to explore personal wildernesses of faith and life may be the very guides church communities need as they too face a period of humiliation, wilderness and vulnerability?

Comments

[Jan Bros]

Sounds hopeful--purgation, illumination, union. : )

[ron]

"And secondly, maybe those who have been heavily involved in the church and subsequently left to explore personal wildernesses of faith and life may be the very guides church communities need as they too face a period of humiliation, wilderness and vulnerability?"

This raises a whole lot of questions as to how willing existing leadership structures, will humble themselves to relinquish some authority to embrace a " guide " who may have a better understanding of the spiritual landscape in which the church needs to navigate.
It certainly has me thinking...good stuff, and thanks.

[ron]

Oooooops! Sorry about all those track backs Alan and Paul...I don't know what happened.

[Paul Fromont]

No worries Ron, easily dealt with.