Paul writes – With “Back-to-Church” Sunday approaching, I’m feeling ambivalent and have a lot of mixed feelings around the whole thing. A recent post by friend Steve Taylor gets at some of the issues for me, as does a comment from Aussie friend Andrew Hamilton (a.k.a “Hamo”). In particular I was struck by Steve’s comment:
“I wouldn’t have done Back to Church Sunday when we arrived at Opawa, because the imagination was attractional. But six years down the track, with a multi-congregational approach and something like 15 different community ministries and the establishment of three Mission Collectives that intentionally resource people as salt and light in ministry, there’s now a place to ask each other “hey, how hospitable are we?”
“Because the imagination was attractional”. How many congregations aren’t attractional in their approach? Not many, I’d suggest. The “attractional model” is a deeply imbedded one, and to the degree that that is true in any particular congregation (and in most it will be), I worry that “back-to-church-Sunday” just becomes something that it bolted onto a particular Sunday – a one-off – rather than being a deeply imbedded and explicit feature of the way a congregation is every Sunday of the year.
These congregations will be deeply engaged in their local contexts; they will embody gospel in diverse and creative ways in their dispersed life; they will be resourced in their dispersion; their liturgy, whether acknowledged as such, or not, will creatively and imaginatively open space for people to bring all that they are with them when they gather; it will be hospitable, welcoming, and honoring of the richness and diversity of all who gather; it will be multi-sensory – creatively engaging the whole person, their longings, deepest desires, and needs of God. Belonging will enable people to “jack-into” the richness and diversity of the Christian tradition. Healing, transformation and the deep work of the Spirit will experienced in both its gathered and dispersed life.
Now this is an ideal (I a leaning towards idealism), and is in many ways aspirational, but all of these things and more are in these churches DNA – they describe who they are, and who they aspire to be. They are places where, like the woman at the well (Jn 4: 6-29), people discover and experience Jesus; they are able to draw from the eternal and experience the transcendent.
The sense I get from Steve’s post is that the particular congregation, of which he is a part, were ready (not perfect, but ready!). They were in a place in terms of their journey where an invitation was a natural extension of who they are, and of their interactions in the ordinary and everyday. I would hazard the guess that for them, in effect, every Sunday is a “back-to-church” Sunday. It’s a natural and unforced dimension of who they are – of their DNA, if you like – It’s an unforced rhythm of their life as church. It’s not a one-off gimmick!
But, not all churches are in that place, nor have they done the hard transformative work embedding a deeply missional imagination at the heart of all they are and do.
Thus, the worries expressed by Andrew Hamilton become all the more real. Here’s Hamo’s comment [with a couple of additions from me] attached to Steve’s post (which you can read in full here):
“…Steve - I was at an Anglican church recently who are having exactly this [debate] and I had mixed reactions. Some of it was ‘that is better than nothing’ and some revolved around whether going back would only reaffirm why they left! I would hold that fear for the church in question.
I do think you need a high level of confidence in your community to be hospitable on these days and to make people feel like there may be merit in future engagement. I guess the ’service’ also needs some level of ‘quality’ to stir people and again cause them to wonder whether this may meet a need.
Maybe [Back to Church Sunday] isn’t for every church, but it is for those who can have confidence in their people and in their ‘program’. I would hate to be responsible for reinforcing [or hardening] a person’s decision to opt out! - Andrew”
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