The Gospel after Christendom: New Voices, New Cultures, New Expressions

Whitesel

Preface

Early in 2009, I began asking in my networks (church growth, missional church, emerging church, and missiology) who they thought were some of the top missional thinkers for the Western world. I asked for thinkers who were both scholars and practitioners—who were vetted both through their writing and their actual experience starting new communities in the West. Some were more on the scholar side, and some on the practitioner, but most all were qualified in both.

I received an initial list of names and then began a second stage of research. I asked these missional scholar-practitioners four sets of related questions:

What are the biggest questions/issues/cultural shifts facing the Western church today?

How might the church address these issues? In other words, how might the church live missionally/embody the gospel in the post-Christendom West at this time?

If you personally have a big idea concerning these issues, what is it?

Is there someone you know who should be a part of this discussion?

With the first question, I asked these scholar-practitioners to name those issues most significant to the Western church today. This cultural question seeks to get at what issues or themes present the greatest threat to the life of the Western church, especially concerning recent cultural change.

The second set of questions asked how the church might, in its life together, respond to these cultural shifts. What does the church need to do and be at this time? How might the church embody the gospel of Jesus Christ given the demands of our context? A second part of the question deals with post-Christendom, that period in the West where the practice of religion is no longer a cultural expectation but is more of an individual choice. Post-Christendom is that social space where there is a Christian memory, but that memory no longer affects how people make meaning with their lives. Moreover, the institution of church may be looked at with loving nostalgia or with deep suspicion (or somewhere in between), but not as a resource for living. Given this reality—that many of the presuppositions of Christendom are over—how might the church now be the church?

My third question dealt with my responders’ big idea. Some of these scholar-practitioners think a great deal about the church after Christendom, and that is why I wrote to them. What do they think the ultimate challenge is, and what must be done about it?

My fourth question was related to my method of research. I needed to make sure I had all the right people for the study. I asked participants to tell me about others whom they believed had insight in this arena. As they listed these names, I initiated contact with them and the process began again. I would ask these new names the same four questions. I continued this loop until I ceased to hear any more new names. When I heard only repeats, I knew this phase of the research was over; in other words, I had the right set of data.

In all, I asked 137 scholar-practitioners these four questions, and in the end, 76 responded to my request, writing paragraph-long responses to each question. From these 76, I received a total of 273 challenges, responses, and ideas for the Western church today. Fortunately, many of these responses echoed one another. (The book would be a hard sell if it were titled 273 Issues for the Western Church!)

As I assessed these responses, I focused on challenges that specifically related to our changed context; that is, I paid attention to the important issues for a post-Christendom church. I tried very hard to walk along the theory/praxis nexus. If an answer was simply too far in one direction or the other, I would not work with it. For example, if I received a suggestion of a philosophical nature and could not see how it might affect day-to-day church, I had to let it pass. However, ideas that reduced our challenges to simple strategies or tactics, and that did not reimagine church life considering our present challenges, could not be used either. The responses needed to address current praxis of church in a robust way given our changed culture of post-Christendom.

Where possible, I dug deeper into the legitimate comments. If someone had a particularly novel idea, I followed up with them, asking clarifying questions by email. I did not want to exclude those outliers who really had some wisdom to share, even if not everyone agreed with their opinion.

I grouped the themes into buckets of ideas that needed to be addressed. A common motif in the responses was the need to use our imaginations to interrupt the programming of Western culture. So I separated the responses into six cultural categories, even though there is much overlap among them. Many addressed several of these themes all at once.

How can we be the church in the midst of an environmental crisis?

Given globalization and migration, many live between two or more cultures. How can we be the church in this newly created space?

Secularization is still real as faith is now privatized. Pluralism contributes to an individual form of faith in the West. How might we live our faith communally and in relation with other traditions?

Given a culture of creativity, how might the church itself live as God’s artwork?

Given that faith is individualized in the West, how do we embody a faith that is not consumeristic?

We are in a culture of new spiritualities. People want God but they do not want the church. How do we allow for believing without belonging?

Respondents also addressed how the church might transform its internal practices considering these cultural changes and post-Christendom. So in addition to the six cultural categories, I focused on four aspects of church practice. Specifically, how are the Christian practices of (1) worship, (2) formation, (3) mission, and (4) leadership affected by current cultural change?

After creating these ten themes (six rooted in cultural change, four rooted in church practice), I invited ten authors—who had big ideas in these areas and could address the various issues named by others within that theme—to write about them. I also asked them to put their big idea into conversation with the other themes and practices. The selection process was a difficult one, as many of the seventy-six responding authors shared similar big ideas (but I couldn’t really have seventy-six chapters in the book either).

I also felt we needed a snapshot of the bigger picture, so I asked seven authors to write a chapter on the church after Christendom in particular regional contexts. These scholar-practitioners belong to specific cultural networks and have a good understanding of new faith movements within particular nations and peoples.

In reading other responders, I realized that some have an in-depth view of a particular community, having both started and led new expressions of church life in post-Christendom, and they had gained many insights through these experiences. I asked them to write up these eight case studies of new expressions.

Finally, some of these authors were creating significant change at the denominational level, and I asked them to share their experience of that process.

These five areas—peoples (networks of Christians within a particular people), cultures (six themes), practices (worship, formation, mission, leadership), experiments (case studies), and traditions (denominational change processes)—provide an outline for this volume.[1]

Ryan K. Bolger

Introduction

Ryan K. Bolger

To get a better understanding of church engagements within post-Christendom, we will explore the phenomenon at multiple levels. The structure of this volume moves from large to small and back to large. We begin in part 1 with Peoples, where our authors examine new expressions of faith within seven nations or regional groups of people. In part 2, Cultures, we look at six powerful cultural themes and their impact on church life today. In Practices, part 3, we explore four historic Christian practices as they interact with our cultural themes. Then in part 4 we look at Experiments, examining eight case studies of new Christian communities in a post-Christendom context. Finally, in Traditions, part 5, we read the stories of three different efforts, in different parts of the world, of transformation at the denominational level. In the conclusion, I briefly narrate the patterns in this work as a way to respond to my initial questions for the research project.

Peoples

In the first chapter, Osías Segura-Guzmán explores the possibility of emerging churches in a Latin American context. The number of emerging church communities is small, and many go by names other than iglesias emergentes. He starts by asking if postmodern people really exist in Latin America, since emerging churches, by definition, are churches within postmodern culture. He also considers whether these postmodern expressions of faith are yet another import from the North or if Latin Americans have made it their own.

Segura-Guzmán’s chapter offers three examples of communities that traverse on this Western/non-Western, modern/postmodern divide. He explains that even if church expressions are rooted in the West, Latin Americans modify them and make them their own. Did they do this with these iglesias emergentes? His tentative answer is yes. These organic expressions of faith offer simple worship, hospitable community, a commitment to social justice, and flat leadership. Much of their decision making is communal. They are populated by artists, designers, and educated people. Even though they care for the poor, the poor are not yet part of the community.

Steve Taylor, writing in chapter 2 on emerging churches in Aotearoa New Zealand, describes these new communities, beginning with Parallel Universe in 1994, as highly innovative and rooted in the culture. New Zealand is characterized by a population of Christians who no longer find the historic denominations useful, even though they still pursue faith. In this de-churched context faith discussion groups called Spirited Exchanges capture people’s imaginations. House churches are a feature of the emergent movement in New Zealand as well.

Some New Zealand fresh expressions have pioneered the use of public installation art as both formation and mission. These multisensory exhibits—especially popular at Christmas and Easter—offer embodied experiences of faith in very accessible public venues. New Zealand also has its share of new monastic communities, with orders committed to an active spirituality expressed through works of justice. In this chapter, Taylor explores the notion of leader as curator. He ends with the question of how much new expressions of church will change as religion continues to be pushed into postmodern choice cultures. Faith expressions online, led by a network of kiwis, have great potential.

Australians are spiritual and anti-institutional, and they value innovation, writes Darren Cronshaw in chapter 3. Although church attendance is dwindling, emerging missional churches do have a future in Australia. Experimental expressions of Christian community such as café churches, house churches, and alternative spirituality groups thrive there. Many of these expressions were influenced by Aussies Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch with their Forge network.

Australian emerging missional churches are dissatisfied with church as they know it. They want the church to focus outside the faith community, to go beyond itself. Incarnational mission in third places is a focus, as they practice an accessible spirituality. Churches in this context create a place for doubt and questioning. Exploring is okay. Who is in and who is out is not considered. Worship is artistic, participatory, and may focus on justice. Meetings are highly engaging, involving much food and sharing of life together. Collaborative, permission-giving leadership moves away from a pastor-centered structure. The role of the leader is to find peoples’ passions and help them develop a ministry in that particular area.

Ruth Skree provides a discussion of the church in Scandinavia in chapter 4. Scandinavia has a folk church of which the majority of the population are members but which few people actively support. In contrast, new forms of church engender high levels of participation. Some of these new churches start accidentally; a meeting might begin among believers within a particular musical subculture, for example, and they grow unintentionally and eventually become a church. No church background is required for someone to fully participate in new churches. Given that for some Christianity is completely new, the church accepts different speeds of spiritual growth among its members. There is no in or out; everyone is welcome.

Skree offers examples of different practices among the new churches. Regarding worship, artists might lead the time of worship, and the emphasis may be on a meal, on Communion, or on an encounter with art rather than on music. Church might be a church of small groups, and formal discipleship often happens in monastic groups. New monasticism in Scandinavia is a growing movement, and some monastic groups go out and serve beyond their church walls with other communities. Spending time in the culture is mission—for example, providing nonviolence training or classes on cross-cultural understanding. They are united by a rhythm of life together; they pray the hours. Leadership is flat, democratic, and empowering, often without one visible leader. The board or elder role is to support the initiatives of the people, and leaders function as guides. Because of the distance between church and culture in the Nordic countries, one leader advises that pastors abstain from full-time church work.

There is a recent increase of interest in spirituality in the Netherlands and Flanders, according to Nico-Dirk van Loo in chapter 5. The private search for meaning and spirituality is common. New expressions start at the margins with little fanfare. A mixed-economy church, although currently not a reality, will be part of the church’s future. Evangelical churches were optimistic a decade ago, but now they are in crisis. Incarnational church planting, neomonasticism, and countercultural communities are the way forward.

For many new expressions of church in the Netherlands and Flanders, the sermon is gone. In its place, artistic liturgy occurs but is less frequent than communal meals. There are two types of churches: (1) more anonymous groups with low participation, for example, an inspiring word, music, and media, and (2) high participation neomonastic communities where communal meals and highly engaging multisensory activities are the rule. Some groups do not use praise choruses but focus on Taizé, Celtic, or Anglican songs. Some rewrite secular Dutch songs for the service. Some eat meals around Dutch food and culture. Their focus is on the life of Jesus and the kingdom of God. In the Low Countries, the Bible is not taught, but is communally discerned. Justice work is mission work. Traditional evangelism has given way to embodied evangelism; the participants’ entire lives call out to others to join this community with an alternative story of the kingdom. Often, people outside the church participate in one-time spiritual events. In Dutch new expressions, visionary leaders are suspect, so most communities have egalitarian leadership, with both men and women serving. All people are valued and able to start new ministries.

The Christian situation in French-speaking Europe, on the one hand, could not be bleaker. Not only has Christianity been pushed to the very margins of society, but some sociologists are even calling Christianity incomprehensible to the French. On the other hand, to write off French spirituality would be premature. Although the numbers are small, the French are spiritual people, and some are finding their way back to the church. Those who do convert to Christ are passionate.

In chapter 6, Fresh Expressions of Missional Church in French-Speaking Europe, Blayne Waltrip discusses the characteristics of some of these new communities of passionate converts. They might desire music that is French or make outside music their own. When they have larger gatherings, multisensory art is a core part of these meetings. Those who have the gift of teaching are the teachers, not necessarily the pastor. A church might have thirty people and function as a network of small groups. The churches meet in homes, and their gatherings are casual and discussion-oriented. Discipleship is done around the table with food. Their outreach is to develop relationships with those outside the community. Church communities both host and frequent many parties. There are no boundaries between Christian and non-Christian for the church community in French-speaking Europe. They desire to reinterpret Jesus for French culture through art, film, and dance. For those under thirty, no reinterpretation is necessary; it is all new. Verbal proclamation happens in relationship, when someone is asked. The groups have a very flat leadership structure—everyone leads where they are gifted. They envision a network of small groups across the region.

In his chapter on emerging expressions in German-speaking Europe (chap. 7), Peter Aschoff writes that the population is split one-third Protestant, one-third Catholic, 5 percent Muslim, and the rest without ties. Evangelicals form less than 2 percent of the population and are part of mainline Protestantism. Postmodernity has affected Germany for at least the past twenty-five years. Fresh expressions of church began with the Jesus Freaks in the early 1990s. Today there are several networks, including Emergent Deutschland, which began in 2006. Emerging groups such as Motoki or Kubik are populated by artists, social workers, and educators.

Emerging groups in German-speaking Europe are experiments. Sermons exist, but at the heart of services are Communion and multisensory stations. People can respond in any way they choose. Churches might be located in a pub, a café, an industrial building, or an old church. Diversity, inclusion, and participation are celebrated. The church expressions are networks of small groups. New monasticism is popular. Small learning communities get together to engage in spiritual disciplines. They share, engage Scripture, create and display works of art, meditate, contemplate, pray the hours, and observe Stations of the Cross. Mission is justice work—not just mercy ministry but political action. Not only do they distrust CEO-style leaders, but they shun the pastor as entrepreneur, therapist, or scholar as well. Women are celebrated as leaders. If there are clergy on a team, they are to support the laypeople in significant ways.

Cultures

According to Ian Mobsby (chap. 8), the world is in a time of economic crisis, and humans must begin to take responsibility for the current situation. Humanity’s drive for consumption, however, has driven the earth to the brink of destruction. The industrial revolution caused Westerners to forget about the sacredness of all of life. Christians know that the earth is God’s creation, but they rarely think of responsibility to that creation. This is not a physical problem per se, but it reveals a deficient spirituality. The Western ego goes unchecked and must develop virtues that will create another set of possibilities for the earth.

People need an eco-spirituality that makes certain the connection between spirituality and creation. Those who have countered the false self are those who create an alternative set of practices for all of life. These monastic communities establish a context for developing creative stewardship of the earth. Corporately they may create worship that invites people into new understandings through sometimes shocking and perhaps unsettling art and stories that can shake people out of complacency. Moot, Mobsby’s community in London, has a rhythm of life that advocates for virtues in all of life. These spiritual practices, which form the core of Christian life, create dispositions toward the good, toward treating God, earth, and self well. Christians learn to welcome all others as gifts as they foster a stance of hospitality. This particularly appeals to spiritual questers, those pursuing God directly and not through organized religion. Some monastic communities connect with questers through radical arts cafés and meditative events. Leadership in new monastic communities is based on wisdom and is generally communal in practice.

In chapter 9, Mission within Hybrid Cultures, Oscar García-Johnson describes the concept of transnationality. He tells the story of Sansei-Peruvian immigrants to Suzuka, Japan. They had migrated from Peru to Japan as teenagers but were cultural hybrids. Their historically Japanese family spoke Spanish and Portuguese. They met at a Brazilian Pentecostal church in Suzuka. They lived in the space between Japanese society, their Brazilian church, and their Peruvian family, but they found that none of those cultures captured who they were—so they started a church in the space of their hybrid-borderline existence, the first immigrant multilingual church in the region. In their church, they have families that share a dual South American/Japanese identity and existence. The church draws Japanese youth as well.

García-Johnson realizes that this dynamic is not unique to this church in Japan; it is happening on a global scale. In Los Angeles, Latino pastors share a similar experience. Their homes travel with them, as they bring their symbolic homeland wherever they go. They transmigrate—rather than immigrate—between home and Home. The vitality of the Global South is traveling to the Global North through these immigrant vessels. Many transnational pastors are mission makers and cultural transmitters. They plant churches that grow rapidly; they lead changes. The local church still exists, but that space is globalized as transnationality occurs at the local level. Neither assimilationism nor essentialism are options for these communities. These are fluid communities, a hybrid phenomenon. Christ is experienced in the center of all these currents. Affirming the diversity of the entire body and the diversity of each person is what the Spirit does. This is Pentecost.

Richard Sudworth begins chapter 10 with the statement, troubling for many, that the modern conception of truth—the idea that truth can be established and authoritative—is crumbling. Christian apologetics was based on the idea of the rational autonomous individual. If our understanding of reality is now rooted in community, practice, and tradition, then how do Christians advocate for truth across communities? In a time of pluralism, sharing across traditions is quite complex, because there may not be a shared base of understanding. What is forgiveness of sins to someone who never felt unforgiven?

Sudworth introduces the idea of being distinctly welcoming. Christians are rooted in the Christian story, unashamed of their practice and theology of Christ. At the same time, God may speak to people in any tradition and might be working in ways that are incomprehensible to outsiders. Sudworth describes Sanctuary, a church in Birmingham led by Pall Singh that is culturally eastern, with Indian tunes, Asian sweets, and prayer and devotion to Christ centered in a British Asian context. There is a deep sense of community, and one might be a part of the community for years before one makes a faith confession. Christians must develop the skills to listen to God from within the symbols of other faiths, yet shape their practices around Christian worship and discipline. Leadership must discern the spiritual trek of others using the others’ own faith tradition. Christians can no longer be ignorant of other ways of life—they must learn about the texts of other faith communities. Weaving these stories around the Christ event will be a challenge for the church in the future.

Troy Bronsink, formerly of Neighbors Abbey in Atlanta, in Our P(art) in an Age of Beauty (chap. 11), writes about communities that follow Jesus by learning from beauty and participating in God’s kingdom by becoming art themselves. God dreams for his people and calls his people to fulfill those dreams. The church is the group of people called by God to create a way of life that brings more time, space, and matter into participation with the love of God. All the church’s makings and doings are shaped by God’s love.

Bronsink writes that some communities open source their faith in public and give the rights to interpretation away. This is nothing new; the disciples had to reimagine and reorient themselves over and over again (see the parables). Works of beauty confront people with a new sense of freedom; in this encounter, they become free to overcome those things that limit them and to envision entirely new possibilities for their own lives. Beauty puts us in play, as Troy says. It calls us to get off the sidelines and become an active participant in life. When humans encounter the beautiful, they can praise or confess, nothing else. Troy lists three techniques for communities to become works of art themselves: (1) they must open source their translation dilemmas, that is, become transparent with the difficulties involved in communicating the meaning of Christian faith across traditions, thereby letting others interpret the faith; (2) Christians must increase ritual agency, that is, help people become skilled practitioners of Christian rituals; and (3) Christians must create open space for listening, releasing each person’s rationale to God’s realm, putting themselves in the presence of beauty.

In chapter 12, Mission among Individual Consumers, Stefan Paas writes about how Western culture has changed from a culture of obligation to one of consumption. In the Netherlands, the Dutch do not have to go to church. They may want to, if they decide to, but it is not imposed on them culturally in any way. They want connection, but they assemble their spirituality themselves, and it is not imposed by any one tradition. For the Dutch, church is like a restaurant. They want what they receive at the restaurant to be good, worthwhile, and meaningful; the chefs (pastors) do not serve just anything, but only what they themselves consider to be of value. Paas clarifies the difference between consumption and consumerism. Consumption is simply the acknowledgment in Western cultures that contemporary people are choosing creatures. It is not a pejorative term, but simply a description of how Westerners have been formed. Consumerism, however, is an ethical category—it describes efforts at fulfillment through materialism, experiences, and ephemeral wants and desires. The restaurant provides a place for consumption but not consumerism.

For Paas, worship must both attract and form people. What the church offers to people is a gift—for example, home groups—but it cannot do much more than offer. The restaurant attendees (church visitors) are free to choose their level of involvement. Volunteer commitments, such as doing service in the city, are the most popular part of church life. People today like spirituality and service, but the communal aspect—in other words, the weekly commitment—is difficult for them. For Paas, the leaders must ask the attendees, how can we help you take the next step in your spiritual trek? Ultimately, the leader is not responsible for the attendees; he or she acts more like a guide. In post-Christendom, people want responsibility for their own lives.

Even though sociologists of religion have warned about growing secularization, interest in spirituality has not gone away, writes Steve Hollinghurst in his chapter on the new spirituality culture (chap. 13). In contrast to what popular media may say, people are not running to atheism. Belief remains high, but in Europe it is not Christianity in which they believe. Belief in God changed from seeing God as a personal being to understanding God as a life force. Postmodern culture combines with consumerism to create a mix-and-match faith that meets individual spiritual needs. New spiritualities are client-based faiths in which the adherents are clients of a small group of practitioners who often function as priests.

Worship in new spirituality culture is similar to pagan rituals or rites, and the backgrounds of the converts influence the worship style. Worship will probably revere nature and revolve around the seasons. Dance, drumming, and mystical readings may all play a part. Community life might appear very Eastern. Each participant is on a path; new spirituality encourages changes of direction on that path, but not the need to cross barriers. These communities will allow all seekers to go at their own speed. There might be storytelling circles, meditation gatherings, or other types of groups in community. Following Christ is a part of the journey, but one might start from a different place in another tradition. Mission might take place at New Age fairs and festivals. Christians may bring part of their tradition to the festival, be it prayer, meditation, or prophecy. They will not be bringing God to these cultures, though, for God is already there. Leadership in new spirituality communities is flat, and leaders will probably be unpaid, not serving as part of an institution. Hollinghurst argues that we need holy Christians in these areas, working within these cultures.

Practices

Paul Roberts begins the first chapter in part 3, on practices, by explaining that after Constantine, worship changed from that of a persecuted minority anticipating future glory to that of a triumphant church holding public celebrations in large civic buildings. He asks if the purpose of worship is to fulfill the mission of the church in the world. In the early church this was unthinkable: unbelievers were forbidden to come to worship. Missional worship is a modern phenomenon that occurs when a church in Christendom seeks to lure a de-churched person back into church (e.g., all seeker-sensitive strategies).

Roberts argues that worship must stay grounded in creation, in the real material world. The church proclaims God, but this is a real world in which God became flesh. Worship must be an encounter of each person’s humanity with one another and with God. Part of the challenge of worship is keeping those practices that are central for Christian identity (such as Communion, Scripture, prayer, baptism) but letting go of others that are unwelcoming to new cultures. Worship takes place in a context of beauty: worship space is art space. Emerging churches return art to the people—creating worship together. Power structures have changed in the alternative worship movement as they abandon worship ministry and restrict liturgical roles. They remove all cultural triumphalism and create worship for those not in power. Radical hospitality can be a theme of worship in post-Christendom. Christians should not invite outsiders to come to church, but must dwell in the other’s space, even with their own internal boundaries.

For Dwight J. Friesen (chap. 15), post-Christendom changed the way formation must be performed in the Christian community. During the Constantinian era, many public institutions partnered with the church to form people in particularly Christian ways, leaving the church to focus on its particular functions, such as preaching the Word and administering the sacraments. All the public sectors, administered by the government, were deeply influenced and staffed by the church. The church could discipline and educate its members through official sanctions and institutions. However, in post-Christendom the church’s partners in formation no longer push people in Christian directions. So the church must reimagine the activities of Christian formation today. The church needs to tell its story again. Christians must see all of life, not just church life, through the lens of Christ.

For Friesen, Christian hospitality and service must become core practices for today’s church, as should stewardship of creation. Christians must underscore the importance of baptism and Communion too. Through the arts, the church can create public rituals, embodying the way of Christ in the surrounding culture. This re-forms the church’s collective imagination. Formation after Christendom must commit to a use of space that reconnects with the neighborhood and creates places to walk and a way to know neighbors. Friesen talks about rooting and linking—keeping the church grounded in the neighborhood and linked to diverse groups beyond themselves. The church’s music and art must be prophetic and impart a missional identity, not just a personal relationship with God. Loving God is very everyday, grounded in regular activity. These inviting practices help churches in the task of formation now that they are left holding the ball in post-Christendom.

Mission is synonymous with holistic transformation, according to Tobias Faix in chapter 16. Both shalom (in the Old Testament) and salvation (New Testament) express the transformation of all relationships—God-human, human-human, human-self, and human-creation. Transformation must take place in all spheres of reality, be they economic, social, or political. Transformation advocates for change in small villages and large cities alike. Working for transformation is worship to God. Transformation starts with local churches.

Transformation, in regard to creation, is stewardship. Christians are to advocate for the preservation of creation and work against destructive forces. Transformation as healing, as shown by Jesus, is physical and social restoration. Churches often distance themselves from the ones in society who are most in need of transformation. Do Christians have a middle-class gospel? The best option for transformation in a pluralistic society is dialogue. A transformed church will reflect multiculturalism, in terms of people and culture, and demonstrate economic sharing. People are searching for God and for a community of fellow searchers, and a transformed community, through manifesting the reign of God, can invite them to sing with the church the tune of heaven.

MaryKate Morse, in chapter 17, compares leadership to riding a horse. The rider equates to conscious leadership, and the horse to the unconscious. Leaders often focus on the rider and ignore the horse, but the horse greatly affects the rider. The unconscious responds to the environment, to stress, to a lack of sleep. In a culture of fear, this can present real challenges, because if a leader feels threatened, the unconscious takes control. Morse offers helpful steps to bring the horse under control: name the threat, reflect on its origin, and pray. Every time a leader feels out of control, he or she must go to prayer and practice spiritual disciplines such as Sabbath keeping.

Morse argues that leaders need to care for their environment, and that men and women do well to share leadership in the church. That is, the church needs them both to create a hybrid leadership structure. Leaders must lead their people into diverse settings. If this feels threatening, they need to be able to calm their unconscious minds. Leaders can use creativity to challenge people and to allow them to create sacred space in which to reenact the Bible story. In a culture in which consumerism is the horse running amok, the leader must pull in the reins and model simplicity. In a culture of fragmentation, the leader must model a spirituality that puts everything back together again—work, home, church are all one in Christ. One manifestation of this desire for spirituality is new monasticism, which forms an integrative spirituality characterized by contemplation, hospitality, and service of the poor. To lead in this context, leaders must be aware of what shapes them. By becoming aware of the horse and rider, leadership may be better equipped to attend to God’s plans in the world.

Experiments

Ralph Watkins, in chapter 18, writes about The Underground, a church fully at home in hip-hop culture in southern California. Hip-hop culture arose within urban, African American youth culture in the 1970s. From very early on, however, hip-hop became multicultural. Today, hip-hop churches are filled with Generation Xers and Millennials, those born between 1965 and 1986, as well as those outside the age range who support the culture.

From dress to dance to praise, the church practices in this movement are inherently hip-hop. Worship is led by a DJ and the worship team consists of African Americans, whites, and Latinos. Each person participates in worship as a cocreator—there are no spectators in hip-hop churches. The preaching includes multiple texts. Hip-hop churches are highly missional because they are close to the poor—both in their roots and in current practice. Leadership is transparent, and authenticity is highly important.

In chapter 19, in Andreas Østerlund Nielsen’s story of Bykirken in Aarhus, Denmark, we see a tasty experiment taking place in a Danish restaurant. Bykirken created a set of small groups that eventually met in a restaurant’s downtown courtyard. The new congregation stayed within the Lutheran church but became a congregation of choice, because church planting is rare in Denmark. The restaurant was the primary connecting point of the community for seven years. Of the fifty people regularly attending, all but a few had been part of a Christian community before. Their lives were encouraged and sustained by their time at the restaurant. However, when leader Nielsen sought to move the entire church into more active mission, he felt resistance. The church closed after a seven-year run.

Bykirken was a very creative group. Each month they had a prayer and brunch, with white tablecloths, homemade brunch buffet, and easy jazz as the backdrop to a full church service. It was very participatory and ended with Communion. All service was done in teams, and everyone was part of one. Sunday gatherings formed the participants but never really served as evangelism to unbelievers. The basic unit of the community was the small group—five to eight people meeting twice monthly to share a meal, read the Bible together, participate in discussion and prayer, and serve in mission. Some would form cowalking groups or provide self-help courses for the community. Practical leadership training in the sorts of skills needed for Bykirken was foreign for Denmark. In the end, they had to teach themselves everything. Nadia Bolz-Weber, who shares the story of House for All Sinners and Saints in chapter 20, is not a stereotypical Lutheran pastor, but she found truth in Lutheran theology and liturgy. She wanted to start a community that looked like her—postmodern urban mystics who live outside the mainstream. She started House for All Sinners and Saints in her living room with seven others.

As they live for one another in the community, participants in HFASS cocreate worship together. During a worship gathering, they may sing old hymns and assemble bleach kits for drug users. Nadia is an adaptive leader, moving and responding to each additional member of the community. They are active in the community with public events that are both unconventional (e.g., beer and hymns in a bar) and identity forming for the members. She understands her authority as a pastor while welcoming a participative community.

After almost giving up on all church models, Eric Zander, director of the Belgian Evangelical Mission, took a leave of absence to discover the church he never knew. He started a degree program in London and interviewed leaders and observed churches throughout Europe and the United States. What he received was encouragement to begin again, with L’Autre Rive (The Other Bank) in Gembloux, Belgium, which he discusses in chapter 21.

To start, Eric became very involved in the local community, serving in various projects and becoming known as a positive resource to the community. He then began to ask among all his social networks what a church ought to be like that was both local and contextual. He asked both Christians and non-Christians to help him design, even in a tentative way, a new church. The first experiment was the creation of a monthly breakfast for the church community, each time with a different theme. They located themselves in a public social hall, so as to not frighten away the nonreligious. Around a decorated meal, they created a liturgy that mixed the religious with the everyday. Talks from the front inspired conversation around the tables. They used contemporary media and ancient chanting. Zander hoped to create a kind of space that the people had never experienced. It was both Catholic and Protestant in its embodiment. Repeatedly, Zander asks the outside community for feedback. Christians and non-Christians benefit equally from the meetings. Mission may mean local service organizations presenting during the service. During the week, the church does not have Bible studies or prayer, but people are encouraged to reach out into the local community. They look to include nonprofessionals in the leadership of the church. They continue to develop their community one day at a time.

Eileen Suico, who shares the story of her church in chapter 22, started With with a group of young Asian American youth in 2003, and they became a self-contained church in 2010. At one point they were so focused on the church community that they lost touch not only with the rest of creation but also with the very present reality of problems in Federal Way, twenty-five miles south of Seattle. The youth became burned out on legalistic ways of leadership and discipleship, but at the breaking point they received a fresh understanding of God’s grace and his trinitarian nature.

With was transformed into a relational community, not just within themselves but to the people they serve in Puget Sound. Now they are quite flexible in their life together. One week they might hold a worship service, but the next week they might serve the community (by helping someone move or attending local car shows in their area). They desire to see God worshiped everywhere they go. The church has many groups based on interest, and no one goes to them all, but they do cross-fertilize. They are also quite missional: they may have one group protesting against modern-day slavery and another working for green initiatives. Their hub is Facebook and other online media. Eileen is the pastor and does things differently than male leaders, and that is something that she and With have learned to accept and celebrate. Leadership is fluid in the community, and all are called to lead in areas in which God gives them ability.

In chapter 23 Mark Scandrette tells the story of his progression from youth pastor to leader of the Jesus Dojo, or the Way of Jesus, in San Francisco. He found that youth were not interested in the entertainment style of formation, nor in regular church events. They wanted a way of life together, something active and challenging, something real. With others, he had been asking what form the church should take. That question led them to simply move forward and seek to live out the life of Jesus in present-day San Francisco.

In the Dojo, participants commit to a nine-month curriculum that involves a series of projects and learning labs. Following the Dojo, they may join a Tribe community for a year. Their worship is usually through art forms, poetry, spoken word, or painting. But their focus is always on action, so it is usually tightly connected to the neighborhoods around them. These groups seek to practice the Way of Jesus in community. They agree to a rule of life; it is seasonal, and its spiritual rhythms are in sync with the calendar. Through the Dojo, Scandrette realized he needed to change the type of leadership he practiced to that of the rabbi: modeling, helping, and mentoring an apprentice in a way that helps him or her take on the life of Jesus.

In chapter 24, Bob Whitesel analyzes St. Thomas’ Anglican Church in Sheffield, England, specifically focusing on the impact that losing their venue had on the congregation. This church grew into the largest Anglican church in England in a fairly brief period, and Whitesel’s essay examines the nature of that growth. The church is a local ecumenical project, in this case a Baptist and Anglican church yoked together. When Mike Breen joined the church in 1993, significant changes came to the community. He created a program called Lifeshapes as well as small groups where primary discipleship happened. Groups of three to seven small groups formed clusters, and these extended families created a midsize space between the small group and the larger congregation. It is at the cluster level where most growth occurred.

In 2000, St. Tom’s moved into The Roxy nightclub. Many unchurched joined at that time. They met twice each Sunday at The Roxy and once at St. Thomas’ Crookes parish. Multiple subcongregations developed. The next year, The Roxy was condemned, and they had to find a new venue rather quickly. Seventeen cluster groups began to meet weekly all over Sheffield. After a year, they grew to thirty-five clusters with 2,500 members, most under the age of forty. Clusters developed their own culture and leadership. Eventually they created nine celebrations, all distinct, around Sheffield. They soon moved into a huge warehouse, and the numbers of meetings contracted at that point. During the church’s history, the quickest growth happened when they lost their venue, but the community continues to grow.

Kelly Bean talks in chapter 25 about her journey to starting Urban Abbey in Portland, Oregon. After raising her kids and living the American dream, she felt something was missing. After finding some like-minded souls, she moved into a poor area of Portland and started a community. She longed for a community where she did not have to make an appointment to see a friend or talk to a neighbor. It began with two couples, and later up to fifteen others joined them.

Urban Abbey became a sustainable place where cars could be shared and members’ purchases were understood to be connected to countless other people. They planted a community garden, welcomed artists, and were an intergenerational group of people who came from many different denominations and professions. They were all white, but they were willing to learn. Artists gave their public art as gifts to the neighborhood. Their art served to heal, provoke, unite. They hung out in coffee shops and made friends with all the locals. Urban Abbey became Bean’s new dream come true.

Traditions

Mark MacDonald opens part 5, Traditions, with Indigenous and Anglican, in which he shares about the effort in Canada to create a native-governed branch of the Anglican Church. The indigenous people did know misery, and many Westerners know that story. What is not so well known is the extent to which native Christian spirituality is thriving. Indigenous people are experiencing a spiritual renewal, but most