Liquid Church
I just read Liquid Church by Pete Ward and it is so descriptive of NCC--both who we are and who we aspire to be.
I love the reformers motto "Ecclesia semper reformanda est"--the church is continually in need of renewal. I think "Re" is one of my favorite words. I'd like to do a message series on that word someday. We always need to be reinventing, rediscovering, repenting, reimagining, and renewing.
Pete Ward shares some insightful thoughts. "Keeping the run of an event short is an essential part of making it special." I think our generation has a short attention span so we do shorter series. And we try to constantly reintroduce new events so that people don't start "going through the motions." I'm a big believer in Isaiah 43:18-19. "Forget the former things: do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!"
I think one of the greatest mistakes of the modern church is thinking of church as a noun--someplace you go. Church is a verb--it is something we are and something we do. We desperately need a postmodern ecclesiology that appreciates and celebrates the organic and chaordic nature of the church.
I think alot of churches suffer from cultural inflation. The culture changes, but the church doesn't change it's methodology so it becomes irrelevant at the rate of change. To stand still is to fall behind.
A liquid church is not "anti-structure." But it s a recognition that structure isn't what makes it what it is--it is the substance inside the container. We need to be liquid, but without a structural container liquid spills all over the place. I know that from personal experience!
The church isn't a centralized meeting. The church is an decentralized network of relational connections. If you were to map NCC it wouldn't be limited to two movie theaters @ two metro stops (Ballston and Union Station). Rather it is the relational networks of the 750 NCCers who consider NCC their church home.
I think one of the profound insights in Liquid Church is a study of religion done by Grace Davie. "Most people appear to express their religious preferences by staying away from church rather than attending." What a sad commentary on the culture and the church.
A few cultural phenomenons are described in the book that give some insight into how the church should respond. The first phenomenon is a shift from a "spirituality of dwelling" to a "spirtuality of seeking."
Another shift is from a need-orientation to a desire-orientation. It is assumed that everyone has spiritual desire and the church should be designed around those desires. Pete Ward says, "People want a real and profound experience of God. Solid church has made the mistake of underestimating the desire for authentic spiritual expression. In an attempt to connect with people and be relevant it has played down some of the more challenging and extreme aspects of the Christian life. Liquid church would try to reverse this process." I've often said that we are "seeker-targeted" but that doesn't mean we dumb-down or water-down the gospel. We need to provide a high-octane experience where people can encounter God.
I also like the shift from health to fitness. "Health is located in solid modernity and is based on conforming to basic norms, rules, and standardized expectations. Fitness in contrast is an openness to the unexpected--a readiness for what life may throw at you." I like the concept of fitness because it fits our core values--expect the unexpected.
I love the reformers motto "Ecclesia semper reformanda est"--the church is continually in need of renewal. I think "Re" is one of my favorite words. I'd like to do a message series on that word someday. We always need to be reinventing, rediscovering, repenting, reimagining, and renewing.
Pete Ward shares some insightful thoughts. "Keeping the run of an event short is an essential part of making it special." I think our generation has a short attention span so we do shorter series. And we try to constantly reintroduce new events so that people don't start "going through the motions." I'm a big believer in Isaiah 43:18-19. "Forget the former things: do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!"
I think one of the greatest mistakes of the modern church is thinking of church as a noun--someplace you go. Church is a verb--it is something we are and something we do. We desperately need a postmodern ecclesiology that appreciates and celebrates the organic and chaordic nature of the church.
I think alot of churches suffer from cultural inflation. The culture changes, but the church doesn't change it's methodology so it becomes irrelevant at the rate of change. To stand still is to fall behind.
A liquid church is not "anti-structure." But it s a recognition that structure isn't what makes it what it is--it is the substance inside the container. We need to be liquid, but without a structural container liquid spills all over the place. I know that from personal experience!
The church isn't a centralized meeting. The church is an decentralized network of relational connections. If you were to map NCC it wouldn't be limited to two movie theaters @ two metro stops (Ballston and Union Station). Rather it is the relational networks of the 750 NCCers who consider NCC their church home.
I think one of the profound insights in Liquid Church is a study of religion done by Grace Davie. "Most people appear to express their religious preferences by staying away from church rather than attending." What a sad commentary on the culture and the church.
A few cultural phenomenons are described in the book that give some insight into how the church should respond. The first phenomenon is a shift from a "spirituality of dwelling" to a "spirtuality of seeking."
Another shift is from a need-orientation to a desire-orientation. It is assumed that everyone has spiritual desire and the church should be designed around those desires. Pete Ward says, "People want a real and profound experience of God. Solid church has made the mistake of underestimating the desire for authentic spiritual expression. In an attempt to connect with people and be relevant it has played down some of the more challenging and extreme aspects of the Christian life. Liquid church would try to reverse this process." I've often said that we are "seeker-targeted" but that doesn't mean we dumb-down or water-down the gospel. We need to provide a high-octane experience where people can encounter God.
I also like the shift from health to fitness. "Health is located in solid modernity and is based on conforming to basic norms, rules, and standardized expectations. Fitness in contrast is an openness to the unexpected--a readiness for what life may throw at you." I like the concept of fitness because it fits our core values--expect the unexpected.
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