Church for Every Context. Michael Moynagh

Bliese 2006, p. 239)

      The definition slightly tightens the Fresh Expressions version – from communities that are ‘primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church’ to ones that ‘are birthed . . . mainly among people who do not normally attend church’. This is intended to give greater precision. It also raises the bar. Often congregations find it harder to work directly with people outside the church than to take action from a distance to support them, such as giving to charity. Yet pushing up the bar is necessary if we are to do full justice to the idea that church is missionary at its heart, a theme that is developed in Chapter 6.

      The stress on contextualization (often referred to as inculturation) reflects a consensus that has emerged since Vatican II among theologians across the spectrum from Roman Catholic to evangelical. These theologians agree on the importance of contextualizing theology (and by implication the church), although their understanding of what is involved frequently differs. Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder (2004) have shown how historically the church’s mission has been carried out through an ongoing interaction between theological constants (basic questions that the church has always wrestled with) and a variety of changing contexts (the historical circumstances in which the basic questions are faced). A church falls down in its missional task if its witness fails to connect with its immediate setting.

      Forming disciples is vital if new churches are to avoid being ‘froth expressions’ – consumerist expressions of church that fail to encourage an obligation to local people and a commitment to the whole church. ‘The ultimate test of any expression of church, whether a fresh expression or a more traditional one – is what quality of disciples are made there?’ (Cray, 2010c, p. 3).

      The intention to become church marks out new contextual churches from mission initiatives or projects. The aim is not for the initiative to be a stepping stone to existing church but to encourage church to emerge within it. So the luncheon club is no longer seen as a bridge to Sunday church, but as an opportunity for the Spirit to bring church to birth within or alongside the weekly lunch. A youth initiative is not viewed as a youth club, whose members also attend church on Sunday, but as a youth congregation – as church for young people.

      Frost and Hirsch have distinguished between ‘attractional’ churches that relate to the world on a ‘you come to us’ basis, and ‘incarnational’ churches that go into the surrounding context and grow new churches within it (Frost and Hirsch, 2003, pp. 41–51). The distinction is a bit sharp because there is a third – ‘engaged’ – category, which is possibly the most common type of church. ‘Engaged’ churches go into their communities in loving service, often hoping that the people they serve will be drawn into the church on Sunday (Hopkins and Breen, 2007, pp. 117–21). A project among homeless people might be set up on this basis. Many participants of course never make the journey because the gap between their everyday lives and the church is too great. Contextual churches recognize this and seek to be church in the settings of ordinary life.

      ‘New contextual churches’ describes communities within the four tributaries that meet these missional, contextual, formational and ecclesial criteria. They are types of church that should be encouraged for good theological reasons. However, when referring to specific initiatives, the label should be used with care. It may not be clear whether the initiative falls within the definition.

      Three approaches to mission by the local church

      In particular, when a community becomes church varies according to point of view. A team of Christians serving a group of people may see itself as church from the very beginning. But the people the team serves may not consider themselves to be church, and it may be a while before they view themselves in these terms. The denomination or wider institutional body will encourage the initiative as it develops, but not recognize it as a church till it appears sustainable. This of course raises questions, addressed in later chapters, about what is understood by ‘maturity’ and ‘sustainability’.

      Scope of the book

      The purpose of Church for Every Context is to introduce the theology and practice of new contextual churches, drawing on recent British experience. Various rationales for these types of church can be found, for example in Frost and Hirsch (2003), Mission-shaped Church (2004) and in the writings of Stuart Murray (for example 2004a and 2004b). But there have also been fierce criticisms, mainly by the writers referred to at the beginning of the chapter. These criticisms reveal a need to articulate a fuller theological justification – not least, of the understanding that these initiatives are church.

      Though further theological work is needed, one aim of the book is to provide this defence. The book will address a number of concerns, which will be described more fully, including:

       Do these new communities express a full view of the kingdom?

       Can they be regarded as churches?

       Do they reflect a proper understanding of the missio Dei?

       In seeking to be contextual, are they also staying faithful to the gospel?

       Can their focus on specific cultural groups be justified?

       What is their relationship to the Christian tradition?

       Are these contextual churches growing disciples with a sense of obligation to the wider church and to others in society, or are they just a form of spiritual consumerism?

       Will they prove sustainable?

       What should be their relationship to the denominations?

      A second aim is to contribute to reflection on the practice of contextual churches. The church planting literature, most of which comes from North America, contains a great deal of wisdom. Yet much of it arises from the experience of church planting among existing, but disillusioned churchgoers or among recent church-leavers. In many parts of the global North, such people are a rapidly shrinking proportion of the population. The Church faces a new mission context, in which steadily more people have little or no Christian background.

      A number of observers, such as Brian McLaren (2009, p. 17), have claimed that by supporting fresh expressions of church, Britain’s denominations are ahead of the rest of the global North in addressing this situation. To many of us in the UK, however, it looks as if we have much to learn from other countries. As part of this mutual learning, there may be lessons from British experience that are worth not only debating in the UK but sharing more widely.

      An outline of the book

      Church for Every Context argues that as part of recent theology’s turn to the church, we should affirm the God-given role of the church as a visible community in all the contexts of life, that methodologies for practising this are beginning to emerge and that the denominations should make new contextual church a priority. The book is in four parts. The first puts new contextual churches into a historical and contemporary context. It shows how the church reproduced in the New Testament, how it has regularly done so since, how in Britain (as in other countries) it is learning to reproduce in fresh ways today and why these new forms of reproduction are sociologically significant.

      Against this background, Part 2 offers some theological foundations for contextual church. Chapter 5 asks whether these communities can be properly called church: what is the essential nature of the church and how might we understand maturity in