Church for Every Context. Michael Moynagh

      Some had intended to leave but the initial fragility of the ‘fresh expression’ had meant that they had waited to see what would happen. Once they discovered that they could do both, much to their surprise, several actually felt more integrated into the parish system now that their sense of church wasn’t limited to it (Nelstrop, 2008, p. 101).

      What will happen where communities in everyday contexts, perhaps including people from different denominations, have weaker connections to a local church? Might this be where collaboration between churches becomes crucial? Might ‘coalitions of the willing’ provide prayer retreats, study days and the like to help new believers grow in the faith?

      What seems to be emerging is a reconfiguration of church into ‘temples’, ‘synagogues’ and ‘tents’. ‘Temples’ are where individuals connect with the whole body of Christ – conferences, retreats, celebrations, pilgrimages, websites and much else. Like Jesus, believers go up to the ‘temple’ from time to time. ‘Synagogues’ are the conventional local church, where worshippers are nourished in Scripture and the Christian tradition. Again like Jesus, believers attend ‘synagogue’ regularly. These local churches may continue to multiply through fresh expressions.

      ‘Tents’ are church in life – small worshipping communities that concentrate on practical discipleship by serving their contexts and drawing others into the faith. Some may not have a long existence because of changing circumstances, but be fruitful for a period. This transience perhaps resonates with the tents the Israelites inhabited as they moved through Sinai.

      If this sort of pattern emerges, it will not be a rehash of the church growth cell–congregation–celebration model. It will be more fluid (‘tents’ will come and go) and the boundaries between the components will overlap. A large local church may in some respects double up as ‘synagogue’ and ‘temple’. Whereas church growth theorists linked cell and congregation closely together, the ties between ‘tents’ and ‘synagogues’ could be looser – members of a ‘tent’ may attend different ‘synagogues’. Central direction in the whole will be weaker and there will be a stronger emergent feel.

      Downward causation

      This possible configuration of church suggests a fifth characteristic of the emerging attractor. In today’s network culture, church will increasingly be characterized by criss-crossing ties. Not least, ‘corridors’ will intersect with regional FEASTs and local ‘coalitions of the willing’. As is already happening, networks of churches will encourage considerable movement – members leaving one gathering and joining another, for example – as individuals and groups access networks and travel along them.

      Emergence theorists believe that when new levels of organization come into being, they exert ‘downward causation’ on the levels below them (Goldstein, Hazy and Silberstang, 2008, p. 105). If church reorganizes along mixed-economy lines, corridors of founders and other new forms of organization will change behaviour throughout the church. Already we are seeing hints of this. One person commented about her local church, ‘Introducing fresh expressions two years ago has really changed us.’

      Recombination/self-organization may involve

       the mixed economy;

       corridors – networks of fresh expressions that clear space for new churches within the denominations;

       regional and local cooperation, such as FEASTS and ‘coalitions of the willing’;

       ‘temples’, ‘synagogues’ and ‘tents’;

       downward causation – new levels of organization change the levels below.

      Stabilization

      A fourth component of the Lichtenstein/Plowman model is stabilization. The more that leaders and members of a system adapt to local constraints, the easier they find it to stabilize the emergent order (Lichtenstein and Plowman, 2009, p. 625). Sensitivity to social rules and values shapes novelties ‘in a way consistent with the system’s accumulated history and learning, preserving the system’s identity and core behavioural patterns’ (Chiles, Myers and Hench, 2004, p. 502). Innovations get clothed in the familiar, which makes other people more willing to learn from them and reduces resistance.

      Adapting to the denomination

      Fresh expressions of church have sought to adapt to local constraints in two directions. One has been the denomination. An example was the Methodist Church’s embrace of the Fresh Expressions initiative, which appealed to evangelical Methodists’ commitment to evangelism and to Methodists’ strong commitment to ecumenism. Ticking both boxes greatly helped the church to get on board. Within the Church of England, Archbishop Rowan has connected emerging church to the parochial system by suggesting that ‘both assume that the Church must show itself credible by being where people are, literally and culturally’ (Williams, 2006, p. 54). He has linked fresh expressions to the Anglo-Catholic tradition, noting that ‘catholic’ is ‘that dimension of the Christian life which is concerned with speaking the whole truth to the whole person’ (Williams, 2009, p. 1).

      The suggestion – by the Fresh Expressions team and others – that these new communities will often start with listening, followed by loving and serving, potentially resonates with traditions that emphasize the social responsibilities of the church. The parallel emphasis on evangelism strikes a chord with evangelicals.

      In addition, new contextual churches are recovering inherited traditions and ‘remixing’ them with contemporary cultural trends, such as the use of visual images and symbols from the tradition. The spread of ‘new monasticism’ is giving an impetus to this. Growth into the tradition often happens in surprising ways. A London-based ‘heavy metal’ gathering, for example, shares in some of the activities of its neighbouring Anglo-Catholic church.

      Explicitly connecting with the tradition is helping new contextual churches to make their home in the body. At the same time, the denominations are finding ways to recognize them and help them be accountable. This is happening reflexively. As fresh expressions are drawn into a denomination’s culture, they model different ways of being church. For growing numbers of worshippers, the pattern of church life ceases to be a given and becomes a matter of intent. As individuals look again at what it means to be church, attitudes become more flexible, making it easier for the denomination to welcome the new.

      Adapting to the context

      In using emergence theory to recount the history of musical theatres in Branson, Missouri, Chiles, Myers and Hench note that key aspects of local culture shaped how the theatres were developed, helping the town to retain its unique character and the theatres to gain support (2004, pp. 512–3). This is a good example of contextualization, which is the second way new contextual churches have sought to adapt to local constraints.

      Negotiating these two sites of stability – the church context and the local context – can prove a considerable challenge. Yet a growing number of contextual churches are doing this successfully, despite some of the heartaches involved (see, for instance, www.freshexpressions.org.uk/stories). In so doing, these new communities are finding a place within the values of their sponsoring local church (or group of churches) and through this within the ethos of the denomination.

      Some people see this as the inherited church domesticating what is new, blunting the latter’s radical edge (Rollins, 2008, pp. 71–7). Were this to happen, it would represent – in the language of complexity theory – the triumph of the old attractor.