A Restoration Movement too far?
Most of us that have grown up in a protestant background have learned our history of the restoration / reformation movement. Both were very necessary. As I mentioned yesterday, the heirarchical clergy-driven all-roads-lead-to-Rome model is completely out of whack – missing the missional aspect of Christianity.
However, like a pendulum, we as humans tend to take things too far. I wish I had a penny for every time I have heard the phrase “we want to be like the first century church.” I’d be rich and paying-off church buildings left and right. While the premise is fine, the practice has typically gone to the extreme. In my more haughty moments, I have usually come back with “which first century church do you want to be like? Corinth? Pergamum?”
Here’s the deal. If our goal of “being like the first century church” is to be missional, seek God’s guidance, and communicate the gospel in its simplicity, count me in. My fear is that, like everything else humans do, we take it too far. Consider some convicting quotes below:
“The (missional church) will be radical in its attempts to embrace biblical mandates for the life of locally based faith communities without feeling as though it has to reconstruct the first-century church in every detail.” Frost & Hirsch – The Shaping of Things to Come
“I believe church must change. The church is not trend-driven; it is God’s family and lives by other rules. But it is also a cultural and social institution, rooted in a given place and time. If we have any concern for the rising generations – and for those who will follow them – we must look with urgency to the future to shape our church.” Gerard Kelly – RetroFuture
And perhaps, most telling…
“Every denomination and religious organization I have worked with does long-range planning. Ironically, they do long-range planning as though the future will simply be an extension of the present…As a result, we are chronically surprised by change. In the future, we can no longer afford this luxury.” Tom Sine – Wild Hope
Been there? Done that? Have you been involved with a church that does long-range planning only assuming those things we have seen to-date? Assuming that every year will be an extension of the past year? Is it any wonder some of our congregations simply bumble along, relishing in the baptism numbers that are primarily reflective of the members kids getting baptized? Is it any surprise that most of our urban churches tout thier growth numbers that, if all is really told, are driven 80%-90% by christians moving from one congregation to the next?
The danger I see in many churches is that most gravitate to the focus of being like the first century church, and spend every day wishing tomorrow will be yesterday. This is dangerous ground – and most importantly, it is not a missional mindset (even though the first century church was extremely missional). Holding to that notion too strongly assumes the first-century church was perfection. In fact, most who hold to this line of thought assume that there was the first century church, and we have spent every day since then trying to get back to what it was. Well, here’s the news flash… it wasn’t perfect. In fact, it was filled with lawsuits, incest, false teachers, apathy, and arguments – and those are only a few of the problems that scripture actually mentions.
Where is the healthy medium? Personally, I feel that we must chase after the first century church’s sense of community and pursuit of a holy lifestyle and Christ-centeredness. Outside of that, I think we have a lot of latitude to adapt to culture in an attempt to be missional – and to get the unchanging truth to an always-changing world.
The final downside of too much “we have to be like the first century church” thinking is that we simply cannot change – which is about as non-biblical a concept as there could be. The reality is that we are called to be the incarnation of Christ in a 21st century world. The message has not changed – but the methods must. If not, we will continue our “Field of Dreams” mentality; and we will continue to assume that those who stay in the world have made a conscious decision to do so until they happen to stumble into one of our buildings at the next appointed time. Maybe the real first century concept we need to harness is the fact that Jesus began the great commission with the word “Go.”
At this point, the people of the 21st century in America are very accustomed to driving past hundreds of church buildings without giving much notice. It is only when they experience Christ from one of us that they will really “see” the church.
-MH
