Clergy focus on emerging questions
Clergy are often seen as the “answer” people for churches, so it may seem a little odd to say that our diocesan clergy spent a whole afternoon at their annual conference generating question after question.
But, after all, the theme of the conference was “No Longer Business as Usual.”
Those questions had to do with how we have gone about the business of being the Church and how we might be called to do it better in the future. The challenge is that we are in a time of great change.
How do we do evangelism in a way that works for us? What are the questions we ought to be asking about administration? How do we keep our buildings from becoming idols? Those were just a few of the many questions that filled newsprint and began some conversations that will continue.
A catalyst for the questions and the conversation was “The Great Emergence,” a book by Episcopal author Phyllis Tickle, that looks at the changes and shifts in today’s church and puts them in a historical context. Tickle, perhaps best known for many books that help us pray the daily office, has produced an informative and provocative little book in “The Great Emergence.”
She points out that about every 500 years, there is a major shift in the church – a course correction of sorts – or a giant “rummage sale” where we get rid of a few things. Perhaps the most familiar and recent of those shifts was the Protestant reformation of the 16th Century.
The place where we find ourselves now is one of those times, she says. Perhaps we’ve seen some of the signs. One is a shift in influence. Churches do not seem to have the cultural “clout” that they once did. Fewer people are involving themselves in the lives of churches and often describe themselves as more spiritual than religious.
We have a seen membership losses in most of the Protestant churches (including our own) and many theorize that the Roman Catholic church in the US would show more of a loss if it were not for a growing immigrant population.
Tickle’s book is not a “how to” book. It’s more of a way to understand what is going on around us. She describes a shifting sense of identity among churches that makes it harder to define or describe each one’s style. For instance, churches once could describe themselves with words like liturgical or conservative, or social justice or renewalist. Now it isn’t so clear-cut. Many who have called themselves conservative have a new interest in liturgy. A liturgical church could be interested in social justice or charismatic renewal. And so it goes.
There is, Tickle says, a coming together into what she calls a “gathering center” – a place where many interests and styles converge. That doesn’t mean that we cease being who we are or give up our tradition. What it does ,mean, I think, is that we have a new appreciation for some parts of the Christian tradition that haven’t been on our radar. Some new doors and windows seem to be open across the world of Christianity.
But it also means that we have some new ideas to chew on; some new cultural learning to absorb; some new work to do on our own identity and gifts. And lots more questions to ask.
Perhaps the challenge is to move ahead with some creativity we have not called on before – some ways of embracing and sharing our faith.
One of the parts of our conference that I enjoyed the most was an evening when three of our priests talked about some new energy and efforts in their congregations. One was a serious commitment to feed the hungry in a low-income neighborhood. Another was a series of creative liturgies that drew both Episcopalians and the unchurched. The third was a range of solid and engaging adult formation groups offered every week and drawing a steady crowd.
None of these churches is large, but each is finding its way in changing times. They’ve started to saw away at the great big list of questions on the newsprint, and the rest of us will, too. What kinds of questions are being asked at your church?
