When church stops working
Dear Friends:
I want to invite you to a Webinar around this question of what do we do when the church stops working. This is not an ideas-based conversation but engaging with practical, concreate ways of engaging this quesiton in our local contexts.
For too many of us, church has stopped working. I recently interviewed Hannah Vaughan-Spruce, National Coordinator of Divine Renovation UK, on our Leaving Egypt Podcast. She observed that many priests know the church they have inherited has stopped working. They have no desire to fix this church that has shaped them over the last seventy-five years. They want to form parishes open to the ways the Spirit is calling us into places we have never been before.
Our recent webinar When Church Stops Working with Andrew Root drew a large group of leaders from around the world and across denominations. The title struck a chord. Undeniably, the church as we know it has stopped working. After the webinar, we had lots of feedback. What stands out is how much leaders want to move past analysis. They are versed in the books, webinars, data and Youtube videos that document the social, philosophical, and theological rationales for why the church (but not just the church) has stopped working.
Leaders want to lead “beyond-analysis”. They want to know how they can form communities of hope in their local contexts.
This is a time for discerning God’s agency in the places we live. The Spirit is at work where we dwell. Leaders want to figure out how to join with what God is up to right where they live. The greatest need for our moment is the formation of communities of hope shaped by this discerning. This is the vocation of the church right now.
On November 30th, The Commons Network is hosting a webinar conversation around how to move past analysis to form such communities. Join Roy Searle (UK, Northumbria Community), Al Roxburgh (The Missional Network) in conversation with Cam Roxburgh (Forge) around the question of what’s involved in forming communities of hope.
WEBINAR: Forming Communities of Hope
- Details: Thursday November 30th | 12pm (PT), 8pm (GMT)
- Registration: register for free today!
I joined the webinar with Andrew Root and found it deeply meaningful . I am suspicious however of those who are impatient to move beyond analysis, as if cogent analysis is not relevant for our situation in a time when many of us no longer find the church life giving. I wonder if Root’s analysis was really heard by participants when he spoke of the spiritual discipline of waiting on Spirit, And our customary binary of theology versus the so-called practical work of ministry isn’t more of the same old same old.