George Barna has a new book out, Revolutionary, and gives an interview: A Faith Revolution Is Redefining “Church,” According to New Study. In it he describes new developments in individual Christian spirituality and personal relationship to a local church. There are very, very disturbing trends, to be sure. But there is at least one incredibly significant positive.
“These are people who are less interested in attending church than in being the church,” [George Barna] explained. “We found that there is a significant distinction in the minds of many people between the local church – with a small ‘c’ – and the universal Church – with a capital ‘C’. Revolutionaries tend to be more focused on being the Church, capital C, whether they participate in a congregational church or not.”
It's no secret that an external emphasis on doing certain practices and faithful attendance is endemic among all Christian groups, east and west. There's no need for Orthodox to bash on Protestants and Catholics for a "juridical" mindset that focuses on external compliance. Orthodox can fall as easily into that trap as anyone else. After all Galatians and Ephesians were written to Orthodox Christians. (You get the point.) And insofar as these so-called "revolutionaries" are moving toward an emphasis on the internal aspects of the faith, this is a good thing. The fact that they are looking beyond denominational borders and looking for more catholicity is a good thing.
But these goods are not unmixed. The internal can become a quest for ever-greater emotional highs and "spiritual feelings." And this exodus from the local church for an amorphous "catholicity" not only misunderstands biblical and apostolic catholicity, but betrays a Gnostic conception of the Church.
“A common misconception about revolutionaries,” he continued, “is that they are disengaging from God when they leave a local church. We found that while some people leave the local church and fall away from God altogether, there is a much larger segment of Americans who are currently leaving churches precisely because they want more of God in their life but cannot get what they need from a local church. They have decided to get serious about their faith by piecing together a more robust faith experience. Instead of going to church, they have chosen to be the Church, in a way that harkens back to the Church detailed in the Book of Acts.”
Unfortunately, one cannot be the Church apart from the local body. That is the fatal misunderstanding to this new quest. This disembodied, need-meeting "church" is hardly the Church detailed in the book of Acts.
Using survey data and other cultural indicators he has been measuring for more than two decades, Barna estimates that the local church is presently the primary form of faith experience and expression for about two-thirds of the nation’s adults. He projects that by 2025 the local church will lose roughly half of its current “market share” and that alternative forms of faith experience and expression will pick up the slack. Importantly, Barna’s studies do not suggest that most people will drop out of a local church to simply ignore spirituality or be freed up from the demands of church life. Although there will be millions of people who abandon the entire faith community for the usual reasons – hurtful experiences in churches, lack of interest in spiritual matters, prioritizing other dimensions of their life – a growing percentage of church dropouts will be those who leave a local church in order to intentionally increase their focus on faith and to relate to God through different means.That growth is fueling alternative forms of organized spirituality, as well as individualized faith experience and expression. Examples of these new approaches include involvement in a house church, participation in marketplace ministries, use of the Internet to satisfy various faith-related needs or interests, and the development of unique and intense connections with other people who are deeply committed to their pursuit of God.
Most of which is disincarnate ecclesiology, or the Gnostic version of Church, a church without a body, that's focused on me and my needs and what I want to be doing.
[Barna] suggested that most Revolutionaries go through predictable phases in their spiritual journey in which they initially become dissatisfied with their local church experience, then attempt to change things so their faith walk can be more fruitful. The result is that they undergo heightened frustration over the inability to introduce positive change, which leads them to drop out of the local church altogether, often in anger. But because this entire adventure was instigated by their love for God and their desire to honor Him more fully, they finally transcend their frustration and anger by creating a series of connections that allow them to stay close to God and other believers without involvement in a local church.
Schisms have always been generated by the schismatic's "love for God and other believers"--but it is a love that is not fueled by the Spirit but by agendas and self-interest. The Donatists loved God and his Church so much they were willing to split it in half. Be wary of those so passionate for God and others that they abandon the place where God and others congregate.
“It would be wrong to assume that all Revolutionaries have completely turned their back on the local church,” [Barna] stated. “Millions of Revolutionaries are active in a local church, although most of them supplement that relationship with participation in a variety of faith-related efforts that have nothing to do with their local church. The defining attribute of a Revolutionary is not whether they attend church, but whether they place God first in their lives and are willing to do whatever it takes to facilitate a deeper and growing relationship with Him and other believers. Our studies persuasively indicate that the vast majority of American churches are populated by people who are lukewarm spiritually. Emerging from those churches are people dedicated to becoming Christ-like through the guidance of a congregational form of the church, but who will leave that faith center if it does not further such a commitment to God. They then find or create alternatives that allow that commitment to flourish.”
The "revolutionaries'" demand: Make me Christ like or I'm leaving. Where is the stability? Where is the patience to work and to toil at the life of faith?
How do most Revolutionaries justify calling themselves devoted disciples of Christ while distancing themselves from a local church? “Many of them realize that someday they will stand before a holy God who will examine their devotion to Him. They could take the safe and easy route of staying in a local church and doing the expected programs and practices, but they also recognize that they will not be able to use a lackluster church experience as an excuse for a mediocre or unfulfilled spiritual life. Their spiritual depth is not the responsibility of a local church; it is their own responsibility. As a result, they decide to either get into a local church that enhances their zeal for God or else they create alternatives that ignite such a life of obedience and service. In essence, these are people who have stopped going to church so they can be the Church.”
These folks will have to learn that we will not be judged on the quality of our spiritual life, whether we are mediocre or have been unfulfilled. We will be called to answer whether or not we've built one another up in love. One doesn't build up his fellow believers by abandonig them on the selfish quixotic quest of self-actualization.
Of course, I could add the Orthodox dig that they should leave their Protestant churches to find the fullness of the faith in the Orthodox Church. But if they don't learn patience and stability in their own congregations, they are not likely to become Orthodox for any of the right reasons.
Posted by Clifton at October 13, 2005 11:02 AM | TrackBack