latest edition of emergingchurch.info is online. there’s a long interview with lowell sheppard, a very good friend from yfc days, who now lives in japan. he talks about the non-church movement there which is fascinating on the challenge of contextualising the gospel. and is then invited to offer some reflections on the emerging church. it’s well worth a read. you need to read the whole piece on the non church movement but a couple of quotes on emerging church…
Well, we perhaps need to work harder at de-clothing ourselves of the Christian sub-culture baggage we carry and approach scripture from a point of view of exploration, seeking insights as to how we can live our lives in a world God made for his pleasure. It seems to me it is much more authentic mission to live our lives in a celebratory fashion, rather than seeking to persuade and coerce others to ‘sign’ on the dotted line of our particular tradition or doctrinal statement…
…The discussions (about emerging church in the west) can appear to be a dialogue with fellow discontents, many of whom work for Christian organizations, or wish they did. The discussion sounds introspective, self indulgent and irrelevant to those who are outside. There appears to be a hunger to be HIP, cool and proficient at the use of the images and sounds of current pop culture. But I wonder whether those outside the church can ‘smell the rat’ of inherent Christian smugness. When I take the time to wade through the array of blogs and websites around the world that come up when I use the keyword emerging church, I find that most are simply the old church in new, cool clothes. North American is the most guilty, but in fact Australia is not far behind! (Yikes I will get an email or two about that one.) When I say the old church I mean a church with flawed theology that focuses on individual salvation at the expense of social enhancement, meeting based spirituality rather than organic lifestyle fueled spirituality and ultimately concerned with saving souls rather than building the kingdom…
go read…
I learned about the non church movement last fall in a class on ecclesiology with Brian McLaren. We used “AN INTRODUCTION TO ECCLESIOLOGY: ECUMENICAL, HISTORICAL & GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES” by Veli-Matti Karkkainen. It was a great book and i really enjoyed the chapter on the non-church movement. It was one of my favorites, so i look forward to reading this article. Thanx for posting this!
The true church is Jesus Christ, not just a religion or building. Japan needs to be wary about the nonchurch movement.
God bless Japan and Taiwan :).
Michael, why does Japan need to be wary about the non-church movement? When you make statements like this, you should clarify with an explanation!
This sort of missiological thinking is helpful for the Indian Culture. Certainly middle and upper class indian christians are looked down upon by other indians for a whole bunch of cultural assumptions.
That last paragraph you quote very much reflects some of my own reservations with how things are going in the EC.
I have some reflections on the Nonchurch movement in Japan. It is lay-oriented and independent in ethos and structure. Thus teachers in the movement are not trained by a central body, are not ordained, and groups frequently form, dissolve and re-form. There are no stipends paid; but members of a specific bible group pay member fees and magazine subscriptions which how teachers “earn” their pay. It is not under aegis of any existing denominations.
The movement has some indigenized features to it, but it is also strongly influenced by certain streams of US Protestantism. Uchimura Kanzo the founder studied at Amherst college in New England and was directly influenced by (and he acknowledged all this) New England Puritanism and Quaker thought. The movement is patriarchal with 60% male membership and exclusively led by male teachers.
There are positive and negative illustrations to be found in it and likewise positive and negative lessons to learn from its example.
My item on the Nonchurch movement can be read at
http://circleofpneuma.blogspot.com/2006/06/japans-nonchurch-movement.html
This “nonchurch” thing is clearly another false gospel. Individual salvation is not “flawed theology”, as stated above. God says “Ye must be born again.” (John 3:7). Salvation IS an individual thing. That is not to say that the believer, once born again (or “saved”, to use another Bible expression), should not then try his best to be good to his fellow man. But salvation is necessary in order to go to heaven, and to avoid spending eternity in the lake of fire. This is not “requiring people to sign on a dotted line”; it is vital. Futhermore, God clearly wants saved people to assemble in local Churches, so any movement called “Non Church” cannot possibly be of God.
PRAISE GOD
Thanks for the work you are doing for the body of Christ. I thank the lord for the precious gift of god to be used in serving the lord.
Sir am luganda johnbosco from gospel mission centre church , kampala , Uganda . Am the founder of youth meetings and conferences in my church , I i want to be partnership with you as we build the body of christ from the grass root in youth ministries the glory shall be given unto the lord. we have avision to move the globe in this ministry and we need your partnership as we carry the work
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Dear Pastor(s) The Fellowship and Body of Christ
This is Mark Ntanda from Missions To Africa Out-reaches.
I greet you in Jesus Name. May His Love and Protection be with you.
My writing to you, is seeking friendship with you. I am Ugandan male,
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Mark Ntanda
Missions to Africa
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