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Evangelism in a
Spiritual Age: Communicating Faith in a Changing Culture
Stephen Croft (Ed) and
others
London: Church House Publishing, 2005
The
book has 6 authors. The first part of the book consists of three chapters and
tells us about the research of the Church of England in Coventry, investigating
the spiritual search of people today. The second part contains comments and
reflections on the research findings. It contains four chapters.
Chapter 1: A spiritual
snapshot, by Yvonne Richmond.
Richmond grew up as a conservative
evangelical
but encounters with ten non-church people over a dense period of ten weeks
changed her attitude. Holding back proclamation she began to look for signs of
God’s work in these people’s lives. “This led me to enquire about these people’s
experiences and belief in God as if they already knew him, and they willingly
spoke about these in conversations of mutual sharing and respect. It soon became
clear that each person had a latent or implicit belief in God of some shape or
form, which was based more upon his or her spiritual experiences than upon
inherited Christianity. They readily related these experiences, which varied
enormously from moments of awe, or awareness of divine providence, to
apparitions and supposed conversations with loved ones beyond the grave.”
Based
on these ten encounters Yvonne Richmond initiated the research study “Beyond
the fringe”, aimed at neither the diehard atheists nor the diehard Christians.
The research interviewed in depth 63 people who had no church affiliation.
Chapter 2: Beyond the
fringe? by Nick Spencer.
He
relates the research findings focussing on people’s thoughts about the “big
questions” they all appeared to have. The “big questions” fall in six
categories [p 17ff]:
·
Destiny: What happens
after we die? Where, if anywhere are we going?
The answers ranged from ‘nothing’ to some
existence after death, mostly a vague, spiritual, peaceful, non judgmental
afterlife in which one was reunited with friends and loved ones. For reasons unclear, the body would be
jettisoned, unneeded and the soul would soar. The concept of resurrection was
largely absent.
·
Purpose: What is the point
of life? What values should I live by? Whose life and values might I take as an
example to inspire me?
There were, broadly speaking, two
distinct ways to understand the purpose of life. The first was to see life’s
purpose as to ‘self-actualise’, to get the most out of life or to fulfil our
potential. The second form of purpose became clearest in the naming of heroes:
parents, relatives, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Gandhi
and Jesus who all were self-sacrificial, giving their time, money, energy,
hope, even their life for other people or for principles. The tension between
these two forms of purpose was not easily reconciled.
·
The universe: How did it
start? Is it designed? Is it planned? Is it controlled in any way?
Overall, the universe was seen as
awe-inspiring, somehow created but unclear in what way, ordered by evolution
and natural laws. The respondents felt personally involved in the questions
about planning and control. Some displayed fatalistic and deterministic attitudes,
fortune or bad luck. Others did not see any planning at all, emphasising the
free will of human beings or the amount of suffering in the world defying all
logic.
·
God: Does he/it
exist? If so, what is he /it like? (Is God a ‘he’ or an ‘it’, for example?)
What, if any, viable relationship could there be between God and human beings?
A small minority of respondents dismissed
the idea of God entirely as made up for reasons of self-assurance or as a
primitive scientific theory. Others tended to disbelief without an outright
denial (Man with a big beard sitting on a cloud! Or: no help or personal sign
from a supposedly Saviour God!). Most believed, at least some of the time, in a
higher power, abstract and cosmic. Words like energy, spirit, force and love
were popular. Relationship with such a God was problematic. On the one hand,
God was too big, complex and abstract to be interested in humans. On the other
hand, it was considered ‘natural’ for God to bother about human beings. That is
what God is like. For fear of being ridiculed, respondents were by and large
very reluctant to admit to such a non-demonstrable belief.
·
Spiritual realm: Is there a
spiritual realm? What form does it take? Does it have any relevance to me and
my life?
The precise meaning of ‘spiritual’ was
often unclear, but was commonly interpreted as something like ‘supernatural’.
Two groups of ‘spiritual’ experience emerged. The first group was commonly
dismissed, unless the respondent or a reliable friend had experienced it
themselves. Trances, premonitions, visions, and out-of-body experiences fell
into this category, as did horoscopes. The second was a disparate group,
including ghosts, miracles and angels, which respondents seemed more engaged
with and interested in. They saw ghosts as souls that were yet to find rest and
angels as good people who had died and had a role in watching over you.
Miracles had to do with being extremely lucky (e.g. people surviving a
collapsed building) or wondrous and awe-inspiring (e.g. the human brain, life
or ‘my kids’).
·
Why is there so
much suffering in the world?
What national and international issues
particularly concern me? What can be done about them?
Overall, respondents had a powerful sense
that something was wrong in the world. More than asking metaphysical questions
they embarked on discussions about real, personal, social and international
problems. Specific problems of suffering had specific causes, whether they be
global capitalism, liberal do-gooders or religious fanatics.
Chapter 3: Attitudes to
Christianity and the Church, by Nick Spencer
This
chapter focuses on four areas in particular:
·
Jesus: Who is/was he? What relevance does he
have to the modern world?
The general opinion of Jesus was that he
was a great teacher, a wise and charismatic person, a prophet, an influential
man - but not God.
·
The Bible: What is it? How reliable is it? How
relevant is it?
The level of biblical knowledge was, not
surprisingly, very low. The Bible itself was understood in three distinct ways.
It was an advice or rule book of some kind, a biography or history book
(depending on whether you thought it was about Jesus or a bigger picture), or
‘just’ a story book, a term usually used to undermine its veracity. None
revered it as Holy Scripture or as inspired.
·
Heaven and hell: How real, relevant and
meaningful are they?
Overall, the paucity of credible visions
made believing in heaven difficult, although there was, not surprisingly, a
wistful desire to believe. Hell was less popular. The idea of categorizing or
judging people was anathema.
·
The Church: what opinions of it do people have?
What impact has it on their lives?
The very idea of meeting together in a
church on a weekly basis was peculiar and unnecessary. The form, style and
‘language’ of the Church’s ‘answers’ - its style, tone, worship, format -
failed to make contact with where people were or with what they wanted. In
among the usual criticisms of church being boring, irrelevant, unfriendly,
intimidating and inflexible (many of which it should be noted, were fed by a
general anti-ecclesiastical atmosphere rather than personal experience), there
was a sense of the right connection not being made.
Chapter 4 Reflections,
by Anne Richards
p
58 “When people ask big questions about origin, purpose and ending, it
indicates that they are thinking beyond themselves, trying to make connections
and trying to make sense of everything around. [...] This wondering seeks to
uncover a sense-making structure in which people see themselves as significant
in some way against the background of their local, global and cosmic
environment. They can’t help looking for the signals of transcendence.”
According
to Anne Richards, Christians [evangelists] cannot afford to neglect the overt
expressions of people’s spirituality. But the way to do so cannot be the way of
knowing all the answers “in dressed-up humble looking arrogance” [quote from
one of the interviews].
p
60-61 “We have to equip people for their onward journey in faith. It can be
deeply disabling for a person to turn to the Christian faith only to find that
they must disown important parts of how they got there. [...] So before we
share God’s truth with others, we might pause to consider what God is asking
us. We need to allow ourselves to be questioned and to be open to being
disturbed if we are going to be a transformed people who are able to dialogue
with others.”
p69
“Often clergy and laity alike are so weighed down with jobs and
responsibilities that it becomes impossible to wait long enough to see and hear
what God is already doing in people’s lives. [...] Often your colleagues and
parishioners are your own worst enemies, utterly aghast if you give up opening
the fête or lay aside running the Lent course. After all, what’s the point of
evangelism if you haven’t got a happy, healthy church for people to come into?”
Chapter 5 The local
church perspective, by Mark Ireland
The
aim of this chapter is to suggest practical ways in which local churches can
apply the findings of the Coventry research in the usual activities of their
church communities. Mark Ireland has suggestions for worship (from performance
to encounter), evangelism (accompaniment), church buildings (how can we help
tourists to become pilgrims), leaflets and notice boards ( not just
information, make them attractive in terms of spirituality), funerals, baptisms
and weddings (start with the people, not the service book), courses (make them
shorter, 5-6 sessions, than the 15 sessions of e.g Alpha and tastier:
‘discovering prayer’, ‘life’s big questions’) etc.
p
97 “To move from being a church for the churched to being a church for the
unchurched may be a step that is too big for many existing church members to
cope with. In which case, the way forward may not be to try to make new
believers fit the traditional Sunday church, but to create fresh expressions of
church around the new believers.”
Chapter 6 Evangelism
beyond the fringes, by Rob Frost
The
subtitles of this chapter are:
·
The hesitant evangelist (from exploring biblical
truth to exploring the Christian experience)
·
The context for our mission (‘What is it/life
all about?’, the many expressions of the hunger of meaning, including the
trance of ‘raving’.)
·
Reviewing the New Age scene (the awakening of
the Higher Self is the goal of human life.)
·
Developing a Christian Eco-spirituality (a
vision to save creation as well as to celebrate the creator)
·
Offering Christian healing (A team of Christians
from the medical professions at the Birmingham Healing Centre, based at St
Martin’s in the Bullring, offer free advice and help with prayer and worship as
an integral part of the ministry. Many other examples)
·
Providing sacred space (even in unlikely places,
as nightclubs, to pause and to encounter the presence of God)
·
Offering Christian spirituality (as an authentic
alternative to the many other styles on offer. The course Essence about
discovery and believing.)
Chapter 7 Transforming
evangelism, by Steven Croft
·
More spiritual - less religious (There is a
growing interest in spirituality and a declining interest in structured
religion which demands conformity to particular cultural patterns.)
·
The 40/60 challenge (40% of the population are
within reach of the churches as they are presently constituted.)
·
Learning to listen - Three levels:
o
I listen in order to gain the right to speak.
o
I listen to tailor my message to what you say.
o
I listen in order to learn from your wisdom and
insight.
·
Learning to speak (a different tone, engaging
with the questions people are actually asking in the cultural forms they are
asking them.)
·
Sharing life together (different communities of
disciples for different contexts, e.g. of those who come to faith or a
community that is a mission team
p
146 “It is difficult, if not impossible, for the traditional church itself to
adapt and change its own culture to be acceptable to those beyond its reach. To
do so would mean it could no longer serve its present congregation. As our
wider culture becomes more diverse so embracing everyone within a single
framework becomes more and more difficult. But it is entirely possible for the
gospel to be planted and established within a new culture in a different shape
but in the same place. This new form of church may look very different from the
community from which it came. The new evangelism to those beyond the fringe
must lead in time to fresh expressions of community that grow, in time, into
fresh expressions of church life.”