Jean Williams writes of her own experience and also commends the concept of ‘church invaders’, Christians who consciously seek fellowship and ministry with people who aren’t like them.
The only reservation I have about the article are her reservations.
If your exclusive fellowship is with people who you’d be comfortable hanging out with even if you weren’t Christians, (people similar to yourself), what difference is the Gospel making?
An excerpt:
It’s easy to spend your entire life going to church with people just like you. Many of us start out in our parent’s church: a place, perhaps, with lots of other kids and teenagers. We graduate to a university church (that’s what my husband and I did), to a worker’s service, to a family service (ditto), to a congregation full of empty-nesters and, finally, retirees. It’s not so simple for those who are single, childless, or divorced; but that’s how it works a lot of the time. Even churches with mixed-age congregations find they tend to become homogeneous: for example, families with young children often attend church in the morning, while young adults go in the evening.2
Then there are the ‘church invaders’, people who make a deliberate decision to go to church with people who aren’t like them. I’ve met some of them: an energetic lady in her 60s who goes along to the youth service so she can show an interest in young people. A woman in her early 20s who attends a church where she’s the only person under 40, because she believes older and younger Christians need each other. A childless woman great at relating to kids, who gives her time to reaching out to children and their parents. A couple with older children who feel a little out of place in a congregation full of younger families, but who go to provide encouragement, support and wisdom.
So what is it like, crossing the frontiers?
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The most recent attempt that I know of to build a “university church” within a parish of my state’s largest Presbyterian denomination ended in disaster. Deliberately establishing a congregation on the homogeneous principle does not fit with our polity and IMHO it verges on being sub-gospel to boot. In the case of a university church, a real concern is, where will the “elders” come from? Will the church really be co-led by young acolytes of the guru-church-planter, “trainees” more often than set-apart, qualified elders?
Your (rhetorical) question is a little outside of the scope of this post.
Many church plants have foundered for a variety of reasons, but putting a large emphasis on the person of the planting pastor is a recurring theme.
I share your concerns about HUP churches that don’t see themselves preparing and directing their members to life in non-UP (normal) church situations.
They have a place, but it is a transitory one.
Thanks Gary – I should have said also above that Jean Williams is an excellent and thoughtful Christian writer and it’s always a pleasure to see her work anywhere.
Indeed.
The Briefing’s had a good run this week.
Sandy Grant’s post today about tweeting during preaching is a cracker.