CHURCHNEXT
The Church must adapt to the challenges of the information age, argues Eddie Gibbs

TO STEAL a line from Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities", today represents "the best of times and the worst of times" as far as the church is concerned, including the evangelical section.

The Best...

On the one hand we have seen the emergence of suburban megachurches in many areas, especially in North America. There has been a steady stream of quality contemporary music coming out of the UK and Australia that tops the Christian popularity charts here and in the US.

Then there is the phenomenal success of Alpha, which has put evangelism back on the agenda of churches in many traditions. In the US it has been adopted by an estimated 5,000 churches. More recently, we have witnessed the emergence of the 'alternative church' movement, though many who are involved would drop the word, 'church', because it has become debased in the minds of those they are seeking to reach.

The Worst...

On the other hand we are witnessing the near collapse of traditional church structures, the continuing closure of long established churches, and shrinking congregations. The decline of US mainline denominations is more recent, having taken place only within the past three and half decades, but to such an extent that the term, 'mainline' is being replaced by 'old line' and 'sideline'.

Denial of the shrinkage is more widespread in the US than in the UK, due to the sheer size of the country and the complexity of the demographics as well as the fact that there are so many varieties of church vying for an increased slice of a shrinking religious pie.

Another factor for Britain, and even more true in the US, is the vibrancy of churches with members of African descent. For example, in Southern California the Hispanic and Korean churches offset the decline of churches made up of people of Anglo descent. There are an estimated 5,000 Korean churches, the largest of them drawing congregations numbered in thousands.

Among the challenges facing the Church in the West is the emergence of a post-Christendom society which has further marginalised the church. Every institution - government, business, military, education and health care, as well as the Church - is struggling to adjust to the challenges of the information age.

The result is a generation of leaders who do not know how to lead within a context of rapid and chaotic change. We were trained to map-read on well-marked roads, not navigate on stormy seas. I believe the changes are significant and irreversible - while tomorrow continues to arrive ahead of schedule, yesterday can never be revisited.

First, we need to replace hierarchical bureaucracies which no longer work (that is assuming they ever did). A rapidly changing society, and the speed at which information flows, means that our structures need to be far more decentralised than in the past. From building pyramids we have moved to generating networks. The emerging church network is one expression of this development.

Second, we need innovative ways to identify, equip and empower the next generation of leaders in the Church. Yesterday's leaders (and I include myself among that number - more accurately I am the day before yesterday!) need to step aside and encourage a new generation of leaders. In doing so we will find ourselves warmly welcomed as mentors. But that requires renouncing control. The classical theological disciplines will need to be taught from a mission perspective, engaging current issues from the ancient texts.

We also need a new delivery system to make training more affordable and available in the local context, where adults can learn on a need to know basis and at a pace which allows them to assimilate what they are learning.

Third, believers need to deepen their spiritual lives and demonstrate the integration of their beliefs with everything that they think, do and say. People want to know that we are authentic and trustworthy in this world of image-makers and manipulative relationships. It is a strange irony that the church is now widely regarded as too secular to be taken seriously by spiritual seekers after truth.

Fourth, the church must move beyond relying on seeker-sensitive evangelistic strategies. Of course, we need to remove every obstacle to a person coming to faith and be welcoming churches. But this assumes that significant numbers of people are shopping down our particular aisle of the religious supermarket. We can no longer make that assumption. We cannot entice the seeker but rather ourselves become the seeker, for our mission is a continuation of that of Christ. He came to seek and save that which was lost. We no longer 'dismiss' a congregation at the end of a worship service, to lose itself in the world. Rather we 'disperse' it to fulfil its ongoing mission week by week.

'ChurchNever' or 'ChurchNext'?

That is the question.

Eddie Gibbs is Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church Growth School of World Mission, Pasadena, California. His most recent book, written with Ian Coffey, is ChurchNext, Quantam Changes in How We Do Ministry (IVP 2000)

This article has been extracted from Jesus Life magazine, published by Jesus Fellowship. It is a shortened version of an article that first appeared in Quadrant magazine, July 2001 and is used with permission of Christian Research Association, Vision Building, 4 Footscray Road, Eltham, London SE9 2TZ. Tel 020 8294 0014 email: .