Church navigational principles

“We want [our contemporaries] to truly hear the good news, in a way that touches their emotions, conscience, imagination, [and] will.”

(From David Brown's, Serving our French people : the challenge of the emergent church, p.237.)

Ok, so concretely what does that mean? What should a church focus on if it wants to pursue that goal?

The French Evangelical Alliance group “Gospel and Culture” has set out six principles for churches that aspire to navigate the turbulent waters of a chronically morphing world. They developed these guidelines in an attempt to be faithful to Scripture and in sync with people—unbelievers and believers.

Swedish "church boat" by Dalarna Leksand

1/ “We believe we need to conjugate the biblical convictions of a professing church with the welcome of those who come in contact with that church.”

John 1:17 "Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

2/ “We believe that the Church is as much the Church when it is dispersed in the society and when it is gathered.”

John 17:18 "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world."

3/ “We believe that, in light of the flood of information that inundates us daily, Christians (as well as our contemporaries in search of reference points) need to understand the world. It is the Bible in its entirety that enables this…”

John 17:17 "Sanctify them by the truth; your world is truth."

4/ “We believe that it is necessary to encourage a form of piety and spirituality that permits Christians to develop their relationship with God.… This spirituality will draw upon the creativity of the participants.”

John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."

5/ “We believe that our calling as people of God is cultivated in regular activities in the life of a local church, that favor veritable encounters.”

Romans 15:7 "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God."

6/ “We believe that the church is a place where everyone must find a place. A project must be built together, understood, accepted and lived out by the greatest possible number of members with the active participation of each one.”

Ephesians 4:11-12 "It was he who who gave some to apostles, prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service…"

Elaboration to come…

Non-existent emergent church

The subtitle of one of my current summer reading books says, "Living our faith well and communicating it to our contemporaries."

http://www.nakedpastor.com/2010/01/27/cartoon-faiths-shadow/

The book's actual title is: "Serving the French: the challenge of the emergent Church." I was initially stymied as to why David Brown wrote the book because he refers to the “quasi-absence in France of churches issuing from the emergent stream at the time of the writing of these lines.”

So why write 256 pages about a non-issue?

Brown is a three-time church planter in France and currently General Secretary for InterVarisity France. I have found him to be one of France's foremost ecclesiologists and missiologists, so picked up the book. And without disappointment. It is an excellent pretext for detailing the French context and factors pertaining to evangelism and church planting in Voltaire’s country.

Brown, born in England naturalized French, has a keen eye for that which is culturally significant for the gospel. Here are a few snippets to enrich your understanding of french people and factors pertaining to evangelism, disciple maturation and church planting :

"the French culture resists change…"

"According to the "Lausanne Institute for Management Developpement (IMD) in 2004, France was classed in last place (60th) for "the flexibility and adaptability of people facing new challenges” and 59th in “openness to foreign ideas.”

“the general suspicion toward others” (136)

“exaltation of roots… the attachment to the French language” (139)

“the mentality… considers that Catholicism is the ‘normative’ religion” and “the wide-spread idea that Christian equals Catholic” (169)

“the word ‘cult’ is never very far from the mind” and even “the Church only provokes reactions of mistrust in France” (172)

“the [Christian] mission and colonialism developed almost hand in hand, albeit in a complex way” (173)

“one concludes that the colonialist period was catastrophic on almost every level” (175).

These are formidable contextual factors that must be considered when evangelizing and church planting in France.

Voltaire’s country is militantly secular yet rooted in Catholic culture.

Here evangelicalism is at best viewed as a sectarian strain of Christianity, and often as a cult imported by foreign missionaries guilty of malfeasance due to their lack of mastery of the celestial language.

Even the term “missionary” is as offensive as a four-letter-word in the mouth of the French due to its inextricable association with abusive colonialism.

I’ve just about concluded the book… more later.