Jan 12, 2006

Emerging Ecclesiology

At a Crossways retreat last weekend I heard Dr. Nathan Frambach's presentation on the emerging church phenomenon. The question with which he wrestles is: is this phenomenon simply a new form of worship in the postmodern era or is it an emerging ecclesiology? In the end Dr. Frambach sides with the latter. For him, emerging church is a way of understanding the church distinct from its immediate contemporaries but in tune with the ancient church.

I find
Robert Jenson to be a helpful conversation partner when addressing this question (big surprise to few readers, I know). Jenson describes postmodernity as a world that lost its story, its grand narrative for describing reality. The modern age maintained a plotted story, but replaced God as the storyteller with pure reason and scientific knowledge. The modern project failed as evident through events such as the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cold War, Vietnam and Watergate, Columbine, 911, the push to war in Iraq, and so on. These events tell us that the more "progress" humans attain by our own abilities the greater our potential for self-annihilation. So now after the modern era, postmoderns inherit the lack of a storyteller but add to that the loss of a story. In this sense, postmoderns are more geniune in their wordview than moderns, because one cannot have a story without a storyteller. However, after the failure of modernity's story -- one in which hope in the future is determined through progress -- the only viable option seen by many people is nihilism and despair.

This presents a major challenge to the church. How can the church witness to the in-breaking of God's reigning throughout history if history does not have a story? How can the church confess Jesus is Lord if there is no storyteller? How can the church proclaim his resurrection if nothingness and death are the ultimate destinity for all that is?

Jenson proposes that the church does mission in the postmodern situation by being God's story and inviting people into God's story. The story of God is "what happens between Jesus and his Father in their Spirit."(1) It is the presence of the triune God in our world. Or more accurately, God's story is the participation of humanity and the whole cosmos in the Trinitarian life of God. By being God's story through its liturgy and ministry, the church invites people to experience the triune God first hand. Once they know the storyteller, they know there is a story.

Only if the world is moved by -- the grand narrative told by -- someone self-consciously known as Jesus who is resurrected to life beyond the nihilism of death, can then the future be moved forward by a freedom and thereby be a source of hope. Therefore, the story called ‘Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’ is the only option that freely moves us into the future. Knowing that we neither determine or negate the future makes all the difference for public proclamation of God's reigning -- a source of hope even in a postmodern world.(2)

From what little I know from casual obervation of the emerging church phenomenon, it seems to me that the emerging church gets it -- at least more so than most churches I know. Their innovative worship, their attention to various "texts" both sacred and cultural, their awareness of suffering as a critical part of reality, their intentionality in building a community, and their "theology pub" approach to being actively present in their neighborhoods -- all of these are ways the emerging church is inviting postmoderns into God's story by speaking a language they understand: "Yes nihilism is a real option, but let me tell you about another possibility for a hopeful future. O.K, maybe the world doesn't have a story -- only ambiguity and a plurality of truth claims -- but let me introduce you to a storyteller." Once they come to meet the storyteller, they realize they've been characters in the story all along.

So if the emerging church is an emerging ecclesiology, then it is not emerging ex nihilo (from nothing). This understanding of the church's mission is robbed from Robert Jenson's ecclesiology. And not only his of course but it is taken from Tillich, borrowed from Barth, linked to Luther, aquired through Aquinas, augmented by Augustine, captured in the Cappadocians, and promoted by Paul. The "new" way of being church is emerging from the telling of God's story in the world -- the proclamation of gospel -- that first emerged from Jesus' empty tomb.

(1) Robert W. Jenson. Systematic Theology: The Triune God. vol 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997) 221, cf. 46.

(2) Robert W. Jenson. “What If It Were True?” as published by the Center for Theological Inquiry on their website Copyright 2002-2004.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kevan - I wonder if instead of a loss of story (for I think existence ceases when story is lost) there are too many plot lines. Maybe the modern church is suffering the effects of the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' genre - in which the reader/actor takes over the role of story teller and the plot suffers under the multiplicity of 'choices' - in which there is no central plot line, and often plot lines are pulled back and a new line is taken? Just wandering a bit...

Kevan D Penvose said...

I like your thinking -- very postmodern indeed. The metaphor of "Choose Your Own Adventure" works well with the marks of postmodernity that David Tracy calls ambiguity and plurality. You're right to say that if the world has no story then there is no world. The story does not cease to exist, it's just that several stories have failed and postmoderns have grown weary and suspicious of going back to choose a new adventure. For them this is a hopeless windmill chase that is oppressive.

But Christianity offers a completey different kind of story to consider -- we are called to participate in the triune life of God's story. Jenson says that we can learn from postmodernism's critique of metanarrative for all are incomplete and lack ultimate truth if it is not the story told by Father, Son, Holy Spirit. This will help us to revisit our most basic assumptions in light of our identity and vocation. For if the story teller is the triune God revealed in Jesus then ours cannot be an oppressive story. We must challenge the many manifestations of oppressive forces through "Christian" endeavors.

Shalom!

KD

Anonymous said...

Kevan - that was my comment above, must've clicked the wrong 'identity.'

The 'choose your own adventure' genre in regards to religion and faith has been something I have been chewing on for sometime. I have often looked at some of the mega 'nondenominational' churches and wondered why they thrive as they do, and then secondarily wonder why their 'numbers' seem to hit a ceiling and yet they are continually pulling in new people. Where do the others go? While I am sure there is some church planting in this, I wonder if it doesn't show the 'choose your own' pattern out.

People are hungry and they are seeking, and seeking. They think they are seeking fellowship, or learning, or an exciting worship - they find it, and then after several years that desire of theirs is met, and they are still hungry and yet they can't fill their hunger, that deep hunger to know God where they are, at a choose your own story mega-mall. So they leave and either try again at another, or simply just give up and fill that space with other things.

I claim that they are indeed hungry and they are hungry to be a part of something that is beyond the flash of the stage lights and the jive of the praise band. They want to be a part, be a part of the story that is eternal, that is true, that is God. 'Choose your own adventure' will never pan out - and yet God's story always pans out, always continues to be told by the ultimate storyteller, and always brings people in.

Thanks for stirring my thoughts...blessings on all you are doing now. I'll pop in from time to time just to check out what's bubbling....