*This is the tenth installment in a series of articles that are designed to help unpack the practical implications of the We Have a Dream declaration that has been entrusted to us as a family of Friends here in Mid-America. Using Acts 2:17 as a holy compass, We Have a Dream seeks to discern and describe the specific directions that God is currently calling the people of EFC-MAYM to take so that the “dream of the gospel is lived out … in our local churches, in the communities where our churches serve, and in the family of churches called Evangelical Friends Church-Mid America Yearly Meeting.”
We have a dream that our church would emerge in the neighborhoods where we live. And a deep sense of awe came over them all. What if all the believers lived in wonderful harmony, holding everything in common? And they sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met? What if they followed a daily discipline of worship in the temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God? And people in general liked what they saw! What if every day their number grew as God added those who were being saved? (cf. Ac 2:42-47)
According to Anglican bishop Mark Dyer, the only way to understand the dramatic changes that are currently taking place within the 21st-century Christian church is to first understand that “every 500 years the church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale.” And, he goes on to say, we are living in and through one of those 500-year sales right now.
As Bishop Dyer observes, about every 500 years the empowered structures of institutionalized Christianity, whatever they may be at that time, become an intolerable barrier that must be shattered in order that genuine renewal and new growth may occur. In the course of birthing a brand-new expression of its faith and practice, the church also gains a grand refurbishment of the older one (cf. Mt 9:17). Dyer describes this as a process akin to cleaning out your attic, i.e., discerning the still-useful from the obsolete, sentimental memorabilia from cluttering junk. What should be kept and what should be sold?
A little historical context may be helpful at this point. It was approximately 500 years ago, for example, that the Great Reformation took place (next year will mark the 500th anniversary of Luther’s “57 Theses”), sparking a moral, spiritual and theological house cleaning that eventually inspired the rise of Protestantism and the modern missionary movement. Approximately 500 years before that, the Great Schism rocked the church world as the East (predominantly Greek-speaking and Orthodox) split from the West (predominantly Latin-speaking and Catholic) when Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael I excommunicated each other in 1054. Go back another 500 years or so and you will run into Gregory the Great, who was instrumental in the establishment of the monastic orders which would preserve the Christian faith throughout the Dark Ages. And 500 years before that, of course, we’re back in the first century and the birth of the Christian church through the ministry of Jesus and the apostles.
And where does this leave us today? Building on Dyer’s hypothesis, author Phyllis Tickle contends that the church is now in the throes of what she calls “The Great Emergence.” Although it remains to be seen what type of Christian community will ultimately emerge in the coming days, it seems clear that we are moving into a new church age that is becoming increasingly more organic than organizational, more experiential than theoretical, more egalitarian than hierarchical, more relational than institutional, more communal than denominational, and much more costly than it is comfortable.
Hmm. Sound familiar? My guess is that we could use these very same words to describe much of what we might observe in the communities that eventually emerged from each of the previous “rummage sales” that have taken place throughout the 2,000 year history of the Christian church, including the ones that led to the founding of The Society of Friends in the mid-17th century, and the founding of EFC-MAYM in the late 19th century.
And yet, all of this talk of rummage sales and house cleaning begs a very important question: Who gets to decide what goes and what stays? After all, as another prophetic voice once exclaimed, “One man’s toxic sludge is another man’s potpourri” (cf. Ron Howard’s version of The Grinch that Stole Christmas).
This is the very question that so many of us are asking ourselves these days as Evangelical Friends here in Mid-America, not to mention the wider body of Friends from across North America and around the world. Without question, we are all in the midst of a “giant rummage sale” or “extreme church makeover” of one kind or another.
This was the central theme of our seven Area Leadership Retreats that were held during the past year, based on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. As 150 church leaders from 30 of our churches gathered to prayerfully discern the good, pleasing and perfect will of God for our family of Friends here in Mid-America, I think it is safe to say that we all came to the same unmistakable conclusion:
The most important question is not: What (or who) goes and what (or who) stays?
The only question that really matters is: Who gets to decide?
“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7).
– David O. Williams, General Superintendent
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