Wheres the Spirit in Deep Church? Dr. Bradley Truman Noel - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Where’s the Spirit in Deep Church?

• Dr. Bradley Truman Noel

Re-Sourcing Church, 2011

• All I want is reality. Show me God.

Tell me what He is really like. Help me to understand why life is the way it is, and how I can experience it more fully and with greater joy. I don't want the empty promises. I want the real thing. And I'll go wherever I find that truth system. Anonymous Teenager

Deep Church

• Jim Belcher has written Deep Church to try

and find “a third way” beyond the Emerging/Traditional church debate currently underway in Western Christianity.

• Having examined both sides of this debate, he

has come away convinced that neither holds the key to future growth and stability, and has therefore attempted to chart a course that accepts what is best from both approaches.

Deep Church

• This paper will explore the goals of Deep

Church – future growth and stability – from a pneumatological perspective, with a focus on the impact of postmodernity on the youngest generations of the western world, generations that the Church must reach in order to thrive and fulfill its mandate.

• We will conclude by noting points of dialogue

between Pentecostalism and the direction

• What is the Emergent

Church protesting?

• 1. Captivity to

Enlightenment rationalism

• The Enlightenment, which began in the 18th century,

based truth not on revelation, but on reason.

• In an attempt to defend itself against the cultural

despisers of the day, The Church increasingly looked to current philosophical arguments to support its doctrine; looking to reason, and not revelation, to secure itself in the world.

• Soon, the Church took on the role of championing

Modernism, mostly condoning individualism, rationalism, and pragmatism, each pillars of Enlightenment thought.

• Eventually, the Church became hard to distinguish

from the culture.

• 2. A narrow view of

salvation

• Emergents argue that the traditional

church has focused for too long on how an individual becomes a Christian and not enough on how he or she lives as a Christian.

• Justification has taken priority over

sanctification.

• The Church has been overly dependent on

the way of salvation in the Epistles and has not paid enough attention to Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom in the Gospels.

• 3. Belief before belonging
• The Emergent church is critical of the

view that a person must believe correct theology before they are welcomed into the Church.

• They reject using doctrine as a

gatekeeper, which keeps seekers out

• f the church.
• For Emergents, belonging precedes

belief.

• 4. Uncontextualized

worship

• Emergents protest that worship in

traditional churches does not speak sufficiently to the culture around it.

• Using music and traditions that are

hundreds of years old, making no attempt to speak to the present culture, and setting a posture that is against the world, traditional churches have become incapable of reaching the culture for God.

• 5. Ineffective preaching
• Emergents believe that the old style
• f preaching, where the Pastor is

fount of all knowledge, where rationalism trumps experience and where people are not involved in learning, has reduced spiritual formation to head knowledge.

• People need to learn from each
• ther, and be changed through many

different experiences, + knowledge.

• 6. Weak Ecclesiology
• Emergents believe the traditional

church is more concerned about form than mission.

• It cares more about institutional

survival – protecting the growth and assets of the church – than being the sent people of God into the world.

• 7. Tribalism
• The traditional church is accused of

being unwilling to engage the culture and be salt and light.

• The church has adopted a largely

negative stance in relation to the world, and is known more for what it is against, than what it is for.

• It has lost its ability to be

countercultural, to model a different way of life and to actually create beauty.

Postmodernism

• The Emergent church draws heavily from

postmodern thought, which is a huge change in the thinking of society. We can see its effects everywhere, from TV to the belief systems of teenagers.

• Postmodernism is basically a reaction to

Modernism, the pattern of thinking that arose out

• f the Enlightenment, which has gripped

Western society for almost 400 years.

Postmodernism

• Modernism taught that the universe was a well-
• rdered machine, with laws set in place by God.
• Humanity had but to discover these laws, and

the universe could be controlled.

• Humanity and human thinking is elevated to the

highest level.

• Individualism becomes very popular.

Postmodernism

• Nothing could be “true” if it could not stand the

test of human reason.

• Miracles came under heavy attack, as did the

supernatural aspect of God, and faith.

• The Holy Spirit largely faded from view in the

Christian religion.

• Christianity became very formal, intellectual, and

“reasonable”.

Postmodernism

• Postmodernism is therefore a reaction to

Modernism, and basically comprises two parts:

• 1) A rejection of the abilities of human reason

and an openness to “know” things by our experience

• 2) A rejection of the idea of absolute, objective

truth.

The Holy Spirit and Deep Church

• It is the position of this presentation that

while the discovery of a “third way” beyond traditional and emergent approaches is essential, doing so without recognizing the essential role of the Holy Spirit and without having a charismatic approach to the faith, this “third way” will be far less effective with the newest generations than might otherwise be.

THE CHURCH AND POSTMODERNS

• Although the significance or permanence of

Postmodernity may well be debated, it seems clear that certain of its presuppositions are making inroads in the thinking of the post- boomer generations.

• In terms of the rejection of the rationalism
• ften espoused by organized religion, and

importance of experience in particular, today’s students and young adults are approaching the Christian faith, and our attempts to propagate the Gospel, in ways not seen since pre- Enlightenment times.

Anti-religious but Pro-spiritual

• Concerning Generation X, Harvard Professor Harvey Cox

notes:

• [T]heir religious proclivities have remained a mystery

almost as inscrutable as that of the Holy Trinity. Here is a generation that stays away from most churches in droves but loves songs about God and Jesus, a generation that would score very low on any standard piety scale but at times seems almost obsessed with saints, visions, and icons in all shapes and sizes. These are the young people who, Styrofoam cups of cappuccino in hand, crowd among the shelves of New Age spirituality titles in the local book market and post thousands of religious and quasi-religious notes on the bulletin boards in cyberspace.

Anti-religious but Pro-spiritual

• Canadian Sociologist Reginald Bibby reveals the results
• f two national surveys completed in 2000. The

dichotomy between identity and practice is readily apparent: among Canadian teens, a full 75% identify with some religious group, while only 22% attend weekly services.

• Bibby notes, “Overall, these findings point to a paradox:

many young people who are not involved in organized religion are nonetheless seemingly interested in many things that organized religion ‘is about’.”

• They have a widespread regard for Mysticism. “As

practiced by Xers, mysticism is defined broadly as paganism and is often expressed as religious eclecticism. Xers take symbols, values, and rituals from various religious traditions and combine them into their personal ‘spirituality.’ They see this spirituality as one being far removed from “religion,” which they frequently equate with religious institution.”

Anti-religious but Pro-spiritual

• Bibby and Posterski note that paradoxically,

youth have having difficulty relating to

• rganized relationship precisely as they exhibit

a strong interest in the things that religion has traditionally focused upon – the supernatural, spirituality, ethics, morality, and meaning. 46 per cent rate the quest for truth as “very important” and 24 per cent rate spirituality the same.

• Only 10 per cent of teens, however, rate

religious involvement as very important.

• “Time and again, young people express an
• penness to things spiritual, and disinterest in

things organizational.

Anti-religious but Pro-spiritual

• Bibby’s research reveals that a majority of

Canadian teens believe in conventional Christian values:

– life after death - 78% – heaven - 75% – the existence of God – 73% – Jesus was the Divine Son of God – 65%

• These same teens, however, also believe in a

variety of less conventional values:

– near-death experiences – 76% – Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) – 59% – astrology – 57% – individuals can possess psychic powers – 55%

The Church and the Postmodern

• Posterski and Bibby note that any attempt to present

the gospel to the minds of Postmodern youth will have to:

• ...carefully explore the realm of the supernatural.

Young people do not have God grudges on their

• shoulders. They are not anti-religious. Rather, out of

the legacy of their heritage and the input of their world, they are supernaturalists...Young people are predisposed to the supernatural, and although they don't intend to turn to organized religion to actively pursue their interest, they are not negative about spiritual realities.

The Church and the Postmodern

• We would suggest that the church as a whole

must return to teaching and preaching about a God of miracles who can be experienced as he continues to act in very real ways in the lives and world of his children. This is the God that youth today hunger for.

• “The turn to experience in GenX pop culture

encompasses not only personal and communal religious experience but also an emerging sensual spirituality, an experience of living faith in the world, and a desire for an encounter of the human and ‘divine’”.

Pentecostalism and Deep Church: Areas of mutually beneficial interaction

Pentecostalism learns from Deep Church

• The Pentecostal movement can learn from Deep

Church precisely where it addresses the various complaints emergents typically have of the traditional church.

• Though different in some key areas, as a 100-year
• ld movement, Pentecostalism suffers from some
• f the same traits that Emergents see in the

traditional church, and so correctly wish to distance themselves from, including Belief before Belonging, Uncontextualized Worship, and Tribalism.

Deep Church learns from Pentecostalism

• In other areas of complaint, however,

Pentecostalism has not been typical of the traditional church.

• In terms of the emergent desire to escape the

rationalism that so heavily shrouds much of Protestantism, Pentecostalism, formed from a reaction to exactly the same thing, remains largely free from rationalistic tendencies.

• Pentecostals have also focused strongly on

sanctification, as well as justification.

Deep Church learns from Pentecostalism

• Therefore, Pentecostalism generally continues to

place great emphasis on experiencing the supernatural.

• In her description of the variety of Pentecostal

churches worldwide, Sociologist Margaret Poloma notes, “What these churches share is not single structure, uniform doctrine, or ecclesiastical leadership, but a particular Christian world-view that reverts to a non-European epistemology from the European one that has dominated Christianity for centuries.”

The Church and the Postmodern

• Paul W. Lewis agrees: “…the nature of Pentecostal

experience within Biblical hermeneutics is tied with certain elements which inform Pentecostal experience, and ultimately these beliefs, experiences, and hermeneutics, demonstrate a Pentecostal

• epistemology. This Pentecostal epistemology is a non-

Enlightenment enterprise, and places Pentecostal thought in a very different framework from conservative Evangelicalism….”

• Jackie David Johns notes: “At the heart of the

Pentecostal world-view is transforming experience with

• God. God is known through relational encounter…

The Church and the Postmodern

• Johns lists six special foci of the Pentecostal worldview,

several of which will be observed to have particular relevance to a Postmodern world:

• First, the Pentecostal world-view is experientially God-
• centered. All things relate to God and God relates to all

things.

• Second, the Pentecostal world-view is holistic and systemic.

For the Spirit-filled person God is not only present in all events, he holds all things together and causes all things to work together.

• Third, the Pentecostal world-view is transrational.

Knowledge is relational and is not limited to the realms of reason and sensory experience.

The Church and the Postmodern

• Fourth, in conjunction with their holiness heritage, Pentecostals are

concerned with truth, but not just propositional truth. Pentecostals were historically anti-creedal.

• Fifth, the Pentecostal epistemology of encounter with God is closely

aligned with the biblical understanding of how one comes to know. . . This understanding is rooted in Hebrew thought and may be contrasted with Greek approaches to knowledge. The Hebrew word for “to know” is yada.. In general, yada is knowledge that comes by experience.

• Finally, the Scriptures hold a special place and function within the

Pentecostal world-view. For Pentecostals the Bible is a living book in which the Holy Spirit is always active.

The Church and the Postmodern

• At the heart of Pentecostalism, according to Neil

Hudson, is an emphasis on a God who does intervene and do surprising things among his people, a God who is to be encountered, who performs miracles both as a sign to his own people and a cause of wonder for non-believers.

• Worship for Pentecostals is, therefore, “where
• ne experiences something” as opposed to

where one is taught something.

Pentecostalism and the Postmodern

• The practice of some to rid the Scriptures

essentially of all references to miracles and divine intervention, and the refusal in many circles to acknowledge that God works in the same ways today, is forcing many youth who seek an encounter with the true God to look elsewhere.

• As Rodney Stark, a Sociologist from the University
• f Washington in Seattle notes, “In an endless

cycle, faith is revived and new faiths born to take the places of those withered denominations that lost their sense of the supernatural.”

Pentecostalism and the Postmodern

• Bibby agrees:
• “This is a generation of young people whose

current involvement in religion is appreciable. Further, their terms for greater involvement in groups are reasonable; if they can find their participation ‘worthwhile,’ they are open to it. In light of their widespread interest in meaning and mystery, the supernatural and the spiritual, religious groups who have something to bring need to bring it – and, to put it bluntly, stop complaining about the apathy of youth.”

• Postmodernism has

therefore both positive and negative implications for the Church

Negative

• Postmoderns no longer believe in

absolute, objective truth.

• Something can be true for one, but not

for another.

• Each can believe what he/she wants,

all are correct.

• Human intellect is no longer the arbiter
• f what is true. What is true depends
• n who you are, where you live, and

what you feel.

Negative

• The Christian claim of the

exclusivity of Christ now runs counter to the prevalent social thought of today

• There is no “one way”; we’re arrogant

and bigoted to think that we have the

• nly way to God
• We must hold firm in our instance that

there is absolute truth, and it is found in God

Positive

• Postmoderns are open to the

supernatural in a way that hasn’t been seen for centuries.

• This is great news for the Church!
• However, if the church doesn’t provide

a faith that is vibrant, and reflecting a supernatural God, they will look to Eastern religions, and other cults.

Positive

• The Church should be in an excellent

position to reach out to this generation

• IF we believe in a supernatural God,

who moves in the lives of His people supernaturally, through the Holy Spirit.

• This is where Deep Church, to my

thinking, doesn’t go quite far enough. Postmoderns desire authentic community, to be sure, and would concur with many of the protests against the traditional church, listed above.

Positive

• Postmoderns are also looking beyond

relationships with other believers and peers, however, to their relationship with God.

• This they expect to be fully

supernatural, infused with the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Church must reaffirm

• ur commitment to a

supernatural God

• We must reemphasize the role of the

Holy Spirit who connects with us daily

• n a personal level, in ways that we do

not even fully comprehend

• We must continue to proclaim our

belief in miracles and the gifts of the Spirit

Conclusion:

• With recent research into the "Postmodern

mind", we must acknowledge that further joining Western Evangelicalism with Modernity will not serve us well as we endeavour to reach the newest generations of Western youth.

• It appears in fact that a reversal is necessary.

Instead of diminishing the transcendent and supernatural component of the gospel, it must be emphasized, for this generation correctly believes it to exist, and will seek it out in whatever form it is offered.

Conclusion:

• Pentecostals may be excellent

conversation partners for those seeking a Third Way, for the entire movement arose essentially out of a perceived need to go beyond the rational, scientific approaches to the Gospel so prevalent at the turn of the last century.

Conclusion:

• For those seeking to find their way between

the traditional and emergent approaches, a lack of emphasis on the Holy Spirit is not beneficial, as they are now faced with a generation of society seeking a very existential approach to God as Spirit, who moves regularly among His people.

• Tony Jones notes, “One of the most

noteworthy characteristics of the Postmodern/post-Christian world is the dramatic rise of spirituality. Propositional truth is out and mysticism is in. People are not necessarily put off by a religion that does not ‘make sense’ – they are more concerned with whether a religion can bring them into contact with God.”