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 dan
kimball
vintage
faith
1)
What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the emerging
church?
I
think the biggest overall and subtle challenge right now that
comes to my mind is consumerism. For those who have grown up in
the church, we really have taught them to view church like they
would if they were on the panel of "American Idol". The
expectation of performance, the mindset of "what does this
church have to offer me?" the way they judge church by how
good is the preacher, how good is the music etc. I think we would
admit that this is the mentality of most Christians in evangelical
churches if we were honest.
I
don't blame them, because since they were children we taught them
to view church as the place to have "fun" with
hyper-kids games and videos, and for youth to view church as the
place to get emotionally charged and hyped from songs and
energetic rallies and camps which teach Jesus etc. We have brought
them to the Christian concerts, fed them into the consumerism of
Christian commercialism of T-Shirts, CD's etc. and in many ways
have based their Christian experience primarily around these
things, with an occasional missions trip to Mexico thrown in. I
hyper-exaggerate here, but I have a sinking suspicion if we really
think about this, we leaders may be the very ones who had a lot to
do with what we are now fighting in our churches in regards to
consumerism.
That
is why so many churches who even start these age-specific
"young adult" services, many times only fuel this more.
We teach them also that style of worship is what makes a
community. Now they have yet another worship service which caters
to their musical taste and personal preferences we now have
another generation of Christian consumers. So, I think the great
challenge is to be forming new communities of those who understand
that the Christian life is really about being a worshipper on a
mission, not someone who "goes to church" to have their
needs and personal preferences of musical style met. I know that
when challenged and when this is discussed among Christians, I see
so many who rise to this. But, it takes the leaders of churches or
leaders of new churches being formed to cast this vision of a
missional community. That to me is the biggest challenge, even
greater than the mission itself! I have great optimism about the
spiritual openness today among non-Christians. It is the already
Christians I think whom are the biggest challenge in a mission
like this.
2
What would you say are the key elements to an emerging church
(what makes a church "emerging?"), and why?
To
me, an emerging church is a church who is redefining the church
and our ecclesiology in this emerging post-Christian culture.
Praying and thinking through the ramifications of what it means to
be the church today. There are a lot of churches just starting
now, but so many are still focusing on "the worship
service" as the starting point and not thinking through what
the church is holistically or even historically. So much of our
current church methodology in evangelical churches really only
comes from the past 20-50 years. I think we better go way beyond
that, and beyond the Reformation too. The Reformation shook things
up in a great way, but also set methodological values in place
that we still live with today that I think need to change for the
emerging church. That is a key element for sure of what I would
call an "emerging church" - to be rethinking our
ecclesiology for today's culture
Being
missional is also an absolute key factor for the emerging church.
By being missional, I mean that the core fabric of the church is
that we are about being a community of worshippers on a mission.
but the mission is not getting people to "got to
church", as you cannot go to church. we are the church. The
mission is being the church in all we do and all we are, wherever
we are and from this we bring kingdom influence to those around
us. We should be inviting others to be joining us as followers of
Jesus, not inviting them to events where they raise their hands at
an altar call. We should be evaluating our success not by numbers,
but by what kind of missional disciples we see being shaped by
being in our communities of faith.
3
As worship seems to be redefining itself, how do you incorporate
the five senses into a worship service at vintage faith church?
I
think as we plan for our worship gatherings, we don't necessarily
have a list of the five senses and then make a check list of what
we are doing to hit them all. It just sort of becomes more a
natural outgrowth of planning the worship gatherings through a
community rather than one or two leaders. We have about ten people
who help design and shape what happens. Each of them brings
various perspectives and things they pay attention to. Since we
all see worship as being more than just singing, it sort of
naturally develops into incorporating the different senses. Some
are more in tune with expressing the visual. some musical, some
interactive etc. Probably the one sense that is harder to
incorporate is the sense of smell. We use candles, we use incense
on occasion, but we don't ask each week "what smell can we
include?". I think we need to be careful not to be
multi-sensory to simply "be multi-sensory". We should be
worshipping holistically, and be thinking about that.
4
What do you see as the evolution, (or "de-evolution"),
of evangelism in the emerging church?
I
think another key element as I just said in the first question, is
that emerging churches need to have an urgent sense of mission,
and that doesn't mean inviting people to an event with Christian
bands where they hear a 20 minute message about sin and going to
heaven. I think a key element is redefining the church as a people
of God on a mission of bringing others into Kingdom living. If we
continue down the road of the "build it and they will
come" mentality with all the focus on the weekend worship
services as the foundation or an event to invite people to, we are
in trouble longer term. A key element is that the leadership
understands this and bleeds it, not just staff, but all of the
leadership community of the church itself. Being missional is a
key element. Teaching that the church is not a place you go to,
but something you are is so foundational. If we really grasp that
and the people in our church communities grasp that, I think it
will radically change how we view evangelism.
5
If you had to - and I know we who are pomo thinkers hate to - what
would be the top 3 shifts from a modern church to an emerging
church?
hhhmmmm....i
am not too good with "top 3" lists....but I would say
one critical shift is in leadership. I say this first, because in
our church structures there is a blockage for change to occur
unless leadership changes. it is the leaders of our churches who
will need to move from the one-man hero warrior conqueror CEO to
being more of a thinker-architect-shepherd. We desperately need
out leaders to be leaders, but do it with more a community
attitude. Too long have we seen leadership portrayed as one man,
with the charismatic personality, rallying the troops to his
vision, leading the way, conquering the mountain. This has been so
destructive really when we look back on the aftermath of most of
what has occurred with this type of leadership. it is interesting
that even with Jim Collins "good to great" thinking in a
corporate world, that this type of leader is now being understood
as not a good leader. the leadership in the emerging church must
take a different approach. the leadership in modern churches who
have the money, control and power need to recognize this and allow
emerging leaders to grow and experiment and flourish for the
emerging church. they need to not hold onto their control and be
threatened by change.
that
is one. another is what the definition of "church" is.
That needs to shift. I already explained this, but the shift of
thinking the church is the meeting, and the building to the church
is the people on a mission. Some emerging church leaders sadly say
these words but are focusing all their time on the
"meeting" still. What will this communicate to the
people in their churches if we say "the church is the people
on a mission" but the leaders spend all their time getting
ready for the "meeting"?
a
third top one would be a shift from self-dependency to holy spirit
dependency. in the modern contemporary church we saw so much
figured out with good felt-need programs, preaching, parking lot
design etc. that we can almost credit human sociology and
psychology for why so many megachurches developed. I know that
sounds horrific, but I just wonder...... I think a major shift we
need to be thinking about is how we can only be explaining what
happens in our churches through the Holy Spirit and that means our
dependency in prayer and being on our knees a lot.
6
How important is "image" (meaning pics and art) in the
emerging culture?
I
think it is pretty recognized that art and the usage of visual is
becoming increasingly important in how we learn, how we
emotionally are moved, and can be very instrumental in worship. I
think we need be very careful we do not neglect the power of
Scriptures and the power of spoken word either, but I think if
someone is ignoring the way image is influencing our culture and a
tool of communication then they are missing an extremely vital
part of understanding who emerging generations are.
7
What cores do you believe need to be at the DNA level of an
emerging leader?
To
be a listener. To be a learner. To be part of a leadership
community and not a solo leader. And i think the bottom line is
John 15:5...recognizing that apart from Him we can do nothing and
Micah 6:8, that we should walk humbly, act justly and love mercy.
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