Clone
It’s been observed that one reason Christianity has spread into so many cultures is that it is able to contextualise far more readily than say, Islam for example which views even a translation of the Koran from Arabic as not valid. Not that it has always been an easy thing to do. Where is the line between contextualisation and syncretism for example?
A lot of people who know what we were doing in the UK ask about why we would want to replicate something that is urban – TCH context – into something that is suburban – our context. The short answer is we don’t. Providence Community Church, pastored by Mark Moore who we spent time with in the UK and the U is now a Crowded House network. Providence’s new website gives a great overview of the marriage between TCH values and Dallas context. It shows how values that are translatable across contexts allows you freedom to be true to the part of the world you live.
Check out the new Providence website here, and see what I mean. This is important for us, especially as over the next five or so months our people talk about our contexts and how these will express the values of The Crowded House. Simply put, what will our church plants in the Eastern Hills of Perth look like as they take shape?
It is interesting how values give freedom, while simply replicating a way of doing church is ultimately limiting. I still remember going to a church conference where the US guru said “Don’t write down everything I say”, to which people scurried to their notebooks to write something like “Don’t write down everything he says.” Can a North American expression of church, (and it is usually North American) really understand an Australian context without putting a lot of time and energy into it? While I do see many parallels between us I am reminded of Churchill’s comment that the US and the UK were two nations divided by a common language. Our most obvious point of departure is the historically secular nature of most Australians compared to most North Americans – something that doesn’t seem to inform any of the material that the church leaders/conference speakers from that part of the world bring. I’m willing to be wrong on this one, but I get the feeling that we’re being offered methodologies that will bring in the God-fearers who would be willing to go to a church if it offered the right thing. They are exceedingly thin on the ground in Australia to say the least
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I tend to agree – although I don’t really know much about Christianity in the US… but I do think that Perth is more secular than the UK. Here in England there is a general lack of interest in religion, but not as much as Perth: You still get a lot of newspaper coverage of religious issues here, and Anglican churches do seem to have some sense of presence. I find that lacking in Perth – which can be both a good and a bad thing. What are your thoughts?
August 4th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Hi mate
The longer I live in the burbs, and having left the world of church-work (in a professional sense!) behind it seems more and more secular all the time. We’re looking at planting, but cranking things back a bit and asking the question “If we were going to be missionaries in a foreign country, how would we go about it? What would we need to know? How would we address their customs and values? How would our meeting look in this culture?” All those sorts of things. I was talking to a girl in work the other week who asked me to explain what Christians believe because she had never actually met a Christian before. Astounding eh? I kind of like the tabula rasa because there is no expectation either negative or positive. Incidentally, I have come to the shocking realisation that I am not a po-mo emergent type after all because it was the consensus in the office the other day that I am the only person there who doesn’t swear. My credibility is shot.
August 5th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Cheer up – I think of you as the swearing type!
August 6th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
why, you little…!
August 8th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
you’ve got a blog so your half way there!
I think the very few God fearers or even church goers means the Aust. situation is very different from US.