malcolm chamberlain

Ok, I don't normally do this and I'm not about to start a habit of it now but, as an exception to the rule, I'm going to quote from a book I haven't even read yet! I can't comment on Pete Rollins' 'How (Not) to Speak of God' yet (obviously, as I haven't read it) but as I was catching up with my blog reading this morning I came across three other bloggers who clearly HAVE read it (Jonny Baker, Andrew Jones and Scot McKnight) and two of them quote a passage that resonates with me and also with the discussion that's been ongoing on this blog from my last 3 posts (by the way, thanks to everyone who'd contributed to those discussions - it's been an inspiration and an education!)

In posting about Emergent US's reluctance to offer a doctrinal statement of belief (see 'here'), it seems I've hit a critical discussion in the emerging church (EC). Of course, it's not that we don't have doctrinal beliefs in the EC, but that we're nervous of imposing a faith package on a person's spiritual journey because we've seen how such packages have been used and abused in the past. A question I've been left with from the discussions is how the EC defines itself in the absence of doctrinal statements - i.e. what does it mean for me to belong to this group - what am I 'signing up to', if anything? In the case of Dream, we've resisted doctrinal statements and gone for 'core values'. The first of these is 'Christ-centred' and is explained in the following way..


Now, of course, we've made an implicit (though some might say 'not very'!) statement of faith by appealing to the 'Christian Tradition' and the stated intention of remaining faithful to the 'story of God's people'. Likewise, we focus on Jesus because of what we believe to be true about him. Doctrine is fundamentally present in Dream's values and outlook.

But, and it's an important but, by not wearing the doctrinal statements on our sleeves, so to speak, and not imposing them on our members, Dream remains a community open to people who wouldn't identify themselves as 'Christians', or who would not at that point in time be able to agree with those doctrines, but are keen to develop an understanding of, even follow, the person Jesus. For example, before she moved away from Liverpool, a frequent member of the 'Dream in Liverpool City' community was a faithfully committed Muslim young woman for whom Jesus is an important character in her faith. She brought her own reverence for Jesus to the worship and fully respected what was happening in Dream even though she voluntarilly sat out of certain activities (e.g. when we shared Communion). She was welcomed into the community and considered to belong even though her beliefs differ from those of historic Christianity in many ways. We could, of course, have kept her at arms length, even excluded her altogether, by insisting that members assented to a 'Christian' doctrinal basis of faith, but I think our approach has more in common with that of Jesus in the gospels and certainly displays grace more visibly.

Equally, others who have connected with Dream or other EC communities have initially done so simply because their own exploration was respected and they didn't feel pushed into a package of belief or ethics. Many of these have continued in their journey and now own a faith which may be identified more closely with the doctrine of the historic creeds, etc. However, if those creeds were an upfront 'membership statement' it is unlikely that these people would have joined the community and continued journeying in the direction of Christ.

Maybe then, the EC doesn't really need to define itself at all. Maybe its place in the missio Dei is precisely that place of open, often messy and up in the air, exploration. Maybe we need to spend far more time listening to the stories of people who do not consider themselves to be Christian but are on a journey of spiritual discovery, and be open to the activity of God in their lives. Maybe if the EC becomes too defined, it will cease to be 'emerging' in any meaningful sense, and simply become another institution or denomination. So here's the quote from the book I haven't yet read!...

Labels: Dream, emerging church, mission, theology