Rant and Poem : Has new church become old church ?

 Rant and Poem : Has new church become old church

 i dont want to rubbish what "church" has become. i'm glad there are thousands of people meeting regularly all over britain to worship God ! it's brilliant. there are so many not just owning but reading bibles and christian literature ! people are praying, interceding, caring for the poor and needy, reaching out to the lost ! hallelujah. but we need to find a way forward so that it doesn't become rigidified. is that possible. or must we continually have to have a protest movement and division in order to bring progress ?

There are good models around that allowed numerical growth along with personal growth - especially the Early Methodists. I'll lay my cards on the table i personally think that subdivision has to be part of  the way forward.

But lets look at the problem. I hope to look more at positive suggests in a future post. I need to look the problem as I see it.


very sad cos the pendulum in some churches and movements seems to have  swung  back from what we, or at least many of us, had hoped would be achieved in the charismatic, renewal, restoration, new church movement. priesthood of all believers, team leadership, baptism in the spirit and use of the gifts of the spirit. hand in hand with what some evangelical groups like Scripture union and UCCF and all the others had been doing to encourage individuals to be able to read the bible for themselves and listen to God themselves and training people in small group leadership, team leadership etc.

* how did it happen ? how do movements lose  momentum ? how did it get diverted ? maybe not all of it has. maybe some has.
I don't want to hurtle into the opposite overbalance of saying all church groups are like this all the time, but in my meanderings on the internet and my experiences in churches and christian groupings in Britain and in France these are some tendencies that I've observed. (There are always exceptions, and generalisations can always be disputed) : 

a) overbalance put on what was basically good teaching : restoring  confident and mature spiritual leadership - teaching on anointing, an unfortunate choice of word cos it left others feeling or being told that that must mean that they're not anointed.

b) superstition that came again from a basically really good source - Tozer helped restore a greater spirituality amongst leaders but he also is very top heavy putting almost impossible demands on one man pastorships.

c) plain old fashioned human-ness that makes leaders heavy handed - weakness, ambition, frustration, desires, temptations (pennies, power, petticoats, pride GC), loneliness, utterly unreaslitic expectations put on them by congregations or "apostles", competitiveness, etc etc (this doesn't rule out that congregations, committees, elderships  and PCCs can be bullies)

d) another factor i think was the haste with which we had to set up new churches without really being able to look at what did we want to set up in terms of structure. we were enthusiastic and took some things for granted. Idealistic groups are far more likely to be taken advantage of by those with "strong" characters or who have their own agendas.

e) cos we were keen to enter into the things of the spirit we took our models from the traditional pentecostal churches, especially the assemblies of god. i dont want to pick out the aog as any better or any worse than any other denomination but one of the things that didnt get resolved in the early days of the aog was the paternalistic attitude that was prevalent in the US in early 20th C when it was founded and led to a strong clergy-laity divide which has ended up inadvertently being reproduced in the new church movement in many areas. also the outward signs from azuza street were carried on, especially the gift of tongues, but the incredible racial and class reconciliation that was maybe an even more powerful element was deliberately, consciously rejected by those who took over the leadership in the early days and never restored later.

f) another thing that i've observed which is a positive again but with negative side effects - i think the new church movement is victim of it's own success. why have churches got so big - cos they're attractive. people want to go to them. there are some wonderful teachers and preachers and with good reason people want to hear them and follow them. i'm not just thinking of the flashy people who advertise themselves. what about a humble boy-next-door gent like stuart bell in lincoln. i was part of the first accidental church plant with him and his family in 1975 in lincoln. he and his mates formed a christian pop band to reach youth. we were reached. they wanted to provide for them and their church wouldnt let them so they had to make a church. lincoln free church had many if not all the elements i would still look for in a church. but you cant keep on having a family atmosphere and everyone participating in meetings when it gets too big to know everyone. the church keeps growing. you have to subdivide if you want to keep the atmosphere, but naturally everyone wants to be with the leaders that have already got the most experience and who are the best teachers. 


g) Gross generalisation with an element of truth : Leaders who came into leadership through division are fearful of trusting others not to run off with their flocks. Churches that came from protest movements become fearful of protest. 


I'll say it again. i dont want to rubbish what church has become. i'm glad there are thousands of people meeting regularly all over britain to worship God ! it's brilliant. there are so many not just owning but reading bibles and christian literature ! people are praying, interceding, caring for the poor and needy, reaching out to the lost ! hallelujah. but we need to find a way forward to that it doesnt become rigidified. is that possible. or must we continually have to have a protest movement and division in order to bring progress ?

i personally think that subdivision has to be part of  the way forward so that there are home based cells, smallish (up to a hundred ) congregations with elders as co-pastors and big celebrations say once a month  where the main teaching is done. Among the many good models around look at early Methodism.

Lord give us wisdom and grace


this is a poem i wrote when i got particularly fed up about it all about 10 years ago. i'm not so negative now about it now as i was :

A sacrifice of praise

We bring a sacrifice of praise

And boy it’s a sacrifice these days

Look how things have changed you say

We didn’t want it done that way

We kicked out pews, moved round the chairs

Aisles were for dancing, hugs and prayers

We swapped the pros for amateurs

With just 3 chords we're all worshippers

But now feels like olden times returned

Lay man sidelined, pastor’s wage must be earned

And much as I love the odd diminished chord

Is it really essential to worship the Lord ?