Are we losing something?

We just had a little informal meeting of missional leaders of our region in my house. The main question: how are we personally dealing with the transition to the postmodern / postchristian "church"? How do we deal with our brothers and sisters in the region? Thun is spiritually quite an interesting and alive region, almost a kind of "Colorado Springs" of Switzerland :-) Some questions we tackled:

- Language: How do we develop a language that makes it possible to communicate to other Christians and church leaders what we are doing - without giving them in every sentence the impression "we are no longer good"? For a modern person, "new" means "better than the old" - therefore they feel they have to defend the "old"; for a postmodern, "new" can be "just a different way of expressing it".

- Mission: When Church is being "pulverized into society", how do we maintain the communal effect of public presence and impact? Is it OK to radically "individualize" the evangelistic effect - only? What about public proclamation?
And: We do no longer "only" save souls but we try to impact society. Are we saving any souls any more? We have not noticed a significant higher rate of bringing people into the Kingdom. Not yet? Or is the "missional" way in the end less evangelistic than the old style of EE or the 4 Spiritual Laws or the Seeker-sensitive Church?

- Transcendence: In our incarnational meetings, we experience the immanence of God well. He is amongst us and expressed in what we are doing. But do we also experience his transcendence - those moments where the veil opens, where you touch - or are touched by - heaven? I had this at times in times of communal prayer or worship; it often has to do with a larger crowd (why, btw??). Today, I am lacking it.
Of course - many have matured and have developed their own prayer life and style. No more need for a worship "leader" and his band. Yet, in the end of the day the question remains: where do we experience God's transcendence? Where are we awe-inspired in the missional church? We try to be no longer dualistic. Is there the danger to become "monistic" - only one world? We force our eyes to remain open to the world around us. Can we still close them (except in sleep)?

Comments

[butcherakis]

Very good questions, Reinhold. Thanks for sharing them. I have similar questions (and not so many answers).