View From The Basement

Running (from March last year)

"When many people simultaneously run in the same direction, two questions need to be asked: what are they running after and what are they running from" T.H. Marshall (Quoted in Liquid Modernity, Bauman, p81).

Given the dispersed geographical nature of the church we are perhaps aware of the two's and three's who leave the church we are part of, but cannot easily observe the bigger picture.

The last Scottish Church Census was done in 2002, in his report Peter Brierley notes, "congregations are getting smaller....huge numbers of young people (under 30) have dropped out of church in the last 20 years in Scotland, as in England and other Western countries".

Marshall's question above is therefore a pertinent one for the church, as the huge numbers Brierley's research has counted constitutes many people simultaneously running in the same direction.

So what are people running after?

What are people running from?

Post your thoughts in the comments section.

Hanging on in there

Matt Stone has a good post on hanging on in there at church when it seems that you no longer fit the way you used to, or you never really fitted in the first place.

I love his term, "emerging mavericks within established churches". So if your just hanging in there by your fingernails or your an emerging maverick within an established church then go read Matt's post.

Coffee with TSK

Andrew, aka TSK was passing through Glasgow yesterday with his son Sam on their way to Germany. He was wearing this hat, so I don't mind pinching someone else's photo of him.

There are probably lots of words people might use to sum up Andrew - I don't know him that well, but the two that come to mind are gracious and godly.

I tried to repay his generosity in buying me Tea by taking him to the DVLA office so he could sort our some stuff to do with his car.

who knows maybe one day I'll make it up to Orkney to sample one of his famous pizzas.

Safe journey Andrew and Sam, may you know the fair wind of the Spirit on your backs and the warmth of the Son in your faces.

Reflections on emerging conversation

Thanks to everyone who came along to Wednesday's conversation and interacted in some way with the paper I had prepared to get us started. I guess special thanks should go to the guys from Dunoon, given they probably had both the longest and most complicated journey (hope you guys got the last ferry back!).

Special thanks should also go to Stuart who organized the thing and for his vision. He's posted a reflection on the evening, as has Doug. I'm humbled by both these men's interaction with what I wrote and blessed (not a word I use too much) by the sharpening and correction they both have brought to my thoughts.

The actual conversation was a real mix, and I think we veered off topic a bit in that we didn't interact enough IMHO with the Scottish issues. I don't say this out of some sense of nationalistic fervor or quaint parochialism but out of a heart to see the church flourish in this land and the conviction that we need to answer the question "who are we" if we are to become missional.

I trust the conversation was conversation and not a debate. I also hope that the conversation has not finished but that many conversations will flow from this.

Emerging or Submerging (paper) Part 6

Barrier 4 – lack of patronage

It is notable that as an institution the Church of England has pro-actively sought to encourage or even plant emerging and fresh expressions of church. The Nine O’clock Service in Sheffield inspired and provided a model for many within the Anglican Communion. Since then there have been influential think tanks and papers published, most notably, “mission-shaped church – church planting and fresh expressions of church in a changing context” (2004). This thinking and desire to try things new comes not just from specialist think tanks but from the very top of the Anglican Church with the Archbishop of Canterbury stating, “we have begun to recognize that there are many ways in which the reality of ‘church’ can exist”[1]. Church Army (which described itself as, “a society of evangelists linked to the Anglican church”, is committed to mission shaped and fresh expressions of church, providing training, resources and partnerships to further this “radical new agenda for mission and fresh expressions of church”[2]. Blah, which is organised by CMS (Church Mission Society – the Anglican Church’s mission agency) is a series of conversations which regarly takes place in a number of major English cities. It’s a space where those involved in emerging church can come to share stories, support and encourage each other and receive some input.

While it is not directly an Anglican run event, the yearly Greenbelt arts and music festival has been key in the development and support of different emerging church communities. Given it’s held on a bank holiday that we in Scotland don’t take the Scottish contingent who attend is small, and I would guess that the Scottish contingent who find the Emerging church stuff is even smaller.

Given the support and patronage the Anglican Church is giving to both fresh expression and emerging church the question need to be asked, “is anyone filling this role is Scotland?” The existing church structures in Scotland can work one of two ways. They can work like a rainforest canopy, depriving the grass roots of any light needed to be birthed and grow. The positive alternative is for existing structures to become greenhouses, environment makers that are conducive to birthing innovative missional church plants. Such an environment is created in part by positive attitudes and words of encouragement, but there must also be a release of resources both in terms of releasing people to pursue such ventures and releasing finances to help make this possible.

There are signs that the Church of Scotland are doing some things. Peter Nielson’s report, “The Church Without walls”, has made an impact, but as of yet there is not the same support structures in place supporting those or releasing people to pursue such ventures. Alan McWilliams at Whiteinch Church of Scotland runs a “leadership training and mentoring programme for those who sense that God might be leading them into creating new expressions of Church”[3]. These are signs of great encouragement, but what about the Baptists or indepant evangelicals, what response are they making?

Barrier 5 – Platonism?

This is perhaps not a specifically Scottish issue, but I want to suggest that it has a Scottish twist.

What do I mean by Platonism? By this I am thinking about spirituality that promotes the “spiritual” or non-corporal over the “natural” or corporal. In such thinking a hierarchy of what is “more spiritual” is formed, so for example attending a prayer meeting is of far greater importance than meeting work colleges down the pub for a chat!

I want to suggest that by subjugating the mundane to the “spiritual” we not only perpetuate the state of an unhealthy sacred / secular divide but that we narrow mission to an extent that if fails to be a participation in the Missio Dei.

This reduction in the scope of mission converges with an evangelical platonic piety and evangelicalisms need to “win” and “be successful”, means that our mission / evangelism becomes very driven or programmatic. Even when we do care for the whole person it is with the agenda to “see them won for Christ”. I do not wish to disparage the intentions here, for they are good, but I fear we have an unhealthy “the ends justifies the means” mentality whereby we lose any sense of humanity or compassion.

I would suggest that this platonic / evangelical form of mission rather than attracting people to Jesus, makes them run in the opposite direction. Sociologist Thomas Humphery Marshall observes that, “when many people simultaneously run in the same direction, two questions need to be asked: what are they running after and what are they running from?”[4] People are not just leaving our churches because of the pull effect of work, lifestyle or apathy, there is also a push. I want to suggest that spiritualities that subjugate the corporeal with the non-corporeal mitigate against a holistic spirituality. Thus people struggle to connect their experience in church, be that the “worship” or the sermon with the reality of their daily lives. Brewin in his book, The Complex Christ notes;

“Unfortunately, the Church’s answer seems to have focused, perhaps unsurprisingly in our culture so obsessed with the self, on personal change as the route to its revitalization. We have been told by our leaders that ‘revival’ will come just as soon as our individual personal holiness ratings reach a certain saintly mark. The resuscitation of the dying Church has been made out to be dependent on the sinlessness of its members, yet we have to ask the question: did the leavers all go in the first place because we weren’t holy enough? Of course not. They left because it was boring, unchanging, irrelevant, said nothing to them about their life, and was completely unconnected to their experience”[5].

The church’s answer would also seem to have focused on forms of mission that employ and bate and switch methodology, are programmatic and imported[6]. I was recently walking in a part of Argyll where the commercial forestation is being harvested. The ground from where the trees have been removed looks like some strange bad lands from another planet in a si-fi movie. The landscape had become rutted from the furrows ploughed into the hillside for the planting of the original crop. It is difficult and dangerous terrain to walk over. It is also barren as the tree cover was so thick that nothing could grow beneath it. This bareness is extenuated by the fact that these foreign evergreen trees do not enrich the soil but strip it of any goodness adding to its acidic nature. Reflecting upon this sight made me think of how we have done mission over the past 80 years or so. Have we by using intensive, often foreign forms of mission planted the equivalent of a commercial pine forest which yields one good crop, after 40 years, but once this is harvested leaves the ground barren and ill prepared to grow native plants?

To keep with the forestry metaphor it is interesting to note that new commercial forest plantations are opting for a mixed economy of trees, breaking up the regimented lines of pine with indigenous deciduous trees. We to need a mixed economy of mission where the pre-packaged “commercial” forms of mission still have their place, but do not so dominate the landscape that what is indigenous and organic cannot flourish alongside.

Let’s be Positive

Having reflected on what might be specifically Scottish barriers to be emergence of an emerging church in Scotland we should also ask the question, “are these specifically Scottish cultural, sociological, historical or geographical factors that would encourage and support the formation of and flourishing of emerging churches in Scotland?”

The answer to this question is perhaps the topic for another conversation?

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[1]

Mission

shaped church, pvii

[2] Quote from http://www.churcharmy.org.uk/ca/MSC/MSCHome.asp

[3] Quoted from http://www.whiteinchcofs.co.uk/contents/templates/about.aspx?a=85&z=1&page=2

[4] Quoted by Zygmunt Bauman in Liquid Modernity, 2000, p81

[5] Kester Brewin, The Complex Christ: Signs of emergence in the urban church, 2004, p2

[6] Switch and bate is a sales technique whereby the buyer is enticed by one product, the bate, only for this to be switched at the last moment for another, usually an inferior product. So when churches get involved in some form of social action this merely a means to entice people for the switch which is “oh and why don’t you come to church”, the social action therefore has not value in and of itself.

Emerging or Submerging (paper) Part 5

Barrier 2 - Religiosity

I have no empirical evidence for this point, it’s purely anecdotal but I think there’s a cultural religious residue in Scotland that shapes our psyche in a more significant way than say in the major metropolitan areas of England.

Given particularly the West Coast of Scotland’s sectarian heritage perhaps we should be looking at what’s happening with the emerging church in Northern Ireland[1] rather than Manchester, Bristol, York or London?

If you were to stop people on the street of most towns in Scotland and ask them about God or the Christian message, the majority of responders would struggle to give a cogent answer[2]. The vast majority of them even if they believe in God will not be regular attendees of church. That said even the atheists here have an opinion on what makes a proper church service! Smells and bells (at least for one section of the community) it’s not. Neither is it labyrinths, PowerPoint meditations etc etc. Now don’t get me wrong I love all this stuff and have organised and done two labyrinth worship things. But this is perhaps more alien to Shuggy fae Barrhead than a 40 minute sermon with a hymn prayer sandwich either side! This is a long winded way of saying that I think some emerging churches in Scotland will perhaps retain more of the forms of traditional / institutional church than in the case in many other contexts.

I remember reading Kester Brewin[3] commenting about groups wanting to visit VAUX to see what they were doing so they could “learn” from them. Kester would discourage such visits, which on the face of it might seem rather harsh, but his rational was this; You need to find out what it means to be church authentically in your context. So perhaps in our context the emerging church will be a bit more submerged than in other contexts, perhaps it will also be a bit more traditional than in other contexts?

Barrier 3 – The Reformation

In Novenber 2006 the BBC ran a programme where they asked members of the public and a cohort of academics to pick the top ten events in Scottish History that have influenced who we are today[4]. Both the public and the “experts” included The Reformation in their respective lists.

Perhaps this barrier is related to barrier No 2. The advocate for the inclusion of the Reformation on the BBC show was Dr Jenny Wormald. She states, “Protestantism is a much more austere religion [than Catholicism]. It’s something which has had a huge effect on Scottish self-awareness”[5].

There is very much a sense that it is not just the Church of Scotland that is the child of John Knox, but we all in some measure are all his children. Presbyterianism and Calvinism has shaped both church and secular culture in Scotland. You can often hear the phrase “what’s for you will not pass you by” coming from a granny on the bus[6], which is indicative of a Calvinist predestination mindset.

The issue for us is not however one of predestination but dourness! Let me re-phrase that – many expressions of the emerging church have used and incorporated into their worship art, iconography, liturgy, candles and labrythins[7], and would have in general a sacramental approach to things. It is perhaps no coincidence that many of the well known emerging church expressions have their roots in an Anglican congregation where “smells and bells” would be both familiar and acceptable.

For many in Scotland such “smells and bells” are not part of the landscape of their worship experience and thus there is a suspicion of them at best or a complete disconnect at worst. To do a service that does not include the usual mix of soft rock worship followed by a forty minute monologue can leave those who participate feeling like they have just eaten a vegetarian meal when they wanted a burger and chips!

In the recent kids movie, “Happy Feet” about a penguin called Mumble who differs from the rest of the community, Noah the elder, and the other leaders of the community all speak with a thick Scottish accent, and battle Mumbles happy dance with a mournful song[8]. Film critic Mark Kermode and radio presenter Simon Mayo quickly dubbed them, “the Scottish presbyterianists”. I fear there is something of these penguins in many of our church leaderships that views with suspicion expressions of church or worship that are not from our own tradition.

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[1] It was with this in mind that I attended the Celtic Soliton Sessions (an emerging conversation gathering) in Northern Ireland in February.

[2] I was involved in street evangelism in Greenock for approx 5 years where we stopped and asked people what they thought about God etc., to my observations here are based on this experience.

[3] Kester was a leading figure in VAUX an alternative worship community in London and is author or the book, The Complex Christ.

[4] See http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/scotlandshistory/ for details of this.

[5] Quoted in http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/scotlandshistory/vote/display.shtml?more=refo&popup=yes

accessed

5^th april 2007

.

[6] I asked a number of English friends if there was an English equivalent to this phrase. They commented that they had not heard it till they moved to

Scotland

.

[7] I have used a couple of labyrinths and found that those from a high church back ground or no-church back ground have encountered God through this. That said those from mainstream evangelicalism have struggled with such expressions of worship.

[8] On a point of Trivia, the voice of Noah the elder is by Hugo Weaving who played Agent Smith in the Matrix series of films.

Emerging or Submerging (paper) part 4

If there was an emerging church in Scotland it would be submerged!

To go back to our heading, “Emerging or submerging” I would argue that the very nature of the emerging church means that it will take the form of a submerged church at least in it’s early days. Just as human babies don’t just appear but gestate, grow and develop in the woman till they reach a stage where they are viable in the “outside” world, so my anecdotal observation is that the emerging church is in this period of gestation in Scotland. There are signs of some pregnancies, but not many birth’s yet. The challenge therefore to the established and institutional church is are we Herods who seek to kill the new that is different and perhaps threaten our power and dominance, or are we faithful midwives that encourage and care both for the “mother and the baby”?

The other point to note regarding the emerging church is that there are no Christendom steeples in this church landscape to announce its presence. So absence of evidence for a thriving emerging church in Scotland is not evidence of its absence. I am only too aware of the limitedness of my perspective and knowledge of what is happening around Scotland. Thus there may be many groups out there I am not aware of.

That said Scotland is a small place and at times it can seem like everyone truly does know everyone else. So you would think that if there was a proliferation of emerging groups that they would be known about.

Are there specifically Scottish cultural barriers to the emerging church in Scotland?

I would love to see emerging churches thrive in Scotland just as I would love to see the church in its diverse expressions thrive in Scotland. Through my own participation in an alternative Sunday service I ran, blogging, reading about the emerging church, attending the odd conference I’ve been hugely sympathetic to this approach of doing church and have spent many an hour day dreaming of being involved in planting an emerging church in post-modern culture here in Scotland. As of yet I’ve not transferred this thinking, this desire into action, i.e. I’m not at present planting an emerging expression of church. For sure there are good spiritual reasons for this, i.e. I think God still has things for me to do in my current position, but there are also very real practical barriers. What follows is both a reflection on barriers I am aware of personally and barriers I observe in our cultural / geographical / historical context.

Barrier No 1- Institutionalism.

I had believed that Scotland has the highest percentage of its workforce employed in the Public Sector in Europe. The figure of 40% was one I believed to have seen reported in a national newspaper. A college also had the same impression. I tried to find an article to substantiate this but could not.

That said The Office for National Statistics do give details of numbers employed in the Public Sector. As a proportion of all those in employment the Public Sector in Scotland employs 23.6%, placing us forth by region in the UK (Wales 23.7%, North East England 23.8% and Northern Ireland 29.1%). This compares with 17.2% for the South East of England. When looked at as a proportion of total resident population then only Northern Ireland has a larger proportion of the population employed in the Public Sector.

Why might this be a barrier to the emergence of new forms of church?

I would suggest that public sector bodies and many large corporations for that matter have an institutional culture that inhibits fresh thinking and entrepreneurial gifts that are needed to start fresh forms of church. Frost and Hirsh, in The Shape of Things to Come highlight the need for entrepreneurial gifts for church planting and innovative forms of mission. They link entrepreneurialship with an apostolic gift and they, "we want to explore perhaps one of the most significant aspects needed for the transition from Christendom mode to a missional mode of church; a shift to apostolic leadership. In fact without this the missional church is unlikely to rise at all....an new type of leadership must precede any meaningful transition to missional church"[1].

I spent a short period as part of this workforce when I worked for a local council. Having worked in both the private and public sectors the “culture” of the two is night and day. As a general rule of thumb the public sector tends to be Hierarchical, institutional, unresponsive to change, less productive than the private sector and highly bureaucratic. I therefore have a hunch that when it comes to church, what it should look like, how it is governed etc., we carry over something of this “public sector culture”.

Given expressions of emerging church tend to be egalitarian rather than hierarchical, deconstructive of institutions, seeking the edge with regards to change, light and non-bureaucratic then there is a significant proportion of the Scottish population that given the culture they work in are not "emerging". My hypothesis is that in our churches we have a higher proportion of people working in the public sector (think of all the doctors, nurse and school teachers in your congregation) than in the population at large.

If I am right in this hypothesis then there are two implications that spring to mind.

(1) the first is in regards to the starting of emerging communities. Given the proportion of people that have an "institutional culture" there is a smaller proportion of people in Scotland who are part of a creative or entrepreneurial work culture. Thus while there may be a significant segment of people at church who do not connect with the way church is done or with the spirituality that is exemplified, any action that results from this disquiet will most probably manifest itself in them leaving church for another existing institutional church or in leaving church altogether.

(2) the second implication impacts upon mission. Given the large number of people in Scotland that are part of this "institutional culture", is the emerging church something that they would connect with and flourish in spiritually? Or would they feel ill at ease with the culture of emerging church? Would they just not get it and find it as irrelevant as mainstream church.

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[1] Frost & Hirsch, The Shape of things to come, 2003, p 174 – 5, p165

Emerging or Submerging (Paper) Part 3

Are there any expressions of emerging church in Scotland?

Given the above comments on the difference between Fresh Expressions and emerging then what some might see as signs of the emerging church in Scotland is not that but is a fresh expression.

So the Urban expressions church plant planed for North Glasgow, while it would share much with an emerging faith community, is not one. Mosaic in the West End of Glasgow have thought long and hard about whither they are “emerging”, “emergent” or “fresh expressions”. I had a conversation with one of their leadership team regarding this. He commented that they have kept away from the label “emerging” as they perceive that it has too many negative connotations for those in the existing church with whom they would want to be in relationship with. They would thus be more comfortable with the tag, fresh expressions and would describe themselves as being beyond foundationalism (think Stan Grenz) and would be uncomfortable with the at least perceived “liberalness” of emerging churches.

For the outside looking in at Mosaic they would also “fail” Gibbs and Bolgers categories for an emerging church in that they have a leadership team rather than a total egalitarian everyone is a leader approach.

I emailed some emerging type leaders here in Scotland to get their impression on things. Dave Lynch who is part of a community in Dingwall called Tapestry
responded. On the question of, "are there particularly Scottish barriers to emergent", Dave thinks not. He does however state that "a fair number of leaders are very wary of emergent", which would seem to be a recurring theme, if not a particularly Scottish one.

As I noted earlier there are nine people listed in Emergent UK’s address book from Scotland. I am one of them and of the other eight I am only aware of one of them having an active participation in a faith community that could be described as emerging. This faith community is in Helensburgh and is called Small Voices.  

The alternative worship web site,  lists three alt worship gatherings in Scotland; Cutting Edge in Perth, Raven in Edinburgh, The Worship Alternative in Clydebank. There is also EK Third Day in East Kilbride, which describes itself as alt worship.

Third Day in East Kilbride is a monthly service at Claremont Parish Church. I had hoped to visit one of their services but was unable to do this. Their web site describes what they do as;

“a place where people celebrate God and worship using loud music, great new songs and audio visual presentations.  It is aimed at the young and the young at heart!

Come along for loud Rock Gospel music, refreshments, big screen audio visuals, singers, informal, interactive, lively and new worship!”

As such the feeling I have is that this may be alternative in the sense that it’s not hymn singing, but would not be seen as alternative by the alt worship movement, (see here for Steve Collin’s definition of alt worship).

Cutting Edge in Perth does not have a web site. I did however call one of the organisers of this event, Jane Denniston, to talk about what they are doing. Cutting Edge no longer exists. It ran for 3 years and put on an alternative worship event 4 to 5 times a year. It regularly attracted 30 people.

Jane said the main reason that it stopped was lack of time – being creative, producing music, artwork and visuals for events is very time consuming. Reflecting on my own experience of involvement in a service which looked to be alternative I relate to what Jane describes. This is particularly the case where groups seek to be authentic to their community and their location and thus produce there own materials, music, visuals rather than importing stuff that does nor contextually fit.

Having said that Cutting Edge has finished Art & Soul has started. With the ending of Cutting Edge Jane stated a gap was left for groups of creative people who felt that regular Sunday morning worship had nothing to do with them. Art & Soul is an inter-church venture managed by a steering group. They have had one gathering which was very positive an included a mixture of jazz band, artist in residence, interactive prayer station and meditations. The ethos is very much about being participators and not just consumers or spectators.

On reflecting both on Cutting edge and Art & Soul Jane commented that for those involved in putting these events on the worship is in the preparation and that in general they get less out of the event than from it’s creation. This is an important reflection and a common experience for many. As such it expands worship from just what is done in a particular place (e.g. church sanctuary) at a particular time, to something that is more holistic, and multi-sensory.

Jane’s second reflection was that at this point in time neither Cutting Edge of Art & Soul lacks a “mission imperative”. As such she clearly differentiated what they were doing from Emerging church. That said Art & Soul is providing an important space where creative people can flourish spiritually who might otherwise drift from traditional church.

Raven in Edinburgh grew out of exploring church for those in the club culture at St Cuthbert’s.

Emerging or submerging (paper) Part 2

First Things First.

Before going any further it’s perhaps prudent to say what is in view when we use the term ‘Emerging Church”. By this term I do not mean a church service where tea lights are used, more than one person owns a MAC, or there is a mix of ancient and alternative forms of worship. An emerging church gathering may include all or none of the above, but these outward expressions of worship are not what makes a congregation emerging.

Many would agree that Gibbs and Bolger in their book, Emerging Churches, provided a useful framework for assessing what is Emerging and what might be Gen x or y church, youth church, seeker church etc..

To summarise Gibbs and Bolger what is common to most emerging churches is a combination of particular beliefs and practices. These faith communities "take culture, specifically postmodern culture, very seriously," and they tend to share up to nine common practices—three core practices and six derivative practices. At the core, emerging churches are those (1) who take the life of Jesus as a model way to live (2) and who transform the secular realm (3) as they live highly communal lives. Derivatively, emerging churches (4) welcome those who are outside, (5) share generously, (6) participate, (7) create, (8) lead without control, (9) and function together in spiritual activities.

This can be summed up in part by the following quotes;

"Emerging Churches are missional communities arising from within postmodern culture, consisting of followers of Jesus seeking to be faithful in their place and time."

“the emerging church is a quest for a more integrated and whole life of faith. There is a bit of theological questioning going on, focusing more on kingdom theology, the inner life, friendship / community, justice, earth keeping, exclusivity, and inspirational leadership. In addition, the arts are in a renaissance, as are the classical spiritual disciplines. Overall it is a quest for a holistic spirituality”[1]

I would want to argue that the common practices that Gibbs and Bolger identify work in a similar way to our own Baptist distinctives.  There is nothing particularly unique about any of them to the emerging church on their own, but put together there is a synergy which forms a particular hermeneutic with which they read both scripture, the world and understand the relationship between church and the surrounding culture. Indeed I would argue that there is a “baptisticness” to the emerging church practices that Gibbs and Bolger identify. If I am right in suggesting this then you would think that Baptist Churches, Unions or Conventions would be natural allies for the emerging church or even the instigators of emerging church plants.

I would here distinguish some “Fresh expression” forms of church from Emerging Church. While there would be many similarities between the two, however, people from within both “movements” would themselves see a distinction between Fresh Expressions and emerging church. Thus I would class Urban Expressions, the urban mission network here in the UK headed up by Stuart Murray-Williams, as a fresh expression rather than emerging.  If we make this differentiation then there are signs of Fresh Expressions of church here in Scotland but I would suggest little evidence of the emerging church.

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[1] Mark Scndrette, quoted in Gibbs & Bolder, p42

Emerging or Submerging (Paper) Part 1

here's a blog version of the paper I prepared for last night's emerging discussion. I'm posting it in parts both to make it easier to post and easier to read.

Emerging or Submerging.

[Where we are at in Scotland with regards to emerging church and fresh expressions and what specifically Scottish barriers there might be to emerging plants flourishing in a Scottish context].

Here is a blog version of the paper used as a discussion starter for last night's emerging discussion.

This is not an academic paper, but should be read and seen as a conversation started. As such it looks to raise questions rather than give answers.

Firstly a disclaimer – I am not a sociologist, anthropologist or social historian, and could not claim any degree of competence in any of these fields. That said, to assess the spiritual climate in Scotland here in 2007, the skills of sociology, anthropology, social history and probably a few other “ology’s” need to be drawn upon. Some of this will flow intuitively from our being Scot’s, or if not a native of Scotland someone who has become inculturated. We do however need to listen, although not necessarily agree, to those proficient in these fields who would comment on the Scottish context, Globalization and the interface between these two.

My second disclaimer – I am not an expert on the emerging church. While I have read many of the books, met some of the people in these books and attended some “conversations”, I am not, (as of yet), strictly speaking an emerging church practitioner.

There seems to be endless and ubiquitous talk of “the emerging church”, be that in books[1], conferences or the blogosphere. When we look south of the border there seems to be a growing number of emerging churches who’s influence extends beyond those within the emerging conversation. The Emergent UK website has 1,100 people in its address book, nine of whom are from Scotland!

So what is the picture like in Scotland? Is the emerging church emerging or submerging[2]? Is there something in our culture, psyche, tradition, geography that militates against the flourishing of emerging groups? If so what are these factors? Should we / how could we encourage the emergence of emergent groups?

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[1] Example of books – Practitioners: Voices within the Emerging Church (2005), Emerging Churches, Gibbs and Bolger, (2005), Becoming conversant with the Emerging Church, DA Carson, (2005), Out of Bounds Church, Steve Taylor, (2005), The Complex Christ: Signs of emergence in the urban church, Brewin, (2004), The Shape of Things to Come, Frost and Hirsch, (2003), Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture, Frost, (2006), The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, Hirsch, (2007).

[2] 

Stuart Blythe

asked this question on his blog, http://thewordatthebarricades.typepad.com/ on

the 19^th October 2006

. He wrote, “A month or so ago the ‘Emerging Church’ issue was very much the talking point – has it ‘submerged’ – ‘passed’, its critique been silenced and/or been lost in the shade of the power of alternative models, its edge been blunted by its incorporation into mainstream examples as another product.

Or has the very philosophy of emerging church, been its own demise, not having a strong enough options about its own convictions and thus been unable to offer reformation.

One or two examples do exist of aspiration communities but it feels as though their ‘impact’ is very insignificant – or is that to expect too much of them in our Scottish context”.