Toward Defining Complex Culture

In the last few decades, trends and tremendous shifts in our society and technology have been shifting our perception of what is urban. The media, (broadcast, cable, satellite, and internet), have replaced the Church as the most significant source of the formation of values in our culture. They exert a strong influence on the values, thinking, and lifestyles of Americans nationwide: urban, suburban, and rural. Worldwide immigration adds racial, cultural, language, and religious complexity. Ideological pluralism, gentrification, generational complexity, and much more have blurred the focus and changed the context of our traditional understanding of ministry.

It seems to me that a new term is needed to describe these new conditions for ministry. I like to refer to this new normal as “complex culture.” These components are combined in distinct ways in each community, making each church and its ministry unique.

What do you think?

What would you name this phenomenon?

The next post will be a short explanation of some of the significant changes which, taken together, I am calling complex culture.

A Few Important Elements of Complex Culture

In the latest blog, we began a conversation about what to name the new realities confronting our ministry. My suggestion was complex culture. It is possible to observe how most of the layers of complex culture have been added or expanded over the last half century. The following are a few of those changes:

·         The Sunday school, no longer the local church’s main outreach tool, is now ministering almost exclusively to churched children.

·         There is an increase of cultural, linguistic, and racial diversity due to immigration. Immigrants are coming from almost everywhere but Europe, bringing cultural and linguistic diversity into almost every neighborhood and town.

·         The growth of knowledge is spawning new technological and cultural paradigms, more and more rapidly. Any given generation grows up in a new paradigm, which has different cultural values and preferences than the previous one.

·         There is an explosion of religious diversity. “New Age” is essentially a folk religion revival including the worship of nature. Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and many additional minor religions are now represented.

·         Ideologies like secularism and libertarianism tend to harden ideological lines, making meaningful dialogue more daunting. The Separation of Church and State debate is an example.

·         The broadcast media have largely displaced the Church as the main source of values in our culture.

·         Biblical literacy is on the wane. Most people no longer consider the Bible to be the source of absolute truth. It can be intimidating to engage people in spiritual conversation with whom we have less and less in common. Those we do, often interpret it as our desire to “force our religion” on them.

·         Lifestyle diversity has become a principal expression of individualism. Extreme sports, haircuts, tattoos, clothing, gay and lesbian lifestyles, and multiple forms of family, are just a few examples.

The bottom line is that today’s ministry environment, even in suburbia and small towns,  is a study in complexity.    If we truly wish to reconnect our churches with our communities, we need to accept and address this new phenomenon called complex culture.                               

What do you think?

What does complex culture look like in your community?

Can you think of additional things that you would add to complex culture?

The Butterfly Metaphor

THE BUTTERFLY METAPHOR[1]

It seems to me that the butterfly offers a parallel to the situation in which the Church finds itself. An egg hatches, and the tiny larva sneaks into the world. Its movement is limited. It tries to blend in, but it is slow, soft and vulnerable. Its world is haunted with dangers. Too many other larvae, hatched at the same time, die or are devoured by predators. But in that little bug, there is unimagined potential.

Then the moment comes when the larva dares to spin a cocoon. Metaphorically, the Church does the same. Its evolving structures accomplish three purposes: first, internal change begins to happen; second, the cocoon serves as a coat of protection for the vulnerable life inside. Hidden away, it is safe. And third, though unseen, an amazing metamorphosis is taking place. When the transformation is complete, the struggle to be reborn begins.

However, the very protection that has kept it safe now becomes its greatest danger. The cocoon is tough, an almost inescapable prison. But when the metamorphosis is complete, that hidden life knows instinctively that it must escape or die. It begins to scratch the inside walls of its cell relentlessly with its claws. Travail, pain and exhaustion become almost more that it can bear. Then a small tear appears in the cocoon. The struggle intensifies.

Finally, the transformed larva breaks through the cocoon as a scrunched up butterfly. In short order, its wings dry. The butterfly gingerly exercises them. Its wings become more confident. They flap, lifting the graceful creature off into a new domain. Our transformed hero soars off into a glorious new world into dimensions never imagined. It no longer lives as before in lonely, dependent misery. Everywhere it lands, it cross-pollinates all it touches, making the magic of reproduction possible. The butterfly has been given second life, dramatically richer, with a creativity and influence never imagined possible as a lowly larva.

In many ways, the contemporary Church’s condition in complex culture necessarily goes through similar stages. Those of us called to minister under these conditions, confront change, hostility, and danger. We tend to cocoon ourselves away from the raw edge of society.

Our postmodern/secular society is undergoing a seismic shift in the context of ministry everywhere. Yet, God is at work, “metamorphosing” the Church. Even when we find ourselves buried in the chrysalis. God is transforming us into instruments of blessing. It is here that “Reconnecting the Church” enters the picture. It is a testimony of the struggle to break through the cocoon. Travail, pain, and exhaustion, are unavoidable for the Church to be able to stretch its wings and fly.

However, God in His timing, and we, in our humble and desperate scratching, suddenly discover a Church that is free to soar, free to generate life wherever the Body of Christ lands. For those willing to scratch through this book and its many implications, I believe in you! I believe in the irresistible mission of the Church! I believe in the extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit to use us all to soar in ways and in worlds we have not yet imagined.

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[1] From Kauffman, J. Timothy. Reconnecting the Church: Finding Our Place in Complex Culture. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris Publishing. 2010, pp. 205-206.

Why Another Blog About the Church?

The Church is presently ministering in what many are calling a “new normal.” While the Church’s message must remain the same, the context in which she ministers has become different in significant ways. In the midst of all this change, there are many churches that have a great desire to minister in this “new normal,” but unsure how to begin.

Allow me to explain where http://www.facebook.com/pages/Reconnecting-the-Church-by-Tim-Kauffman/136046853102596, will be positioned. I am hoping it will be a place where constructive conversation can happen. The following questions reflect a few of the topics we are hoping to address:

a.      What does the new normal look like?

b.      How does the Church proceed from here?

c.       What kind of leadership is needed in the local church?

d.     What are some of the issues interwoven into the Church’s current challenges?

e.      What should the relationship between the Church and society look like?

f.        Is the Church indeed in need of being reconnected? If not, why? If so, how?

g.      What, if any, are the obstacles to reconnecting the Church?

After almost 40 years of bi-lingual pastoral ministry in German and American cities, and 20 years of teaching as an adjunct at APU’s graduate school of theology, and on Gordon-Conwell’s CUME campus, my passion for cross-cultural ministry remains strong.

The concept is first of all, to draw on my resources and experiences to attempt to add to the discussion and help to answer some of these questions. Secondly, it is to learn from you where you are and what you are doing. But thirdly, and most importantly, my desire is that together we can assist your Church to find her place in our complex culture.

This blog is not intended to be an exhaustive treatment of the topics we will address. Rather they are intended to be discussion starters. I will be submitting a few thoughts every week that will attempt to inform you, jump-start discussion, stimulate ideas, and prompt your comments.

So join in the conversation.