SLOW CHURCH WEEK 1
The Convivial Church
Before this strange disease of modern life,
With its sick hurry, its divided aims,
Its heads o’ertax’d, its palsied hearts…
- Matthew Arnold
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In their revelatory new book, Slow Church
As a result, the document’s authors say, today’s societies have succumbed to an “insidious virus” — Fast Life.
Churches are not immune to Fast Life; in fact, particular types of church such as the megachurch seem to have mastered the form. Churches deemed “successful” today are buzzing beehives of action, 24/7 centers of perpetual motion, with programs for every age and interest, keeping individuals and families on the move as their spiritual leaders continually try to think up new offerings. After all, they are competing with a culture that is constantly trying to get our attention so that we will partake of their goods and services.
A wise friend once told pastor and author John Ortberg that the one and only thing he must concentrate on to be more spiritually healthy was: “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” Reflecting on this, Ortberg says,
I’ve concluded that my life and the well-being of the people I serve depends on following his prescription, for hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. Hurry destroys souls. As Carl Jung wrote, “Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil.”
For most of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.
- John Ortberg
Ruthlessly Eliminate Hurry
Slow Church calls us to form congregations that will not skim life.
It calls Christians to the kind of faith community described in the early chapters of the Book of Acts: “They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers” (Acts 2:42, MSG). Note especially how Peterson renders the Greek term koinonia in The Message: “the life together.” It is a common life, not simply participation in common activities or programs. And the activities that are shared together are slow activities: soaking up apostolic teaching together, sharing common meals, and participating in regular community worship (the phrase “the prayers” reflects the daily services in the Jerusalem Temple).
In contrast, the “Fast Life” church emphasizes the principles of “McDonaldization” identified by sociologist George Ritzer:
Efficiency
Predictability
Calculability (quantifiable results)
Control
Christianity becomes a commodity. The church becomes a dispenser of goods and services. As the authors say, the “Christian life” then revolves around two poles: (1) the Sunday morning “experience,” which is produced, controlled, and dispensed by the professionals and church leaders, and (2) one’s “personal relationship with Jesus,” which can be managed by each individual. It perfectly mirrors the consumer experience in a technological culture.
Smith and Pattison note that commodified Christianity is characterized by “plug-and-play ministries, target marketing, celebrity pastors, tightly-scripted worship performances, corporate branding, the substitution of nonhuman technology for human work, church growth formulas that can be applied without deference to local context, and programs upon programs upon programs — these entice us with promises of miraculous results in just a few easy steps” (p. 15).
In contrast, they invite us “to start exploring and experimenting with the possibilities of Slow Church. Not as another growth strategy, but as a way of reimagining what it means to be communities of believers gathered and rooted in particular places at a particular time” (p. 15). They encourage us to embrace conviviality and to make the table and conversation and sharing life together the essence of congregational life.
The book does that by offering us a three-course meal based on the principles that characterize a “slow” movement:
The ethics of slow church: an allegiance to quality rather than quantity or efficiency.
The ecology of slow church: understanding that our call to follow Christ is within God’s mission of the reconciliation of all things — that how we do things is as important as what we do.
The economy of slow church: relying upon God’s abundant provision for God’s reconciling work.
This week, we will be exploring these themes here on Internet Monk.
I am heartened to know that this subject is not theoretical to Chris and John. John lives in western Oregon in a rural community where he and his family attend an evangelical Quaker meeting. There, they seek to practice community life in their small town as well as in their church, hoping to preserve its character and history. Chris is a city-dweller who lives in downtown Indianapolis. His congregation is 118 years old and the neighborhood in which it exists has a rich history. Like many urban communities, however, the place has changed over the years and Chris calls it “a gritty, urban neighborhood.” For the last 25 years, the congregation has worked hard to be “fully present” to its neighbors, and Chris has written about this in another book, The Virtue of Dialogue: Conversation as a Hopeful Practice of Church Communities.
It is my opinion that Slow Church may well be one of the most important books on the church in our generation. It does for congregational life as a whole what Eugene Peterson did when writing about pastoral ministry and what Robert Webber did on the subject of worship. None of these folks who love the church is trying to be innovative or faddish, suggesting something that is “new and improved” with regard to our life with Christ. Instead, they commend simple wisdom that is tried and true and tied to living as full and redeemed human beings in community with others for the life of the world.
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Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus
C. Christopher Smith and John Pattison
IVP Books (May 6, 2014)
Full disclosure: CM received this book as a complimentary copy.