World Christianity and America 1

What a great post by Kyle

"How are your areas developing-adjusting,shifting,
rejecting, absorbing...?" As American house churchers
for many years, we cannot be seen as urban and
educated, although the liberal tag of being the
opposite is ludicrous. There are different strains
of American "house church", which has been
well documented for those who search a little. And
it has been absorbing from "world Christianity", in
our case because we have traveled extensively.

Do you know that to me it feels very much like
New Testament Christianity, although the term
Organic Church is currently in vogue.

"We're interested in voices from outside the USA: What impacts -- good and bad -- do you see from the USA when it comes to the Church, and how do you see that influence changing?"

Great questions - hard to be concise in an answer. On USA influences - this is my take, I'm sure others see it differently, and I don't mean to offend. I live in the Republic of Ireland (very different history to Northern Ireland)- up til recently an intensely Catholic country with old Catholic-Protestant polarities, but now rapidly shifting to full post-Christendom mode. In this mix the church has suddenly also become multi-ethnic, with a strong African pentecostal flavour.

American Christians have had a big influence within the small but growing evangelical community, both through American missionaries and, more pervasively, thru the global reach of publishing and the internet. Hybels, Piper, Carson, Warren, Driscoll, Bell, McLaren etc are all very well known here (and I'm telling everyone about that fella McKnight ..)

Bad stuff first:

- It's a reality that one of the most damaging things for mission here is to be associated with Bush, right wing politics and American money.

- 'we know the answers' and here's how to do things that work'. More than a few have come and gone, big plans in ashes.

- naivety that all English speaking cultures are basically American with funny accents, when in fact speaking the same (well OK, related) language actually masks huge cultural differences.

- importing American doctrinal disputes. More than a whiff of fundamentalism around and a strong strand of creationism, often associated with US influence. Insistence on premill eschatology is another. I may be wrong, please correct me - but I get the sense that the US church is even more fractious than we are. Large self-sustaining communities don't need each other. For example in the UK and Ireland there is a strong tradition of pan-evangelical training that I'm not sure exists in the US?

- Irish Christians in a challenging missional context all too often looking to the US for a 'magic bullet' model of church (whether Willow Creek or emerging or whatever) that will 'work'. The sheer 'successful' scale of church culture in the US all to often means that others look to it and assume this is the right way to do things. I've visited quite a few churches in the US and, especially in a mega church, feel like Spock, 'this is life Jim, but not as we know it'

- consumer Christianity - personally I'm a bit weary of the 'latest' pre-packaged brand coming from the US and generally ignore them. Oh and I wish the God channel could be uninvented ..

Good Stuff:

- so many generous, self-giving, humble and Christ-like Americans have helped build the church here. I count it a blessing and privilege to know quite a few.

- the riches for the global church of the wealth of great biblical, theological and missional resources produced by American Christians.

- those who have been slow to speak and quick to listen. Those who have become 'as Irish as the Irish themselves' - there is no short cut to effective mission and church planting.

- US churches who have a heart for global mission. I've been humbled more than once by the sincere and generous spirit of American churches to pray and give sacrificially beyond their own needs & interests.

PS

Noll's book covering similar territory to Philip Jenkins' The Next Christendom: the coming of global Christianity? Can I recommend his BRILLIANT follow up book The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South. Scot, you might like what he says about James in an interview:

"Oh by the way, I give you a golden rule for trying to understand the Christianity of Africa or Asia. Look at what Martin Luther thought, back 500 years ago, about the good and the bad bits of the Bible. Any book that Martin Luther wanted to throw out of the Bible is at the core of African Christianity. If Luther didn't like it, it goes down great in Africa. It's a simple rule for you." (Philip Jenkins)

He says this because James speaks of the fragile transitory nature of life, a perspective most Westerners know little about. And it is the definitive text for the poor - the condition of the majority of Christians globally.

Scott, you keep "making" me buy more new books to add to my stack of unread ones, by summarizing books that then become "must reads" for me. Thanks... I think!