Issue | Traditional | Contemporary | Missional |
Cultural Orientation | Assumes the support of Christendom Minimal passion for evangelism | Accomodation to culture “Church can be attractive to lost people” Marketing approach and image management | Penetration of culture with the Gospel Church as missionary to the unsupportive culture |
Image of the Christian | Representative of the dominant culture Civil Religion | Successful and happy Alternative to dominant culture | Resident aliens within the pluralistic culture |
View of the Church | A place where religious things happen The country club/dues | A vendor of religious goods and services The mall/consumer | A people sent on a mission The web/relational |
Orientation | Content-centered Right ideas | Program-centered Right activities | Relationship-centered Right relationships |
Central Structures | Pulpit, Sunday School (one way communication) Age-graded Christian Education (mimic the public school) | Seeker-oriented services Needs-oriented ministry Market segments/generational ghettos | Equipping venues Discipleship/Mentoring Small Groups Spiritual formation |
Organizational Structure | Hierarchy Committees Recruitment to church ministries | Pastoral oligarchy Teams Mobilization into church and world | Networked teams Empowerment to interpersonal ministry and team formation |
Role of Pastor | Preacher/Caregiver | Evangelist/Leader/CEO | Equipper/Model/Leader |
Learner Orientation | Cognitive processing through teaching | Cognitive processing Social learning in groups | Experiential learning Social learning Cognitive processing |
Media/Era | Print/Oral | Broadcast | Digital |
Internet/ Website | Source of information | Advertising and promotion | Interactive community |
Social origins | Rural | Suburban | Urban |
Dominate Generation | Builders | Boomers | Busters/GenX, Millennials |
Evangelism | An isolated program Proclamational Come-see approach Reach the churched Adult convert growth rate? | A consistent emphasis Need-oriented event Come-see approach Reach the dechurched How do you gather a crowd? | A life-style, relational, incarnational and service-oriented Listening, dialogical Go-seek mentality Reach the unchurched |
Worship | Predictable Historically anchored Hymns, hymnals, choirs, organs and pianos Not in cultural idiom In some cased liturgical | Scripted excellence In cultural idiom and popular instrumentation Historical disconnect Celebrative, upbeat choruses and worship ensembles Use of other media added | Laid back, serendipitous Ancient and vintage worship practices creatively mixed with contemporary media Multimedia, multi-sensory, participatory |
Ethical Orientation | Subcultural taboos | Personal ethics | Social ethics |
Other Churches | Cordial Denomination-building | Competitive Congregation-building | Networked Kingdom-building |
Problems | Irrelevance Minimal evangelism Come-see approach | Cultural captivity Marketing/Consumer orientation How change consumers into disciples? Come-see approach | Establishing Biblical authority Maintaining the uniqueness of Christ Becoming a generational ghetto? |
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
A look at three current models of ministry in American churches
In one of my Trinity classes this semester, we have been talking through philosophy of ministry and looking at how people "do church" in America. My professor, Dr. Phillip Sell, articulated this chart, which I have reproduced below. I thought it was an interesting and insightful summary.
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2 comments:
so being the first comment is sort of awkward. i would have to say that as far as categorizing myself i generally fit into the category of missional. i thought this was funny considering before i read this post i didn't even know the name of the category.
i think putting titles on things is sort of funny sometimes, but they are convenient...
I agree that putting labels on things is not desirable, but discussing trends requires some semantic tags to grab hold off. I think the term missional here is preferable to "emergent." I classify the emergent movement as one example of a missional style manifestation.
I personally find myself a part of a more traditional style church that is attempting to transition to a more missional style without losing its multi-generationality, which I think is a worthy goal and concern.
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