The Possbililty of Radical Church Renewal

Many pastors are wrestling pragmatically with questions arising from lockdown, as we focus on maintaining some kind of community, usually conceived conservatively as ‘running services’. The potential theological implications of our decisions are left unexplored; but besides personal or denominational, explicit or formal, articulations of belief or liturgy, lie implicit theologies. 

Perhaps, latent behind our immediate responses, there are resources for a renewal of our faith? Some pastors, wedded to a personalist model of ministry, simply attempt to do it all themselves. But this is also an opportunity to mobilise God’s people, a manifestation of what Ray Stedman long-ago termed “Body Life”: something I’ve believed in since my conversion in the 1970s.

Like many churches, we’ve put our services online. At first, trying to go absolutely ‘live’, but with social distancing, beginning to record portions, with different people contributing. These are then shared ‘live’ on social media platforms, where interactivity includes people posting their comments and encouragements, as the programme proceeds. These form an electronic equivalent of call-and-response cries of ‘Hallelujah!’ and ‘Amen!’ So that, ironically, the physical separation enables more people to participate.

Plus, we have devolved our corporate life into small online groups. Some are larger, on Zoom; others smaller, on Whatsapp. But each platform allows fresh individuals to be released into leadership: facilitating fellowship, Scripture-sharing, and prayer. Some have shown Spirit-led initiative, and started their own online groups, happily presenting me with their fait accompli afterwards. Our 7am morning Prayer Meeting has each person attending via their own little ‘window’ on-screen. In the semi-dark, it feels like the early church meeting in the catacombs of Rome.

All these fresh venues mean the church is less dependent on me. Maybe this will mean the renewal of the church, as we’re delivered from centralised pastoral control? During the Communist persecution of the Church in China and Ethiopia, it was the Cell Church model, which guaranteed the surviving, even thriving, of the church, when pastors were imprisoned.

There are two movements currently: inwards through these church-level initiatives, and outwards, through care and mission in the community. Individuals have delivered food to people shut-in by ill-health. And, in conjunction with London City Mission, we have collected small boxes of supplies for homeless people in social isolation in hotels.

Liturgically, the lockdown has caused problems for some traditional churches, especially in performing the sacraments. They need a special person to perform the mystery, and a special building to perform it in. I became unintentionally involved in online theological discussion about whether you need a ‘priest’ for this. As a Baptist, of course, we need no such thing. Anyone can preside, as long as it’s ‘in order’, as Paul insisted (1 Co. 14.40). Maybe it’s time for a ‘DIY Church’? The free move of the Spirit cuts across all hierarchies. And nor do we need a special building. The New Testament know nothing of ‘sacred space’. Perhaps this emergency presents us with another opportunity to recover the primitive house churches of Acts?