England

It took a week and a half to totally catch up from being away for 2 weeks in England. But I am finally getting around to sharing on this blog a little bit about my trip to England.

I was going to England with 5 other Pastors in the COB (our denomination) through a grant from the Lilly Foundation. We are a part of a study called Sustaining Pastoral Excellence and we are studying disciple-forming communities in postmodern culture.

As I reflect back on my time in England I am struck by two opposite responses. When I was visiting with a leader, or a part of a worship gathering (some of them not all) I was struck by the life and vibrance of the faith community (especially Grace, Jonny Baker, Steve Collins, Dave Steell, Church.co.uk, and Headspace). I was also struck with the deadness of alot of Anglican churches. Visited Westminster Abbey and St. Pauls...beautiful buildings as tourist places but can't say they are full on Sundays as places of worship. As an Anabaptist I was also struck by the connection of the church and state. Alot of statues in the Abbey were directed at war heroes from the British Navy, etc.. Also the queen is the head of the church.

One amazing thing that I saw in the Anglican church was the openness to what is called Fresh Expressions (if we were Anglican Veritas would be consider a Fresh Expression). The Bishops are looking for new ways of doing and being church together in the world. I guess when you are dying and are desparate you will work through the pain of change. I just hope the US Church doesn't have to get that bad to look at working together at developing churches and ministries that seek to share the good news to people, taking seriously the shift from modernity to postmodernity and from Christendom to Post-Christendom.

Here is 2 pictures of me standing between the Tate Modern Art Gallery and St. Paul's Cathedral. It's like being caught between two worlds.

I'll write more about some of the worship experiences that I visited in another post later this week.