Mutant Churches Running Rampant! Yes, it
sounds like a headline from the magazine rack at the grocery store
checkout. In this issue of the Emmanuel Research Review,
Tom Johnston of the Praxis Center for Church Development in
Manchester, NH, considers the church as an organism, a good
perspective, but adds this new wrinkle. He says the church has the
potential to mutate! In “Mutant
Incarnation,” Tom considers how the spiritual DNA of the
church in the Western world has perhaps been altered to such an
extent that it has lost its life-giving power and is in need of
“spiritual gene therapy” to realign us with the original spiritual
genetic code for vital Christianity in the church.
In his second article, “285 Billion,”
Tom shakes us up a bit more as he considers the impact of U.S.
national church spending trends and the need for revolutionary
re-thinking of our life and faith in order that we may experience
God’s preferred future and impact on society.
Tom Johnston is the Executive Director of Praxis, as
well as a church planter and the Lead Pastor of The Harvest
Community, a network of house churches throughout Southern New
Hampshire. Tom has planted four churches with his wife, Cathy,
with four more having come out of their ministry. In addition,
Tom serves as a denominational leader for church and leadership
development, and is a trained NCD Coach-Consultant. He coaches
denominational leaders across the Body of Christ in church
multiplication systems. Tom has also developed training
curriculum for leadership development and church multiplication
as well as providing mentoring, training and coaching for church
planters from emerging generations.
“Church planters in Greater Boston are fortunate to have
available the expertise and guidance available to them through
the services of the Praxis Center for Church Development. Church
planting in Greater Boston can be even more successful as it
takes advantage of what Tom and those associated with Praxis
have to offer.” —Rev. Ralph A. Kee, facilitator of the Greater
Boston Church Planting Collaborative of Emmanuel Gospel Center
and a founding member of the Board of Directors of The Praxis
Center of Church Development.
Mutant
Incarnation
by Tom Johnston
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and
we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth. John 1:17, ESV
The Eternal Word – God Himself, put on flesh and
dwelt or “tabernacled” – literally “pitched His tent” – among us.
This very same God continues His incarnational work in this world
through the Church, which is His “body,” the fullness of Him that
fills everything in every way (Ephesians 1:22). This “body,” His
people, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, becomes His hands which serve
and heal, His arms which embrace in love and acceptance, His feet
which carry the euangélion – the good news of the Kingdom.
Every living thing – everything with a body – has
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) which defines it. The DNA is the
substance that informs the development of the living creature as
it grows and reaches maturity. This “genetic code” determines what
we will look like, how tall we could be; the color of our hair,
our eyes, our skin. The Body of Christ, too, has a genetic code,
but being spiritual in nature, this code is of the Spirit, and not
of the flesh. At the core of the Christian life and experience is
this spiritual DNA – what we at Praxis refer to as the
“Irreducible Core” of the Christian faith – namely Jesus’ commands
to love God, love others and make disciples (Matthew 22:34-40,
28:18-20). This “code” is like spiritual strands of DNA which
inform what we should look like as we grow and mature as the
Church – becoming like Christ (Ephesians 4:13-15). Wrap around
this core, this spiritual DNA, the cultural elements in any land,
of any people, and you can get a glimpse of what Jesus would look
like in that environment – and what His Church should look like as
well. That’s all good.
In biological life forms, something unhealthy
happens when elements not found in the DNA are added into the
initial life-forming mix – or the DNA itself is tampered with or
damaged. We get what is known as mutation – changes in an organism
that results from chromosomal alteration. A mutant organism is one
that has gone through such changes. Some such mutations produce
birth defects, some of which are so severe as to cause major
mental and physical dysfunction, and even death. I have one of
these genetic defects, a condition know as Cystic Fibrosis, which
kills most with the condition by age 30, and affects many aspects
of my physiology. I guess that makes me a mutant (a fact that
friends and close associates have known for years!)
It seems in the biological realm that all mutation
is derived from the Fall – death entered the world, and organic
life, broken by that alteration of our universal reality, in
essence continues to replicate that brokenness by reproducing
after its kind. All health care is focused on combating and
rectifying the ongoing mutation in the human form. These mutations
by and large are negative – not the kind we find in fantasy tales
that enhance superheros like the X-Men with unique powers and
special attributes. Quite the contrary – mutation is
disempowering.
You can see where I am going with this, I’m sure.
When applied to the Church in the Western world, the spiritual DNA
within what we call “church” has been so radically altered –
through both addition to and subtraction from – and mixed with
other substances – like incompatible worldviews – that the
“church” looks little like Jesus. Certainly, we would have to
admit that we function in the West with a fraction of the
effectiveness and fruit of the Church that Jesus founded. We’re
mutants, plain and simple, a mutant incarnation that has the form
of faith, but not the power of the living Christ. Our genes have
been altered to such an extent that we are losing the power to
give life – that life of Jesus Christ. We bear His name, but look
little like Him. How can I say this? The ugly mutant statistics
prove it – we spend more than $285 billion on ministry in the USA
every year, and our witness continues to rapidly decline as a
percentage of the current population.
So, is all hope lost? Is the Church in the West
locked into a death spiral, a flat spin from which there is no
recovery? Not at all. The Church in the Western world is in
serious trouble, but the Church of Jesus Christ is not. The Church
in the West can become once again the Church of Jesus Christ
through one simple process – spiritual gene therapy. We must have
a fresh infusion of the Irreducible Core of the Christian faith,
aligning our lives and organizations with this original DNA from
the Maker. Church life and ministry practice must be once again
driven by loving God, loving others and making disciples
everywhere we go, all the time. Gene therapy is a difficult
process in the natural; our technology for it is immature.
However, spiritual gene therapy by the Maker and Builder of the
Church is not as difficult, with the Holy Spirit of God reshaping
and realigning us with His original spiritual genetic code.
All we must do is admit our defects and embrace
His spiritual realignment of who we are – individually and
organizationally – and let Him make us whole. We must look in the
mirror, admit we are mutant Christians, a mutant incarnation and
embrace the re-implantation of His DNA with meekness. Being remade
in His image, we can then truly reproduce disciples that look like
the Master.
Used by permission. © 2006 The Praxis Center for
Church Development - www.praxiscenter.org.
up†top
285 BILLION
by Tom Johnston
285 Billion! That’s what the
American Church spends on ministry each year, on average (Dr.
David Barrett, author World Christian Encyclopedia).
That’s right – $285 BILLION, not thousand, or even million. Based
on this, if the church in the America were a single corporation,
it would be the THIRD LARGEST in the world, right behind
ExxonMobil and General Electric and just ahead of Microsoft. And
yet, Christians as a percentage of U.S. population continue to
decline. Living in New Hampshire, a state with the highest per
capita household income (2005), and one of the lowest charitable
giving rates (ranked 50 in 2005, 47 in 2006), we have 2.4% of the
population attending an evangelical church in any given week
(www.theamericanchurch.org). Not sure about where you live, but up
here in New England, it looks like we are losing some serious
ground. In fact, nationally, the Church is in serious decline as
far as attendance goes. While Christianity seems to be holding
it’s own in some regions of the country, the fact is, we aren’t
even reaching the percentage of population equivalent to our own
children.
So, what’s it all mean? Well, first of all, what
we are doing doesn’t seem to be bearing much fruit either in
making more disciples or impacting culture. Secondly, it doesn’t
seem like we need to spend more money on church stuff! (Granted,
we may need to spend it differently.) If we keep on this track, we
will continue to see the decline of the totality of Christian
witness in the West. This is all hard to see from within the
“belly of the beast” of ministry. But it is time for a wake-up
call – and a revolution.
Christians in America by-and-large are not
risk-takers. We are extremely conservative in behavior and often
focused on trying to maintain a connection to a preferred past –
an idealistic (and inaccurate) view of our nation’s religious
history. What we need to do is focus on God’s preferred future for
us, not the past. And we need some serious risk-takers (read:
people of faith) who will step out of the normal Christian
experience and do something truly profound – live a life of simple
devotion to Jesus Christ – so that God’s hope for the people of
our nation can be realized. We need people who will build their
life and faith around the simple construct we often present – the
“irreducible core” of our faith – namely, loving God, loving
others, and making disciples everywhere we go. A simple Christian
faith simply lived out in front of others, a way of life, not a
life full of religious activities which costs $285B and seems to
have little impact – on us or the society around us.
If we are spending all this money on programs,
buildings, evangelistic events – and losing the battle – we need
to do a serious re-think on our life and faith.
Used by permission. © 2007 The Praxis Center for
Church Development - www.praxiscenter.org.
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