Defining what Modern is

Let’s engage in an exercise together. I am going to create a list of underlying philosophies that drive the practical manifestation of the Modern Church vs. the Missional Church. The following is taken from a chart in Michael Frost's book, The Shaping of Things to Come. It is found on Page 9:


Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Mode (A.D.32 to 313)
Didn’t have dedicated sacral building. Often underground and persecuted.
Leadership operating with a fivefold ministry-leadership ethos (? I’ll find this)
Grassroots, decentralized movement.
Communion celebrated as a sacralized community meal
Church is on the margins of society and underground
Missionary, incarnational-sending church.


Advance and Triumph of Christendom Mode (313 to current)
Buildings become central to the notion, and experience, of church
Leadership by an institutionally ordained clergy operating primarily in a pastor-teacher mode
Institutional-hierarchical notion of leadership and structure.
Increasing institutionalization of grace through the sacraments
Church is perceived as central to society and surrounding culture.
Attractional / “Extractional”


(Emerging) Missional Mode (past 10 years)
Rejects the concern and need for dedicated “church” buildings
Leadership embraces a pioneering-innovative mode including a fivefold ministry leadership ethos. Non-institutional by preference
Grassroots, decentralized movements.
Redeems, re-sacralized, and ritualized new symbols and events, including the meal
Church is once again on the fringes of society and culture. The church reembraces a missional stance in relation to culture.
Missional, incarnational-sending church

When I think of the Modern Church, particularly that represented by what I see today, there are a number of thoughts that come to mind. These are underlying philosophies that are, well, controversial to talk about. Which says I'm barking up the right tree.

1. Philo-Culture. The modern church has become very comfortable with the Western world that it finds itself in. From the time of the Renaissance, the Reformation (yes, those two words are interchangeable) the culture and the church have been operating by the same principles. These are lifted out of McLaren's Shaping of things to Come. For an in-context explanation of these points, go to Chapter 2, pg. 16-18.

1. Modernity was an era of conquest and control. Think about the following words. Columbus. Colonization. Slave-Trade. Religious representatives on the same boats as Conquerors. Culture wars. Militaristic Economic Capitalism, enculturation, assimilation.

2. It was the age of the machine. industrialization. reproducing nameless replicas. the dissolution of individuality. automatic. remote control

3. It was an age of analysis. we took everything apart. no wonder, no awe, no myth. everything in the universe was dissectible.

4. It was the age of Secular Science. Science outside of experience. cold rationalizations. deductions made about broad religious beliefs based on the accumulation of facts gathered over a few hundred years. the assumption that all the universe was knowable, understandable, and conquerable.

5. It was an age aspiring to absolute objectivity. the arts have no place in reliable knowledge.

6. It was a critical age. fight. conquer. control. resist. what withstands that is all that is worth keeping. Social Darwinism

7. It was the age of the modern nation-state and organization. need I say more. governments that operate like the pathological corporations that fill their lands. priority number one is what is good for the state/corporation. self-preservation. oppression of others for the political, economic, and material benefit of the organization. the only rule is winning. morality is second place to the acquirement of power and success.

8. it was the age of individualism. john wayne. "i did it my way" (I like that commercial). a breakdown of family. a breakdown of the community. isolation. divorce. denominationalism. competition.

9. It was the age of Protestantism and institutional religion. organization for the purpose of numerical success, financial "stability," increased manouverability, exposure, elevation to influence-level of Government and Big Business.

10. It was the age of consumerism. increasing. acquiring, conquering. getting more stuff, bigger building, better name brands, status, image, success. Power. debt. in past days, you flew the flag of the Lord or king that ruled you. now you wear the colors of the corporations who own your money. what Lord to you swear allegiance to? What corporation are you a citizen of?