Study Guide for Session 2

Study Guide for Session 2 – April 23, 2008

The Ten Signposts of Renewal

1. Hospitality

• “[H]ospitality is the ‘creation of free space’ where strangers become friends. ‘Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place’” (79).
• “True Christian hospitality is not a recruitment strategy designed to manipulate strangers into church membership. Rather, it is a central practice of the Christian faith – something Christians are called to do for the sake of that thing itself” (81).
• “God’s hospitality demands…that all are welcome” (83).
• “Hospitality is not tame practice, an option to offer only to those who are likable” (83).
• “Hospitality changes both the host and the guest” (85).
• “One of the oldest themes in Christian literature about hospitality is the deliberate confusion of the roles of host and guest” (86).

2. Discernment

• Discernment is “a genuine sensing of truth and beauty through which we know God and know God’s will….But Christian tradition points toward…discernment as a practice that can be developed through participation in reflection, questions, prayer, and community” (91).
• The danger of relativism: “if the old village and all the old answers have vanished, then how do seekers determine goodness, truthfulness, and beauty?” (93).
• The third way: Asking ‘God-questions’ instead of ‘I-questions.’ “God-questions shift our focus from what we do to what God is doing, by helping us understand where we fit in the larger economy of God’s hope for the world” (94).
• “Discernment does not simply confirm our hunches or intuitions. Instead it is a perilous practice that involves self-criticism, questions, and risk – and often it redirects our lives” (95).
• Five phases of discernment: “faith, distinguishing between good and evil, practical wisdom, sensitivity to pursue God’s will, and finally, contemplation of wisdom” (96).
• In emerging Christianity, discernment is the spiritual process through which metanoia, being “born again” in God’s truth, beauty, and love, occurs. Thus, discernment points the way, guides the way, and becomes the way – the way that begins with God-questions, that winds through wisdom, and ends in the healing of the world” (97).

3. Healing

• “[H]armony is a kind of healing or making whole, the creation of what is disordered into what is ordered. In short, harmony is a kind of healing or making whole, the creation of what is disordered into what is ordered” (104).
• “God’s salvation is a process of healing whereby they are transformed—and, in turn, they open themselves to transforming the world” (106).
• “For mainline pilgrims, salvation entails several levels of healing: emotions and psyche, physical wellness, human reconciliation, and cosmic restoration.” (108).

4. Contemplation

• Saint Bernard of Clairvaux: “‘Continual silence, and removal from the noise of the things in this world and forgetfulness of them, lifts the heart and asks us to think of the things of heave and sets our heart upon them’” (117).
• The contrast: “Some church-growth specialists think that more successful churches entertain people during worship – the more activity, the more noise, the more loud music, the better. From that perspective, silence is boring and an evangelism turnoff” (119).
• “Human desire for fulfillment cannot be satisfied by the world. True knowledge of the self, of love and meaning comes only in silence” (121).
• “Restraint is not a word that most people associate with contemporary Christianity. But Holy Communion [Church] has opened up a pathway of contemplation that entails reflection, attention, and restraint” (122).

5. Testimony

• “At most of the congregations I visited, I heard people speak of faith—offering their testimonies to the power of God in changing their lives and their communities” (133).
• “In many ways, testimony is the most democratic – and empowering of all Christian practices. The entire New Testament is a testimony, a record of experiences that early Christians had with the transformative power of God” (134).
• “Our stories no longer tell tales of spiritual acquiescence and conformity. Rather, they tell of finding meaning, finding unique selves, and finding God in a confusing and chaotic world” (138).
• “Testimony is not about God fixing people. Rather, it speaks of God making wholeness out of human woundedness, human incompleteness” (141).

6. Diversity

• “Some Protestant pastors look at…diversity as a problem, bemoaning the decline of denominational identity and the rise of theological chaos....[But] ‘the loss in homogeneity leads to a richer diversity’ [that] is a source of ‘complex wisdom’” (145).
• “Unlike evangelical churches – where doctrinal uniformity is considered nonnegotiable—theological diversity shapes the daily life of most mainline churches” (146).
• Cherishing diversity of every kind: political, theological, cultural, and racial (148).
• “A Christian practice of diversity is not secular relativism. Rather, it is the active construction of a boundary-crossing community, a family bound not by blood but by love, that witnesses to the power of God’s healing in the world. Throughout the scriptures, God is a God who delights in diversity” (148).

7. Justice

• “Doing justice is much more than supporting a particular party and its policy agenda. Doing justice goes beyond fixing unfair and oppressive structures. Doing justice means engaging the powers – transforming the ‘inner spirit’ of all systems of injustice, violence and exclusion” (161).
• “Throughout my journey with emerging mainline congregations, I encountered people doing justice that involved hands-on service, linking social concerns and spirituality in local mission and activism” (164).

8. Worship

• Alternative worship’s influence on traditional worship: Scottsdale Congregational “takes the material of everyday life – art, music, film, and reflection – and assumes that it is the entryway to the sacred. Combining elements of jazz, performance art, film clips and video, multimedia reflection, live-camera feed, testimony, readings, silence, contemplative prayer, and journaling, they christened this service The Studio” Eventually, they moved elements of that alternative service to the traditional service: “…instead of jettisoning traditional worship, [they] applied the principles of experiential worship from The Studio to the other service. Instead of jazz, however, they opened the congregation to experience through classical music, and also wove art, multimedia, and contemplative prayer into the traditional structure” (174).
• “In the congregations in my study, mainline worship had moved eighteen inches: from the head to the heart” (176).
• “Worship is much more than something Christians attend on Sunday morning – it is something pilgrims make together” (178).
• “For too long, mainline Protestants equated worship with thinking about God. Now, in at least some places, their hearts—the whole capacity of being human—are learning to experience God” (178).
• “I realized that the kind of music and art did not matter in worship. Rather, innovation and experimentation mattered” (182).

9. Reflection

• “At its core, theological reflection is a way of seeing the world, of being able to imagine life in a relationship to God’s story, of linking the intellectual content of faith to its everyday practice” (187).
• “At Redeemer [Church], teaching and Bible study are not concerned with dogma and doctrinal facts; rather, they immerse themselves in the biblical stories, attempting to connect their lives with the text’s ancient wisdom” (188).
• “Everywhere, mainline pilgrims insisted upon the importance of intellectual openness to spiritual vitality” (191)
• “These mainline pilgrims linked intellectual curiosity with humility, however. For the people I met, thinking theologically did not mean arriving at certain conclusions” (191).
• “Christian reflection is not done in an ivory tower; it is not the quiet contemplation of the monastery garden. Rather, reflection is the pathway to a life of awe-filled action” (195).

10. Beauty

• “[A]t Redeemer [Church] music, liturgy, and word were completely one, as were the choir, minister, and congregation. Indeed, the congregation appeared to be inside the music, not just watching a performance” (204).
• “In every congregation I visited, there was a growing emphasis on beauty, on knowing God through art, music, and drama, on engaging more than just the mind” (208).
• “Some people refer to this turn of intellectual events as ‘postmodern,’ a shift away from Enlightenment reason toward more experiential forms of knowing” (209).
• “Christianity is changing – from being the Truth of rational speculation to being an exploration of the exquisite truthfulness of beauty” (210).

Some questions to consider:

• What patterns do you see in the “signpost” chapters? Consider both Bass’ organizational strategies as a writer and elements of the signposts themselves.
  
  
• What signposts do you think would be the most challenging for you?
  
  
• Which would be most challenging for our congregation as a whole?
  
  
• Is it possible for a church to have all ten signposts?
  
  
• Can we add other “signposts of renewal” not included here?

Summary of Session 1

Thank you all for the good discussion last night. We've got a good group of people, and I look forward to the next two weeks and to Diana Butler Bass' visit in May.

As we review Christianity for the Rest of Us over the coming weeks, I think there are three key things to keep in mind:

1. Expand our notions of liberal and conservative. I encourage everyone to go beyond politics with these terms. For example, it's possible to have a person who is quite liberal regarding his or her interpretation of the scripture and ideology, but this same person might be conservative in terms of the worship service. By conservative I'm thinking of someone who values the formal elements of worship that have been part of the service for decades.
   
2. How vital is change for a congregation? What might be barriers to change/
3. Finally, consider that people expect to have choices now. As a society we seem to have more options than ever before, and churches are a part of this marketplace. Gone are the days when most people would be content with the denomination that they inherited from their parents and grandparents.
   

These liberal, conservative, change and choice issues led us into a discussion of the diversity of beliefs and backgrounds that come with church members now. It seems to me that it would have been far easier to have been a minister 50 years ago when most of the people in the church simply inherited their faith.

Nomads, exiles, immigrants, converts, returnees, and villagers... we discussed where we as a group fit in. Most of our group considers themselves to be villagers, but the congregation of Second Presbyterian probably has many exiles and converts as well. We also discussed how some people might move through more than one of these categories over a period of years. For example, my disenchantment with the fundamentalist Baptist denomination and my turn to the Presbyterian church makes me an exile, but I've been attending Presbyterian churches exclusively for 12 or 13 years, so have I become a villager now? During college, as I gradually left the fundamentalist movement and started attending a church in the American Baptist denomination off and on, I probably would have been classified as a spiritual nomad, someone without a firm church home.

We wrapped up our discussion by emphasizing that Christianity for the Rest of Us is not so much about how to "grow" a church in terms of membership, but rather to make a church more vital in peoples lives, and the trinity of vitality that is discussed in chapter 3 is key to understanding this.

Next week we tackle the "signposts of renewal." Some of the "signposts" that we want to pay particular attention to are hospitality (chapter 5), discernment (chapter 6), and beauty (chapter 14).

Study Guide for Session 1

Christianity for the Rest of Us by Diana Butler Bass is divided into three parts:

• Part I: What Happened to the Neighborhood Church?
• Part II: Ten Signposts of Renewal
• Part III: From Tourists to Pilgrims

Who is the audience for this book? “If you are satisfied with your local congregation, if you like the kind of Christianity that offers certainty and order in an age of change, if you think church is about closing your eyes, this book is not for you. It is not for the comfortable, the certain, the religiously content. If you feel anxious, however, consider this an invitation. I invite you on my pilgrimage to some very different kinds of churches, old Protestant churches that have found new life in the face of change. They reminded me that Christianity is a sacred pathway to someplace better, a journey of transforming our selves, our faith communities, and our world” (page 11).

Part I: What Happened to the Neighborhood Church?

• Introduction: Bass summarizes the methodology behind her study. Some highlights:
  
  
• 50 participating congregations researched
• 10 congregations served as “in-depth” sites where researchers devoted several weeks or months to the churches.
• The sizes of the congregations ranged from 35 to 2,500 members
• Churches represented the following six denominations: United Church of Christ (UCC), Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), Episcopal Church (ECUSA), United Methodist Church (UMC), Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), and Disciples of Christ (DoC).
• She’s most interested in what she calls “emerging Christianity,” which is a faith that is adapting to changes in a “pluralist, post-Christian world.”
• The 50 congregations were chosen “in which new things appeared to be happening, and where people were growing deeper and experiencing a new sense of identity by intentionally engaging Christian practices” (5).

• Chapter 1: The Vanished Village. This chapter summarizes Bass’ own spiritual journey from her childhood church in Baltimore to where she is now. Since leaving her childhood church, she saw herself becoming one of the many “spiritual nomads” who lack a strong identification with a denominational church. We’re post denominational. Bass believes strongly that Christianity is about change and that churches cannot become “refuges from change” or resist change. Jesus’ life and teachings in the New Testament serve as a model to show that Christians should embrace change.
  
  
• Chapter 2: Remembering Christianity. This chapter argues for a “creative third way” for congregations. The “third way” needs to be reinvented periodically as the religious poles change. Rev. Lillian Daniel, the minister of Church of the Redeemer in New Haven, CT, embodies what Bass sees as third way for churches today: “…a blended sort of Christian theology and spirituality that draws from the deep wells of tradition and yet is generously open to change and the remaking of those very traditions. Congregations need to become “comprehensive churches” that emphasize “life in this world” by offering practices “that enable people to live better and more faithfully in God” (36). A comprehensive church does not make “grand claims” about eternity and salvation.
  
  
• Chapter 3: The New Village Church. According to Bass, churches too often assume that because the people who attend are Christian they do need any help to be, think, and pray like Christians. However, the primary mission of a church should be as a spiritual community that “forms people of faith.” It may seem like conventional wisdom to become more secular in order to appeal to a larger number of people and thus grow the congregation, but Bass argues that “[m]ainline churches decline when they neglect scripture and prayer, discernment and hospitality, contemplation and justice” (45). Bass emphasizes more than once that mainline churches must be careful not to simply become a kind of Christian Rotary Club. Instead, churches should form a “trinity of vitality.” This trinity is:
  
  
• Tradition, Not Traditionalism
• Practice, Not Purity
• Wisdom, Not Certainty
  
  
• Chapter 4: Finding Home. This chapter covers different groups of individuals who are seeking a church home: returnees, exiles, immigrants, converts, and villagers.

Some key terms

Comprehensive church: Diversity would be a key word for the comprehensive church. Such churches appeal to a wide variety of Christians and they do not make “grand claims” about eternity and salvation. Instead they focus on “practice,” helping individuals to “live better and more faithfully with God” (36).

Convert: People without a religious background who are coming to church. Bass sees this term a little differently than a fundamentalist might where conversion is a one-time event. Instead, conversion is on-going; it is a pilgrimage.

Exile: Displaced or disenfranchised people from other faiths (Catholicism, fundamentalism) who appreciate the openness of mainline churches.

Historical amnesia: Misconstruing the past to better make sense of the present or to increase one’s power in the present. For example, Christians might be guilty of historical amnesia when they argue that the founding fathers were Christian and thus intended for the United States to be a Christian nation. In a narrower sense, we could apply the term within churches themselves when members forget or misconstrue the religious traditions of their denomination.

Immigrant: Bass uses this term for both literal immigrants (people from Mexico, for example, who have found a home in a U.S. mainline church) and people like herself who are finding church to be a home again.

Mainstream or mainline church: Bass has referred to mainstream or mainline churches as “brand name” churches where the name of the denomination appears in the church name. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life uses mainline church to differentiate between two other major Protestant branches, Evangelical Protestant Churches and Historically Black Churches. Mainline Protestant Churches would include American Baptists, United Methodists, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church USA, Episcopal Church, Disciples of Christ, and the United Church of Christ among others.

Practice: This term is a contrast to purity in Bass’ book. Christian practice would refer to things that Christians should be doing, but they are done in an “open, inclusive, and nonjudgmental way” (49). Purity, on the other hand, would be exclusivist practice that it centered on moral or theological superiority.

Returnee: People who are “returning home” to the church traditions of their childhood.

Spiritual nomad: A person who lacks a “home” church. Bass says that spiritual nomads might feel like “strangers in a strange land” when it comes to church.

Third way of Christianity: “[A] blended sort Christian theology and spirituality that draws from deep wells of tradition and yet is generously open to change and the remaking of those very traditions” (34).

Tradition: Bass makes a distinction between tradition, which she sees as positive, and traditionalism, which she sees as negative. She believes that tradition can be a “fluid, dynamic, and critical process” (47) for churches, whereas traditionalism is more authoritarian and exclusive.

Trinity of vitality: Three interrelated characteristics of thriving churches: tradition, practice, and wisdom.

Villager: Lifelong members of a church or denomination. People who have never left.

Wisdom: Wisdom is a contrast to certainty. Churches that emphasize wisdom enjoy asking questions. They resist dogma and certain answers. They are comfortable with some ambiguity.

Some questions to consider

• How has the world changed since you were a child? How has the church changed since you were a child? In your experience, is change positive or negative?
• How influential was the church in your upbringing? Does the church of your childhood influence your beliefs today?
• How do we define liberal and conservative when it comes to churches?
• How aware are churches today that people have choices in life?

Highlights from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

• Among people 18-29, 25% say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion. Among people 70 or older, on 8% say they are unaffiliated.
  
  
• The United States is on the verge of becoming a minority Protestant country with the numbers of Americans who are members of Protestant denominations at 51%.
  
  
• The 51% breaks down along the following lines:
• Evangelical Protestant Churches: 26.3%
• Mainline Protestant Churches: 18.1%
• Historically Black Churches: 6.9%
  
  
• Catholicism has the greatest net loss as the result of “affiliation changes.” 31% of Americans were raised Catholic; 24% now describe themselves as Catholic.
  
  
• Catholicism’s numbers overall have remained stable because many immigrants are Catholic. Among immigrants, 46% are Catholic and 24% are Protestant. Among native-born Americans, 55% are Protestant and 21% are Catholic.
  
  
• Among people 70 or older, 62% are Protestant.
  
  
• Among people 18-29, 43% are Protestant. This lower percentage, plus the higher percentage for unaffiliated people in this age group from the first bullet point above, suggests that declines in the Protestant church and a growth in people unaffiliated with religion will continue.
  
  
• Members of mainline Protestant churches and Jews are older than members of other groups.
  
  
• The Pew Forum’s survey sampled 35,000 adults from May 8-August 13, 2007.

Websites of interest

• Diana Butler Bass’s website: http://www.dianabutlerbass.com
• The Pew Forum U.S. Religious Landscape Survey: http://religions.pewforum.org/
• The Emergent Village: http://www.emergentvillage.com/
• Christianity for the Rest of Us Blog: http://aprilsmallgroup.blogspot.com/

Three-Week Overview

To prepare for Diana Butler Bass’ visit to Second Presbyterian Church in May, the Hage Committee will be offering a small-group session for three weeks in April to discuss her recent book, Christianity for the Rest of Us. At the basis of this book is Bass’ three-year research project in which she studied fifty congregations from six denominations to determine how mainstream churches not only survive but thrive in today’s religious climate. Christianity for the Rest of Us is divided into three parts, and we’ll use these sections as the basic organizing structure for our three-week study.

April 16: Tradition and Transformation. During this meeting we will seek to gain an understanding of the spiritual experiences of our group. Some questions we’ll consider: Why do we value church? What do we seek in a church? What are our personal spiritual histories? How do our own stories compare with the history of our church or our denomination? Finally, we’ll explore the notion of “spiritual nomads” and why they’re relevant to Second Church.

April 23: Expanding Our Sense of Worship. Ten chapters form the heart of Bass’ book. She calls these chapters “Signposts of Renewal” because the work and activities described in each chapter demonstrate how specific congregations achieved a sense of renewal. As we discuss these chapters, we’ll grapple with the very definition of worship and how a church might create something new while staying true to its foundation. We’ll discuss topics such as hospitality, contemplation, testimony, diversity, justice, and beauty.

April 30: Becoming a Pilgrim Congregation. After contemplating what other churches have done across the United States, it’s time to look at our own church. Where do we see Second Presbyterian Church in the coming years? What signposts of renewal from Bass’ book might work for us?