Church in the Inventive Age

For my Issues in Ministry class I have been reading a book entitled Church in the Inventive Age by Doug Pagitt.  Pagitt is the founder of Solomon's Porch which is a missional Christian community in Minneapolis, MN.  Most people would classify his community as an "emerging church" community, though I am not entirely sure they would classify themselves as such.  Regardless of classification, Pagitt's form of ministry has been widely successful at bringing young adults into relationship with God.  The practices of the community would not look like mainstream Christianity.  The appearance would be radically different.  One would struggle to find connections to any mainstream denomination, but the connections are there and the radically welcoming spirit that they exude is intoxicating.  They, and so many other emerging communities that are popping up across the country, are offering young adults the stimulating environment that helps to foster community.  Though his approach to ministry, mission, and evangelism, is not like "our approach" the desired results are the same, empowering people to explore their relationship with God while living out their faith in their daily lives.

That being said, Pagitt has written several books about his experiences with alternative expressions of our shared Christian faith, which is why we are reading him in class.  In his book he raises an interesting point about being church in the inventive age.  He argues that the church has borne witness to several ages from the agrarian age to the industrial age to the information age and now we live in the inventive age.  He contends that we, the church, must adapt to the age in which we live or we risk falling by the wayside.  I would bet that there a lot of people who think the same way.  "The church must change or we will become irrelevant," or "we are dying because we are too stuck in the past."  I however see it a little bit differently.  I agree that we must adapt our message so that we can connect with people across multiple platforms.  And when I say adapt our message I really mean the ways in which we communicate that message.  If preaching the word of God on Sunday mornings from a pulpit in a nearly empty church isn't working then perhaps the word of God needs to travel to meet the people where they are, since they are not in the pews.  If missional work is done by the clergy alone, then perhaps it is time to give up our personal authority so that we can empower the laity to lead.  I do agree that we need to adapt our delivery system but what will happen if we take on too much of our culture?  Will we not just blend in and fade into the background?  It seems to me that the church has been and must continue to be counter-cultural.  We must be willing to engage in the conversation that are need for our day, but I fear that take on the mantle of our current culture and carry it too far our Christian identity might be lost in the milieu.  I am supportive and even excited to continue to explore new expressions of our identity and faith, but we must not be too willing to differentiate ourselves from our history and tradition.  Pagitt is on to something, it is up to us individually to figure out how it might apply to our own faith communities.