Like most people 😉 my mind occasionally drifts to happy thoughts of Heidegger’s notion of Dasein as being-unto-death. Marty (can I call him Marty?) reminds us that when people becomes aware of their inevitable death; really aware, like after a near death experience they see their life as a whole; not like a movie real of life events, but a sense of who they are as a whole being. The person’s “being” becomes clearer to her or himself.
I’ve been wondering whether there is a communal “being-unto-death.” I was thinking specifically about an ecclesial “being-unto-death” and wondering whether such a crisis is central to all or most church renewal movements.
Could it be that the growth of the avant-church movement (emergent, allelon, the ooze, off-the-map, resonate, ekklesia project, alt worship, liquid church, simple church, missional movement, new ecumenism, etc,) is a response to an “ecclesial near death experience.”
Could it be that the fresh sense of “who we are” following the awareness the church is about to die is the driving force behind many of these movements.
It sounds kind of obvious, right? I find it so interesting how individualistically our Christ-communities responding to the possibility of their death. We are scrambling to find life. I can’t help wondering whether part of our drive toward missionality is little more than an attempt at communal-self-preservation – which may not be a bad thing.
The idea of “surrender” keeps coming to mind.
The individualistic-community responses to ecclesial death may signal a move toward a new ecclesial wholeness. However it might invite a more robust surrender of individualistic-community grasps at life.
peace, dwight
Of course – the "church" goes through a 120 year cycle. It starts with a "new model", which appeals to a subset of society, but it largely attracts hodovers from the previous cycle. It does this for about a generation.
Then, it appeals to a large block of unchurched. For example, Billy Sunday appealed to the immigrants and poor of Americas booming cities. For this second generation, it evolves from tabernacle rootlessness and "seeker sensitivity", to stable neighborhoods and churches, like pre WWII America.
Then, another type of evangelist appears – that appeals to a higher demographic – Billy Graham – and the church is much more diverse – most of the MBTI types, varying educational levels, etc. Technology (television) helps, and the church has a presence in most of Americas subcultures.
Then, the fourth generation (about 90 years in to the cycle) hits and theres a steady erosion in ethics, then a landslide (Bakker). "Born Agains" become "out", and the church becomes defensive. In 2 or 3 decades, it becomes irrelevant, largely perceived by the unchurched as a closed club, or a recovery mission.
Every 120 years theres a Luther, Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, John Wanamaker (and Ive mised a couple). They arrive when the church is "dead" and are the catalyst to raise the dead. Who is the next catalyst, to start the church on the next 120 years? I nominate Dwight Friesen!