Here’s a fascinating quote from Church on the Edge, by Stoddard and Cuthbert:

“In Computer-speak, applications will always go back to the default setting even if they have been temporarily altered. For a permanent change in how the computer responds, you have to change the default settings. The default of the church as we have known it tends to be set for pastoral care and maintaining what we have. Sudden flurries into mission will always default back. Individual Christians do not have, as a whole, ‘mission’ as default in their thinking. That is not a point of blame, it is the result of history. But it is time to change the default of church life.”

I found the quote on the web site of a church in Belfast, www.wellsmoneyrea.org. The pastor is a former Anglican priest in the Church of Ireland, and obviously he hopes that this new church he and a few others have formed will establish a new default setting devoted to God’s mission to the world.

I think he’ll be disappointed. Many pastors who grew impatient with the form of the traditional church have decided to plant their own churches in order to get it right from the beginning. The charter members share a common vision and determine to stay the course. But ten years later, and sometimes as little as two or three years into the new venture, institutional concerns assert an increasingly potent centripetal force.

In light of the current interest in transforming churches into missional communities, the imposing weight of two millennia of churches defaulting into maintenance mode should give us pause. Is it possible to change the default setting?

Some emerging churches, fearing a slide into institutional preoccupations, simply refuse to organize themselves. They’re loosely knit communities with a mission. That will last for one generation only, I suspect.

I think there are two things going on in the inevitable loss of missional focus, one to respect and affirm, and the other to accept with calm resignation. The positive angle is that there is more to church than mission. The Presbyterian Church (USA), in its list of the six Great Ends of the Church, has it right: while four of the six Great Ends are missional, worship and nurture are also held up as top-rank purposes for every church. When the church settles down for the long haul, it is right and good that other concerns emerge.

On the other hand, the loss of missional focus is something to decry and resist. Sin finds a way to corrupt every good thing, and the inward focus of some churches is attributable to nothing less than spiritual entropy. Churches will always need prophets to get them back on track.

Missional leaders are today’s prophets, and we need to heed their voices. In a note of realism, however, I would say that one generation from now, when our missional churches have lost their way and have hardened into institutional dinosaurs, our savior God, who is determined to complete the mission despite our default settings, will send still more prophets to call the church once again toward its mission.

Britons love coffee. It was one of the surprises of my time in UK to be drinking far more coffee over here than I do at home. Starbucks is in every city, as is the local version, Costa. In the homes I stayed in, I was offered coffee in the morning, at lunch, again at 4:00, with dinner and at bedtime. The real stuff. . . no decaf. And to meet with someone, it was always “to have a coffee.”

One of the UK coffee chains, where I met several times with church leaders, is called Clement’s, and the corporate slogan is, “We’re religious about coffee.” Interestingly, the churches are also religious about coffee. First of all, most churches make a deal out of serving only fair trade coffee. They’re willing to pay a bit more for coffee to a wholesaler who guarantees that the harvesters were paid a fair wage. Some American churches are attuned to this issue, and the rest would be wise to get on board as well.

But the real story about coffee is how coffee shops have become the standard meeting place for all types and all occasions. Coffee shops are replacing the still ubiquitous pubs, now that smoking is illegal in all public places. Standing outside for a smoke and going back inside for a drink quickly loses its appeal.

But people still crave a third place (home, work,, third place), and coffee shops are big items these days. Churches are cashing in on the trend, turning their entry areas into cafés, complete with small, round tables and the machinery to make specialty, gourmet coffee to order. St. Mark’s Church, in Haydock, England, is an example (photo, left). They keep their café open throughout the week as a community gathering place and staff their café with church volunteers.

The coffee shop is a prominent strategy for mission in the UK. Some of the first emerging churches in England were nothing more than coffee shops, where the staff befriended patrons and began to draw them toward spiritual conversations. As a regular clientele developed, the supportive relationships began to take on overtones of Christian community.

In Belfast, where tensions between Protestant and Catholic populations were intolerably high only a few years ago, City Church, located a block off the Queen’s University campus, converted most of its building apart from the sanctuary into the coffee shop, Common Grounds (photo, top). It’s a regular commercial establishment, staffed partly by paid employees and partly by church volunteers. The mission is to provide a safe place for Catholics and Protestants to meet. That’s huge in Belfast, where you only go into places where you are known and accepted. Alan, my host for the week, pointed to a pub one afternoon in a neighborhood five miles from his home, and said, “If I went in there, they’d know within ten minutes I wasn’t one of them.” The city cries out for common ground, and one church is determined to provide it.

I’m in the Manchester, England, airport, returning to New Jersey after five weeks in UK. Becky asked today if I will be able to remember what side of the road to drive on when we return. I think the switch will come naturally, but after driving for several weeks over here, the left side seems “right.”

I came over here on sabbatical on the hunch that the church in UK is in trouble to a greater degree than in the States, and that the secularizing trend that has diminished its effectiveness is also in motion in the USA. I figured that whatever the church is learning in order to counter the cultural challenges will be of use to American churches as we face changing times.

But there was something more I wanted to experience while here. Rather than talk only with pastors of conventional churches about how they are dealing with decline, I wanted to encounter the truly radical, experimental forms of ministry that are born out of desperation. These are unconventional churches, to say the least, yet they are formed out of a fresh examination of the scriptures. So much of what Western Christians have come to think of as essential for a church may in fact be nothing more than cultural baggage that hinders our mission.

So, I decided to “drive on the wrong side of the road,” living in opposite scenarios in order to figure this all out. It has been a fascinating journey, very much worth while, stretching me in wonderful ways. I have loved being here and I leave with reluctance. When I return home and continue my reading I will have an updated data bank of experiences and conversations that will provide meaningful context for what I read.

Will I be content to go back to the right side of the road? Probably not. Sabbaticals can be life-changing spiritual journeys, and I think this is no exception. I still have several weeks left, with one more chapter of travel, course work, and visiting churches, and so it is too early to draw any conclusions, but already I can say how grateful to God I am for this extraordinary chapter in my life’s journey.

I got way behind in posting reflections in this web log while in UK, partly because finding internet access was a challenge and also because my days were so full I had little time for writing up my thoughts. In the coming days I will be adding further postings about conversations and experiences relating to my weeks here, even though they will be a bit out of sync.

How can cell groups contribute to a church’s missional approach? Typically, fellowship groups are an end in themselves, a setting for supportive relationships and spiritual growth, but without an outward dimension. Is that a problem? It can be, if busy people can only allot a small portion of their week to Christian activity. By giving themselves to a few others, relationships can go deep, but a sense of dichotomy between Christians and the world can develop, making it harder to take the gospel to others.

Recognizing this challenge, the pastor of St. Mark’s Church in Haydock, England, issues “the vicar’s challenge” each year to all the small groups in his congregation. He gives fifty pounds (dollars) from church funds every year to each group, challenging them to come up with a mission activity, and to use the money as start-up funds. At the end of the year, the groups share during worship how they spent their money in a mission endeavor.

It works “brilliantly,” as they like to say in England. The cell groups have the support base for prayer and encouragement as they discern together how they might launch out in mission. And their faith grows deeper as a result.

There comes a point at which one’s faith grows only in proportion to the facing of ministry challenges. Being on the front line of ministry, trying to extend the reach of God’s kingdom, offering the hope of the gospel to broken lives: these kinds of activity are exhilarating and demanding. They create new questions that can be faced together within a small group, and when the groups encounters difficulties and setbacks, there is built-in support.

The vicar’s challenge is a clue for how American churches can make the transition toward becoming missional.

After visiting several of the unconventional ministries in England that go under the title, Fresh Expressions, we were more than ready to spend a morning reflecting on the question, Is it church yet? Steven Croft, the Anglican minister who directs the Fresh Expressions program, presented a number of theological pointers to help us think through the question.

First, what is the essence of church? What do we need as a minimum for it to be church? Pews? No. Building? No. Hymnals? No. And so forth. Croft said that as he reads the New Testament he finds three non-negotiables: the presence of the risen Christ, a community gathered in Christ’s name, and a mission from God. That leaves a lot of room for creativity. The title of the book, Messy Church, aptly describes the wide tolerance of ambiguity in many of these Fresh Expressions churches.

Eventually, of course, there is the need to establish some structure, in order to make decisions and to preserve the core values. Therefore also the question of membership emerges. Croft finds the apostle Paul wrestling with matters of leadership, structure and membership in his Corinthian letters. Interestingly, Croft observes, Paul did not refer these questions to the Jerusalem church. Rather, Paul searched for first principles based on his understanding of what Christ was doing in extending the mission to the Gentiles. Paul was both theological and inventive in arriving at his understanding of how the Corinthian church should organize itself.

But what if the result doesn’t look much at all like the New Testament models? All churches have to struggle with the contrast between their ideal and the reality, Croft insists. Fresh Expression churches may have an edge on traditional churches because they live so close to those who are outside the church. These non-Christians are helpful, if the church is listening, for pointing out inconsistencies and shortcomings in a church’s life and ministry.

So, when a creative ministry is formed in order to reach people with the gospel, is it church yet? Steven Croft offers this theological assertion: “The church is always incomplete and will never be perfect. Our wholeness and perfection is in our continuity with the whole people of God throughout history.”

It was John Wesley, the Methodist reformer, who is remembered for the declaration, “The world is my parish.” It was a revolutionary idea at the time, in a British context where the cities were divided into parishes and clergy assigned to everyone within the parish bounds. How can one be a minister of the gospel without a defined parish?

Nevertheless Wesley insisted, “I look upon all the world as my parish; thus far I mean, that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation. This is the work which I know God has called me to; and sure I am that His blessing attends it.”

It’s not such a remarkable statement for most American Christians, whose churches have no geographic boundary. But many of today’s churches do have a spiritual boundary. They assume those who are not yet Christians are not capable of being partners in ministry. God is at work through Christians; God speaks to Christians; but non-Christians are outside the boundary of God’s activity in the world.

But emergent church leaders are ignoring the classic distinction of who is “in” and who is “out,” with the assumption that God is revealing himself to all people, and even non-Christians are sometimes able to pick up the signal. Not only that, they may be on the ministry team. Support for this idea is found in the assertion of Jesus, “No one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.” (Mark 9:39-40)

It’s a new twist on the parish concept, and it is especially noticeable in the UK. Whereas Wesley called the world his parish because he wanted to bring the gospel to any who would respond, emerging churches consider the whole world the arena where God is at work. Their parish includes any who are willing to play a part in God’s mission to the world, regardless of whether they have come to faith in Christ.

For the most part, churches in England can be classified into two categories, the conventional congregations, which have very little reach into the secular culture, and emerging churches, which have. . . well, very little resemblance to “church.” It is remarkable that both conventional and emerging churches are happily included under the umbrella of the Church of England, which sponsors hundreds of emerging church ventures under the heading, Fresh Expressions. However, seldom do “inherited” and emerging churches interact. Further, there is not much evidence of inherited churches making the transition toward an emerging style.

A notable exception is St. Mark’s Haydock, www.stmarkshaydock.org, an Anglican church in a Liverpool suburb. Here is an inherited church with several satellite ventures operating as emerging churches. While St. Mark’s offers the usual worship and fellowship events at its home site, church members lead off-site ministries that function as emerging churches. Some examples:

– a cell church comprised of police personnel, meeting in the local police headquarters

– a café, open on Sunday mornings, providing faith-based conversation in a “Friends” atmosphere

– a Sunday morning parent and child worship and learning event held in the elementary school

To depict its dual identity as settled congregation and missional outpost, St. Mark’s now calls itself The Lake and River Church. Lakes remain in place; rivers flow wherever the ground provides a way. Carrying the metaphor further, every lake needs water flowing into and out of it, or it becomes stagnant. Alternately, every river that does not have a source soon becomes empty.

So the inherited church at St. Mark’s and its associated emerging churches depend on and nourish each other. It’s a successful model that may transfer quite well to the American context.

It is ironic that in some people’s minds, church is in competition with families. “We don’t often go to church because Sunday is our only day to do something together as a family.” St. Mark’s Church, in a suburb of Liverpool, England, is addressing that challenge head-on with a Sunday morning program called Famlegh First.

Joy Potter, member of St. Mark’s, has taught at Legh Vale Primary School for nineteen years. She knows first-hand the struggles of teachers and parents, and she observes that almost none of them are involved in any church. So she and several others from St. Mark’s are taking church to the school.

Once a month on a Sunday morning, forty or so parents and children will arrive at their school for a fun, interactive, intergenerational event. There are snacks, craft tables, group games, singing, and a brief drama enacting a biblical story. Children choose one of four stations, where with their parents’ help they express on a card something of their inner selves. One station might say, “I am worried about. . .” and another, “I am thankful because. . .” During circle time all of the children place their cards in the center as an offering of prayer to God.

Why do people come to Famlegh First? Comments from attenders include:

“It’s child friendly”

“has been a blessing to us”

“spending quality family time”

“It’s relaxed, fun, loving, and creative”

“It’s a very warm atmosphere. It also teaches the children decent values.”

For the families who participate, Famlegh First is church: their only experience of Christian based community, worship, learning, and caring. That’s fine with the people at St. Mark’s Church. For them Famlegh First is “a coming together of God’s people outside of the normal church structures, with the sole purpose of being ‘the church in mission’, doing church in new ways for a new generation.”

Like many large cities, Manchester, England has seen exponential growth in the number of young adults living in the city center. The Church of England, noticing that trend, knew that these new residents would be unlikely to attend the existing churches, so as part of their Fresh Expressions program they employed Ben Edson to find a new way to introduce them to the gospel. Ben and a handful of friends began to meet regularly to find a strategy for reaching people who think of themselves as spiritually open but who would never think they could find what they are looking for in church.

As a first step they opened the Nexus Arts Café. Originally it was a place for young adults to drop in after the pubs and night clubs closed. The purpose shifted since then, but the target population has not. Nexus is a quiet, sophisticated coffee shop open 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. The walls are covered with works of local artists.

A small faith community has formed among those who created Nexus. On Wednesday nights the fellowship sponsors an outreach event that is low-key and conversational. Sundays the circle of friends meets for worship.

They call themselves a church. In England there are several café churches, where the organizing principle is a commercially operated café. It’s an ideal setting for introducing Christian community, and gradually, Christian faith, to those who stop in.

One of the real treats of my first week in UK was sharing the experience with classmates from around the world. All are enrolled in Fuller Seminary’s D.Min. course, “Encountering New Ways of Being Church,” either for credit or, like me, as a graduate auditing the course. Here is a brief profile of some of the participants:

Silas – Chinese pastor living in Vancouver, BC. The church he planted eleven years ago is now planting three other churches.

David – Presbyterian missionary to Tibet

Richard – pastor of the state Reformed church near Bern, Switzerland

Dan – pastor of a multiracial, Pentecostal church in Los Angeles in a community where 80 languages are spoken

Lyn – a Salvation Army officer in Australia, teaching missiology in the SA training school, and pastor of an inner city church which has a ministry to those with mental illness

James – associate pastor in a Baptist church in Manhattan. In addition he and his wife lead a vibrant ministry for young artists, called The Haven.

Daniel – an American serving as associate pastor in Glasgow with the Church of Scotland. Before coming to Scotland served in ministry for seven years in Israel.

Bjorn – national leader for the Seventh Day Adventist churches in Denmark

And of course, the course leaders, John and Olive Drane. John is a minister in the Church of Scotland and former professor at the seminary in Aberdeen. A prolific author, he has written 72 books to date. John left his seminary teaching in frustration over the inadequate way students were being prepared for ministry – with the educational assumption that graduates were being sent to churches that could continue to thrive without adjusting to the new challenges of a post-Christian culture. As he explored what God was doing through “emerging” churches, he began to write about his findings. Soon Fuller Seminary picked him up as a guide for pastors wanting to discover new directions. His wife Olive has spent her adult years searching for creative, artistic and participative ways to worship.