Future found in ancient
___By Victoria Moon
___Kentucky Western Recorder
___LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP)--What does the church of the future look like? According to some church leaders, it mixes sixth century liturgy with alternative rock, monastic visual images with high technology and early Christian traditions with postmodern culture to create a blend that is drawing a whole new generation of people to the church.
___"Something is definitely beginning to happen, and God is doing something new," said Dieter Zander, founder of ReImagine, a non-profit evangelism/ church-planting group in San Francisco. "What's going on seems odd to the church because it's outside the lines of what the church has been doing."
___But several observers insist that even the most traditional of churches can't afford to ignore this blend of ancient traditions and today's technology.
___While many churches won't adopt all aspects of this movement, the trend can be instructive to any church, regardless of style and location, they say, especially if they're seeking to reach teenagers and young adults.
___According to Ralph Winter, founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission, 5,000 "Generation X" churches focusing on alternative, postmodern worship have been started in the United States, and church-starting experts say the numbers are increasing steadily.
___Ancient-future faith, according to Robert Webber, founder of the Institute for Worship Studies and professor of worship at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Ill., blends first-through-sixth century traditional worship with the culture and practices of today.
___"The paradigm of the classical or ancient Christian era was that of mystery, community and symbol," he writes in "Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World." "The postmodern paradigm is rediscovery of mystery, community and symbol."
___Webber says this breaks down into a more active role of the congregation when it comes to participating in worship, creating a multi-sensory experience with banners, pageantry, movement and reciting classic Christian creeds and prayers.
___Many church starters and worship leaders working with postmodern congregations agree with Webber's assessment.
___"Many people today are looking for a more sensual worship, and by that I mean a worship that engages all the senses," said Zander, co-author of the book "Inside the Soul of a New Generation." "The Reformation stripped away everything that would distract from the central message," he said. "They removed the icons, the tactile elements of worship so hearing the message was the only sense engaged.
___"Young people today surround themselves with sensual experience, and that is how
worship was meant to be," he added. "Things that are not dependent on words, using the things that God has put around us--these things need to be brought back into worship."
___In Louisville, Ky., the Sojourn Community is an example of a new church coloring outside the lines of mainstream congregations.
___Pastor Daniel Montgomery said Sojourn began last year in an attempt to reach people who were falling through the cracks in more mainstream churches.
___"Our focus is those with a postmodern mindset, the 'cultural creative,'" he said. "People who tend to reject hedonism, materialism and cynicism. They are crying for something authentic."
___Sojourn mixes postmodern, narrative-style sermons with film clips, and traditional liturgy with alternative rock and iconography to create a unique worship experience that isattracting 80 to 100 people a week since the church's inception last September.
___"For example, we recently had a baptism service where we dimmed the lights and used a DVD player to show images of icons from the classic Russian film "Andrei Rublyov" while the baptism was going on," Montgomery said.
___"Our musicians can rock out, but at the same time we use a lot of the traditional hymns. And we may use film clips from films like 'American Beauty' to illustrate a point in a sermon, yet we follow the traditional liturgical calendar," Montgomery said.
___In Lynchburg, Va., Pastor Jim Baucom of Rivermont Avenue Baptist Church started a Celtic worship service on Sunday mornings for the young adults in his church who were craving a different style of worship from what was offered in the church's regular contemporary-style service.
___At Rivermont's Celtic service, worship leaders wear traditional medieval vestments, the service is candlelit and Celtic Christian prayers, poetry and imagery are mixed with guided silences and a brief sermon.
___"The elements of Celtic Christianity we use come primarily from the sixth century," Baucom said. "It's a tradition that's very Trinitarian and evangelistic."
___"We're incorporating elements of Celtic Christianity in a form appropriate to our culture now while not sacrificing what's most important from our Baptist heritage," he added.
___Celtic Christianity offers many elements that appeal to today's young adults, Baucom said. "It offers a multi-sensory religious experience and focuses on the mystery of God. A lot of the people who come to our service don't want to think God is all-knowable. They want something that will capture the enormity of who God is."
___The Celtic service draws between 150 to 200 worshippers every Sunday, and Baucom said he isn't surprised to see that many are also not Gen-Xers.
___"We get a lot of senior adults as well, many of Scotch-Irish descent who grew up in simple, agrarian types of environments and are drawn to the simplicity of the Celtic service," he said.
___In fact, all those interviewed noted that the one generation missing from these postmodern services and churches is the baby boomer generation, who still attend mainstream services in high numbers.
___"Many of the mega-churches we know today, as well as contemporary worship and the praise and worship-style choruses, were born of the '70s and the Jesus Movement," said Zander, former pastor of New Song Church in Covina, Ca., considered by many to be the first Gen-X church in the country.
___"That movement took off and captured a whole generation--the baby boomer generation. So they are off the church radar screen on this," he added.
___Smaller churches find it easier to adapt their style than mega-churches, which have the constraints of size and budget, he added.
___"Small churches have the freedom to ask, 'What if we try being who we are where we are? What if we try ministering where we are?'
___"Mega-churches have a lot of pressure to continue being mega-churches," he noted. "Part of what happens in a mega-church is they have to continue playing to people's needs to garner the numbers and financial support they need to stay huge."
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