Categories: spiritual-journey, evangelicalism
Date: 17 September 2010 10:55:59
I've started working my way through Tony Blair's autobiography and have been v. struck by one part of it. He has been talking about why he was so determined to create "New Labour" and what it was about. It struck a real chord with me in relation to the church and I want to pick up on it because I think it's really important.
He says that there were two main strands of thought within the Labour movement; the strand which was made up of born and bred Labour supporters and the strand made up by those who took a theoretical approach to life. His argument was that both these strands failed to fully engage with the thoughts, desires, interests and lifestyles of those outside the Labour movement, i.e the majority of the electorate who cared about issues effecting their lives but not about politics as such.
I was immeadiately struck reading this section of the book by how what he believed the Labour Party needed to get hold of also relates to the church. We tend to be a mix of people who have been bought up within the culture, (the "cradle to grave" brigade) and those who take a more theoretical approach who are those engaging in alot of the debates around the place of the church in modern society and the shape it should take.
I fully believe that as the church we do have a real lesson to learn here. Whatever we think of New Labour the fact is it did manage to engage with the middle ground and arguably the interests of the "ordinary voter" in a way which they hadn't previously been able to. This took people beyond the "traditional"/ "theoretical" place and out of the "branch meeting" / "Islington dinner party discussion" debate. In order to do seriously do mission in contemporary society I really believe we need to do the same.
I know this is difficult, I'm a natural theoretical type who has immersed themselves in this culture. What I need to do, along with many others is to firstly find out what "ordinary people" are interested in. We then need to develop approaches and ethical frameworks which engage with their concerns. This will need a process of actually working out what our absolutes are and then what how these can be expressed with and through the concerns of the "ordinary person".
I write this as I listen to the Apple 7 discussion on "Institutions an Outmoded Technology" and am struck by the fact we do have great leaders, but they are very much stuck in the theoretical approach. What I am looking for is the emergence of some Tony Blair type leaders in the church. I never thought I'd say that, not being a Blair fan....but I think we do need some people willing to stand up in the middle space betweent the centre and the edge to work outside the box within the established place in order to change the established way of doing things, but being willing to be shot from both sides. We need people to stand up and say Christianity is about mission and if we are serious about mission we need to engage with what the "middle mass" are actually concerned about.