They titled it, "Remix," and it is the first group to address emerging church issues in a Seventh-day Adventist context in the South Pacific region of the church. The group gathered at Fox Valley Community Church (FVCC)in Wahroonga, New South Wales, Dec.
They titled it, “Remix,” and it is the first group to address emerging church issues in a Seventh-day Adventist context in the South Pacific region of the church. The group gathered at Fox Valley Community Church (FVCC)in Wahroonga, New South Wales, Dec. 8 to 11, and set out to explore faith, community and mission in a postmodern culture.
“We have come together to listen to each other, to interact with each other and be open to learn more effective ways of doing and being church in our secular, postmodern environment,” said Pastor Garth Bainbridge, who, along with Pastor Peter Fowler, hosted Remix at FVCC. “As a church we need to be open to the future—flexible—not just stuck in the past.”
According to Nathan Brown, editor of the regional church weekly, and initiator of the event, Remix was not about solving all the problems and finding all the answers over a few days. “Remix was about starting an ongoing discussion,” he says. In clarifying the term “postmodern,” he adds, ‘Post’ does not mean ‘anti.’ It just means it is coming after. It is not about throwing out all the old stuff. In fact, postmodernism brings—and values—many of the older things with it.”
The diversity found in postmodern culture was reflected in those who attended Remix. While the majority of attendees had a pastoral background, others were medical doctors, college professors, editors, community workers, counsellors and students and ranged in age from 19 to over 60.
Sue Redman, minister for Chatswood Adventist Church, came to Remix looking for practical ideas and resources. “I already know the theory. I want something practical to take home with me,” she says. Brad Melville, assistant minister for Mile End Community Church, says he was “here to learn.” Annali Bird, a second-year theology student at Avondale College, says she was interested to hear what church leadership was thinking.
Keynote speaker Pastor Ryan Bell, minister of the Bucks County Adventist Church in the United States, and founder and coordinator of the re-church network, spoke about the emerging church in its American context, what the journey could look like, reclaiming spirituality and learning to love well.
Pastor Bell, who is also currently pursuing his doctorate in missional leadership at Fuller Seminary, observes “Australia is a culture much further along the road of postmodernism than the United States.”
He called for a return to what he terms “primal Adventism. We need to recapture the vision of historical Adventism, not historic Adventism,” he says. “Adventism has been tamed. It was not tame originally. We need to recover the center of Adventism.”
In explaining what the emerging church might be, Brown described what the emerging church is not: “It is not the new style of church or the next thing from contemporary. It is not a worship style. It is not just a few hours each week, but rather, a whole lifestyle. It is not an evangelism strategy. It is not a ‘cool choice.’”
“In fact it is not a choice. If you are postmodern, that is who you are. Postmodernism is a culture just like any other. The emerging church is not a watered-down version of Christianity or a watered-down version of Adventism.”
Carolyn Kitto, a mission-planning consultant and former member of the National Church Life Survey team, spoke on the emerging church and Australian culture. “We live in a post-Christian culture that no longer delivers people to the church,” she says. “The value of church ... has declined. Options in society have increased and those options don’t include church.”
She says that the church has held onto habits that no longer work. The motivators of each generation from “builders”, to “baby boomers”, to “Gen X” and “Gen Y” is different, and she says “every generation must discover the entry points for the gospel for its generation.” In emerging churches she finds compassion and community are motivations, not commitment and challenge.
When asked how to start being more mission-focused as a pastor, Kitto suggests ministers spend more time ... practicing personal spiritual disciplines and out in the real world interacting with non-Christians.
When asked what a denomination can do, among other things, she suggests focusing on strengths they already have as a denomination. She asked her colleagues before coming to speak at Remix, “What do Adventists have to contribute that others don’t?” The first thing they mentioned was the Sabbath and the next was vegetarianism. She concludes by saying it was important to value mistakes and to encourage women.
Other presenters at Remix included Pastor Peter Roennfeldt, ministerial director for the Trans-European region of the church, who shared stories and photos of emerging churches in Europe that are created and led by young adults. “If the institutional church wants to survive,” he says, “they need to get on board and encourage church plants and new ideas.”
Jim Coffin, minister of the Markham Woods Adventist Church in Florida, in the United States, and director of the Center for Secular/Postmodern Mission, suggests Adventists are more tolerant of others who appear visibly different to them, yet find it harder to tolerate the different world view of younger generations inside the church. He encourages Remix participants to look for ways that make it easier for postmodernists to come to Christ.
Drene Somasundram, student chaplain for Avondale College School of Nursing, offered perspectives on the female voice in the emerging church. “Most women today are post-feminist,” says Somasundram. She says when we look at where the Adventist Church is in relation to the first, second or third wave of feminism, we discover the church is pre-feminist. “So how does that attract women of today to our church? What would they find appealing about our faith community?”
“If people only took one thing away from Remix, I hope that would be to risk things for God’s kingdom,” says Bell. “I hope they will interact with Adventism in a creative way and not feel stuck with what’s been given to them, that they can own their faith and the traditions and yet be able to express that in creative ways to a new generation.”
For more reading or emerging church network information see:
www.re-mix.net.au
www.re-church.org
www.secularpostmodern.org