Back to Barna, after some weeks of travelling!
This chapter is a cursory examination of newer expressions of church, how they affect people’s faith, and why people choose them.
“The congregational model of church … has been the dominant force in people’s spiritual life for hundreds of years. So why is it so rapidly losing ground at this moment in history?”
Barna’s first answer is that it is a consequence of the specialisation of the church: churches for different generations, different worship styles, outreach to specific parts of the population and so on. (Aren’t these the very things promoted by much church growth literature? It seems rather ironic that Barna is suggesting that these are factors in the decline of congregational church.)
He distinguishes between macro and micro models of church, putting congregational, house churches, the family faith experience and cyberchurches in the ‘macro’ category, and defining micro models as approaches focused on a particular aspect, such as worship or prayer, leaving it to the believer to seek other micro models for the complete picture. He says
“It is worth noting that the two fastest-growing macro-models of church are the house church and cyberchurch formations.
But it is the micro-models that are growing the fastest of all… One of the best examples of micro-models is the popularity of independent worship events… Often, the event leads those who participated to not only upgrade their worship quotient but also to get more serious about other aspects of their spiritual life.”
Future models
Barna believes that there will not be a dominant macro model in the future.
“The fragmented nature of the new approach to spirituality, often lamented by analysts as an unfortunate consequence of our disjointed culture and spiritually illiterate population, will become the advantage that facilitates a deeper commitment to spiritual focus by millions of young people.”
He claims that the main question Revolutionaries ask themselves is “does the mechanism provide a means of advancing my faith, without compromising Scripture or any of the passions of a true believer?”
Of course, asking this question presupposes that we are able to answer it accurately, to determine how particular actions and future events will affect our faith, and even that we know what true faith really is! In this respect, we need the advice and guidance of those who have gone before, our elders in the faith.