Interesting article by Brian Draper on the Alt. Worship movement with Andy Thornton suggesting in 1998 that the movement was at a crossroads. With so many people suggesting the hat no longer fits and we should dump the term, and even the South Africans getting upset in being misrepresented [read Codrington on MacArthur), it makes me wonder if we are there again.
"In 1998, Andy Thornton, a former member of the Late Late Service, expressed the view that alternative worship was at a crossroads. As a conference in London, he offered two ways of perceiving the movement - one cynical, one optimistic. The first concluded that "the great hope was gone...To some degree it began to look like the same old story - a new group with a new set of answers chopping itself off from the history of the Church. It looked something like the house church, but with bass bins, light and smoke." The optimistic version, however, suggested that "the group of experimenters recognised that they must not be thrown off the project, nor be intimidated from sharing their insights confidentially by finding themselves in the context of other louder, more confident, more mission-orientated representations of the Christian community. "They had to find a new way of communicating a gentle holistic faith where God waits and does not push. They needed new metaphors to understand their journey."
Metaphors be with us.
Related: (This is related to "Emerging Church: Use it or Dump it" conversation and poll.)
- Internet as metaphor, as suggested by Mission Shaped Church, becomes the Rhizome in Raschke's new book.
