Bishop John “Jack” Shelby Spong was a recent guest on Chris Yaw’s ChurchNext. In this one hour interview, Spong shares how humility and acceptance are key foundations for building the church. Since “the mainline churches are in a statistical free-fall” continuing on the same course is not a realistic option. Going forward, church leaders must repackage the faith in ways that make sense for their context. More specifically, Spong says
Part of our job in the 21st century is to transform the symbols of the Christian faith into that which can communicate with 21st century minds. One of the ways I try to do that is to say there is a difference between the experience of God, which I think is quite real, and then the way that experience is explained. Whenever you explain an experience you lock it into a particular time, namely the time of the explainer, and you lock it into the presuppositions of the era that is doing the explaining.
So What?
Spong suggests that the issue is not whether or not God is real, but rather how to give meaning to this reality within the context of the world in which we now live. Mainline congregations are well positioned to articulate a compelling vision of God for a 21st century world.
- Share a few expressions of faith that were meaningful to some in your denomination or tradition in the 1950s or 60s that you feel must be repackaged to have meaning in the 2010s and 2020s. How effective is your own congregation in providing both the newly packaged approach as well as education to parishioners about how they can participate in the process of constructing such?
- What does it mean to you that “humility and acceptance” are keys to building the church? How does your congregation express these values in its ministry and mission?