Home	Resourcing	Consulting	Networking	Training
About NLM	Where to Find What	Products	Contact Us	Subscribe

AEC2002

Sweet Calls Church to Learn
a Whole New Culture

CHICAGO – Charging that much of the church is stuck in a “Gutenberg culture,” futurist theologian Leonard Sweet challenged some 175 attendees gathered for the fifth annual Anabaptist Evangelism Council here Feb. 15-17 to learn the cultural landscape of a vastly different world.

“God has chosen you not to preserve a culture but to work in a native one,” Sweet said as he addressed outreach and youth leaders from Mennonite (both USA and Canada), Church of the Brethren, Brethren, Presbyterian, American Baptist, United Methodist, United Church of Christ and Evangelical Congregational denominations. The three-day workshop was sponsored by New Life Ministries, an inter-Anabaptist resourcing agency working with congregations on evangelism and church revitalization issues.

Sweet divides the population of this new world into “immigrants”—those born prior to 1962 who are at home with print, linear thinking and strategic planning—and “natives”—those born after 1962 who, shaped by the new technologies of digital images on screen, are suspicious of order and institutions and are hungry for experiences.

Everything is moving so fast in this new “experience-oriented” society that the church can’t keep up, Sweet noted. “Nobody from the church seems to be here to guide all of this. Instead the church is populated mostly with hardcore immigrants who convey the message to the “natives” that yes, you can come to Jesus, but first we need to de-nativize you, put you through a cultural circumcision.

He called for a worship style that is both immigrant and native, using symbols and images that appeal to both cultures, something between the Eastern Orthodox and Pentecostal, something far more epic than that to which we are accustomed, more participatory than performance based.

Rooting his comments and stories in the Bible during his six workshop sessions, Sweet says the essence of Christianity in this new culture can be stated in three couplet phrases:

	Come down, based on the Zacchaeus story of Jesus asking the taxpayer to “come down” out of the sycamore tree;
	Come out, based on the story of Jesus asking the dead Lazarus to “come out” of his graveclothes; and
	Be there, based on God’s promise in Lamentations that he would always be there in time of trouble.

And as we become more global, Sweet observed, we are at the same time becoming more “tribal.” Modern Anabaptists should feel right at home in this culture, he praised, because “you have developed this tribal hospitality.” He told them to be effective, though, they need to get rid of their in-jokes and ethnic quirks.

Because many churches stay stuck in what Sweet called the “500-year-old reformational paradigm,” 75 percent of American churches are dying, 24 percent are growing by “sheep-stealing” (from other churches), leaving only 1 percent truly bringing persons to Christ. “We are now in a missional paradigm,” he insisted, “and we need to learn to communicate with this new world.”

Sweet, vice-president of academic affairs and dean of the theological school at Drew University, Madison, NJ, is currently a visiting distinguished professor at George Fox University, Newburgh, OR. Among the many books he has authored is Carpe Mañana, a provocative work that snaps into focus the changing culture he described in his weekend series of workshops.

A Taizé worship service, led by Chris Douglas, coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Church of the Brethren, opened the sessions on Friday night. Jim Chinworth and Josh Brockway of Manchester (IN) College led the closing worship on Sunday morning.

In order to connect with young adults of the Chicago area, seminar participants attended an Axis GenX worship service at the Willow Creek Community Church in the northern suburbs Saturday night, talking with Willow Creek leaders after the service.

New Life Ministries has engaged Dr. Robert Webber, popular author, professor at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and former Wheaton College professor, as next year’s Council speaker. He will speak on the subject of worship at the sixth annual Council that will be held at the same location, the Sheraton Gateway Suites, Feb. 14-16, 2003.

By Dick Benner, director of Shalom Foundation and member of the New Life Ministries Management team.

February 20, 2002

Photos

____________________

Other information:

	Leonard Sweet's web site
	Interview with Leonard Sweet on his book Carpe Mañana
	Article by Leonard Sweet – "Lessons from a Swing"
	The Axis Avalanche – Introduction to the Axis Service at Willow Creek

Sweet Calls Church to Learn a Whole New Culture

Other information:

Top of Page

Sweet Calls Church to Learn
a Whole New Culture