In her book "The Great Emergence," Phyllis Tickle argues that Christianity is currently undergoing a massive upheaval as part of a regular pattern that occurs every 500 years, in which old ideas are rejected and new ones emerge. Ultimately, the old expression of Christianity is refurbished and revitalized, while a new, more vital form also is created, she says.

She identifies these periodic upheavals as the Great Reformation, the Great Schism, the Great Decline and Fall, and the Great Transformation, and says they stretch back into Jewish history as well.

Tickle, a speaker, author and the founding editor of the religion department at Publishers Weekly, says this Great Emergence means that the Christian church has entered a post-denominational mode. This sociological and cultural shift involves a distrust of all institutions and is forcing mainline Protestant Christianity to become less hierarchal and more communal. At the same time, she says, it offers an opportunity for Protestantism to renew and refine itself.

Recently Tickle spoke with Faith & Leadership about her book "The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why." The video clip is an excerpt from the following edited transcript.

 

by Stephen Lewis , National Director of Calling Congregations

http://www.fteleaders.org/blog/entry/churchs-unholy-addiction-1

In a New York Times article this past weekend entitled "Congregations Gone Wild," the author claimed that clergy are "suffering from burnout," "working too much," and attending too often to "their congregation's daily wishes," behaviors which may lead to greater job security in a profession that is severely underpaid. This news is not surprising especially among those who work with clergy and congregations.

However, what I do find surprising is a prevailing belief among many clergy and congregations that one pastor is equipped and able to attend faithfully to the needs of an entire faith community. What I find most alarming is an underlying assumption that clergypersons are somehow endowed by God with special capacities to address adequately their congregants' needs and desires. I am distressed by what appears to be a deeply held belief among congregations and clergy that God calls pastors to a way of working that leads to the demise of their health and the neglect of their families as signs of their faithfulness to a "higher calling."

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By Stephen Lewis , National Director of Calling Congregations

fteleaders.org

 

 

By Josef Sorett

newsweek.washingtonpost.com

 

Although we are only about halfway into 2010, it has already been a year full of rich public conversations about religion in America. Much of the credit can be given to the emergence of several new blogs and web portals that direct concentrated attention to the topic. Indeed, there is much material to mine as we think about "The Future of Religion," in general, and of The Black Church, in particular.

With regard to the latter, to restate a common theme this year, it must be acknowledged that such a conversation can move once and for all from the singular to the plural. There has always been a range of black churches, in terms of theology, polity, politics, aesthetics, etc. So it is also impossible to speak of any one future for the array of institutions lumped together under the rubric, "The Black Church." That said, there are several things that should be considered in efforts to forecast the futures of black churches.

To begin, it would be helpful to stop talking about black churches as if it they do not breathe the same air as American churches, more broadly, and are not influenced by the same globalizing forces that export Christianity to (and re-import it from) countries in the so-called developing world, i.e., the global South. To recognize this is not to deny the history of colonialism and enslavement that produced segregated congregations and forever marks black and white churches as worlds apart in terms of access to power and privilege. For instance, it would be foolish to forget that even the modern Pentecostal movement, which emphasized the spirit's ability to transcend race at its inception, quickly gave way to forces that produced today's racially divided Pentecostal and holiness denominations. At least in this regard, they've followed the lead of their mainline counterparts.

To accent this shared cultural fiber does not diminish the fact that the very survival of black people -- and the panoply of social problems that white supremacy has occasioned -- has always been central to the mission of black churches. In light of this racial (and racist) history, it is important to think about the tradition of black churches serving as a counter (sometimes oppositional) public sphere that nurtured alternative religious and racial discourses. However, we must also ask how this sphere has changed in an age of legal (if not actual) equality and mainstream visibility. No, the prevalence of post-race talk is not evidence that racism is no more. But it does signal a change that black institutions, including churches, must address. We might think about this on two grounds: 1) the cultural and 2) the political.

 ... You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. (Isaiah. 58:12)

Kinetics mission is to disseminate information and develop new ideas that work to strengthen social movements within the African-American community; providing them with the tools and skills to pursue justice and better address the needs of those whom they serve.