William Huskisson was a Member of Parliament for Liverpool
and a former member of the British Cabinet.
He was killed in a tragic accident on the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway. The train knocked Huskisson to
the tracks where his leg was run over at the thigh. He cried out, “It’s over with me. Bring me my wife and let me die.” Huskisson passed away later that night. What has this to do with the church? Huskisson was caught by surprise even though
the danger was clearly insight.
To set the context this was not a
recent accident. Huskisson was killed 15
of September 1830. The occasion was the
opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway an event attended by a number
of dignitaries, one of whom Huskisson had crossed the track to visit. In the moments before the accident Huskisson
apparently tried to cross the tracks and may have panicked and failed to judge
the essentials of time, space, and distance.
Nothing in his world could have
prepared Huskisson for that moment. He
had doubtlessly crossed hundreds of roads.
He had very likely crossed in front of tens of thousands of draft
animals pulling carts or carriages. But
never in his life had he seen something this large on land (the engine alone
weighed 4.3 tons) nor had he ever crossed in front of something this large
moving this fast. This steam engine was
capable of the reckless speed of 30 mph.
A new reality came bearing down on Huskisson with no time to prepare for
an entirely new worldview needed to navigate this new experience.
This may sound like an illustration
used by those advocating contemporary worship or a seeker-driven model for the
church. In my opinion, the differences
between contemporary/seeker-driven models of church and the traditional model
are less significant and less dramatic than we might like to think. To be sure there are differences. There is more openness about style. Music is more recently written, Sunday
morning dress is more casual, and the use and style of media has broadened, but
these differences are more window dressing than substantial. The
basic model has not changed that much.
Crowds gather in a specific location to participate in certain group
activities and watch a designated expert present a talk and the larger the
number of attendees for these events generally the better. Operations of the church are essentially the
same. Paid staff members develop,
oversee, and, with aid of volunteers, carry out programs designed to meet some
perceived need. We may tinker with or
modify the peripheral, but at the core the contemporary church is built on the
structure of the traditional church. In
500 years, church historians will not see a big difference if we read song
lyrics from a page in a bound book or from a projection screen. To use the illustration of M.P. Huskisson the
difference between traditional and contemporary church is like the difference
between a horse drawn carriage and an ox cart.
The church in the west has not
undergone a radical change at its functional core since the Protestant Reformation. Again, there has certainly been microevolution
within the church in the last 500 years.
But those micro evolutionary steps are small compared to the difference
that occurred when the Reformation separated from the Roman Catholic Church. I believe that in the very near future the
church in America will need to undergo significant and substantial change. This will be more than window-dressing kinds
of changes.
Next week, I will share 10 bumps
that I believe are harbingers of the need for dramatic and radical change in
the American church.
I would be honored and thankful if you were to join the other happy reader by ordering your copy of "The Adventures of June Bug Johnson."
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