Postkiwi

After speaking at a church camp this morning, I popped over to the Willow Creek Association conference featuring Erwin Raphael McManus. Erwin’s lead pastor and cultural architect of Mosaic, a ‘uniquely creative and intergenerational congregation’ in Los Angeles. It’s known for its ethnic diversity, radical innovation and conviction that creativity is the natural result of spirituality.

First impression: This guy talks fast for an American. Later in the conference he talked about being asked if he had Attention Deficit Disorder. He didn’t deny it but pointed out that having a short attention span fitted well with an innovative approach to leadership.

One of the questions at the end of the day related to the high percentage (70%) of single young adults in Mosaic. Erwin explained that the radical nature of the church tended to suit people with flexible lifestyles. Once people had children they were likely to consider moving to the suburbs. Another factor was the pace of change at Mosaic - which would attract and hold catalytic innovators and early adopters. One fascinating observation related to what happens when people marry.

Here in Australia we’ve been considering the work of Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, expressed in their book, The Shaping of Things to Come. Michael and Alan challenge churches to move away from their addiction to attractional programming, and move towards incarnational relational approaches to mission.

Erwin pointed out that incarnational and attractional need not be in opposition to each other. In Los Angeles, he said, people live very isolated lives. It is difficult to reach a community when it does not really exist. People assembled in public places such as malls and clubs to alleviate something of the loneliness, even if they never had a meaningful conversation with anyone. The challenge for Christians is to create community, learning alongside pagans how to build friendships.