Perhaps this is not surprising to those of us who have exercised church leadership. Though I'd be wary of making it the basis of generalised pre-assessments of others.
What I'm wondering, though, is whether the phenomenon of 'regular' church attenders joining non-local new monastic communities (eg Northumbria Community, Community of Aidan & Hilda) relates in a similar way ...
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"Those who attend a conventional church are generally content to show up and accept whatever their church has on the agenda; they place the responsibility for their spiritual growth on the shoulders of the church," according to Barna. "We found that most conventional church goers have no desire to help improve their congregation’s ministry, nor do they feel a need to increase their personal spiritual responsibility. "On the other hand," he continued, "the intimacy and shared responsibility found in most house churches requires each participant to be more serious about their faith development. Clearly, the house church experience is not for everyone."
What I'm wondering, though, is whether the phenomenon of 'regular' church attenders joining non-local new monastic communities (eg Northumbria Community, Community of Aidan & Hilda) relates in a similar way ...
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2 comments:
I think that those joining nu-monastic groups share some similarities with the house-church movement, but not all that many. Those desiring to enter some sort of monastic community may well be several steps further along in their faith development. Hmm. I wonder if anyone has taken a look at the nu-monasticism movement in terms of how it lines up with Fowler's stages of faith development?
By the way, how the heck are you?
That's an interesting idea. The point of contact I was seeing was the possibility of wanting to take more responsibility for their discipleship. Two different expressions for doing that but the commonality being a disatisfaction with lowest common denominator faith and a desire for some sense of community in going deeper.
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