by Michael Wakelin, Elaine Lindridge and Keith Albans.
36He also told them a parable: ‘No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine, but says, “The old is good.” ’
Luke 5: 36-39
Although many professed the centrality to the life of their church of mission, community engagement and social action, when the 2020 lockdown hit, the two most common concerns expressed were about provision of weekly services and the management of buildings! Perhaps two expressions of our Christian identity are more deep-seated than we realised!
But the Covid-19 lockdowns have changed us, making some feel less able and willing to participate in the ways, and to the extent, that they had before, while others have reassessed their faith and the contexts of its out-workings.
The Fresh Expressions initiative has been with us since the late 1990s and within Methodism it has morphed into the New Places for New People (NPNP) programme, in which the Mother House is involved.
Some expressions have become home for people with an orthodox faith while others have both reimagined faith and church. All tend to see the focus of their activities away from the confines of the inherited church as they seek to navigate a way in the post-Christian world.
In his parables in Luke 5 Jesus ponders the difficulties of old and new co-existing – things get torn and wine gets spilt. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul also writes about things getting broken, but now it is precisely so the treasure can be seen, and while the outer reality atrophies, his assurance is that ‘our inner nature is being renewed day by day’ (2 Cor 4: 16). In John 3 Nicodemus struggled with the idea of being born again, but if we’re to be renewed day by day, then we need to be born again, again … and again! And if Nicodemus is still asking, ‘How can this be?’ maybe Jesus will still be saying ‘The wind blows wherever it pleases!’ (John 3: 8)
As models and ideas of church change, history suggests that all too often there comes a point where new and old part ways, badly and acrimoniously. In the post-pandemic world, finding ways of walking together whereby those with inherited models of faith and church feel at home in a reimagined church is a key task.
And for the remnant church, the challenge remains of finding ways of expressing the key messages of a loving and endlessly merciful creator God and a Saviour who brings good news to those on the margins of society. And if it can be a church which is seen to be serving those who are outside its walls, then the call to be salt and light might be lived out.
For reflection:
- How do you respond to the concept that we can be born again, again?
- In the post-pandemic world, what do you think should be the key defining features of a reimagined church?
- After all of your discussions and reflections, do you have an answer to the recurring questions, What role for a remnant church? and Who is the remnant?
This year’s SPECTRUM Conference, What role for the Remnant Church? was held at Swanwick in mid-May and was led by Michael Wakelin and Elaine Lindridge, two speakers who have both written publicly of their growing conviction that some long-held beliefs and practices of Christians and the churches are in urgent need of close scrutiny and critique. Articles are in the form of discussion papers based on their session notes, with editing by Keith Albans – we have shared them periodically on Theology Everywhere. Also see Time for a New Reformation , Reimagining Faith, What are trying to say to the world?, Should I stay or should I go? and Discipleship for the remnant church.
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