"Blue Collar" Emergent Church... is it even possible?

[Samuel Wood]

OK, first of all, I have heard about the Motor City experience (not many details) so, yes, it's possible, but....

It seems that the vast majority of emerging church is anchored in hip/artsey/ex-yuppie subculture (note: I am a new observer, so correct me if I'm wrong). The whole "communal living" thing and wholesale anti-establishment ethic seems pretty standard fare.

I am contemplating nurturing an emerging church in a blue collar/mid-western neighborhood (Wichita KS). It's average age is 35 with precent of under 40 unconverted and unchurch running in the 75+% range. I know the need for a meaningful encounter with Christ is there, but this is a bedroom community, so there is little in the way of "gathering place" (No Starbucks 8-) by which to encounter the under 40 crowd....

Where would you start? I'm willing to do anything, even street walk, ala JWs! (BTW, I'm 60, ex-hippie, earring and blue jean wearing, guitar playing pastor of the neighborhood United Methodist Church... it that alone too great a handicap?)

any musings about the challenge welcome....

[Tim K. Snyder]

hey Samuel,

I'd like to think emergent isn't an adjective, but a verb. What I mean by that is that it really depends on what you're emerging from and emerging to. Perhaps the majority of emerging churches do come from that mindset -- I think there's much more diversity than one might think.

I don't think its "standard fare" so much as people trying to respond in faith. "Communal living" is just the same as Acts 4 and there has always been that place in Christianity (of course you know that). I'd venture to say Jesus was anti-establishment and so many of our communities are trying to follow in that Way.

My advice: if there isn't a place for folks to connect, to come together and gather...create it. I doubt anyone will pretend to tell you how. Blessings to you as you do it. We're here to be conversation partners. If you're interested in connecting to someone else who's led a community, we can hook you up. Let me know. Peace

Tim

[e-mail]

[ray]

I was wondering the same thing about a year ago, but more specifically how "rural emerging church" might look... Let's talk some more, kick around some ideas.

[Samuel Wood]

My only thought is the ABSOLUTE alienation from the "church" (formal religion) that working class people under the age of 35 feel. Between believing that they won't "fit in" and that they will be "condemned" for their lifestyle and believing that the church is irrelevant to society today, I doubt that "bringing them to the church" will be an effective stragety for "introducing them to Jesus."

The "action" wlll have to be in locations where they already are and where they are comfortable....

(shoulder shrug)...but that is a hard sell to an established congregation...

[ray]

Hi Samuel,

What might it look like to go out on a limb and do a "church within a church" for this crowd? Perhaps find a way to do meaningful outreach to that crowd without expecting that they would come to a Sunday worship at a conventional church (which they probably find intimidating from the sounds of it). Take church to them; engage them at the pub, where they already gather. Spend some time establishing some relationships and see how conversations turn to God...? Maybe...?

[Russel Yoak]

Did this at my last congregation. It is a tough sell to the existing group and a tougher balancing act once you get it up and running. The danger is that the existing congregation will see the new group within the group as a 5th Column movement aimed at pushing them out, and the new group will see the existing congregation as obstructionists. I am not saying it isn't worth trying, but it is a tough road.

[Larry Klinker]

I am wondering some of the same stuff as I try to reach out to a 20 or 30 something group within the congregation but thinking it will not stay within the congregation or the building... I am not sure how they will respond or where it will go.. but I am seeking a core group that will carry the ball and set the direction and find the place.... then its up to the Spirit and them...
Lar

[Samuel Wood]

Larry,

You look my age (about) and I'm frustrated with the "find someone their age" to be at the point of the outreach. We have so few and they are either uncommitted to the whole idea or highly committed by so orthodox as to scare the b-jesus out of unchurch postmoderns.... I'm doing some coaching, but it will probably fall to the "granddad looking" pastor to at least initiate the movement.

I hear about getting out, but we are located in a relatively isolated urban (although blue collar) neighborhood and have only two "watering holes", both biker bars that the locals don't frequent. I wish I knew how to spell "ka-nun-drum", cause that's what it feels like....

blessings,


Sam

[Tim K. Snyder]

friends,

I might suggest another bit/teaser. I highly recommend subscribing to Generate Magazine (www.generatemagazine.com). Here's why (besides the selfish self-promoting plug...I work there): (1) Magazines themselves are a more blue collar / grassroots sort of medium. More than the newest emergent hardback for 25.00. (2) The upcoming issue will feature an article by Rick Bennet which suggests that emergents should listen to more blue collar music. He then does a fabulous review of the band Drive By Trucker.

If emergent is to engage blue collar communities, then it must engage blue collar culture.

ts

[Ron Amundson]

This is off the wall, perhaps too much so... but then I am not a pastor. :)

1. I wonder if there is too much emphasis on convenience and meeting people where they are at in a physical sense. Certainly to the dechurched, a traditional church building can be problematic, but beyond that, I wonder if the tendency to go too far occurs in the pursuit of comfort and convenience. Some times a bit of adversity seems to work to advantage, at least in the secular realm. Its sort of similar to the software business, if its too easy to Beta, folks dont take it seriously, if they have skin in the game, its another deal entirely. Taken to an extreme, this pastors account of attending Burningman may be applicable. http://www.next-wave.org/oct00/burningman.htm

2. Usually the thought is build the church, and then set the church out to do good works. Blue collar communities are often not really communities as such, ie folks work, then proceed home, gathering places do not get much traffic, and if they do, its exceedingly transient. Otoh, blue collar communities often gather to do transient good works, whether it be habitat for humanity, or other community service type events. Why not reversal the traditional, build the church then the works. Since works are there already, and why not leverage those work group relationships towards a community of faith? Why not work in partnership with other pastors as part of those work groups? I bet there are many pastors in your neighborhood who share the same thinking if not the same theology.

All too often folks pull together to do something for the community, and then boom, things evaporate until the next big event... leaving a ton of charged up folks with no place to go in the middle. I think its sort of an extension of Tim's L-pipe analogy, it will back up, albeit this is at the bottom. Perhaps a faith based core could serve as a lift station in between events?

[ray]

Great suggestions! I need to bone up on my country and hard rock.

[Troy Jacobson]

I am 36. Less than 10% of my child-hood playmates/teenage/High-school friends/college room-mates/current friends are active in a church. Two of my friends from seminary are now atheist! These people have left for many reasons but all of them don't want to encounter Christ, get to know Jesus, or come back to church as they knew it.

Many of them have a fairly sophisticated spirituality that does not appreciate the "Jesus is the only way" mentality. Many of them have fairly sophisticated social sensors and will know when someone is trying to be like them and lacks transparency.

This is the challenge. Are you able/willing to lead a Christian community that refuses to confess that Jesus is the only way? (Can you say paradox?) Are you able/willing to give up any pretensions that we are trying to help(save?) these people? Can you completely, vulnerably, be yourself and allow others the same freedom, without trying to change them? Can you leave the spiritual work to God and the other person, while walking as equals?

[Samuel Wood]

Troy,

Thanks for the response. I think that my experience with "post moderns" is fairly in line with what you are saying.... The problem, in part, seems to me that their overwhelmingly past experience with the church has been painful in a judgemental/moronic way. There is been little acceptance of their understandings and almost no sophistication in the theology being offered to them.

"Christ only" is a problem, unless those who adhere to it also embrace "Christ incognito" and accept that Christ is in the world working in non-traditional and unexpect ways using unusual vehicles. The problem seems to be on a spiritual sense to stay engaged long enough to appreciate the possibilities that God is working in a bigger way that I might have previously imagined.

My struggle is how to connect in a way that allows for long term engagement. Hit and run events are useful in making a "social" contact, but doesn't generally support a deeper spiritual conversation. And in my community location is a problem. Our church is the only real neighborhood center for 10,000 people, but we cannot get most of the under 35's to drop their mistrust of "Church" long enough to cross the threshold to experience something "different" than what they have come to believe....

Still struggling, working with a young couple as the "face" of a new ministry, but they are more traditional theologically than I am...!!

where to now?

blessings,

Sam