Growing Edge Book Review: Not What I Do
The pastor of a postmodern ministry makes the case against cloning his church.
Eric Nelson
April 1, 2003
It was dark. Not complete darkness, but certainly darker than any worship space I had experienced. The music sounded more earthy Miles Davis than uplifting Amy Grant. The space had been an urban storefront. To my surprise, instead of gutting and remodeling this space, the church that worshiped here seemed satisfied gutting it, leaving walls unpainted and pipes exposed. This was my first visit to Spirit Garage in Minneapolis. Once I noticed that the oldest person there might have been the pastor who was in her thirties, my ministry instincts kicked in. I created a list: "How to reach twenty-somethings." - Low lighting.
- Dingy feel.
- Dark music.
- Tight quarters.
I soon pictured a clone of Spirit Garage happening elsewhere under my leadership. "If this worked for them," I thought, "I could make it work somewhere else." In The Emerging Church (Zondervan, 2003), the pastor of a postmodern ministry in Santa Cruz, Cali- fornia, critiques this kind of church cloning. Dan Kimball claims a church that clones others' programs will have a harder time reaching young adults. Many young people stay away from church partly because the worship seems phony. It appears to be more like McWorship than an actual response to the Holy One. Acts performed in worship are viewed as either old and unappreciated, or new and trite. Boomer responded well to cloning. Theater-like sanctuaries, professional bands, and sermon-centered services have popped up across the country and have drawn many Boomer-era seekers to Christ. But, Kimball warns, if church leaders are not careful, "this time it will be the seeker-sensitive movement that loses touch as it grows more and more disconnected to the heart of the emerging generations." From Kimball's vantage, "culture is causing ...
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