Create a Space

The world has changed. The map is different. But the church will continue. Christ is still king. In this new Wide Margin World the church needs to figure out how to do church. In the West, we have been doing church a similar way. That may have worked for the last few hundred years, but can it work today?

I have argued that in the West we have had a dramatic cultural shift. I have coined the world we used to live in : The Central Field. There was a central point of culture, with a margin. But increasingly, this system of culture has changed. The margins have increased to the point that the centre no longer exists. This, I have named, is the birth of the Wide Margin Field.

Now this affects the church. The church, for many years, was in the centre of the Western culture. It was prominent, powerful, and persuasive. But in the last 70 years the church has been shifted from the centre to the margins, as has much of society.

This has led to the church scrambling to figure out a way of doing church in this new world. Most churches have continued to function exactly the same way. But the problem is that they are functioning as if they are still in the centre.

Worse than this, they are functioning the same as if the world is still the same.

If the church continues down this track, increasingly it will become an irrelevant entity. It has to figure out a way of doing church that upholds the Gospel but contextualizes it in a way that makes sense to this “Wide Margin World”.

The problem is, much of what the church “does” is tied up in Central thinking. They need to completely change the way church looks.

I’m not talking about doing popular songs or having bigger screens or a flashy website or podcast. Our change has to be monumental.

Now whatever change we do, we need to make sure that it is biblical. I am not talking about changing the church to suit the culture so much that you lose church in the process. We need to be in this new world. We need to speak their language. But we also need to be citizens of the world of Christ.

In the next few sessions I will outline the main practices that the church needs to adopt to reach the world we are in.

But first, I will just outline what I consider are 5 ingredients that people in this Wide Margin Field really value. The church will need to build something that touches these. I call it SPACE.

That is, the church needs to “create a space” that holds up these values.

People really value simple things. There are many complex systems in the world, and I believe that, in order for the church to thrive, it needs to be a simpler system. Many things in church are complex and hard to understand.

Complexity breeds Experts, which leaves people feeling dumb and out of the loop.

The Wide Margin is a culture that increasingly is getting complex but is dying for simplicity. Whatever church we build in this new wide margin world, it needs to fit the criteria of simplicity.

How do you know if something has the value of simplicity? Here’s a few questions:

1. Can anyone do it?
   That is, whatever it is, can the average joe be able to participate in it?
2. Is it reproducible?
   Can it pop up anywhere or done anywhere? Complexity cannot do this.

Simplicity does not mean easy, and it may mean it’s messy. But what it does mean is that it gets down to the core of things and cuts away at anything that makes it more complex.

People want to be part of things. The days of passivity are over. People have gone from watching TV shows to participating in video games. People want to voice their opinion and contribute to the larger whole. This culture craves being part of something. Now this one feeds into the previous value. If something is complex and hard then that will make participation harder to do. Simplicity will breed a participatory eco system.

So when it comes to church, it what ways can we make it more participatory? What is hindering this?

People want the real thing. They don’t want a performance, an edited version of something. They want the raw thing, the authentic thing. Not the artificial but the artisan. People want to experience the real thing rather than a tidied-up version of something. They want stories, they want truth and honesty. I think our culture is sick and tired of people putting on a performance and keeping things neat and tidy. Is there a way for the church to tap into this? What would it look like?

This wide margin field has really affected community. We are all closed off with our phones and homes and schedules. But deep down people are getting lonely and they want to be part of something like a new family. More and more groups will tap into this. What better group to do this than the church?

But are we promoting community in the way we do church? Or is it consumerism? What can we change in church to make community thrive?

People want to get better. They want to grow. They want to be part of something big. Something that changes the world for better. They are not interested in something on the side. They want real change, real progress.

How can the church tap into this value? How can we “expand” whilst retaining those other values? Whatever the church does, it needs to be evangelistic in its nature. People want to share their lives and change the world. How can we do this?

We need to create a space that captures these values. A space that works in this Wide Margin Culture.

We need to create the Wide Margin Church.

What follows are the key practices that the church needs to adopt.

The world has changed dramatically.
So the church must change dramatically.