Ecclesianarchy: Adaptive Ministry for a Post-Church Society
John Williams
SCM Press, 2020, 245pp, pbk. £25
John Williams brings wide ministerial experience of 40 years
to bear on a question which troubles all who care about and
belong to the Church. We have experienced a steady, prolonged,
and seemingly inexorable decline over the last decades – despite
many innovations and expressions of commitment to mission for
growth. We all are aware from our own life and work contexts that
many of our neighbours, friends and colleagues remain resolutely
ambivalent about religion. For some it is part of a bygone age,
retrograde and even dangerous. Others view us as irrelevant, with
little to contribute to an understanding of human nature and the
complicated, conflicted, and threatening world that we inhabit.
The bold statements and admirable confidence and positivity
expressed by some church leaders have little connectivity with this world. We are in a ‘post-Church’ society in the sense that the
Church is no longer at the centre of most people’s lives, neither is it
guardian of the one big story, nor the principal source of society’s
ethical teaching. This, of course, shapes the way in which we do
public ethics and in our discourse and disagreement about human
identity, diversity, and inclusion.
Williams argues in eleven carefully organised chapters that
there are reasons for the disconnect between the Church and its
wider society. Williams cares about what the Church might have to
offer, which feeds into the quality of his analysis and construction
of theories to account for such decline. He examines issues around
secularisation, modernity, and postmodernity together with a
present attractive appeal to spirituality. The reader is invited to
consider what it is that people are looking for in these present times
and what the Church might have to offer. Patterns of ministry,
structures and an organisational culture that perpetuates the
need for initiative and strategy are all examined with insight and
wisdom. This forms part of the central thesis that what we need
is radical change or ‘ecclesianarchy’ which can support adaptive
ministry for what he calls a ‘post Church society’.
History, social analysis, practical theology, doctrine, spiritual
formation, and ministerial experience all shape the description
of the present dilemmas of being Church. I read the text aware of
the steady and seemingly irreversible decline in Church of England
life since my own ordination in 1985. The pace of this numerical
decline and our public credibility seem to be intensifying. We are all
standing in the liminal space between the need to re-shape ministry
in response to cultural change and our belief that there are given,
immutable foundations grounded in the Christian tradition. If this
accurately describes our present times, then it will surely need an
investment in theological learning that goes deep, in order for all
Christians to be wise listeners and interpreters of these days and
our search for meaning and truth. Realism about the complexity
of our present challenges and the inadequacy of some response is
part of Williams thesis, and he invites his reader into this starting
point.
So it follows that agility, flexibility, and adaptability must be the
organising force behind significant changes that need to take place
within the DNA of present ecclesiological structures and patterns of theological and ministerial practice. The implications of this
are radical and far reaching. If institutions shape ministry and an
approach to missiology and ecclesiology, then we must ask whether
these traditions and histories bring life. Williams predicts a smaller
Church with a different kind of leadership. Williams warns of
the dangers of clericalism, arguing that the set apartness of the
clergy limits the ministry of the whole people of God. By this he
suggests that the disconnect between clergy and laity results in a
disempowering culture of Church in which there can be little hope
of collaboration for a different approach to Christian engagement.
His aspiration for all Christians in the locality to work together
across a range of ministries functions and tasks is compelling.
Building on a robust critique of structures and patterns of
ministry there is an excellent chapter on chaplaincy which is
related to pioneering and fresh expressions of church. Williams
acknowledges that these have been both imaginative and, partly,
successful. The key to such generativity is the ways in which
ministry is world facing and grounded in the personal and pastoral
relationship nurtured in the community. The relationship between
hosts and guests in relation to who invites us into the connexion
is critical. An adaptive church reaches out and connects with the
workplace, the school, the retail car park, the airport, the care
home, and the sports field. In this adaptivity Williams asks his
reader to consider where the locus of ministry happens. It takes
seriously the importance of connecting and accommodating
people who have no Church background and little understanding
of the language and practice of organised religion. It also invites
an adaptive Church to understand anew the nature of worship and
how we nurture individuals in faith. This is a vision of a Church
that is modest about its social role, and that is more flexible with
dispersed leadership and decentralised worship. It is grounded in a
calling to explore and concretise the realities of grace, forgiveness,
salvation, and radical inclusiveness.
Not everybody will be convinced that we should jettison our
inheritance with all its history, tradition, and order in favour of
this sociologically informed response to postmodernity, and
Williams does not have the space to suggest how such change might
come about. With the historic wealth of the Church of England, it
might also be doubted that an anarchic Church is as attractive a proposition as presented here. In the face of the evident dangers
and abuses of religion, some will raise further questions about the
ability of such an ecclesiology to ensure accountability and safety.
However, this should not prevent us from engaging seriously with
this significant contribution to practical theology and ecclesiology.
Whatever happens in future years, the arguments presented in this
book deserve wider attention and debate. Williams is inviting us
to be more confident in how the Church might continue to be still
central to society, but is arguing that to do that we must be honest
about our situation. I hope that this book will find its way into the
mainstream of theological education. It deserves to be read as we
think and plan for learning and theological formation.
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