Anyone who still doubts that the evangelical Christian world is going through a political revolution was not watching Pastor Rick Warren’s presidential forum this weekend. The era of reducing Christianity to a narrow set of ideological commitments is over.

Just a few years ago, who would have imagined that Barack Obama and John McCain would hold a discussion of this sort in a church? Who would have thought that the session would be moderated by an evangelical pastor who was emphatic in counting both the Democrat and the Republican as his “friends”? Who would have predicted that in such a setting, the issues of abortion and gay marriage would not dominate the pastor’s queries? …

In 2004, Warren took the view that Christians should vote on a short list of “nonnegotiable” issues, including abortion. But in 2006, on Fox News, of all places, Warren declared: “Jesus’s agenda is far bigger than just one or two issues. . . . We have to care about poverty, we have to care about disease, we have to care about illiteracy, we have to care about corruption in government, sex trafficking.” That is the new politics of evangelical Christianity.

Read the article then come back and let Eclectic Christian know what you think.

Michael Spencer over at jesusshaped.wordpress.com laments about the division within the church. He writes:

Most of what we call churches behave as if they are the true church finally arrived, and the guy three doors down is someone getting it all or mostly wrong. Evangelicals reinvent the faith and the church every time they get bored. In the proliferation of churches in small communities in my part of the world, the differences are primarily stylistic, not substantial.

The comments to the post show that this is a frustration that is shared by many.

I had been meaning to write about this topic for some time, but from the other side of the coin, because as an Eclectic Christian I am interested in ways that believers and churches can work together.

In the heart of the Muslim world lies a very unique church. Here is a recent article about the church from the outside perspective of the Gulf News.

Abu Dhabi: More than 2,500 Christians from 21 different denominations celebrated on Friday the construction of the new facility for worshippers.

“This is a historic day as we celebrate 30 years of the Christian community in Abu Dhabi in this facility,” said Cameron Arensen, pastor of the English-speaking Evangelical Community Church.

The Evangelical Church of Abu Dhabi is home to 21 different churches that hold services back-to-back from Thursday to Saturday. For more than a decade, 21 different churches and denominations have been meeting in the small facility in the Khubairat area. The churches’ new home now has the capacity to accommodate the growing numbers of its congregations.

“The land was granted to us by the rulers of this country, who have been very generous. The old facility was getting way too small for us and this is a very exciting new phase for us as a church,” the pastor said…

Pastor Stuart Briscoe from the UK delivered a message on unity and worship to the congregation…

“The significance of all these different churches meeting in one facility is to give a visible demonstration of our unity as a Christian community despite the many nationalities and cultures,” Arensen added.

“It has been amazing to see new nationalities from around the world coming here every week… The government has been extremely good to allow different faiths to live and work together,” [John] Kochummen [a member of the church] said.

Of these 21 congregations, only a couple are solely English Speaking. (The article is a little misleading when it talks about 21 denominations. The division is primarily along linguistic and cultural lines.) In the Evangelical Community Church, the largest of the congregations in the Evangelical Center, about 700 Evangelical Christians from over 40 different countries and denominational backgrounds gather together to worship, pray and learn from God’s word.

I asked Peter Heath, one of the worship leaders at ECC, to join this post to describe a little more what that looks like, and to explain how they cope with theological differences and practices:

Hey Mike, thanks for the vine. Somebody once said that necessity is the mother of invention. Indeed, the good things that we see in the church community of Abu Dhabi are a result of the circumstances of life here. This is a Muslim country – the weekend is Friday/Saturday, and Sunday morning is just another workday. That in itself changes church life. Further, it is impossible for every congregation to have its own facility. Expats are not allowed to purchase land in Abu Dhabi; besides, most congregations don’t generate enough revenue to manage their own building. Fortunately, the government of Abu Dhabi has given land for four church facilities, of which the Evangelical Center is but one. From these facts of life come some really interesting and mostly wonderful dynamics.

Eclectic co-operation comes in a couple of flavours. My church, the Evangelical Community Church, is a collection of over 40 different nationalities. Everyone can speak English, but most have a different mother tongue. Church members tend to hang out with their own culture, and that can be a good thing. The South Africans have their own Bible study during the week, conducted in Afrikaans. The Filipinos are constantly on the lookout for new “Pinoys” to bring into the congregation. But it is not all little national cliques. The board is deliberately very diverse. My own worship team is a mix of four different nationalities. And every Christmas we have an International Carol Service where we can celebrate the birth of Christ in as many ways and languages as there are in the church. We learn from each other in Adventures in Fellowship. And our children learn that the Church really is worldwide.

Regarding church sacraments, ECC takes a “less-is-more” approach. Communion is usually prefaced by a comment from the Pastor that this is for anyone who has made a commitment to Christ. No membership implications or anything like that. We use flat bread cut into little pieces and little cups of grace juice – very similar to my church in Canada. Baptism is also done very simply. Actually, this is a necessity, since we often have over 20 people baptized at any one time. And the only interesting thing is that both the Senior Pastor and the Associate Pastor are involved. The Senior Pastor stands outside the tank and asks the candidate if he/she believes if Jesus is the Son of God, if he/she is going to live for Him, etc etc. After an affirmation of these things, the Associate Pastor dunks the candidate. (This provides better visibility, and ensures that no microphones drop into the water and electrocute the pastor!) These approaches to the sacraments follow the leadership’s position on many things, including the church’s Statement of Faith. The Statement is pretty short, and covers core beliefs only. Everyone believes the statement … plus some other things. The “other things” vary from person to person, but there is a large area of common ground. While this may make ECC a little on the vanilla side (especially for liturgical or charismatic folks), it provides basis for a wide swath of ministry in a city with over 100 nationalities living and working. And quite frankly, vanilla is the best base flavour for making a good ice cream sundae

The other side of eclectic co-operation can be on Fridays. Worship services begin at 8:30 AM and go all day long. Most of the time, there are two or even three services running concurrently. (Thank God for concrete!) At the end of ECC’s second service, my band packs up its guitars, etc. while the Filipino band starts setting up their equipment. We have learned to work around each other cheerfully. As I leave the building, other musicians are taking their gear to the basement or upper chapels. After the Filipino service there are Indian services, Ethiopian services, etc etc etc. The Center itself was designed to accommodate multiple congregations and multiple services. There is a large outdoor courtyard where people can chat after services. We all love eating breakfast there after the Easter Sunday Sunrise Service. And the facility itself is designed with a multitude of big, medium and small rooms, as opposed to one really big room and only a few smaller ones. This means that ECC started in the new facility with two services and will likely expand to three services in the near future. This is all because the leadership of ECC (the biggest and richest congregation) looks for the good of all congregations rather than just its own good. Really, that summarizes the attitude of church leaders here – the common good of all. Lots of variety, but a common Saviour, a common confession, and a common Spirit.

Is this perhaps more of what we should be striving towards in North America?

It seems that this argument is a little short sighted for several reasons:

1. People tend to look for a reason to stay in a church, not a reason to leave. If people are leaving your church, it is time to take a good long look inward, and say “how are we not meeting their needs.” Are they not being fed through the teaching of the word? Then how can that be changed. Are they experiencing issues with the music and worship? What can be done in that area? Are there few youth in the church? What can be done to reach out to the youth of the community?

2. If people are not excited about what is happening in your church, whatever that might be, then your church will not grow. They will find some excuse to go to the newer, bigger church down the road. What is an area of ministry in your church in which God seems to be working, and around which excitement can grow? How can you build on this area? What areas of ministry are serving as a drag on your church.

3. Strive for excellence! You don’t want to practice Tuesday night for Sunday worship, then that is fine, but then you are excluding yourself from the Worship team. You don’t want to take the Sunday School Teacher training? Well that is fine, then you don’t teach Sunday School. People will see and appreciated excellence and be turned off by half hearted attempts.

4. Have key members of your leadership visit other churches that are growing. What is working for them that is not working for you?

5. Most importantly, work together with your leadership and your congregation to develop a vision and direction. If your people can see a positive future they will want to be part of it.

For the past 12 years we have been part of churches that have had less than 80 people. The energy that it requires to run a church of 80 well is not that different than the energy it takes to run a church of 300. Reflecting back over the last 12 years I wonder if we might have been able to accomplish a lot more for the cause of Christ, if our energy has been used to help a medium size church grow, rather than used to try and sustain a smaller struggling church. The mega-churches that I am familiar with around here seem to be doing a lot to introduce non-churched people to Christ. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for many of the smaller churches with which I have been associated.