Gibbs, ChurchMorph

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Eddie Gibbs, ChurchMorph: How Megatrends are Reshaping Christian Communities. Baker Academic, 2009.

LifeandLeadership.com Summary

In 2009, this was the most comprehensive picture available of the missional and emergent conversations. Although Gibbs is sympathetic to the emergent movement, he writes less prescriptively and more descriptively, targeting professional and academic readers. Gibbs skillfully surveys the challenges faced by the church in post-Christendom, describes the various ecclesial forms that have arisen to address the challenges, and offers his own evaluations. He insightfully defines most of the commonly used terms such as “missional,” “emergent,” “new monasticism,” and “alternative worship” and compares them to other prevailing models such as the megachurch. Throughout he provides brief descriptions of emerging churches in the U.S. Canada, and Great Britain. For a more global perspective, see Bolger, The Gospel After Christendom.

In chapter one, Gibbs surveys the megatrends that characterize the changing missional context. This includes the decline of most established churches and the outdated structural and denominational systems that accompany their demise. He also discusses the increasingly unfavorable image of Christianity (e.g. Kinnamon and Lyons UnChristian). All of this occurs within the larger socio-religious picture of the shift from modernity to postmodernity, from industrial age to information age, from Christendom era to post-Christendom context, from production initiatives to consumer awareness, from religious identity to spiritual exploration, and from a loyal generational succession of young adults to an emerging adult population that is less sympathetic toward Christianity. He argues that these and other factors require the church to “morph” (change) into a new identity as a missional presence in the West.

Chapter two overviews the three post-Christendom movements that have arisen to respond to the new cultural realities: missional church movement, emerging church, and Fresh Expressions (limited to UK). He chronicles the development of the missional movement from its seminal thinker, Lesslie Newbigin, to the more current philosophical leaders such as Alan Roxgurgh and Alan Hirsch. This is followed by several helpful distinctions between missional, emerging, and emergent expressions. This builds to a very insightful description of their shared convictions and fourteen common characteristics of all three movements:

Dependence on God permeates the life of the faith community
Heartbeat of the church is to communicate the Gospel
Faith communities are birthed among the never-churched and the de-churched
Communities demonstrate the transforming power of the Gospel
Worship provides the inspiration for mission
Corporate life of worship, fellowship, and witness is appropriate to the cultural context
Practice of hospitality means that all who come are welcomed
The way of Jesus is interpreted within a specific place and time
Everyone is clustered with in face-to-face, interactive communities
The Gospel relates to the whole of life
Entire body is engaged in the church’s ministry and mission
The Bible is a guide for life’s journey
Leadership is identified and encouraged throughout the body.
Every church recognizes itself as an incomplete expression of the reign of God

Given these vast similarities, he uses the term “emerging missional churches” to refer to the movement as a whole throughout the rest of the book.

In chapter three, Gibbs identifies the various streams of emerging missional churches. This is one of the most helpful sections for those who are overwhelmed when they hear terms, authors, and church communities that represent such a wide diversity. He discusses the precursor of the emerging churches in the house church movement, and how these small groups often expanded into very significant local and international entities. He surveys those who have attempted to classify the emerging expressions such as Scot McKnight, Tom Sine, Mike Clawson, Phyllis Tickle, and Tony Jones. This is followed by an entire chapter on the Fresh Expressions movement in the UK, and how these compare/contrast to similar missional efforts in the United States, both denominational and independent. Some of the emerging missional churches included in this survey are Jacob’s Well of Kansas City, Dieter Zander’s Pilgrimage, Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis, Mars Hill in Michigan, and Vintage Faith in California.

Chapter four describes the relation of the megachurch to the emerging church phenomenon. While megachurches make up only 0.3 percent of American churches, their influence is proportionally much larger. Until recently it was assumed that megachurches were antithetical to the emerging ethos because of their tendencies toward being attractional vs. missional and consumerist vs. participatory. This is changing as many megachurches adopt more missional philosophies and strategies. Gibbs surveys the research of Leadership Network that includes statistical data and exposes common myths. He gives considerable coverage to the recent self-evaluation of Willow Creek Community Church and their Reveal series. This effort demonstrates the degree of seriousness and intentionality of churches like Willow Creek to address spiritual growth over against the criticism that they are mainly preoccupied with numbers. Gibbs also presents brief cases of several other megachurches that are realizing the need to become more missional. These include Christian Assembly of Calgary, Community of Joy in Arizona, and Wooddale Church in Minnesota.

In chapter five, Gibbs explores the urban engagement of emerging missional churches. He shares the inspiring stories of several churches that have actively engaged their urban contexts in the United States, UK, and Canada. A number of these churches express the cluster philosophy, or “moving from a centralized approach to a more network-oriented approach involving clusters of mid-sized communites.” (121) The genuinely missional urban churches are also more multicultural and more cooperative with parachurch agencies.

Chapter six discusses resurgent monasticism that is growing

“among the increasing numbers of evangelicals reacting against the activism and spiritual shallowness of many of their churches. Their hunger for a deeper spirituality and authentic relationships, and their desire to reconnect with the ancient forms of worship, has drawn them to the monastic tradition.” (137)

What began as a network of retreats has developed into more full-orbed monastic missional orders. An example is the New Monasticism of Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. Gibbs says contemporary monastic communities embody one or more of three expressions: renewal and reconciliation, incarnational ministries among the poor, and those engaged in birthing new faith communities. He describes and presents examples of each. These include the Taize Community of France, The Iona Community of Scotland, the Lindisfarne Community of NewYork, Missio Dei of Minneapolis, David Fitch’s Missional Order of St. Fiacre in North America, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and InnerCHANGE.

In chapter seven, Gibbs devotes a chapter to the growing number of independent church planting initiatives, many of them forming networks who share a philosophy of ministry. These efforts depend upon entrepreneurial leadership, the biblical roles of apostle and evangelist, which churches have a tendency to marginalize. Gibbs shares the research of Martin Garner on the use of the word apostle in the New Testament which offers a characteristic sketch which is shared by modern day church planting entrepreneurs. He gives examples of spreading networks such as Vineyard Churches, Neil Cole’s Church Multiplication Associates, and Ecclesia Network. There are also the multisite churches such as North Coast Community Church in California, Fellowship Church in Dallas/Fort Worth, Seacoast Church in Georgia, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, and Redeemer Presbyterian in New York. Also included in this mix are the Network Catalysts such as Leadership Network, Stadia among Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, and Acts 29. A similar movement is Resurgent Reformed efforts led by men such as David Wells, D. A. Carson, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, Voddie Baucham, John Piper, and R. Albert Mohler.

Chapter eight is devoted to alternative worship, with is not in itself an emerging missional movement, but is “a stream that has its own source that mingles with the other streams.” (181) He points out that “a spate of new songs has accompanied every significant renewal movement in the church,” and surveys several expressions of this phenomena as expressed broadly in the church.

The appendix is a very helpful summarization of the distinctive features of morphing churches. Here one finds the efforts of organizations such as the Gospel and Our Culture Network and authors such as Ryan Bolger, Tom Sine, and Anthony Jones as they attempt to list missional benchmarks.

This is perhaps the most objective description of the emerging church landscape one may find. It is helpful not simply as an academic overview, but as a helpful reference tool that allows one to understand and categorize the various expressions of the missional movement. This categorization helps deepen our appreciation for the unique history and heritage of many contemporary efforts, but also demonstrates the wide diversity of people God uses to advance his kingdom in our era.

From the Publisher

It is estimated that 80 percent of churches are either stalled or in decline. In ChurchMorph, internationally known church observer Eddie Gibbs goes beyond an analysis of causes to show how many churches and faith communities are actually breaking the downward trend. He expertly maps current converging church movements—emerging and missional churches, mainline renewal groups, megachurches, urban mission, new monasticism, alternative worship, and expanding networks—and offers a positive assessment of the reshaping of today’s church. The core of the book identifies trends and movements that provide signs of the kingdom and reveals how different faith communities are working out what it means to be “church” in a changing world. This stimulating and encouraging book will appeal to pastors, church leaders, and students interested in ministry, the emerging church, Christianity and culture, and mission.

About the Author

Eddie Gibbs (DMin, Fuller Theological Seminary) is director of the Institute for the Study of Emerging Churches at the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology, and the Arts and a senior professor in the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He is the author of numerous books, including Emerging Churches and the critically acclaimed ChurchNext (winner of a Christianity Today book award), and is cohost of the popular Church Then and Now website.

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