I returned this week from a conference for local church pastors in The Netherlands. For some reason I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach, or something worse! Let me explain.

A voice in my head said It doesn’t work anymore

At the conference I heard the keynote speaker explain the strategy (The Formula) for doing church, and especially for reaching unchurched people. I LOVE the Formula. Really, I do. But as I sat there listening a voice in my head kept saying, “It doesn’t work anymore. It doesn’t work anymore.”

All I wanted to say to The Voice at first was, “Please be quiet!”

That’s when I felt like I had been punched in the stomach.

If “the Formula” – which worked so well for many years in my church – is not the ticket to effective ministry, what is?

I’m reminded of speaking to Brian McLaren this past summer at my mission organisation’s staff conference. Brian commented that the old paradigm of doing church is mostly not working anymore. The problem is that a new paradigm has not fully emerged yet. Then Brian made another profound statement. He said that perhaps what it means for church leaders to “take up your cross and follow me” is to lead in the in-between time of old paradigm and new paradigm.

Forget about being punched in the stomach. That made me feel like I had been hit below the belt!

I have mixed feelings when I reflect on the conference from this past week. On the one hand I feel sad that “the Formula” is not working anymore. I REALLY wish it did. Sometimes I think that maybe we just have to try harder. Maybe I’m doing things wrong (which I’m sure is the case as well!). But on the other hand I have a strange sense of hopefulness for the future. Here’s why.

First, God has brought some great people around me who are at the front-end of experimenting with new paradigm church. Most of them are younger Europeans who were born in the Postmodern milieu and they know nothing different. My executive pastor (a young Dutch woman) only knows new paradigm thinking. Our Student Ministry Directors, who live in the heart of Amsterdam, spend their days with some of the most alternative unchurched people you could meet. My successor as Europe Director for Christian Associates is a “poster child” for those seeking the new paradigm. I am tremendously grateful for these people who will lead me (and our church) into this new paradigm.

Second, at least in my corner of the world, I sense a growing integration and appreciation for those who have come before us. Modernism does have some things to teach us and they are not all negative! There are people in my life who have a Modern worldview who have a wealth of wisdom and discernment and they are open to the new paradigm church. Not every person is like this, to be sure, and Crossroads has experienced a significant amount of tension between old paradigm people and those experimenting with new paradigm models of church.

Third, leaving “the Formula” behind has given me a freedom to explore and experiment with what church is all about. I have found it to be a “breath of fresh air” to NOT have everything organised and programmed every week. And yet I realise we have not at all “arrived” when it comes to what the church will look like in the coming generation.

Now all I have to do is recover from feeling punched in the stomach!