Academic literature on the topic 'Christian house-church communities'

This paper discusses the problem of intolerance that still occurs in Indonesia, one of which is the rejection of the establishment of places of worship. The Karo Protestant Batak Church (GBKP) does not have a permit to build a house of worship, so the surrounding community rejects the building. This paper focus on the strategy undertaken by the Inter-Community Forum (FLO) in resolving the GBKP establishment case, as well as the obstacles that occurred in resolving the GBKP case in 2016 in Tanjung Barat, South Jakarta. This study uses qualitative research methods with analysis and in-depth understanding. Based on the results of the study, the Strategy of the Inter-Organization Forum (FLO) in resolving the Protestant Christian Batak Church (GBKP) case related to the establishment of houses of worship was successfully carried out, through a legal, public and also South Jakarta government approach. Conflicts between religious communities in the West Tanjung area can be avoided, although the Protestant Batak Church (GBKP) cannot establish a church in the region. However, the government has relocated the worship activities of the Protestant Christian Batak Church (GBKP) in the Balai Minggu Sports Hall (GOR) Pasar Rakyat.

Книга Валерия Александровича Аликина «История и практика собраний в Ранней Церкви» посвящена комплексному исследованию практики раннехристианских собраний в контексте общинных трапез античных добровольных сообществ (collegia), распространённых в греко-римском обществе первых веков нашей эры. Данное направление в исследовании раннехристианских экклесий не является чем-то новым в науке. Многие учёные XIX в. обращали внимание на сильное сходство между экклесиями и античными добровольными сообществами в устроении и внутренней жизни1. Возрождение этой парадигмы в раннехристианских штудиях произошло в последнем десятилетии XX в. Valeri Aleksandrovich Alikin's book, History and Practice of Assemblies in the Early Church, is devoted to a comprehensive study of early Christian assembly practices in the context of the communal meals of the ancient voluntary communities (collegia) common in Greco-Roman society in the first centuries AD. This direction in the study of early Christian ecclesiae is not new in scholarship. Many scholars of the nineteenth century drew attention to the strong similarities between ekklesias and ancient voluntary communities in their organisation and inner life1. The revival of this paradigm in early Christian studies took place in the last decade of the twentieth century.

The domestic burning of Yule logs on Christmas Eve is an archaic tradition characteristic of the Christian population in the central Balkans. In the fifty years following World War Two, the socialist state suppressed these and other popular religious practices. However, ethnographic research in Serbia and Montenegro in the late 1980s showed that many village households, nevertheless, preserved their traditional Christmas rituals at home, in contrast to the larger towns, in which they were practically eradicated. Even in the micro-regions, such as the Bay of Kotor, there were observable differences between more secluded rural communities, in which the open hearth is still the ritual center of the house (on which the Yule logs are burned as many as seven times during the Christmas season), and the towns in which only a few households continued with the rite (burning small logs in the wood-stove). In the early 1990s, however, a revival of domestic religious celebrations as well as their extension into the public realm has occurred. This study shows how on Christmas Eve, houses and churchyards (as well as townsquares) are being transformed into sacred places. By analyzing the temporal and spatial aspects of this ritual event, the roles that the key actors play, the actions they undertake and artifacts they use, I attempt to demonstrate how the space of everyday life is transformed into a sacred home. In the end, the meanings and functions of homemaking are discussed in a way that confronts the classic distinction between private and public ritual environs.

Faith-Based Finno-Ugric Outreach: Estonian Christian Missionaries among Kindred Peoples in Russia This article provides an initial overview of the role of Christianity in the Finno-Ugric movement and the instrumentalisation of Finno-Ugric identity. It analyses the mission activity conducted by Estonians (and Finns to some extent) among speakers of Finno-Ugric (Uralic) languages in Russia. Above all, the writings of missionaries are used as the source – primarily mission publications published in Estonia. The background is the author’s fieldwork conducted among Nenets reindeer herders, who have been influenced by Russian and Ukrainian Protestant missionaries, and the Udmurt people living on the far side of the Kama, the latter being untouched by mission work. In both communities, religion and language inherited from forebears have a noteworthy role, even though the younger generation is becoming equally bilingual (the Russian language often dominates) and fewer and fewer young people take part in the non-Christian rituals passed down by their ancestors. The first half of the article gives an overview of how the church’s outreach directed at peoples who speak Finno-Ugric languages (hõimumisjon and hõimutöö are Estonian terms used) developed and the ideology behind it. The second half focuses on the activities of Estonian and Finnish missionaries in Russia. The author looks at the reception that the Erzya and Moksha Mordvins, Mari, Udmurts and Zyrian Komis have given the missionaries and also examines Protestant relations with the Russian Orthodox Church and representatives of local native religions. Whereas the collapse of the Soviet Union saw extensive missionary activity in Russia, Protestants from Estonia and Finland (mainly Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists and Pentecostals) set out to actively spread the gospel among Finno-Ugric peoples living in Russia. As Estonians and Finns are often accepted as ‘kin’, missionaries see this as a ‘niche provided by God’, which should be utilised. The goal for the missionaries is to create a Christian community where the kindred brothers and sisters become religious brethren. In spite of accusations to the contrary, they consider their endeavour something that will save Finno-Ugric cultures and languages, proceeding from the attempt to bring eastern ‘kindred peoples’ closer to the Protestant world and the world of the Estonians and Finns and the possibility of redemption. Protestant Estonian and Finnish missionaries portray themselves as preservers of the local languages. In practice, however, their activities are quite conflicting. On one hand, the need to make religious texts available in native languages is stressed, and they participate in organising translation of Christian texts and promote the local mission in the indigenous languages. On the other hand, the primary language used for outreach is not the local language but Russian, as Russian proficiency is predominant among Finno-Ugrians (although not always on a par with that of Russians). As the primary objective is to convert as many people as possible to Christianity, it is not of primary importance for missionaries to learn the local language. Due to conflicting values and practical choices, few native-language congregations are created. Estonian and Finnish Protestants style themselves as preservers of local cultures. The role model is that of Estonian and Finnish Christian popular cultures where the role of ‘paganism’ is under control and the elements of national culture tend to be integrated into a cultural whole. Missionaries cultivate an image of culture as something that can be dressed, sung, eaten, but not as something that relates to the house guardian spirits or the souls of ancestors, communicating with whom is a factor underlying the creation of a major part of the visible culture. To sum up, the author asserts that Christianisation as a culture-changing force has all the more powerful an effect if cultural changes are resisted.

AbstractIn 1623 the Lutherans formed a community in Gouda. They appointed a minister, Clemens Bijleveld from Essen, and held their services in private houses at first. In 1640 'Dc Drie Tafelkaarsen', a house on the Lage Gouwe, was converted into a permanent church for them. Thanks to the Groot Protocol, in which the minutes of the church administration were recorded from this donation until the end of the eighteenth century, it is possible to reconstruct the history of the community. The manuscript also documents important gifts of works of art and church furnishings. In 1642 and 1643 seven large paintings were donated. As we know, Luther did not object to depictions which served to illustrate the Word of God as preached in the sermon. The Dutch Lutheran churches, although more austerely furnished than, say, their German or Norwegian counterparts, were certainly more richly decorated than they are today. The Lutheran church in Leiden houses the most intact ensemble of works of art. Of the seven aforementioned paintings in Gouda, one was donat ed by the preacher himself. It is by the Gouda painter Jan Duif, who depicted Bijleveld as a shepherd (fin. I). The iconography and the biblical captions show that he was presenting himself as a follower of Christ in his quality of a teacher. Two figures in the background, likewise gowned, might be Bijleveld's successors: his nephew (minister from 1655 to 1693) and his nephew's son, both of whom were called Clemens Bijleveld. They were probably added to the panel after the latter's premature death in 1694. The other six paintings were donated bv members of the community and churchwardens. In some of them the donors can be identified with characters in the illustrated episodes from the bible. From the spinsters of the parish came a work depicting the parable of the wise and foolish virgins; the churchwardens, evidently seeing themselves in the guise of the apostles, gave a pedilavium. The widow Hester Claes van Hamborg donated a painting of Simon in the Temple (in which the widow Anna figures prominently), and Catharina Gerdss Rijneveld, probably also widowed, gave Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. The unmarried men of the community presented a painting with a more general subject, the Last Judgment, perhaps intended to be hung above the pulpit. The wealthy Maria Tams gave a work described as 'cen taeffereel of bort van de christ. kercke' la scene or panel of the Christian church]. Exactly what it depicted is unclear. The same Maria Tams was a generous donor of church furniture. She presented a brass chandelier, two brass lecterns (fig. 4), a bible with silver fittings and a clock to remind the preacher of the limited time allotted to his sermon. Important gifts of ecclesiastical silver were made from 1655 on. The most striking items are an octagonal font of 1657 (fig. 5) and a Communion cup of 1661 (fig. 6), both paid for by the proceeds of a collection held among the unmarried men and women of the parish. The decorations on the font include a depiction of Christ as the Good Shepherd. There is also shepherd on the lid of the Communion cup. This element (in view, too, of the indication of the shepherd 'als 't wapen van de kerk' [the church arms] in the Groot Protocol) came to occupy a special place in the imagery of the Lutheran community. More space was required for the growing congregation, In 1680 there was an opportunity to purchase from the municipal council St. Joostenkapel, a mediaeval chapel used as a storeroom at the time. The building, situated on the river Gouwe which flows through the old town centre, was ready for the inaugural service in 1682. It was given ten staincd-glass windows, the work of the Gouda glass painter Willem Tomberg. The glass (along with six of the seven paintings) was sold during the course of renovations in 1838, but thanks to the later secretary of the community, D.J. van Vreumingen, who madc drawings of them and copied the inscriptions, we have an approximate idea of how they looked. Their original positions can also be reconstructed (fig. 13). The windows were largely executed in grisaille, except for the second and eighth, which were more colourful. The seven side-windows with scenes from the life of Christ and the Passion (figs. 8-11) were presented by the minister, his wife and other leading members of the community. The inscriptions on these windows referred to the bible passages they illustrated and to the names of the donors. The three windows at the front were donated by the Gouda municipal council (window 10, fig. 12) and the sympathetic Lutheran communities of Leiden and Essen (windows 8 and 9, figs. 11 and 12). The depiction on the window from Leiden was a popular Lutheran theme: John's vision on Patmos. The candle-stick featuring in this vision was a symbol (as in a print of 1637, for instance) for the Augsburg Confession, on which the Lutheran church was founded. In the eighteenth century occasional additions were made to the inventory, but the nineteenth century was a period of growing austerity. However, the Groot Protocol and Van Vreumingen's notes facilitate the reconstruction of the seventeenth-century interior to a large extent. The iconography of the works of art collected in the course of the years underlined the community's endeavour, in following the teachings of its earthly shepherd, to live according to the Holy Word.

Christians of every stripe are bound into faith communities by two sets of identifying metaphors. One, the body of Christ, is derived from the New Testament's account of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The other, drawn from Hebraic prophecy, is linked to the understanding that Jesus was of the house and lineage of David. As the crucified Messiah, he stood at the head of the house of Israel as both Lord and Christ. In the practical terms spelled out in the Pauline letters, the first of these metaphorical congeries describes the church as Christ's body, an entity with members and a head. The second turns Christ's followers into a kinship group that is a party to a new covenant with God. Despite its heterogeneity, its inclusion of Gentiles as well as Jews, this group—along with the Jews—is one that the ancient of days selected to be his chosen people.

Gdańsk hospitals of the 16th to 18th century and the protestant spirituality Hospitals of the Middle Ages and the Modern era adopted the rule of helping people in need as their basis of operations, especially in the scope of social care over orphans, the poor, widows, the crippled and the elderly. This article aims at sketching the phenomenon of changes undergoing in the sphere of spiritual life in protestant hospitals with the hospital foundations in Gdańsk of the 16th to the 18th century as example. In the Modern era, hospital foundations in Gdańsk constituted a continuation of basic moral values propagated in the hospitals of the 14th and the 15th centuries. Similarly to the Medieval period, the resident of a protestant hospital should be pious, humble and not incite strife. Basic instruments serving the creation of proper models included: community prayer and pastoral service. Providers managing the hospitals were depicted as persons looking after their mentees as well as executing obedience to the rules of hospital laws from the residents. Significant changes in the spiritual life comprised a withdrawal from the importance of prayers said by the poor hospital residents on behalf of the donors, following the notion of negating the participation of good deeds in the act of salvation of humans. It was accompanied by the phenomenon of desacralisation of poverty, which from then on did not constitute any value in itself. The effect of it was the sacralisation of work presented as one of the most important moral precepts. Preachers serving in hospitals did not occupy any prominent positions in the structures of protestant Gdańsk, although working in hospitals would sometimes become a starting point for further career. It seems that a person of beliefs guaranteeing the nurture of orthodox protestant teachings would rather be chosen for the position of a hospital priest. It may be indicated, for instance, by the opposition of a number of hospital preachers against pietistic novelties in the 18th century. It is also important to note the fact that in certain cases (the House of Charity and Orphans or the Institute of the Poor) both the protestant and catholic care existed there. The hospital community was characterised by certain conservatism, which indicated, among others, by preserving pre‑reformation relics in terms of hospital shrines decor. A new decorum, in the reformed spirit, would often be adopted by those churches only after significant devastation resulting from random events (wars, fires). In such cases, the iconography focused on the figure of Christ and biblical scenes known from the lecture of the Holy Script during church services. It indicates the role of paintings in hospital churches, which constituted a visual foundation for sermons enriching the residents spiritually. However, works thematically referring to the virtue of compassion were sparse. It probably resulted from the didactic functions of the art of hospital shrines, which was directed mostly towards the residents and not the potential donors. Influence of the reformation was also indicated by reorienting the shrine space, due to which the pulpit became the place focusing the attention of believers, just like in other protestant churches. Field pulpits established outside were distinctive elements of hospital shrines (at the churches of: the Lazaret, All God’s Angels and Corpus Christi). Intervention of the secular factor (the city council) in hospital life resulted from the sense of responsibility of the city authorities for propagating the model of a good Christian. More broadly speaking, the expectations of hospital community members were identical with those of the city council towards urban community members. The rhetoric used in hospital ordinances was therefore the same as the rhetoric of hospital ordinances issued for the whole of Gdańsk by the city council. Still, the need to constantly call for the authorities to participate in church services and the permanent detailed mentioning the forbidden acts in hospital ordinances constitutes the basis for the assumption that hospital communities did not fully follow the propagated moral precepts. Similarly, maintaining remuneration for as long as to the 19th century (admitting to hospitals for money), steeply criticised in the reformation period as a manifestation of particular pathology of hospital functions, demonstrates the discord between protestant ideals and the realistic possibility of implementing them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the world in extra-ordinarily negative ways. Its impact has been felt in government circles, families, communities and churches globally. Spiritual leadership together with church members or congregants has also suffered a great deal. The pandemic has successfully disorganized societies and religious communities. Its spiritual impact has been felt by church leaders and congregants alike. This study investigated the spiritual impact COVID-19 has imposed on church leadership and congregants. It also explores how some church leaders performed their pastoral ministry under COVID-19 conditions. To achieve the set objective, a qualitative methodology and interpretive paradigm were adopted. In-depth individual interviews with church leaders and church members from Christian churches were used to inform the study. Ten churches that operate within the Esikhaleni raternity, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, under uMhlathuze municipality participated in the data generation process. The study comprised a sample size of four church leaders and eight church members from ten churches. A total number of 12 twelve heterogeneous individual participants were purposively selected. Findings revealed that the prevalence of COVID-19 led to lockdown restrictions and as such, church house closure impacted the church family positively as well as negatively. The study recommends that church leaders be proactive in accommodating change and equip their congregants accordingly. Secondly, churches should adapt to multi-staff ministry where lay people are actively involved in educating congregants about pandemics in general and how to cope spiritually. Third, it is argued church leadership should embrace virtual and internet ministry so as to continue to offer spiritual support to congregants.

The use of the term authenticity in the social science literature can be rather eclectic at best and unscrupulous at worst. (Vanini, 74)We live in an age of authenticity, according to Charles Taylor, an era which prizes the finding of one’s life “against the demands of external conformity” (67–68). Taylor’s argument is that, correctly practiced, authenticity need not result in individualism or tribalism but rather a generation of people “made more self-responsible” (77).Philip Vanini has surveyed the turn toward authenticity in sociology. He has parsed the word authenticity, and argued that it has been used in three ways—factual, original, and sincere. A failure to attend to these distinctives, mixed with a “paucity of systematic empirical research” has resulted in abstract speculation (75). This article responds to Taylor’s analysis and Vanini’s challenge.My argument utilises Vanini’s theoretical frame—authenticity as factual, original, and sincere—to analyse empirical data gathered in the study of recent religious innovation occurring amongst a set of (“alternative worship”) Christian communities in the United Kingdom. I am drawing upon longitudinal research I have conducted, including participant observation in digital forums from 1997 to the present, along with semi-structured interviews conducted in the United Kingdom in 2001 and 2012.A study of “alternative worship” was deemed significant given such communities’s interaction with contemporary culture, including their use of dance music, multi-media, and social media (Baker, Taylor). Such approaches contrast with other contemporary religious approaches to culture, including a fundamentalist retreat from culture or the maintenance of a “high” culture, and thus inherited patterns of religious expression (Roberts).I argue that the discourse of “alternative worship” deploy authenticity-as-originality as essential to their identity creation. This notion of authenticity is used by these communities to locate themselves culturally (as authentically-original in contemporary cultures), and thus simultaneously to define themselves as marginal from mainstream religious expression.Intriguingly, a decade later, “alternative worship” was appropriated by the mainstream. A new organisation—Fresh Expressions—emerged from within the Church of England, and the Methodist Church in Britain that, as it developed, drew on “alternative worship” for legitimation. A focus on authenticity provides a lens by which to pay particular attention to the narratives offered by social organisations in the processes of innovation. How did the discourse deployed by Fresh Expressions in creating innovation engage “alternative worship” as an existing innovation? How did these “alternative worship” groups, who had found generative energy in their location as an alternative—authentically-original—expression, respond to this appropriation by mainstream religious life?A helpful conversation partner in teasing out the complexity of these moves within contemporary religious innovation is Sarah Thornton. She researched trends in dance clubs, and rave music in Britain, during a similar time period. Thornton highlighted the value of authenticity, which she argued was deployed in club cultures to create “subcultural capital” (98-105). She further explored how the discourses around authenticity were appropriated over time through the complex networks within which popular culture flows (Bennett; Collins; Featherstone; McRobbie; Willis).This article will demonstrate that a similar pattern—using authenticity-as-originality to create “subcultural capital”—was at work in “alternative worship.” Further, the notions of authenticity as factual, original, and sincere are helpful in parsing the complex networks that exist within the domains of religious cultures. This analysis will be two-fold, first as the mainstream appropriates, and second as the “alternative” responds.Thornton emerged “post-Birmingham.” She drew on the scholarship associated with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, glad of their turn toward popular culture. Nevertheless she considered her work to be distinct. Thornton posited the construction of “taste cultures” through distinctions created by those inside a particular set of signs and symbols. She argued for a networked view of society, one that recognised the complex roles of media and commerce in constructing distinctions and sought a more multi-dimensional frame by which to analyse the interplay between mainstream and marginal.In order to structure my investigation, I am suggesting three stages of development capture the priority, yet complexity, of authenticity in contemporary religious innovation: generation, appropriation, complexification.Generation of Authenticity-as-OriginalityThornton (26, italics original) writes:authenticity is arguably the most important value ascribed to popular music … Music is perceived as authentic when it rings true or feels real, when it has credibility and comes across as genuine. In an age of endless representations and global mediation, the experience of musical authenticity is perceived as a cure both for alienation … and dissimulation.Thornton is arguing that in this manifestation of youth culture, authenticity is valued. Further, authenticity is a perception, attached to phrases like “rings true” and “feels real.” Therefore, authenticity is hard to measure. Perhaps this move is deliberate, an attempt by those inside the “taste culture” to preserve their “subcultural capital,”—their particular sets of distinctions.Thornton’s use of authentic slides between authenticity-as-sincerity and authenticity-as-originality. For example, in the above quote, the language of “true” and “real” is a referencing of authenticity-as-sincerity. However, as Thornton analysed the appropriation of club culture by the mainstream, she is drawing, without stating it clearly, on both authenticity-as-sincerity and authenticity-as-originality.At around the time that Thornton was analysing club cultures, a number of Christian religious groups in the United Kingdom began to incorporate features of club culture into their worship services. Churches began to experiment with services beginning at club times (9.00 pm), the playing of dance music, and the use of “video-jockeying.” According to Roberts many of these worshipping communities “had close links to this movement in dance culture” (15).A discourse of authenticity was used to legitimise such innovation. Consider the description of one worship experience, located in Sheffield, England, known as Nine o’Clock Service (Fox 9-10, italics original).We enter a round, darkened room where there are forty-two television sets and twelve large video screens and projections around the walls—projections of dancing DNA, dancing planets and galaxies and atoms … this was a very friendly place for a generation raised on television and images … these people … are doing it themselves and in the center of the city and in the center of their society: at worship itself.This description makes a number of appeals to authenticity. The phrase “a generation raised on television and images” implies another generation not raised in digitally rich environments. A “subcultural” distinction has been created. The phrase “doing it themselves” suggests that this ‘digital generation’ creates something distinct, an authentic expression of their “taste culture.” The celebration of “doing it for themselves” resonates with Charles Taylor’s analysis of an age of authenticity in which self-discovery is connected with artistic creation (62).The Nine o’Clock Service gained nationwide attention, attracting attendances of over 600 young people. Rogerson described it as “a bold and imaginative attempt at contextual theology … people were attracted to it in the first instance for aesthetic and cultural reasons” (51). The priority on the aesthetic and the cultural, in contrast to the doctrinal, suggests a valuing of authenticity-as-originality.Reading Rogerson alongside Taylor teases out a further nuance in regard to the application of authenticity. Rogerson described the Nine o’Clock Service as offering “an alternative way of living in a materialist and acquisitive world” (50). This resonates with Charles Taylor’s argument that authenticity can be practiced in ways that make people “more self-responsible” (77). It suggests that the authenticity-as-originality expressed by the Nine o’Clock Service not only appealed culturally, but also offered an ethic of authenticity. We will return to this later in my argument.Inspired by the Nine o’Clock Service, other groups in the United Kingdom began to offer a similar experience. According to Adrian Riley (6):The Nine O’clock Service … was the first worshipping community to combine elements of club culture with passionate worship … It pioneered what is commonly known as “alternative worship” … Similar groups were established themselves albeit on a smaller scale.The very term “alternative worship” is significant. Sociologist of religion Abby Day argued that “boundary-marking [creates] an identity” (50). Applying Day, the term “alternative” is being used to create an identity in contrast to the existing, mainstream church. The “digitally rich” are indeed “doing it for themselves.” To be “alternative” is to be authentically-original: to be authentically-original means a participant cannot, by definition, be mainstream.Thornton argued that subcultures needed to define themselves against in order to maintain themselves as “hip” (119). This seems to describe the use of the term “alternative.” Ironically, the mainstream is needed, in order to define against, to create identity by being authentically-original (Kelly).Hence the following claim by an “alternative worship” organiser (Interview G, 2001):People were willing to play around and to say, well who knows what will happen if we run this video clip or commercial next to this sixteenth century religious painting and if we play, you know, Black Flag or some weird band underneath it … And what will it feel like? Well let’s try it and see.Note the link with music (Black Flag, an American hard core punk band formed in 1976), so central to Thornton’s understanding of authenticity in popular youth cultures. Note also the similarity between Thornton’s ascribing of value in words like “rings true” and “feels real,” with words like “feel like” and “try and see.” The word “weird” is also significant. It is deployed as a signifier of authenticity, a sign of “subcultural capital.” It positions them as “alternative,” defined in (musical) distinction from the mainstream.In sum, my argument is that authenticity-as-originality is present in “alternative worship”: in the name, in the ethos of “doing it themselves,” and in the deploying of “subcultural capital” in the legitimation of innovation. All of this has been clarified through conversation with Thornton’s empirical research regarding the value of authenticity in club culture. My analysis of “alternative worship” as a religious innovation is consistent with Taylor’s claim that we inhabit an age of authenticity, one that can be practiced by “people who are made more self-responsible” (77).Mainstream AppropriationIn 2004, the Church of England produced Mission Shaped Church (MSC), a report regarding its future. It included a chapter that described recent religious innovation in England, grouped under twelve headings (alternative worship and base ecclesial communities, café, cell, network and seeker church models, multiple and mid week congregations, new forms of traditional churches, school and community-based initiatives, traditional church plants, youth congregations). The first innovation listed is “alternative worship.”The incoming Archbishop, Rowan Williams, drew on MSC to launch a new organisation. Called Fresh Expressions, over five million pounds was provided by the Church of England to fund an organisation to support this religious innovation.Intriguingly, recognition of authenticity in these “alternative” innovations was evident in the institutional discourse being created. When I interviewed Williams, he spoke of his commitment as a Bishop (Interview 6, 2012):I decided to spend a certain amount of quality time with people on the edge. Consequently when I was asked initially what are my priorities [as Archbishop] I said, “Well, this is what I’ve been watching on the edge … I really want to see how that could impact on the Church of England as a whole.In other words, what was marginal, what had until then generated identity by being authentic in contrast to the mainstream, was now being appropriated by the mainstream “to impact on the Church of England as a whole.” MSC was aware of this complexity. “Alternative worship” was described as containing “a strong desire to be different and is most vocal in its repudiation of existing church” (45). Nevertheless, it was appropriated by the mainstream.My argument has been that “alternative worship” drew on a discourse of authenticity-as-originality. Yet when we turn to analyse mainstream appropriation, we find the definitions of authenticity begin to slide. Authenticity-as-originality is affirmed, while authenticity-as-sincerity is introduced. The MSC affirmed the “ways in which the Church of England has sought to engage with the diverse cultures and networks that are part of contemporary life” (80). It made explicit the connection between originality and authenticity. “Some pioneers and leaders have yearned for a more authentic way of living, being, doing church” (80). This can be read as an affirmation of authenticity-as-originality.Yet MSC also introduced authenticity-as-sincerity as a caution to authenticity-as-originality. “Fresh expressions should not be embraced simply because they are popular and new, but because they are a sign of the work of God and of the kingdom” (80). Thus Fresh Expressions introduced authenticity-as-sincerity (sign of the work of God) and placed it alongside authenticity-as-originality. In so doing, in the shift from “alternative worship” to Fresh Expressions, a space is both conflated (twelve expressions of church) and contested (two notions of authenticity). Conflated, because MSC places alternative worship as one innovation alongside eleven others. Contested because of the introduction of authenticity-as-sincerity alongside the affirming of authenticity-as-originality. What is intriguing is to return to Taylor’s argument for the possibility of an ethic of authenticity in which “people are made more self-responsible” (77). Perhaps the response in MSC arises from the concern described by Taylor, the risk in an age of authenticity of a society that is more individualised and tribal (55-6). To put it in distinctly ecclesiological terms, how can the church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic be carried forward if authenticity-as-originality is celebrated at, and by, the margins? Does innovation contribute to more atomised, self-absorbed and fragmented expressions of church?Yet Taylor is adamant that authenticity can be embraced without an inevitable slide in these directions. He argued that humans share a "horizon of significance" in common (52), in which one’s own "identity crucially depends on [one’s] dialogical relations with others" (48). We have already considered Rogerson’s claim that the Nine o’Clock Service offered “an alternative way of living in a materialist and acquisitive world” (50). It embraced a “strong political dimension, and a concern for justice at local and international level” (46). In other words, “alternative worship’s” authenticity-as-originality was surely already an expression of “the kingdom,” one in which “people [were] made more self-responsible” (77) in the sharing of (drawing on Taylor) a "horizon of significance" in the task of identity-formation-in-relationships (52).Yet the placing in MSC of authenticity-as-sincerity alongside authenticity-as-originality could easily have been read by those in “alternative worship” as a failure to recognise their existing practicing of the ethic of authenticity, their embodying of “the kingdom.”Consequent ComplexificationMy research into “alternative worship” is longitudinal. After the launch of Fresh Expressions, I included a new set of interview questions, which sought to clarify how these “alternative worship” communities were impacted upon by the appropriation of “alternative worship” by the mainstream. The responses can be grouped into three categories: minimal impact, a sense of affirmation and a contested complexity.With regard to minimal impact, some “alternative worship” communities perceived the arrival of Fresh Expressions had minimal impact on their shared expression of faith. The following quote was representative: “Has had no impact at all actually. Apart from to be slightly puzzled” (Interview 3, 2012).Others found the advent of Fresh Expressions provided a sense of affirmation. “Fresh expressions is … an enabling concept. It was very powerful” (Focus group 2, 2012). Respondents in this category felt that their innovations within alternative worship had contributed to, or been valued by, the innovation of Fresh Expressions. Interestingly, those whose comments could be grouped in this category had significant “subcultural capital” invested in this mainstream appropriation. Specifically, they now had a vocational role that in some way was connected to Fresh Expressions. In using the term “subcultural capital” I am again drawing on Thornton (98–105), who argued that in the complex networks through which culture flows, certain people, for example DJ’s, have more influence in the ascribing of authenticity. This suggests that “subcultural” capital is also present in religious innovation, with certain individuals finding ways to influence, from the “alternative worship” margin, the narratives of authenticity used in the complex interplay between alternative worship and Fresh Expressions.For others the arrival of Fresh Expressions had resulted in a contested complexity. The following quote was representative: “It’s a crap piece of establishment branding …but then we’re just snobs” (Focus group 3, 2012). This comment returns us to my initial framing of authenticity-as-originality. I would argue that “we’re just snobs” has a similar rhetorical effect as “Black Flag or some weird band.” It is an act of marginal self-location essential in the construction of innovation and identity.This argument is strengthened given the fact that the comment was coming from a community that itself had become perhaps the most recognizable “brand” among “alternative worship.” They have developed their own logo, website, and related online merchandising. This would suggest the concern is not the practice of marketing per se. Rather the concern is that it seems “crap” in relation to authenticity-as-originality, in a loss of aesthetic quality and a blurring of the values of innovation and identity as it related to bold, imaginative, aesthetic, and cultural attempts at contextual theology (Rogerson 51).Returning to Thornton, her research was also longitudinal in that she explored what happened when a song from a club, which had defined itself against the mainstream and as “hip,” suddenly experienced mainstream success (119). What is relevant to this investigation into religious innovation is her argument that in club culture, “selling out” is perceived to have happened only when the marginal community “loses its sense of possession, exclusive ownership and familiar belonging” (124–26).I would suggest that this is what is happening within “alternative worship” in response to the arrival of Fresh Expressions. Both “alternative worship” and Fresh Expressions are religious innovations. But Fresh Expressions defined itself in a way that conflated the space. It meant that the boundary marking so essential to “alternative worship” was lost. Some gained from this. Others struggled with a loss of imaginative and cultural creativity, a softening of authenticity-as-originality.More importantly, the discourse around Fresh Expressions also introduced authenticity-as-sincerity as a value that could be used to contest authenticity-as-originality. Whether intended or not, this also challenged the ethic of authenticity already created by these “alternative worship” communities. Their authenticity-as-originality was already a practicing of an ethic of authenticity. They were already sharing a "horizon of significance" with humanity, entering into “dialogical relations with others" that were a contemporary expression of the church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic (Taylor 52, 48). ConclusionIn this article I have analysed the discourse around authenticity as it is manifest within one strand of contemporary religious innovation. Drawing on Vanini, Taylor, and Thornton, I have explored the generative possibilities as media and culture are utilised in an “alternative worship” that is authentically-original. I have outlined the consequences when authenticity-as-originality is appropriated by the mainstream, specifically in the innovation known as Fresh Expressions and the complexity when authenticity-as-sincerity is introduced as a contested value.The value of authenticity has been found to exist in a complex relationship with the ethics of authenticity within one domain of contemporary religious innovation.ReferencesBaker, Jonny. “Alternative Worship and the Significance of Popular Culture.” Honours paper: U of London, 2000.Bennett, Andy. Popular Music and Youth Culture: Music, Identity, and Place. 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The Rise and Fall of the Nine o’Clock Service. London: Continuum, 1996.Kelly, Gerard. Get a Grip on the Future without Losing Your Hold in the Past. Great Britain: Monarch, 1999.Kelly, Steven. “Book Review. Alt.Culture by Steven Daly and Nathaniel Wice.” 20 Aug. 2003. ‹http://www.richmondreview.co.uk/books/cult.html›.McRobbie, Angela. Postmodernism and Popular Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.Riley, Adrian. God in the House: UK Club Culture and Spirituality. 1999. 15 Oct. 2003 ‹http://www.btmc.org.auk/altworship/house/›.Roberts, Paul. Alternative Worship in the Church of England. Cambridge: Grove Books, 1999.Rogerson, J. W. “‘The Lord Is here’: The Nine o’Clock Service.” Why Liberal Churches Are Growing. Eds. Ian Markham and Martyn Percy. London: Bloomsbury T & T, 2006. 45-52.Taylor, Charles. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1992.Taylor, Steve. “Baptist Worship and Contemporary Culture: A New Zealand Case Study.” Interfaces: Baptists and Others. Eds. David Bebbington and Martin Sutherland. Carlisle: Paternoster, 2013. 292-307.Thornton, Sarah. Club Cultures. Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. Hanover: UP New England, 1996.Vanini, Philip. “Authenticity.” Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture. Ed. Dale Southerton. Los Angeles: Sage, 2011. 74-76.Willis, Paul E., et al. Common Culture. Symbolic Work at Play in the Everyday Cultures of the Young. Milton Keynes: Open UP, 1990.

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This study analyses the role of the house motif in Mark’s Gospel since in the tradition, Jesus healed, forgave sin, taught and shared meals as well as the Last Supper in the house. It is argued that Mark was composed for a Gentile, Hellenist Christian house group in Rome and written soon after Nero’s persecution (64-65 CE) of the Christian house-church communities and prior to the destruction of the temple in 70 CE. Though other studies support alternate sites in Galilee, Southern Syria and the Transjordan as the source of the Gospel, the traditional arguments favouring Rome indicate that Mark is a Hellenist Gospel written for the majority Law-free Christian household groups in Rome as Paul’s letter attests in 58 CE. The Gospel offers hope in following the way of the secret of the kingdom. In Mark’s terms, the secret is Jesus’ servant dedication to his messianic ministry, climaxing in his crucifixion and resurrection. There is no description of Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospel; in part unnecessary since, from its opening, the Gospel presumes the power and authority of the crucified, risen Son of Man, the Lord. As Lord, he calls disciples to follow him along the way of eschatological servant dedication in the spatial context of the typical, urban house-church. Consequently, within the house motif, Mark sets out the minor characters’ response in faith and hope to the Lord’s authoritative call, healing, forgiveness and Eucharistic unity in the house. In contrast, the narrative synagogue groups first react only with astonishment to Mark’s messianic Jesus. But, under the authorities’ leadership, the Jewish response hardens into total rejection of Jesus as Mark’s gradually enlarges Israel’s negative response to Mark’s symbolic visitation, judgment and rejection theme of the temple due to the opposition of the Jewish authorities and their abuse of the Law and the temple liturgy. Mark has no pastoral interest in a remote Jerusalem or its temple. From the Gospel's ’s viewpoint, his real aim is the visitation of Rome’s house-church groups through the living Word of the risen Jesus of Nazareth. Israel’s negative narrative response acts as a literary backdrop to the faith responses in the house. As a result, through its misused Law and temple traditions, Israel ensures its symbolic visitation and rejection. Concurrently, in house-churches sustained by faith, and the authoritative Word of the risen Son of Man, challenges Christians in Rome to a renewed fidelity in way, covenant service. Therefore, under the mantle of the house motif, the Gospel offers ‘the secret of kingdom of God’ - Jesus’ life as the selfless servant - as the basis for individual and communal hope. Christians live in the aftermath of severe persecution. These house groups are challenged to live the paradox of faith in life through death, gain through loss, in following a crucified/risen Lord in servant dedication. This appears to be particularly Mark's aim in his close linking of the two motifs, the house and the way, during the journey of Jesus and the disciples on the way to Jerusalem from Galilee. Throughout, he accents eschatological house-churches; their members live the secret of the kingdom in faith, hope and mutual selflessness. Thus, as Lord of the House, Jesus goes before Rome’s Christian groups in his ever-present living and dying in his glorified humanity. By following Jesus of Nazareth in servant discipleship in a house community, Christians blend their existential human becoming with that of the glorified Lord. Hence Mark clearly expects Christians to see the ‘things of God’ as their Spirit-inspired servant charity. In this way, they daily deepen their Christian unification with Jesus’ own dedication as the Beloved Servant/Son in his obedience to his Father’s will. This is the gift that Mark points to ‘now in this time’. Mark stresses this sense of the victorious, fruitful presence of the glorified Son of Man, the Lord, from the opening of the Gospel. The superscription and the fact that he addresses Christians, who already know Jesus as the triumphant Lord, allow him to write from a post resurrection viewpoint. So, within the scope of the house motif, Mark encourages a deeper faith and hope in the efficacy of Christian self-identification with Jesus in his victorious way of the cross.

China is a world force. Not only is China seen in the daily news but it has produced the largest church in the world. The church is 100 million people strong (Hattaway 2003:13). Since 1978, modern China has begun to populate the world community with her immigrants. Vast Diaspora communities have been created. The church in China shows all the signs of a Jesus People movement. In 1949 the communist came into power. They ordered all Christian missionaries to leave the country (Aikman 2003:44). By 1953 the last missionary had left (Thompson 1978:186). Mao closed the churches, confiscated property, burned books and bibles and had leaders sent to re-education camps. A time of persecution had begun. Rather than destroy the church, this made it stronger. The church grew from 750,000 to 100 million today. Can this Jesus People movement be experienced in the Diaspora community in South Africa? To evaluate this we use Allan Hirsch’s “The Forgotten Ways” (2006). In this he speaks of Apostolic Genius and the six elements that compose it. Thos elements are Jesus is Lord, Making Disciples, Missional-Incarnational Impulse, Apostolic Environment, Organic Systems and Communitas. These six elements are found expressed within a Jesus people movement. When they are all fully involved, a Jesus People movement is underway. There are 14 Chinese Christian churches in South Africa. The Chinese Diaspora community is 300-350,000 people. The Chinese mostly come from the Fujian province in China. Seventy percent are entrepreneurs and businessmen running shops selling Chinese goods. The researcher has found that the leadership of the churches is from Taiwan. Bringing everything together, the researcher finds the churches are growing at a moderate rate. The expected explosive growth of the church in China is not found in South Africa. The elements of Apostolic Genius are present but only partially expressed. There continues to be potential for the Chinese House church movement to field workers in South Africa. There has been some expressed interest. The Back To Jerusalem Movement is putting missionaries all over the Middle East (Hattaway 2003). It is the opinion of the researcher that putting workers in the Diaspora communities would be a natural extension of that that effort.
Dissertation (MA Theol)--University of Pretoria, 2013.
gm2014
Science of Religion and Missiology
unrestricted

The focus of this practical theological study is the analysis of the life and worship of the Perth Asian Christian Community in the New Life City Church, where we note fast maturation of Christians with a desire to complete the Great Commission. As participant observer using the qualitative method, I was able to identify how the NLCC is wall-less by interviewing different groups within the church and two Western sample groups. To accomplish this, Chapter two analyses the Western and Asian churches’ understanding of the concepts ‘church’ and ‘church growth’. The evaluations showed a difference in understanding. This prompted an inquiry in chapter three into their understanding of the Great Commission from the Western and Asian viewpoint against the Biblical understanding thereof. The intention of NLCC groups interviewed in Chapters four to eight was to detect what they perceived as helping them mature as Christians, considering many are first-generation Christians. The groups interviewed included founder members, first-generation Christians, youth group leaders, returned NLCC missionaries and the pastor. By Chapter nine it was established that the Asian Christian understood worship in a broader context. Chapter ten summarises the interpreted data of the groups interviewed and identifies stimulants for maturation of individual Christians in a post-Christian environment. The broader understanding of worship is discussed. These guidelines form the building blocks for a practical theological theory of church growth.
Practical Theology
D. Th. (Practical Theology)

Before 1958, most Protestant churches were less heavily stigmatized, unlike the Catholic Church, which had been overshadowed by the politically charged “counterrevolutionary” stigma since 1949. Many village Protestant churches welcomed new converts and new church groups were founded. This ongoing growth had other consequences as well, creating friction with state programs, local cadres, and even non-Christian villagers. In Wenzhou, the local government used the occasion of the Great Leap Forward beginning in 1958 to launch a “great leap in religious work,” shutting down all churches and forcing Christians to renounce their faith. The campaign left Protestant communities deeply divided, mixing fresh wounds with old feuds. The hostile political climate led to clandestine house gatherings and new modus operandi for Christian communities. This shift would bring about a much more dramatic transformation during the Cultural Revolution.

Turkmenistan is the second-largest country in Central Asia, but the smallest population, with the majority professing Sunni Islam. The earliest material evidence of the Christian presence in Central Asia, derives from Turkmenistan; however, in modern Turkmenistan it is a minority religion. The largest non-Muslim minority faith is Russian Orthodox Christianity; there is also a small contingent of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The main Protestant denominations are Evangelical Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists and Evangelical Lutherans, many of which operate as underground house churches since registration is almost impossible. The Russian Orthodox expression of Christianity is the ‘majority-minority’ community in Turkmenistan, primarily centred among the local-born Russian-Turkmen mixed-raced or Russian and other European ethnic communities of the country. Turkmen law, recognising that the majority of the population are Muslims, prohibits proselytising, including the publication and import of religious literature. With an unregistered status, many individuals and religious communities continually experience administrative restrictions or various other forms of persecution, including imprisonment. Today there are more than 2,000 Protestant believers in Turkmenistan belonging to officially registered Evangelical unions and significantly more believers belonging to independent or unregistered churches.