Liquid Church

by Mark Tidsworth, Team Leader

Remember when churches and their leaders could get away with being dogmatic about how to be and do church? Remember when we could insist worship be done a certain way, believing that to be THE way to worship? Remember just a few short years ago when churches were highly attached to their way of being church, baptizing their church paradigms, believing they were the closest thing to heaven on earth?

Recent events are reminding me God’s Church is a body which changes over time. The first is an experience and the second is a conversation.

While on a recent church consulting trip, I decided to occupy myself on the drive by noticing church names on buildings and bumper stickers. After returning home, I listed a few on Facebook and received more from others, including a few pictures. Here’s my recently curated church name list:

Vivid Church

Awaken Church

Excite Church

Fresh Church

Elevation Church

Hungry Church

Authentic Church

Real Church

Opry Church

Next Level Church

Decibel Church

The Link Church

Radiate Church

Simply Amazing Ministry (See picture below, Johns Island, SC – Thanks Daniel Smoak)

Hell Hole Swamp Baptist Church (To throw in one geographically named church)

Next, I was talking with a pastor whose church is in our ReShape Transforming Church Initiative. Our conversation focused on the numerous changes resulting from 17 months of pandemic (so far) – very different numbers for in-person worship services, the variations in worship times and types of music (driven by necessity), the raw emotions influencing people to say and do what they normally would not, and the uncertainty about this coming autumn due to the Delta Variant. This pastor used the word “fluid” more than once while describing church-as-they-know-it. Now, these two experiences (a church-name tour plus a ReShape conversation) are interacting to inspire another church name: Liquid Church. The following insights describe the basis for Liquid Church:

There are many expressions of God’s Church in the world.

And thanks be to God! Different churches help open the door to God for different people. Some will find God with Vivid Church, while Vivid Church repels others who are too tired for that level of stimulation, looking for Sabbath Church. Some are ready to crank it up with Decibel Church, while others are drawn to Quiet Church. Yes, I’m aware many of these names are nods to the consumerism rampant in American Christianity, turning many of us off. At the same time, if people are gathering in the name of Jesus and worshiping God, who am I to throw stones? There are many expressions of God’s Church in this world, not limited by our small perspectives – thanks be to God.

Mostly, it’s about preference, not faith or theology.

In a former life, I worked as a Marriage and Family Therapist for twenty years. What I learned after sitting with thousands of couples is that 90% of marital functioning comes down to personal preference. I’ve seen couples who are very content and healthy live into their marriages in the strangest of ways. There’s not a one-size fits all when it comes to marital paradigms, most of it being couple preferences. Evidently, the same goes for churches. The type of music, the volume in worship, activity levels during the week, focus of community engagement, rented or mortgaged worship space, cultural niche of clergy and staff (skinny jeans or robes or suits)….all negotiable, all preferences. Certainly there are essentials when it comes to being church, yet 90% of what we do is negotiable, driven by preference.

Outcome: We cannot afford to be methodological fundamentalists anymore.

My seminary, along with every other seminary, modeled a certain way to do church. Every seminary promotes a church paradigm in overt and subtle ways. We graduates tended to buy into or rebel against those paradigms. Regardless of our responses, there was a time when churches and their leaders could insist their church paradigm was slightly (or dramatically) superior to others…believing their faith and theology made this so. Now, when it comes to being church, there are very few shoulds, oughts, and musts. Everything has become liquid it seems.

Though I certainly value my preferences for how church should be, I’m hopeful that I, along with many others, are becoming un-fundamentalists when it comes to being and doing church. Liquid Church, it seems, is here to stay. Liquid Church is the new normal, not some aberration. Liquid Church may be one way God’s stripping away our judgmental-ism regarding the church down the street. If so, thanks be to God.