Karen Ward Keynote on "MetaModernity"

Karen Ward is well-known for starting the Church of the Apostles in Seattle. They do emergent worship and lots of community building. At our conference, she gave us some new ideas about church and society. She began by sharing this short video.

Post-Post-Modern
When I was fresh out of seminary, "postmodern" was the new thing. Now, Karen says, we're post-postmodern and into a time called Meta-Modernity. In metamodernity, we oscillate. We oscillate between longing for and not wanting/not believing in something (community, God, etc). As leaders in the church, we must understand and accept this oscillation and learn how to help oscillators relax into the truth of God. Our task is to help "spiritual tourists" become pilgrims on the way.

Bounded Sets vs. Centered Sets
There is a new way to think about churches using set theory.
The old view of church is that of a bound set: people inside the boundary were "church" and people outside the set were "unchurched." More recently, however, some churches are becoming a centered set instead of a bound set. These churches do not have a clear boundary to delineate who is and isn't a member. Rather, some people are near the center, and others are far away--but they all are drawn toward the center (imagine the village well as the center of village life).
It seems to me that Harcourt Parish has always been a center set church. We have a wide range of folks worshiping on Sundays, some who participate weekly others occasionally. We have active members who consider themselves a wide range of denominations. And most of all, we let people participate as they feel comfortable.

Messy Church
How great is that?!? There is a movement of congregations hosting "Messy Church" as occasions for families and others to get together in a new way. Everyone arrives and works on a messy art project. Then they gather together to listen to a bible story and maybe some singing and prayers. And finally, they gather for a full meal together.
Sign me up!