I'm intrigued by the sustainability of a Church community when working within a culture of transience. Let me explain, the church that I lead, sanctus1, has about 45 people in it. Of those 45 people over 50% of them are new to the community in the last year. Two years ago Sanctus1 had the same number of people in it, so in two years 50% of the community has changed. It has changed, not because people have got bored, annoyed, hurt and left but because people are extremely mobile and when work, relationships or something else calls them away, they have the freedom to move. This seems to be a pattern, that every few years there is a real diaspora of people leaving the community, which creates space for new people.
This has many affects on the community, firstly the values etc. that were defined by the community three - four years ago need to become either owned by the new community or changed and secondly, participation. It is often the case that it takes people a while to get involved - they start to take things on and then they move on and it's back to the drawing board! this is the same with finance, people start to give then move on.
There are frustrations to this but also opportunities, opportunities to re-imagine every few years, a story that is always evolving and it makes change slightly easier...
So, I'm wondering if emerging churches that are made up of mainly young mobile professionals will ever been sustainable? Will they always be dependent on leaders to carry the larger story, and institutions to guarantee their longevity?
Technorati Tags: Ben Edson, emerging church
