Is Your Church an Event or a Community?
From Westerhoff's "other faithing selves" to Lefebvre's appropriated spaces — what sociology and theology together say about the kind of church that forms disciples.
One of my favourite concepts from the child developmental theologian John Westerhoff III is his quirky phrase for Christians: “other faithing selves”. Westerhoff’s faith formation framework emphasises the essential nature of community for health faith development. In Will Our Children Have Faith?, Westerhoff writes:
“Faith is an action which includes thinking, feeling and willing and it is transmitted, sustained and expanded through our interactions with other faithing selves in a community of faith.” (p.91)
This corporate nature of authentic Christian faith is central to the discussion that Joel McMaster and I have as we continue to explore the intersection of theology and sociology of church community in this week’s episode of The Shock Absorber podcast. In Stuart Crawshaw’s absence, we pick up a couple of open threads from last week’s episode and dig deeper into the question of whether church is an event or a community.
Along the way, we wax lyrical about:
Henri Lefebvre’s dominated vs. appropriated spaces
Leadership vs. contribution
Measures of successful churching
Why to invite 10-year-olds into your planning meetings
All in the service of discussing the theme of church as a “third place community”
Plus a little bit of World Cup banter (recorded before Germany’s brutal ousting on Tuesday)
Catch the full conversation in the links below or on your favourite podcast app.