History

Sometimes I get a strong feeling that history is turning on a few pivotal events at key moments and creating chapter beginnings and endings for later generations.

I feel that we are, right now, at the beginning of a new era and 2015 will cement that moment.

If the last era was marked by the falling of the Berlin Wall in 1989, this one will be marked by the building of border fences in Hungary and the other countries as a response to the Syrian refugees in 2015. Schengen Europe may fall.

Like Forrest Gump, I have a strange habit of turning up unexpectedly and unintentionally at these moments. We happened to arrive at the Hungary/Serbia border two days before they closed the border and we stayed around for a few days to help out with the refugees in that area.

A few nights ago we were at the protest against IS in Istanbul. I told my 13 year old daughter that we were standing at the epicentre of history's turning and for a brief spell we appreciated the austerity and importance of just being there as history writes itself.

We didn't stay at the protest. The explosions two days earlier suggested a strong possibility of it happening again. There were police everywhere with tear-gas canisters strapped to their chests. My daughter wanted to join the protest along with others in the team but I told them all to leave the area for their own safety and return to the squat where they were staying that night.

On the religious front, I see this year as the beginning of a new season.

I once predicted the emerging church movement (including alt. worship, fresh expressions, house church, new monasticism, etc) would be placed historically as 1989 to 2009. As it turned out, it will most likely be 2010.

The last 5 years have been a season of pivot and purge.

• Pivot, for those movements identified with the emerging church, that needed to reestablish their identity apart from the label, as John Drane did for the Fresh Expression movement in 2012. And for movements that shifted away from church-centered strategies towards wider and more holistic Kingdom strategies, sustainability, micro-business, social enterprise, and ministry to and from the poor and vulnerable.
• Purge, for the elements in the new movements that were unseemly or contributed to the same ecclesial institutional abuse they were hoping to reform. And a purge for the older institutions of mission and church that have been operating on unsustainble practices - the financial problems of the IMB, for example, that may signal the "demise of the centrally funded mission agency". That purging is continuing today and includes all parts of the ecclesial industrial complex. Blogs chronicling the purge, like The Wartburg Watch and Naked Pastor, have become hugely popular. The fall of Mark Driscoll was perhaps the most stark example of that purge.

Over the past 5 years there has been philosophical and existential change in direction. But in 2015, there has been change at the structural level. A gathering of church leaders in Germany last week, for example, in response to the Syrian refugee crisis, saw traditional churches open up to refugees and newer groups like the Jesus Freaks initiate a network-wide response as part of the new vision. A 100+ year mission in Germany (EMO) has reinvented itself around responding to the Syrian refugees.

Church will not be the same again.

The Pope's speech to congress in September was historic. He spoke for more than just Catholics when he spoke against environmental damage, abuse of the poor, resisting the new colonialism, and offering apology for the sins committed against indigenous peoples. He also pointed to key American Catholic voices including Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day.

BTW, In 2009, I predicted this decade will revisit Dorothy Day.

The Syrian refugee crisis is not bringing about these changes in itself but it seems to be the catalyst for many of the structural changes we are seeing.

The world will be different because of 2015. At least thats how I see it.

I have some thoughts on what the new season will look like but I will save that for another post.