{"id":1256,"date":"2010-09-13T16:19:13","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T20:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marktime.org\/?p=1256"},"modified":"2010-09-13T16:19:13","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T20:19:13","slug":"reframing-hope-by-carol-howard-merritt-a-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marktime.org\/?p=1256","title":{"rendered":"Reframing Hope by Carol Howard Merritt – A Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rev. Carol Howard Merritt, currently of Western Presbyterian Church in Washington DC, has published a new book:\u00a0 Reframing Hope<\/a>.\u00a0 I’ve recently finished reading it and here I present a review.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer:\u00a0 I’m a friend of Carol.\u00a0 She sent me a free copy of the book to read and review.\u00a0 And I’m even mentioned in the book.\u00a0 So I’m a bit biased.\u00a0 And let me just say this – it’s really strange reading someone’s book and knowing the backstories behind the stories, having participated in some of the conversations that she mentions and discusses.\u00a0 That’s particularly true of Chapter 3 – Reexamining the Medium – where she discusses Twitter and other social media.\u00a0 OK, that’s out of the way.\u00a0 On with the review.<\/em><\/p>\n

Merritt’s primary thesis is this – the modern world is ending, postmodernism is taking hold, and the Church needs to adapt in order to survive.\u00a0 While spelling that reality out, she documents different ways in which the adapting part of Christianity (though not necessarily the Church as institution) is succeeding in reimagining the faith for not just a new generation, but a whole new way of “doing church”.\u00a0 She uses the psychological term of “reframing<\/a>” as a model for that reimagining.\u00a0 Merritt states that we are using outdated frames to measure church success:\u00a0 numbers, attendance, income.\u00a0 We need to reframe our idea of church success and particularly church methods and ideas in order to work within a world that is changing from modernism to postmodernism.\u00a0 And interestingly enough, that reframing often includes a return to ancient ideas and practices.<\/p>\n

Merritt centers all of this study of the past and present and imagining of the future within the idea of Hope.\u00a0 She feels (and I agree) that younger generations – Generation X through the Millenials, particularly the latter – show a great deal of promise in their zeal to make the world a better place.\u00a0 She feels that spirituality and community-building are on the rise, and contrasts them to the modern ideas of power and structure and hierarchy.\u00a0 Merritt feels that there is a movement of the Holy Spirit happening and a vitality of the newer generations, and that it’s important for us to recognize that and welcome it.<\/p>\n

Merritt begins the study in the area of Authority.\u00a0 The locus of authority in the church today is changing from books (as recently as 100 years ago only available in libraries at a distance, and before that only available to a learned few) and pastors in the pulpit to a new locus in the Internet, random conversations, and outside the church.\u00a0 Where once only the very well educated were seen as authorities on spirituality and theology, today individuals are able to “publish” their ideas on the Internet and share them without a need for a title like Reverend or a bunch of letters after their name.\u00a0 Even more notably, the Internet and social media have allowed people who are interested in these subjects to converse with experts in the field, and even to form friendships with them.\u00a0 Shoot – today a wannabe pastor like me gets to converse with published authors and Moderators.\u00a0 And it’s not just ideas that are discussed – we aren’t spending a lot of time on “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin” questions.\u00a0 Practical notions about how to express our spirituality in community, how churches are governed, and sermon ideas are exchanged between people who have never met.\u00a0 And in the midst of that, ancient spiritual practices are lifted up again and seen in practice today.\u00a0 Merritt ends the chapter with a study in contrasts.\u00a0 In today’s world, there are two competing ideas – the idea that centralization is king and “bigger is better” and the empowerment of people at the edges.\u00a0 These movements are contradictory and happening simultaneously and in my opinion reflect the practical struggle between modernism and postmodernism.\u00a0 And we are expected (particularly pastors) to live with feet in both movements simultaneously – ministering to those rooted in the modern world and those rooted in the postmodern world.<\/p>\n

Merritt follows this study of authority with stories of Re-forming Community.\u00a0 The big question in the Mainline Protestant church today is “how can we keep the young people from leaving?”\u00a0 “How do we reach out to a younger demographic?”\u00a0 Today’s church is aging, and the average age of members is getting so high that even the Sunday Schools are starting to empty – because the parents of those missing children are missing themselves.\u00a0 Our churches are worried about closing (and some have closed).\u00a0 At the same time communities are springing up to deal with the questions of spirituality and faith.\u00a0 These communities are sometimes appearing within the traditional church structure, but more often than not are growing organically across denominational lines and even inter-faith.\u00a0 Even the idea of community has changed – from “whose are you?” (what group do you belong to OR what are your beliefs) to “who are your friends?”\u00a0 The traditional idea of belonging to a group that has chosen to accept us and which has sharply defined boundaries has shifted.\u00a0 Today’s new communities are marked more by their permeable boundaries and sharing of concepts across faith and practice lines.\u00a0 Traditions are not rejected and replaced as they were in the evangelical movement (with its move from hymns and organs to rock bands and light shows) but instead are combined and formed into a new creation.\u00a0 To me, it looks a bit like spiritual Legos or Play-Doh – the basics are the same but the shape and size and color of the new community are created by taking pieces from many communities, old and new.<\/p>\n

Merritt also speaks about the importance of denominational structures in the new world.\u00a0 She highlights the good in denominations:\u00a0 continuity, shared support, and the weight of numbers that makes big things possible.\u00a0 She calls herself a “loyal radical” – one who embraces some of the ideas and innovation of the Emerging movement but is still a loyal member of her denomination – Presbyterian Church (USA).\u00a0 (And she points out the groups that Phyllis Tickle calls “hyphen-mergents” – the presbymergents, anglimergents, etc.)\u00a0 She lists three factors that distinguish the Loyal Radicals from the Emergent church:<\/p>\n

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  1. Loyal radicals have strong ties to their denominational histories, where Emergents sometimes reject that history<\/li>\n
  2. Origins – the postevangelical emergent movement grew out of a meeting held by Doug Pagitt to raise up the next generation of evangelical leaders – and can be very antidenominational.\u00a0 The Loyal Radicals reached similar ideas and practices due to their loyal reactions to their denominations, which many of them still love.<\/li>\n
  3. Social justice – Loyal radicals are much more open to women, ethnic minorities, and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) leaders; indeed their presence is demanded or the movement is seen as exclusionary.\u00a0 Postevangelical emergents have had their leadership develop organically and the net result has been that that leadership is dominated by primarily white, straight men while in some places women and LGBT folks are excluded from leadership.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    From there Merritt moves on to discuss the effects that the Internet and social media in particular are having on faith.\u00a0 This is a balanced look by someone who lives in that world every day.\u00a0 (Indeed – she and I have tweeted at each other WHILE I’m writing this review about another matter.)\u00a0 She discusses the positives of the Internet and social media:\u00a0 communication and friendship between distance-separated people who would be fast friends in person if they lived near each other, the ability to carry on discussions simultaneously and asynchronously, the instantaneous access to information and opinions.\u00a0 (I have to echo those virtues.\u00a0 I’ve made very close friends through social media.\u00a0 It’s fun to meet someone in person for the first time who you’ve been friends with on the Internet – most of the “new friend” awkwardness is gone and you have that “known each other for years” feeling.\u00a0 And the base of knowledge in a community of hundreds who will answer questions randomly is hard to beat.)\u00a0 She also considers the downsides:\u00a0 the questionable community by those who are never together in person, the loss of communication in a text-based medium, the dehumanization that anonymity produces, the ability to claim more support for your ideas than may exist and to take potshots at others from behind your screen.\u00a0 In the end she concludes that the new medium is good and that communication has changed forever.\u00a0 She challenges us to both accept the new and the good and also to be aware of the risks.<\/p>\n

    From here, Merritt moves into a discussion of the effects of these changes on different areas of interest to the church:<\/p>\n