Centers and Peripheries
In a brief conversation with Alan Hirsh about movements, Alan suggested I look up work by Howard Snyder of Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. Apparently his life work has been on the topics of revival and revitalization movements. I ran across an introductory article from Snyder’s work here.
I enjoyed his observation that spiritual awakenings often occur in places that often seem off the beaten path, and not at the center of the religious universe. He writes,
One thing revivals and renewals are all about, is centers and peripheries. In 1900 the “center†of world Protestant and Protestant missions seemed to be Europe (especially London) and the United States (especially New York). But then unexpected revivals broke out in “peripheral†places: Wales, Azusa Street (Los Angeles), villages in India, northern Korea. In the century-long wake of the 1904–07 revivals, Christianity has been transformed. Renewal often begins at the (perceived) margins and sometimes its significance is recognized only later. The most promising renewals today may yet be invisible.
As a person focused on city transforming movements of the body of Christ, I see so many helpful dimensions of learning coming from many traditions and quarters. The new expressions of church prompted by the modern/postmodern shift, along with the dynamics of rapid urbanization are creating new conversations that will have profound and positive impact on the way the next generation of the church will function. The Spirit is clearly up to something… but the work is often perceived as being on the margins, unusual and different. A positive spin on our work would be to call it cutting edge.
I think it is this dynamic that draws me to movies like Luther. It helped me to understand that the “traditional” and accepted teachings of the Reformation, were not so accepted during the days of the reformers. It feels like that today for me. Not that I’m being chased as a heretic… but people might wonder. I think the conversation we are in today is on the periphery… a good place.
That day when you sent me out so boldly to change the world, did you really think there wouldn’t be a cost? - The character Martin Luther, (From the Movie Luther)
But the centers and peripheries is more than how people perceive you. Hirsh, being a more secure individual than I, makes the misiological observation:
It is vital that in pursuing missional modes of church, we get out of the stifling equilibrium of the center of our movements and denominations, move to the fringes, and engage in real mission there. But there’s more to it than just mission; most great movements of mission have inspired significant and related movements of renewal in the life of the church. It seems that when the church engages at the fringes, it almost always brings life to the center. Hirsh, The Forgotten Ways, p. 30.