Many of us continue to attempt to do what Jesus said ‘No-one Does’…
Namely…trying to put New Wine into Old Wineskins…
We’ve even prided ourselves on our attempts to do this…
My Last Post puts forward the straightforward teaching of Jesus that New Wine belongs in New Wineskins
However…this post will highlight Jesus’ accompanying thought…by putting new wine into the new forms we actually ‘PRESERVE THE OLD’
In forming New Wineskins (new forms of church, new methods, new ways, new ‘vehicles’ for ‘transporting the wine’) we don’t ‘Do Away with the Old’…
In fact, by creating New Forms for New Wine…this actually helps to ‘Preserve the Old’ (old forms, structures, ways of doing things…which of cause God wants to do)
If we pour the New Wine into the Old…Jesus observed that the new would actually ‘Shatter’ the old
And no-one wants to Burst Your Bubble…right? No-one wants an unhealthy tear!
But how does this actually work in practice….
We may be part of an already established community of believers (this could be an established church that meets in a traditional church building and part of an inherited denominational church. Alternatively it could actually be a group of long-term christians meeting in a home or cafe as a missional community, organic simple church, fresh expressions or whatever the latest terminology is)
We then seek to ‘reach out to’ a completely new and different group of people who are not yet believers, or who have never been in a ‘church bubble’ with established christians before…
We then try to invite this whole new group of people (notice I say group/people group- not individual- an individual might fit the old- but whole new people groups often don’t) to ‘join’ our existing situation
This causes all sorts of problems. The new people group on joining the old community don’t understand some of the cultural and traditional ways or ‘language’ of the original group. There are differences in expectation and enthusiasm. The stage of development is completely different between the ‘old hats’ and the ‘young guns’ and their ‘needs’ are totally different!
The new group come with new ideas…the old group members often want things to stay pretty much the same as they were before…maybe with a few minor adjustments but nothing too strenuous…because the old wineskin works well for them and their pattern of life…
The ‘bursting of the wineskin’ is already in process…
No-One WINS! And Jesus is certainly not glorified in the process! And even worse…the whole new group could completely fall away and deem church and then Jesus completely irrelevant and uninteresting and outside their culture…church becomes something that only ‘certain sorts of people’ belong to…(currently in many circles I’ve experienced- church is something only for the middle class white or Africans for example)
This effect also happens when…
A traditional church with long term committed congregants tries to ‘experiment’ with it’s Sunday Services…trying to ‘revamp’ the wineskin. Those who have valued the previous way of doing things…begin to grumble and complain and leave. Those who want change feel that the ‘revamping’ fails to go far enough…tthey also eventually leave to form new expressions of church but all ties are cut between the old and the new
We still try to do the thing Jesus said ‘no-one does’ (‘no-one attempts to put new wine into old wineskins because…’)
Jesus, ‘the wisest person who has ever lived’ said something like this…
if things are working for a particular people group and it is glorifying to God and doesn’t put to no effect the word of God and the power of God…preserve it as it is…thus preserving fruit that lasts
But make sure that you put the new people, new revelation, new season, new outpourings into new vessels that are shaped by the new paradigm
So…there could be a Fresh Expression of church or Incarnational Mission Team that has now been going for 10 years (maybe a cafe church, or a church that gathers to make bread in a baker and so forth)…the people who are a part of that community are growing and have become committed to one anothe for some time nowr…and someone in that group has become excited about reaching a whole new people group (middle aged men from Iraq. young ex-offenders. street workers. punk rockers). The problem is…the new group of people don’t fit the old (fresh expression). The typical pattern often unfolds in this sort of scenerio…
1. Keep the cafe church the same and expect the new group just to ‘fit in’ and if they don’t it’s just ‘their fault’ as they are cleary not really interested in God or spiritual things or just too lazy to show up
2. Begin to transform the cafe church into a kind of hybrid (bits of the old style with bits of a new style) to try to please both the old community and the new community. Neither groups are happy because it is a compromise (the putting of new wine into old wineskins)
3. A Split…trying to put two things together into the same wineskin causes friction leading to an unhealthy split (not multiplication but division) as the old influences dig their heels in and resist any change and the new leaders of the new group are impatient and are forced to set out on their own initiative
Could it be that Jesus suggests we keep the old as it is, and at the same time form new radical wineskins for the new radical wine being poured out?
That way you don’t get this compromise…an old church group having to dismantle what it does…or new forms of church taking on the yeast of traditions no longer valid for the new generation…a kind of smush that doesnt work either way. WWe continually do this and the result is…the new forms are never new forms enough and the old forms do not keep their distinction. We get this ‘middle form’ that is neither one thing or another and appeals to hardly anyone but ‘inbetweeney christians or lonely people who just enjoy being together no matter what things look or feel like’
The phrase used by the Anglican Church in relation to enabling the new (Fresh Expressions) to grow up alongside the old (the parish system) is ‘Mixed Economy‘ of Church (or Mixed Ecology). This is very healthy and seems close to what Jesus talks about in Luke 5:33-39, Matt 9:14-17
In the 21st Century we are used to viewing the world through network dynamics and should have no problem with the idea of independent communities (established churches and new forms of church) choosing interdependence for mutual benefit (seeing themselves as a broader networked movement that meets in churches of all shapes and sizes and scattered across cities, counties, regions and nations)
So in a parish, village, city or region it’s possible to see established churches (if you’ve been going for more than even 10 years…you are established) and new forms of church of all kinds co-existing with travelling workers moving between them, resources flowing where needed and the coninual start-up and multiplication of new communities of disciples unhindered (except by spiritual opposition)
We honour the ‘Old’ (that’s the foundation that much of the new springs from…if it wasnt for the old…many leaders of new forms of church wouldn’t even be ‘in the faith’…so forming the new isn’t an ocassion for any misplaced pride or arrogance as everything we do is only posssible through the gifts and grace of Jesus and standing on the shoulders of generals in the faith who have gone before)
We celebrate the ‘New’ (releasing blessing and resources where needed to the new without trying to control or stifle or direct or compete with the new)
And ‘Every religious teacher who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old’
