An evening with Stuart Murray Williams discussing "The Shape of Things to Come"
 

The second year of Galilee events got off to a stimulating start as Stuart Murray Williams shared an evening with us. Stuart has a gentle and easy style of communication, and proved to have a great many fascinating thoughts to share.

His credibility in talking about church planting and urban mission is firmly grounded on years of work in the front line, planting a church in the East End of London. As well as training and consultancy work to a very diverse clientele amongst the churches (at last count he has worked with 24 denominations!), Stuart also founded “Urban Expressions” encouraging fresh expressions of church in challenging urban settings.

Another great theme in his experience and spiritual journey is a deep exploration of the Anabaptist tradition, including a key role in the Anabaptist Network.

From his own distinctive position and broad perspective he offered a challenging analysis of the state of the church today and the likely shape of things to come. A major theme was the end of Christendom, where the Christian faith had a privileged position and was the presumed common faith and culture across society. In the Post-Christendom era all such privileges and presumptions are falling away and the Christian community is struggling to adapt.

The immediate outlook for the church is not good. Numbers are falling in many denominations and the demographic profile of churchgoers suggest big falls yet to come. These are times for a realistic faith. Christian faith is moving to the margins of society and must learn to “sing the Lord’s song in a strange land”. There needs to be a new and vigorous responses including “accountable pioneering”, keeping relationships within established networks, whilst setting people free to explore new territory.

There are signs of hope amongst the so-called Emerging Church. They are faint, tentative and unclear but give indications about some of the shapes of the church to come. There is no single template, or an easy route, but much for the Christian family to learn.

As often happens, the questions kept flowing until it was time to finish the formal part of the evening. However, the buzz of conversation carried on over a cup of coffee with a lot of evidence that thoughts had been provoked!