Book Review – In-tensional by Justin Duckworth and Alan Jamieson

By who? Justin Duckworth is an Anglican Archbishop of Aotearoa New Zealand/Polynesia. He is renowned for his dreadlocks, lack of footwear, and urban street ministry. Alan Jamieson is a New Zealand Baptist, a senior minister of larger churches, and has a PhD in faith development.

This book is a stimulating read, authored by two practical, grounded, thought leaders, written in the context of a country at the leading end of post-Christendom church decline. In short, it’s a conversation about how the established (centre) church can learn from edge church, how they can relate to each other, moving beyond confusion and disillusionment towards gospel hope.

Before I go further, what experience do I have to review a book about edge church? I have 30 years of working for mainstream denominations. In that time I have had several experiences of what you might call edge church. I will highlight two. One was in edge youth ministry. The youth leaders on my staff led groups in the state high school, organised camps for students who did not fit into mainstream education, ran a café with employment traineeships, and midweek community services in a café around a free meal. The second was a food distribution ministry that expanded to include a common meal, then a ‘church’ service afterwards, then a leadership cluster that discipled new Christians, and finally an outreach program for homeless persons.

Back to the book. The mainstream church in New Zealand in particular, and in the West in general, is in sharp decline. “Our congregations are ageing, our numbers are decreasing, and we are missing the deep angst, questions, and concerns of our time (p.29).” The community has spiritual longings, but the church is out of alignment with culture, and even God. Instead, the church is “idolatrous, compromised, flabby, and insipid (p.31).”

What is the way forward? It’s not try harder, or add something new. Rather, it is look and listen to edge church leaders, whose prophetic ministry provides an alternate picture of how to incarnate the gospel in the world. This pattern has precedents. In the past, the Dessert fathers, the Monastics, or St Francis or Dominic, have brought new life from the edge to the institutionalised church.

The way forward – the way for the church is to re-invent itself, to rediscover its voice and relevance – is to follow the leading ‘edge’. This book proposes an In-tensional dialogue between the two, where the edge church is prophetic, dynamic, engaged with culture, and hope-filled; and centre church is stable, resourced, sustainable, and organised.  

In Chapter 4 there is a ‘parable’ or story of Mia – a young radical. Like a choose-your-own adventure, one Mia becomes house-trained by the mainstream church, whereas the other is sponsored, mentored, and invited to speak life into elements of centre church.

The final few chapters make explicit the path how a disconnected radical can transition through to sustainability, then achieving wider influence, without losing their founding ‘charism’. Having seen several young energetic prophets become bitter grumpy old prophets, I found this map very practical and timely.

In essence, if decline is the symptom, then institutionalisation is the problem. Like any other social movement, churches have a charismatic moment, but over time the dynamism is routinized and lost, and the church becomes stuck in a rut. A new charism will come from the edge, not the centre. Inasmuch as the centre can engage with and learn from the edge, it will find renewal and new hope.

In sociological terms, the core thesis of this book is a combination of Weber and Marx (or Engels). Weber observes that as organisations grow, they necessarily become rationalised. The spontaneous becomes planned, the impromptu becomes structured, and a layer of bureaucrats oversee procedures and write policy. But bureaucracies have inherit dysfunctions – they can be inefficient and self-perpetuating, losing sight of their original purpose. A new charismatic moment is required to break the cycle and breathe new life into tired structures.

Engels maps history as a series of dialectics. A thesis prevails, but as the context changes, an antithesis emerges. The anti-thesis is not a new thesis, but a strange hybrid that re-engages with what is now, while revealing why the mainstream thesis is insufficient for this moment. A healthy dialogue between the thesis and the antithesis will give rise to a synthesis – a new mode of being that is fit for this moment in history.

Has the church in the 21st Century become institutionalised? Is the ‘edge’ the antithesis, and will a conversation between the two result in a new synthesis that bring charism life and hope back to the church? This narrative is plausible and compelling. But for me, this book raises more questions than it answers. Let me name a few.

Not all movements from the edge are positive. Yes, (desert Father) Anthony, Benedict, Francis and Dominic came from the outside and nudged the church back on track. But so did Donatus, Pelagius, George Fox (founder of Quakers), and Joseph Smith (Mormons). This fits with my personal experience of edge ministries. One edge congregation thrived, and saw spiritual growth and conversions – up to 20 per year. But the other imploded, and as far as I know none of the original participants of that charismatic moment attend any type of church.

Second, many – but not all new movements come from the edge. Some movements come from within the established church. Martin Luther was a monk, John Wesley was the son of a clergyman, and a deacon. Third, not all social changes are best understood as charism moments – some are gradual evolutions rather than radical revolutions. Rick Warren and Saddle back is perhaps an example of a revolution, whereas Tim Keller and Nicky Gumbrel are examples of a gradual evolution from within centre church.

Fourth, not all edge movements necessarily come from the progressive ‘left’. For Duckworth, edge movements are “completely captivated by a particular gospel imperative” including “social justice, concern for the ecological environment, bold new evangelism approaches, local community development, compassion for the poor or a particular marginalised community group… (p.36).”

Roger Finke and Rodney Stark track the rise and fall of American churches across four centuries. Their basic thesis is that, “to the degree that denominations rejected traditional doctrines and ceased to make serious demands of their followers, they ceased to prosper.”[1] Finke and Starke concur that mainstream denominational churches follow a life cycle and can enter decline. Furthermore, there have long been edge movements rising out of the ashes of dying churches. Dying gives way to new life. Finke and Stark’s research leads them to conclude that the defining feature of successful edge movement is not social progressivism, but what they call ‘otherworldliness’. This ‘otherworldliness’ can be conservative or progressive in its expression.

This gives rise to a fifth unanswered question within this book. Centre church has lost its voice and is missing the angst and concerns of our time (I agree). It is compromised and has imbibed world values such as individualism and consumerism. Whereas “Edge-dwellers are deeply in touch with society’s cultural angst and personal pains (p.80).”

So… centre church is too worldly, and edge church is deeply in touch with the world – but it appears to be the left edge church which is in touch with the left agenda. And who is in touch with the deep angst of the right? The Christian nationalists? Pro-life advocates (as in against abortion and euthanasia)? They are not the same. Do right and left wing categories fit? What about the Pentecostals who have a more immanent spirituality? What is the ideal relationship between the church and the world? To answer that questions requires a complexification of which parts of the church and in what type of relationship with which parts of the world.

At this point I want to say – there is a lot about this book I deeply appreciate. I agree the world is experiencing deep cultural and even spiritual angst, and centre church is failing to dialogue with these existential yearnings. Some edge churches are leading the way – perhaps from both edges. And Duckworth and Jamieson are not angry young men who have grown old but still throw rocks. They content for an edge church where “Reconstruction is harder than deconstruction (p.80)”; where there is “evidence of a constructive life-giving gospel vision that others want to be a part of…. There is evidence of Kingdom shaped discipleship (p.84).” Combined they have credibility and a track record on which to stand.                      

I believe the basic hypotheses of this book are correct. Much of Centre church is in self-maintenance mode, and has lost its missional impact. Edge church has that – and the two can be a blessing to each other. History testifies that edge ministries can be the Research and Development department of the wider church.

This book is a useful dialogue that introduces one part of the response, one possible source for a way forward. It is a conversation starter – and perhaps that is all it ever attempted to be.       

[1] Finke and Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-2005 1.