I keep being inspired by today’s prophetic voices such as this one and Jamie Winship, and a few others, calling out to us in our wilderness of declining enrollments, attendance counts, etc. about this CM renewal being re-birthed again during this plandemic, much as was organized against the tyranny of the British during the Revolutionary War Days. Winship goes on to say that this CM will eventually influence the majority as did Jesus’ 12 Disciples in 300 plus years to the re-organization of the Roman Empire… and how that was actually the seeds for the original “institutional church” that then blossomed into the Dark Ages and beyond… And, here we are again today, with yet another form of the original “institutional church?”
And you say history isn’t interesting? Especially today now with scientists admitting the galaxies are actually expanding? ( See Eric Metaxas book Chapter One of “Is Atheism Dead?”) And we thought our parents and grandparents saw it all? They didn’t witness a smidgen compared to what is in store for us! The only challenge for most of us is that we’ll have to get out of our comfort zones now and begin to pay attention to all the information and all the revealing signs happening around us. Or you will simply miss out. Perhaps rather like the five wise and the five foolish virgins. The door will be closed and the words “Do I know you?” will be heard. Major ouch! So close but yet so far!
Beware of spiritually sloppy perspectives! Perhaps you can begin by checking out this Clapham resource.
The following was a blog post by Mike Metzger, Pres. of the Clapham Institute.
The British historian Arnold Toynbee believed civilizations could be renewed because they have a spiritual dimension. It’s manifest in the “creative minority.” What’s that?
Historians have long differed on whether civilizations can be restored. Oswald Spengler, a German historian, said no. They are born, grow, and then age, decline and die. No exceptions. Toynbee disagreed. Civilizations have a spiritual dimension, visible in the creative minority. It can renew a society.
In 2004, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) said Europe’s renewal depended on the creative minority. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks noted this in his 2013 Erasmus Lecture, saying America’s renewal depends on the creative minority. He cited the sons of Judah as history’s first creative minority, which raises a question in my mind.
Why only a minority?
The answer lies in the nature of paradigm shifts. Thomas Kuhn coined paradigm shift in his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. He described how the scientific world shifted from Ptolemy’s geocentric (earth-centered) model of the universe to Copernicus’ heliocentric (sun-centered) formulation. It wasn’t easy, for a scientific community is rightly based on a set of received beliefs. Kuhn wrote that these beliefs exert a “deep hold” on the mind, forming an “assumption that the scientific community knows what the world is like.” Scientists take great pains to defend that assumption, often suppressing novel views “because they are necessarily subversive.”
Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus was subversive. But it wasn’t novel. Aristarchus of Samos had proposed a heliocentric model centuries before. But it hadn’t caught on because Europe was drawn to Hellenistic thinkers like Aristotle and his earth-centered model. Copernicus’s system upended Aristotelian physics and Ptolemy’s system. If Copernicus was correct, Ptolemaic scientists were wrong. Their jobs were at risk.
I know it sounds base, but this is why most folks resist disruption. It can cost you your job. Only a few are willing to run that risk. We see this in the Copernican Revolution. De Revolutionibus first appeared in 1543. But it was the works of Kepler and Galileo (1609–10) 70 years later that produced a paradigm shift. Before then, probably no more than a dozen converted to the Copernican model. They were the creative minority.
Uber is a recent example of a paradigm shift. It’s upending the taxi business. London’s Black Cab drivers are resisting, defending their turf. We’re talking livelihoods here.
Another example is our shift into a post-Christian age. It’s similar to the Babylonian exile, with churches becoming outsiders in Western society. The root of the problem is Western churches relying on Hellenistic ideas like Aristotelian rationalism. Think right, act right. That gave us the Enlightenment. It exerts a deep hold on the minds of church leaders who often taking great pains to defend their views. They resist what might prove subversive, such as neuroscience upending the Enlightenment take on human nature.
I witness this in meeting with seminary leaders. When they learn how findings from neuroscience upend their Enlightenment educational model, they routinely tell me “We can’t change. We’d lose our financial patrons.” Ministry leaders tell me they’d lose their foundation funding. Pastors tell me they’d lose some of their congregation. Can’t go there. I might find myself out of work.
The good news is that Toynbee was right. All civilizations have a spiritual dimension. When a nation faces a problem that threatens its continued existence, a small group of leaders comes up with an innovative solution. If the Babylonian exile is a precedent for our post-Christian age (I think it is), a few Christians—modern-day sons of Judah—will step up as the creative minority. They will place themselves at the service of their neighbors, seeking their flourishing. They are the hope for the Western church.
What is the Clapham Institute?
Clapham Institute’s mission is resourcing Christians for the next 50 years.
We’re developing resources for your kids. And their kids. And their kids.
Our resources include blogs, podcasts, books, and short videos. We also offer tailor-made planning, consulting, mentoring, and advisory services. We offer these online or in-person.
But why 50 years? Simple. The resources developed by the American version of evangelical Christianity over the last 50 years are ineffective. They’re based on the American interpretation of the Enlightenment.
This interpretation is over. It was popular from 1800 to 1815. After that, behavioral studies began undermining its assumptions. By 1900, the American interpretation of the Enlightenment was over.
The American version of evangelical Christianity hasn’t paid attention to that. It began in the early 1800s, feeding off the American interpretation of the Enlightenment. But the American version of evangelical Christianity is anti-intellectual, so while it was popular after 1815, it didn’t see what was coming.
It didn’t see how the American version of evangelicalism, based in this Enlightenment, is undermining itself. It doesn’t see that it’s coming to an end.
Clapham Institute does.
We see it in the rise of religious nones, the fastest-growing percentage of the US population. Nones imagine Christianity as “been there done that.” The American version of evangelical Christianity offers few if any effective resources for impacting this population.
We see it in the rise of exiles. They’re Christians who have given up on the American version of evangelical Christianity. Exiles live their faith outside the evangelical church.
Clapham Institute’s resources are effective because they’re based on assumptions predating the American version of the Enlightenment. In the conservative Christian tradition, we last see these assumptions operating in the Clapham Sect that helped abolish the English Slave Trade.
That’s why Clapham Institute is named after the Clapham Sect.
Who is Mike Metzger?
With over 40 years of ministry experience, Dr. Michael Metzger is a recognized leader in translating the gospel for a post-Christian age. He did this as a campus minister, church planter, pastor and, since 2002, as the Founder and President of Clapham Institute, based in Annapolis, Maryland.
In this role, Metzger developed accessible images and language for post-Christian cultures, especially religious “nones” and exiles. He’s served as a cultural analyst and mentor to emerging church leaders.
Prior to founding Clapham Institute, Metzger served on Cru staff, growing the ministry at Louisiana State University from a handful of students to over 300. In 1987, he founded Bay Area Community Church in Annapolis, Maryland. In the first five years, the church grew to over 500 congregants from an initial group of 18. According to a University of Maryland study, approximately 60 percent of the growth was due to people converting to Christ, many of them post-Christian.
In 1995, Metzger stepped away from the pastorate and began facilitating business and professional ‘open forum’ discussions throughout the Baltimore/Washington DC area. In 1997, he joined The Trinity Forum, developing Osprey Point Leadership Center, a 15-acre waterfront property on Maryland’s Eastern Shore that served as a gathering place for leaders. Metzger also consulted for several ministries in the United States and Western Europe, helping them re-frame their faith, as well as consulting for some of the world’s top companies since founding Clapham Institute in 2002.
Metzger earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Michigan University (history), a Masters of Theology degree from Dallas Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois. He married Kathy Tipton in 1981. They have three adult children and nine – yes nine – grandchildren who are well-loved.
