This review will be published in the next issue of the Great Commission Research Journal.

Whether you are emerging, missional, mainline or traditional, you cannot escape the context of changing culture. The Western world is leaving yesterday behind at an increasing pace.
 
ChurchMorph, by Eddie Gibbs, has widened my understanding of how these cultural changes are impacting the church. Though I am not convinced of the superiority of many new forms of church, I am more sensitive to the command blaring from the author’s trumpet: Even if you don’t agree with them all, understand what’s going on.
 
Understanding different ways of doing church opens our minds to the work God is doing in the world. Proverbs 4:5 admonishes us to reach beyond our own opinions and knowledge: “Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them.” (NIV)
 
Without leaving these words, let us delve into one author’s understanding of what’s happening to the church.

Overview of the Book

Eddie Gibbs is an expert observer of the intersection of today’s cultural trends with the historical church. In ChurchMorph, he writes like a hybrid prophet/historian, casting the past, present and future in an easy-to-follow format that explains why the church is where it is.
 
The first 50 pages of ChurchMorph seem like a college textbook – long on fact but bereft of practicality. Chapter three, however, delves into examples of “fresh expressions” of church. This case study approach is a welcome theme he continues throughout the rest of the book.
 
Gibbs lays out his thesis well on page 18: “The morphing of the church describes the process of transformation of the church as it was, or as it exists today, to the church as it needs to become in order to engage appropriately and significantly in God’s mission in the context of the twenty-first century.”
 
He justifies his position by pointing out that churchgoers shop around more than ever. Denominational ties in childhood have less impact on which churches people attend as adults. People cross over between liturgical and contemporary expressions of worship, sometimes stepping over the same boundary lines several times throughout their lives.

The Five Megatrends 

The five trends Gibbs refers to in his subtitle begin on page 19. Though he has crafted an excellent summary of the major forces morphing the church, I admit I didn’t discover much new in his survey:
 
1.  From modernity to postmodernity – The Enlightenment was characterized by reason and logic; the new postmodernity is characterized by eclectic truth based on personal preference.
 
2.  From the Industrial Age to the Information Age – (22) “Churches shaped by the big-business models of the industrial age, with their centralization of power and dependent accountable branch offices, struggled to interpret the different entrepreneurial climate of the information age.” Gibbs criticizes most denominations for falling into the trap of top-down authority, and not adjusting to a culture that demands decentralization.
 
3.  From the Christendom era to post-Christendom contexts – (26) “For the church to morph into a post-Christendom context, it will need to adopt a different approach to ministry – from attraction to incarnational presence in the community. The Christian church is no longer in a privileged position in the culture….”
 
4.  From production initiatives to consumer awareness – (27) This somewhat vague phrase refers to the shift from mass production of consumer goods to specialized manufacturing in response to the individual needs and preferences of an increasingly picky society. This consumer mindset has bled into the church. Like consumers in the modern marketplace, churchgoers leave or switch churches much more readily than they did 50 years ago.
 
5.  From religious identity to spiritual exploration – (28) Though traditional religion (in the form of mainline churches) has declined, spiritual interest has increased, with a migration toward independent churches or denomination-switching altogether.

Gibbs writes, “Perhaps the most significant development has been among those consider themselves ‘spiritual’ but who do not identify with any institutional expression of Christianity.” They customize their faith by adopting the beliefs and traditions of different Eastern religions and mixing them with select pieces of the Christianity they grew up with.

Emerging vs. Missional

One of the more interesting parts of the book is Gibbs’ comparison of the two most recent movements in the church: emerging and missional. He writes, “In my view the missional church movement’s theological grounding and cultural insights need to be linked with the emerging church’s missional engagement in specific contexts for their mutual enrichment.” (36)
 
I don’t believe there is much theological value in combining the two, because, as Gibbs says, “the emergent stream is becoming increasingly ecumenical.” (37) Many of these churches are engaging in a “postmodern celebration of ambiguity and diversity.” (38) Is the “spiritual exploration” megatrend giving rise to many of these emerging churches? Gibbs seems to think so.
 
The author references a blog by Kester Brewin to point out that culture is actually moving away from the “emerging” trend: “[W]hereas a few years ago people were excited by the prospect, people are getting used to/bored/fed up with ‘emerging church’ as a concept, and will thus leave it behind.” (42)
 
It’s hard to tell where Gibbs stands personally on the issue of new versus traditional church models. He appears to vacillate between two extremes. However, he does finally offer an interesting opinion: “I believe there is mounting evidence to demonstrate that some of the most innovative, and potentially most enduring and significant, ‘fresh expressions’ of church are found within the inherited denominations. I say this because they have the potential to influence the traditions that have birthed them, helping them transition from their Christendom mindset to engage the missional challenges of a post-secular society.” (84)
 
So which is it, emerging or missional? The reader is left with a list of their strengths and weaknesses, their history and their differences. Their ultimate value remains in question.

Six More Trends

The rest of the book covers several mini-trends observed by Gibbs, summarized below.
 
1.  Clusters (121) – A new generation of neighborhood-based small churches act as hyperlocalized cultural centers, connected to other clusters as part of a larger church identity. The clusters are typically made up of 30-50 people that find a specific group to serve, such as students, young adults, business communities, families and the elderly.
 
2.  Multicultural trend (128) – Gibbs stresses the United States will become the first non-European Western nation – a nation of Latinos, African-Americans and Asians.
 
3.  Marketplace practices (130) – The church is responding to the market forces of culture. For example, Lawndale Community Church in Chicago founded the Lawndale Christian Health Center, which sees over 12,000 patients a year. It also launched the Lawndale Christian Development Corporation to enrich the community through housing improvements and educational services. With all the development, a Starbucks even opened in their community!
 
Quest Church in Seattle, Wash. created Q Café. “They wanted to explore the viability of operating successfully by applying kingdom values in the marketplace.” (132) It was named one of the best independent cafes in the country by Worthwhile Magazine.
 
4.  Church/parachurch collaboration (133) – More churches are partnering with parachurch ministries than ever before. The trend of outreach into urban and multicultural environments, plus the new forms of church, have forced churches to turn to mission agencies and ministries to gain new insights and learn new skills.
 
5.  Resurgent monasticism (137) – “Today, contemplative orders provide a corrective to the hyper-activism and materialism of contemporary Western societies. They are oases of calm and repose that are proving immensely popular with people seeking to wind down and refocus, as they make time to recover from their adrenaline addiction.”
 
6.   Expanding networks (157) – Gibbs believes missional entrepreneurs are fueling a growing number of independent church planting initiatives. He lauds these new church networks because they are free to innovate and take risks. “They are liberated from the institutional controls that can frustrate and shackle a new generation of leaders.” (85)

What’s Next?

Gibbs implies there is a growing desensitivity toward the fads of modern ecclesiology: purpose-driven, emergent, missional, mosaic, et al. ChurchMorph is an excellent survey of how they all intersect, and where they came from.
 
New generations traditionally shed the thinking of their forefathers in search of new ideas and a unique identity. The church will continue to morph with the culture around it. New fads are coming. I recently talked with Gary McIntosh, Ed Stetzer and Bob Whitesel about the triteness of the word “missional.” Already it fades. They debated what is coming next, yet there was no consensus.
 
Whatever it is, the next trend will attempt to correct all the others before it. This is the rhythm of the church in a morphing culture – this is the nature of a decaying world in constant motion, waiting for the return of the One who will make everything new again.

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Tom Harper is president of the Society for Church Consulting and publisher of www.ChurchCentral.com, a church leadership blog. He is also president of NetWorld Alliance, a business-to-business publisher and Church Central’s parent. He twitters on leadership issues at @TomRHarper.