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professionals who occasionally contribute papers or books on the
subject of new religions and alternate spiritualities (Melton, 2000; Muck,
2004).

One long range challenge in bringing new religious movements into
mainstream
Christian discourse concerns overhauling models of theological educa
tion. Earlier
in this paper it was noted that ordinands for ministry are not obliged to
study
world religions or new religions in preparation for parish ministry. If this
situation
is to change then the priorities and models of current theological
educatio
n must
be renovated (cf. Drane, 2000a).

There is much ferment among theorists of education about styles of
learning. In
some secular universities the lecture format has given way to seminars
where
students undertake preparatory reading, keep a reflective
journal, have field
exercises, and combine this with tutorials guided by the course
facilitator. The
advent of inter
disciplinary courses also signals some dissatisfaction with the
prevailing currents of hyper
specialisation in subjects.

What would be hel
pful is for the emergence of some inter
disciplinary approaches
to undergraduate theological studies. For example, a course on the Book
of
Genesis could be approached on an integrated and inter
disciplinary model. The
OT lecturer would provide the historic
al, cultural and theological background to
the book. Then the NT lecturer would explore the importance of Genesis
in the
NT. The theologian would tackle topics like God, creation, fall etc in
systematics
and in the history of doctrine. The church historian
would explore how Genesis
has been understood by the Church Fathers and in other epochs. The
ethicist
would tease out the ramifications of the teachings found in Genesis on
human
rights, ecology and creation and so forth. The apologist would examine
apolo
getics questions about God’s existence, evil, and competing views of
creation in other worldviews (like how neo
pagans view creation, how Mormons
view creation, how Jehovah’s Witnesses view creation etc). The
missiologist
would examine what principles of c
ross
cultural mission derive from the first
eleven chapters, and then again in the Patriarchal narratives.

This sort of synthesis though on paper appears very involved could
nonetheless
prove to be invaluable for students who after four years of study gra
duate with
intellectual and spiritual indigestion, and who have not been helped to
synthesize
all they learned in their specialised core subjects (i.e. OT, NT, Theology,
and
Church history).
VII.
McDonaldised Churches

John Drane (2000b) has drawn attention t
o what he refers to as processes of
McDonaldisation in contemporary churches. By this term Drane is
describing the
propensity of contemporary churches to opt for stereotyped structures,
predictable,
pre
packaged forms of worship that are franchised as a “c
hurch
growth” solution.
Accompanying these processes is the reliance on franchised tools and
courses in
evangelism and discipleship that are intended to help churches
grow but ironically
do not seem to reach those who truly dwell beyond the walls of the ch
urch.

Franchised courses in evangelism and discipleship have certainly been
used by
God to revitalise the faith of many who have attended church over the
years.
These courses have also been helpful in reaching the “God
fearers”, those
unconverted people w
ho exist on the fringes of church activities. For all of these
positive outcomes we can give praise and thanks.

However, some sober, honest and searching reflections on the array of
franchised
courses now used in Britain, North America and Australia are w
arranted (cf. Hunt,
2004).

First
, many of these franchised courses have been designed by Christians
who do
not
appear to have road
tested their material with a “control group” of non
Christians who genuinely dwell far beyond the reach of the churches (li
ke
devotees of alternate spiritualities, and those who have never attended
church in
their life). The courses are structured around a pre
packaged topical menu with
questions that Christians feel are important and have worked out
answers for the
participan
ts to be spoon
fed without debate. The result is that these programmes
reflect lingering influences of Christendom.

An example of this is where franchised courses commence with proofs
for God’s
existence. Here the creators’ assumptions about the non
Chri
stian west seem to be
resting on the notion that atheism and agnosticism are rampant.
However one need
only take note of the broad mass of non
Christians in Britain and Australia who
participate in major religious traditions (such as the various Buddhist g
roups in the
west), or are exploring esoteric and do
it
yourself forms of spirituality. These
people presuppose there is some transcendent reality, and thus are
inclined toward
working with tools that facilitate contact with the divine. The modernist
era w
as
surely characterised by classic debates between Christians and atheists.
However
it is a moot point to what extent those debates are now central in our
current
contexts. If one is going to speak of disbelief in God’s existence in many
cases
that disbeli
ef is not about a transcendent reality, but rather represents a rejection of
a truncated portrait of the Christian view of God.

Second
, the sorts of questions that are progressively answered in these courses
are
often remote from the questions many non
Ch
ristians are actually exploring. If
one meets up with those who are exploring other spiritualities (which is
where a
sizeable proportion of the western world has headed), then one
discovers that they
are asking questions like these:

How can I be the best
person I can possibly be?

How can I find my place in the cosmos?

Who am I anyway, and who might I become?

How can I be useful to others?

Where do I find release from my brokenness?

Where do I find peace?

How can I reconnect my soul with the divine source o
f life?

What values should I embrace?

What spiritual tools work the best and how do I choose which ones are
right for me?

How is it that the cosmos I inhabit, which appears to have order and
design
and ought to be harmonious, is so screwed up?
I have not
seen these sorts of questions (and there are many more) being
addressed in franchised courses.

Now if one accosts Australian non
Christians with the following well
known
questions the typical response consists of a mixture of bemusement and
boredom:
“Is
Christianity relevant?” “Is Christianity boring?” “Is Christianity true?”
These
questions are premised on the Christendom order still existing, with the
added
presumption that most people simply need a friendly nudge to attend
church.

While these courses
seek to overcome intellectual objections to the Christian faith,
the kinds of questions and the forms of answers given still reflect the era
of
modernity. For example, most courses address the problem of evil and
suffering,
but rely on a cursory summary
of answers derived from C. S. Lewis’
The Problem
of Pain
. Now there are some valuable points that Lewis made and these can
still
be used. However I have yet to see any franchised course address the
widely held
concepts of karma and rebirth. Many non
Christ
ians now hold to a modified
western view of karma (as mediated through Blavatsky, Leadbeater and
New Age)
as a plausible way of accounting for suffering in the world. Yet the
franchised
courses on evangelism do not even recognise how important karmic
expla
nations
have become in the west.

Again, many courses present brief arguments for the reliability of the
gospel
records that are derived from Josh McDowell’s
Evidence That Demands A
Verdict
. Although that material is valuable and has an enduring place (th
ough
some sceptics have highlighted factual errors in McDowell’s book), it is
inadequate to meet today’s challenges where non
Christians are likely to have
read Notovitch’s claims about Jesus in Tibet, Dan Brown’s
The Da Vinci Code
,
and the Gospel of Thoma
s. Likewise one cannot simply trot out the Lord, Liar,
Lunatic trilemma in a world where non
Christians have read Bishop Spong’s
views of myth and heard about the results of the Jesus Seminar where
the gospels
contain “legends”.

Another thread that can b
e discerned in some courses is the need to refute an
imagined view of “relativism”. This gambit often centres in proving that a
statement like “there is no ultimate truth” is itself a claim to ultimate truth
and is
therefore an illogical and untenable posi
tion. Another notion concerning the
relativity of truth to culture is sometimes construed to be a denial of
ultimate
truth. Doubtless there are people who take that view.

However, there are more subtle and important points overlooked in
these courses.
On
e key point is that those seekers who have been influenced by
Blavatsky’s
Theosophy will reply to Christian truth claims of exclusivity by saying
“that’s
your truth.” Adepts of this approach do not mean that there is no concept
of
ultimate truth. Far from
it! In this approach one finds the idea of “perennism”. In
this view lying behind all the cultural accretions of truths expressed in
religions
like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, there is a higher
synthesis or
system of truth that is superior
to these culturally relative religions. That synthesis
of course is Theosophy. Some anti
New Age writers misconstrue perennism with
the view “there’s no such thing as truth” or with the rarefied views of
postmodernists like Derrida. In fact New Age style s
piritualities do embrace
metanarratives, and so cannot be legitimately interpreted as a religious
manifestation of deconstruction theory. Perhaps it is high time we
admitted that
Derrida’s postmodernism is by no means a grass
roots phenomenon (Drane,
2000b
; Hexham, 2001).

Third
, while some franchised courses are attractively packaged in video/DVD
formats, there remains a fundamental problem with the communicative
style of a
forty
minute monologic, cognitive, non
interactive talk. That style presupposes a
Christendom model where the attention span for lengthy oral sermons
was
cultivated in the pre
TV era of the Reformation. Or put another way the film is
simply a radio broadcast with pictures of the announcer. One need only
visit a
Mind
Body
Spirit festival
to discover that today’s searchers eagerly attend
interactive workshops where they have guided spiritual experiences, as
well as
being free to ask the workshop facilitator their questions. All too often the
structures and group dynamics of the post
video
session controls or stifles the
kinds of questions that New Agers are likely to ask (such as Jesus’
missing years,
Church conspiracies against the Gnostics, the Da Vinci Code, the
compatibility of
astrology with Christianity, the role of women in the churc
h, etc). What is also
problematic is that the well meaning church groups that sponsor these
franchised
courses are not educated in the apologetic issues raised by esotericist
and New
Age writers.

What also needs to be grasped is that today’s seekers do no
t simply have cognitive
or intellectual objections to Christianity. The burgeoning consumer
culture in
which do
it
yourself spirituality flourishes is a portal that opens up access to an
array of spiritual tools and disciplines about which most lay Christi
ans and pastors
are ignorant (e.g. Cabala, tarot, astrology, feng shui, Reiki, chakras,
auras, etc).
Seekers are savvy to both the experiences and the metaphysics
associated with
these tools, to which Christians seem to have nothing in common. If
seekers
a
ttend a franchised course and bring with them questions or challenges
based on
their journey, how can the courses meaningfully interact with seekers
when the
Christian facilitators have no background of relatedness to it?

In Australia we have directed a
few New Age seekers into attending franchised
evangelism courses. We have noted from their own feedback that the
programme’s content fails to connect with their search. The courses
address
questions that are over their heads, do not relate to their explora
tory journeys, or
concentrate on cognitive issues they are disinterested in.

We might also anticipate a possible rejoinder offered because of the
current
faddish wave of enthusiasm for Rick Warren’s
Purpose Driven Life
programme as
a potential panacea. T
his programme is a product of Southern Californian
Christian culture, which is peculiar to North America and less amenable
to
working well with inquirers into faith in other cultures. The main point I
would
make though is that none of the preliminary lesso
ns grapple with life issues that
New Age, Neo
Pagan and do
it
yourself seekers see as crucial.

Now there is an experiential Christian spirituality course that has been
devised in
England with New Age seekers in mind, known as
Essence
(Frost, 2002). It has
many attractive and valuable features to it covered in a six
week programme, with
material suitable for certain kinds of alternate seekers. However, lest we
fall into
the trap of McDonaldised franchising, it must be noted that even this
helpful
programme
needs to be adjusted when used in cultural contexts beyond England.

Fourth
, the great fallacy of franchised courses is that one can create a recipe
for
evangelism and discipleship that will operate the same worldwide. By
McDonaldising evangelism the assum
ption is that “one size suits all” in outreach
and therefore should be replicated. The flaw with this thinking is exposed
by the
stark and simple truth that the cultural contexts of each western nation
vary
considerably and what works in London won’t neces
sarily work in Sydney,
Auckland, Johannesburg and Los Angeles.

To take but one poignant example, in Australia over 3,000 pastors have
been
trained by the Hybels organisation in the art of seeker sensitive church
services.
Out of all those congregations w
ho have had pastoral staff trained, there is only
one Australian congregation that is successfully replicating the seeker
sensitive
model. Quite apart from the underlying fallacy of McDonaldising the
Hybels
model, there is the simple fact that there is a t
remendous cultural gulf in attitudes
about church in the USA and Australia. Bill Hybels’ successful model of
church is
a product of his culture, and what worked for him there simply does not
work
elsewhere.
VIII.
Vocation and Spirituality

It was noted earlier
that New Age spirituality has found a niche in the workplace,
as many people look for a practical spirituality in their chosen vocation.

The unhelpful split in Christian thinking over vocation and spirituality has
led to a
dysfunctional praxis. Christians
are exhorted to consider the preacher and
overseas missionary as the ultimate vocation for a believer, while little is
said
about applying one’s faith to one’s vocation in other forms of work. With
this
comes a corresponding failure to offer a robust fait
h in the workplace
–
lunchtime
Bible studies and evangelistic sharing at coffee break time
notwithstanding. The
gap between a practical spirituality and vocation has been a product of
faulty
Christian thinking and the gap has been seized by alternate spiri
tualities. We need
to recover, as Luther offered, a robust understanding of faith and
vocation, and
begin teaching how to practically apply one’s worship and faith at work.
CONCLUSION
In view of the aforegoing discussion I submit that it would be erroneo
us to assume
that the subject of alternate spiritualities and new religions is merely a
topic for a few
enthusiasts, that the subject matter is of a fringe nature disconnected
from mainstream
issues of the church. Perhaps that is one further reason why the
issues considered by
Issue Group 16 at the Lausanne Forum need to be recognized as
mainstream and
impinge on the agendas of Issue Groups concerned with globalisation,
emerging
church, church leadership, reaching youth, theological education,
marketplace
m
inistry and so on. The preceding menu of topics and sub
topics discussed surely
indicates that there is a profound need for spiritual and structural
renovation in the
Australian church context, and that the prevalence of new and alternate
spiritualities
pr
ovides a disturbing mirror image of massive dysfunction and oversight
on the part
of Christians. There are sins of omission and commission that we need
to repent of
both individually and corporately. Van Baalen’s metaphor of the “cults as
the unpaid
bills
of the church” has been tested against the Australian context and found
to be
true. The task before is massive but stimulating and if we hear and
respond to the
voice of God’s Spirit in this hour we may indeed see an outpouring on
this continent
such as ha
s never before been witnessed. But that outpouring will not likely come
through the formulaic thinking and formulaic answers currently offered as
solutions to
the Australian spiritual malaise.
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