Sunday, December 12, 2004

the emerging church mono-culture

i'm loving the new adbusters mag (which I previously blogged about). i've been reading through the 'media and culture' section and there's a very interesting article by Nicholas Klassen about cultural homogenisation. Apparently, "in Africa, two thirds of film screens show American movies; CNN beams to the farthest regions of the planet; Disneyland outposts in Paris and Tokyo will be joined by one in Hong Kong by late 2005; American-english is becoming the global language".
Obviously this has loads to do with new technology creating a global village. whereas cultural diversity was previously protected by geography and distance, satellite technology, mass accesible air travel and the internet have given rise to a globalised culture.
Klassen's article made me think about how culturally homogenised the emerging church could become (or is becoming). I love what's happening all over the western world (cos it is primarily in the west) with the re-thinking of church - and i continued to be inspired by the stories I read. And i think perhaps a homogenised global culture will inevitably, and possibly rightly, give rise to a culturally homogenised response from the emerging church as it incarnates itself in the new culture. but should we not at least be asking the question as to how helpful it is for us to collude with this process? emerging churches look very similar in places thousands of miles apart. how do we keep a local flavour? is it important for us to do so?

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