Pete Ward and Liquid Church

We had an interesting chat with Pete Ward on the podcast this month. Among many other things, he’s the author of Liquid Church.

I really liked his emphasis on new more fluid forms of church and mission, while not dismissing older and more solid forms. In fact he spoke very positively about institutional church and how the resources they have are important for the bringing to birth of the new.

Having said that, he took the idea of liquid church and mission further than I felt comfortable with.

I liked his idea of a flow of communicative resources that people can pick up on and how we need to trust in God and that we don’t always have to be the mediators of God to people. I did feel, however, that Pete was taking these ideas a bit too far.

Pete suggested, for example, that even relational contact might not be necessary. But surely relational contact is the heartbeat of Christian mission? Can people find a whole-life transforming relationship with God from individual, isolated spiritual experiences? It’s possible I guess, but surely on-going relational contact (discipleship) has always and necessarily formed the foundation for Jesus-centred transformation.

Some interesting ideas though, and plenty to dialogue with.