Fuzzy Church: Gospel and Culture in the North of England
Ebook
What does the good news of Jesus look like in the North of England? Is there such a thing as a “northern gospel”?
Rooms and Wort analyse what the North actually is, and why we need to study our context if we want to understand more about God and God’s ways. They look at the current religious climate in the North where many churches are closing. They explore how their detailed research among northern churches demonstrates a gospel characterized by fragility and freedom, but full of authenticity, community and humour. They describe “fuzzy” churches where the boundaries of the church and its worship are less fixed and where there is more of a flow between churches and their world. They discover that closing churches might provide the “compost” for what God is doing next.
The authors of Fuzzy Church describe their book as an account of qualitative field research in churches in the north of England in places of relative deprivation where “something is happening.” They believe that this research enables them to make broad observations on what might be distinctive about northern culture and a “gospel for the north”. It all rather begs the question.
If this were rigorous, academic research, we would expect first of all to have some clarity about the criteria for identifying churches where “something is happening.” There are no such criteria, though the authors are at pains to say that they do not necessarily mean growing churches.
Churches were selected by asking an unidentified group of “key people” and senior Anglican and Methodist church leaders to suggest churches where “something is happening.” We are not told how they identified these key people whose subjective judgements determined the field of research.
Forty-nine churches, mainly Anglican, were selected in various locations and of varying ecclesiological types in different places across the whole of the north. Eighteen responded to a questionnaire, seven were visited, and focus groups were held in five.
I would not describe such fleeting contacts as “field research”; and the whole enterprise is a thin base from which to generalise about either churches or culture in the north. Even the definition of the north is unclear. One of the churches visited is in Derbyshire, which is generally considered to be in the Midlands.
The authors tell us that the churches where “something is happening” are illustrative of “God’s mission in the North”. They give us glimpses into what God is doing. What they have in common is “fuzziness” — hence the book’s title. They have fuzzy boundaries — who is “in” and who is “out” of the congregation. They have fuzzy goals — clear directions of travel, but no fixed point of arrival. And they have fuzzy worship — a mixing of many elements drawn from diverse sources.
The book tends to reinforce the view that “it’s grim up north” — something that the elected mayors in Manchester and Leeds might take issue with. The impact of the corona virus pandemic is making everyone look afresh at the future of work and where we are located.
They also write about the “inexorable decline and even death of mainstream churches”, but do not see this as something to regret. The collapse of traditional churches provides “compost” for future growth — though how that works is not explained.
Where I agree with the authors is in recognising that numerical growth cannot be the only measure of “success” for churches. The chill winds of secularism are blowing strongly across all of Europe, not just the north of England, and the vocation of Christians is to stay faithful in the face of them.
For Anglicans, this is about remaining rooted in the life of the parish, contributing to the building up of community — which is what the churches in this book are doing. Whether the current strategies of the national Church are helping them to do that or diverting their time and attention is a moot point.
The vulnerability of the Northern Church is her USP in providing lessons for the wider Church; as so often salvation is brought to us from the “outsider”. Those of us who minister in the North know this, and now we have research evidence that backs this up! COVID-19 has heightened the inequalities in our society challenging the Church’s current priorities for mission and ministry. The publication of Fuzzy Church is timely and valuable: there are lessons here for the whole Church and a clear mandate for investment in a “failing” Northern Church because “something is happening” here!
Having been brought up in Kent, but spending most of my ministry in the North of England, I was greatly encouraged to read the reflections in Fuzzy Church. The authors have resisted the stereotypes of Northerness and offer a deft yet gentle enquiry into the distinctive nature of the “fuzzy-edged” churches they have studied. Their use of organic imagery, their willingness to embrace nuance, their engagement with broad theological themes make for an interesting read. This book brings us through an examination of culture and context to ask, “Can the churches of the North give us a clue to the transformation of the post-Christendom church?”
The 2016 book Northern Gospel, Northern Church raised important and pressing questions about the nature of the gospel in the North of England and how God’s mission was finding expression there. This book, based on some well-designed and targeted qualitative research, assembles a set of substantial and illuminating responses to those questions, taking forward the discussion in informed ways. The authors quote the Brazilian Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga for whom “the universal word speaks only dialect”, and find how ‘something is happening’ in the neighbourhoods and villages of the North of England, something that manifests God’s mission. The book provides an engaging object lesson in how churches in any region of the world, global North or global South, can seek out God’s mission in the unique textures of their local life and find encouragement and inspiration in that. In the Christian tradition renewal and growth has nearly always come from the grass roots and margins of church life, which makes this book indispensable reading for anyone who cares about Christian mission.
- Title: Fuzzy Church: Gospel and Culture in the North of England
- Authors: Nigel Rooms, Elli Wort, Philip North
- Publisher: Sacristy Press
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781789591699, 9781789591675, 1789591678, 9781789591682, 1789591686, 1789591694
- Resource ID: LLS:9781789591699
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-07-20T09:55:31Z