What follows is a review of Slow Church by C. Christopher Smith and John Pattison.
Why? Slow Church resonated with me. I feel the pressure of trying to live a fast paced life. I feel the pressure to try to keep up with the world and its quest for speed and efficiency. I feel the pressure as the desire for speed and efficiency keeps claiming more ground in the local church. So, hopefully, this will be a helpful tool for you to gauge whether or not Slow Church will resonate with you.
What was refreshing to me about Slow Church was the sense of patience that kept coming through. Slow Church's call is not a call to become the church quickly. It is a call to be patient enough to enter into conversation and presence with others. I doubt that if you adopt the conversations and practices from Slow Church change will come quickly. We're talking about changing a culture, and that takes time. A lot of time.
I could go through the book, chapter by chapter, and pick out all the great things I gleaned, but instead I'm going to offer just a few highlights.
You can read in the introduction that Slow Church takes a cue from the Slow Food Movement begun the 1980s. This movement pushed back against the idea of fast food, and advocated slow food as a way to preserve culture, patience, and being present with others. (See also http://www.slowfood.com/) There is also push back against McDonaldization. Smith and Pattison credit sociologist George Ritzer with this term, which means "the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world." (see the introduction, p. 13) It is sobering to consider that maybe McDonaldization is a force that has begun to influence the church. What do you think? Do you see an unhealthy desire for speed and efficiency in our churches? Do you see an unhealthy desire for our churches and people to all look and act the same?
The book is divided into three courses: ethics, ecology, and economy. Smith and Pattison describe these as "meals" which are meant to be taken in together; they are each related. This also gives you a great way to take little pieces (or bites?) of the book and savor them as you discuss them with others.
Ethics includes chapters on terroir (referring to place), stability, and patience. The last chapter in this section is one of my favorites: patience. I think this was my favorite of this section for two reasons: first, I'm a very restless person. I can get very anxious and have a hard time being in the moment. This leads to the second reason: this chapter challenged me to be present in the moment and with others. We live in a world that doesn't want us to be present. We must always be on the move. What a refreshing call to slow down and be present in the moment; to see God as working in all the moments that we might think of as mundane. Patience also helps us to suffer with others. Our world would convince that suffering should be avoided at all costs. But, patience would teach us that suffering with others, being present with them in it, is following in the way of Christ.
Now the second course of ecology: wholeness, work, and sabbath. Sabbath was the favorite of this section. Sabbath is such a vital practice in our lives, yet it is one of the most over looked practices. The world would teach us that we can't observe sabbath. There's not time for that. Practicing Slow Church means that we will believe that there is time for sabbath and God is enough for us. We should push back against the belief that we are unable to, or shouldn't, enter into God's rhythm of rest.
The third course is economy and includes chapters on abundance, gratitude, and hospitality. God abundantly provides for us; for our individual needs and for collective needs. He gives us all we need in order to go out into the world on mission. Slow Church calls us to push back against the myth of scarcity and trust that God has provided, is providing, and will provide. That leads to gratitude. A slow church is a thankful church. Let's be thankful for what God gives (resources, people, etc.). Let's show the world that we are a thankful people. And then hospitality. Our belief in abundance and our gratitude should spill over into our churches being hospitable places. Slow Church causes me to ask, "How am I seeking ways to be hospitable to others, both in my own life and within the life of my church?"
The book ends with a call to practice being in conversation with others: those inside our churches and those outside. So much of what we do as a church relies on our ability to have conversations with others. I'm challenged to create more spaces in my life for just that. Not as a tool, but as a way to simply be present with others.
Does any of this resonate with you? Do you feel the pressure to adopt the world's desire for speed and efficiency? Read Slow Church and enter into the conversation.
