What would a nomad church look like?
These days it is fashionable in the UK to discuss how we should “do church”. The patterns of life are changing and the church tends to change less quickly. There seem to be two trends emerging; one towards a cell church approach where the focus is on community and the other where the focus is large scale, professionally-run bodies demonstrating excellence of presentation. There are of course, many legitimate ways of “doing church”.
How then would a nomad church look? The nomads live in a different world. Their perceptions of space and time are quite different from those of us settled people. They do not keep moving because they have no where to settle; they keep moving because they believe it is the best way to live. It is a privilege they are born to. They have a liberty unknown to others.
When nomads become Christians, how will they relate to church? Some would say ‘no problem’. There could be churches all along the nomad routes and wherever they are on Sunday, they can find a church. But, in saying such a thing, we show that we perceive the church to be static entity, part of the immobile world, a building first and a people second. From the nomad point of view, it would amount to stepping out of nomad life in order to “do church”. And clearly, a nomad who drops into a congregation only from time to time, is not participating in the sort of fellowship described in scripture in which we belong to one another. And anyway, who said church is about a meeting once a week?
Belonging to a community is something that nomads understand. Their relationships define them just as strongly as places define us. They are very interdependent. They do everything in groups. And furthermore, scripture gives us good reason to believe that God has no fundamental problem with the idea of people living on the move. Abraham did. So did the Israelites in the desert. Is that for the Old Testament only? Not at all. One of the values affirmed by the New Testament and which we are poor at putting into practice is that of being strangers in the world. The Gospel teaches us to set our hearts on things above, not on earth, and to look to what is to come, not what is now. But we get very focussed on places and property. We cling to a belief in worldly permanence – despite what say and sing in church.
So, if there were two or three nomad Christian household that lived and travelled together, practicing the fellowship principles described in the epistles, would that be a church? They could break bread each evening round the camp fire. Is being a godly community all there is to being a church? Not entirely. A church is a community in which the word of God is taught and proclaimed. Would there be teaching? Would there be scope for other gifts and ministries? Would there be accountability and discipline or would family loyalty always take first place?
Many questions but, as yet, few answers. Perhaps some of the answers will be found in the religious life the nomads already have. As Muslims, they have a set of principles that govern their lives and worship practices which they can implement in any location. They have travelling teachers that join the clan for a season and then move to another. These travelling teachers take trainees who they train to read with a view to becoming like their teachers. In others word, they practice discipleship. The nomads have patterns and practices that can be adapted. What they need is salvation.
This article is taken from the ‘Life in Chad’ a section of Colin and Jean Bearup's Newsletter. Originaly from this Church, they presently live in Nelson, Lancs. They are working on translating the Bible into Chad Arabic. For further details on Chad please visit www.wec-int.org/chad/index.htm
