Network & Neighbourhood

What is local?

It's a conversation that's relevant to me only as i use the phrase 'local church' maybe 100 times a week.  I have a theological sense of the meaning of the word Church, but not the same clarity around the idea of local.

Bishop Graham Cray has been helpful to me on this.  He's written in answer to the question 'what is local in the 21st Century?' and he affirms the idea that local has become two things: neighbourhood, and network.

Your Neighbourhood is your domestic location, where you watch TV, sleep, and other basic things.  It's basically your home - your digs.

Your Network is your social (or vocational) location.  The places our work takes us, the students on our course or in our societies.

The key thing is that these two ideas coexist in everyone's life to a greater or lesser degree.  Someone who is multilingual and travels the world all the time would have a stronger sense of network whereas someone who is not economically mobile would have a stronger sense of neighbourhood.

Arguments about whether a church should be attractional or incarnational seem to be a little missing the point.  Do we not need network churches to reach those who have a strong sense of networked life?  And do we not need neighbourhood churches to reach those who have a strong sense of neighbourhood?

Smart undergrad students from middle-class families are almost the epitome of networked people.  We build church in Leeds to suit them and to reach them.  Our experience of church as students is almost completely network-led and we sometimes need to remember the value of neighbourhood churches.

[Reference: Matt Wilson, Concrete Faith, pg 113-114 http://eden-network.org/concretefaith/]