Category: random thoughts

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defining the emerging church

While the term “Emerging Church” is increasingly being employed to describe what would appear to be a well defined and doctrinally unified movement, the phrase actually belies a fragile embryonic and theologically diverse conversation. So what, if anything, unifies this conversation, and is it possible to predict whether it will have any impact on the wider religious community? This conversation houses a contemporary, yet deeply ancient approach to faith that has the potential of revolutionizing the theological and moral architecture of the Christian community. The problem with attempting to describe what the emerging community actually is relates to its kinetic nature, a nature that consequently defies reduction to a single set of exhaustive theological doctrines. This diversity prevents us from describing the conversation as a new church or denomination. This disparate network of communities is not some object that can be dissected by scavenging academics who would wish to pin it down and label it like a lepidopterist does with dead insects. Those involved within the emergent conversation are not explicitly attempting to construct or unearth a different set of beliefs, but rather are looking at the way in which we believe the beliefs we profess.

Let us imagine being in a museum and contemplating an artwork. The piece of art offers us a type of revelation, for it stands before us and communicates a message to us. However, this does not mean that its message is simple, singular, or able to be mastered. For, at the same time it communicates, its message remains concealed, elusive, and fluid. In a similar way, the revelation of God could be fruitfully compared to the way that a parable speaks to those with ears to hear. The parable is given to us, but at the same time its meaning is withheld. It is not reducible to some clear, singular, scientific formula. Hence, revelation neither makes God known, nor leaves God unknown, but rather renders God known as unknown.

– Pete Rollins

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that’s the way to be

another taoism, this time from ron hogan’s interpolation:

those who know, don’t talk.
those who talk, don’t know.

shut your mouth.
be still. relax.
let go of your worries.
stay out of the spotlight.
be at one with the world
and get right with tao.

if you get right with tao,
you won’t be worried
about praise or scorn,
about winning or losing,
about honor or disgrace.
that’s the way to be.

it’s interesting how many documents of “ancient wisdom” run completely counter to what our modern society promotes. as kreeft notes, it’s interesting that we contrast “ancient wisdom” with “modern knowledge” – as if to say that we suspect that even though we know more than the ancients, we may not be as wise.

at any rate, i think lao tzu was on to something here – to not be worried about praise or scorn, winning or losing, honor or disgrace – that is a really good way to be.

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mclaren – the argument…

“A lot of what I say is rooted in pride, meaning I don’t want to let him *win* the Christianity argument.” And isn’t it so interesting that Christianity is presented as an argument? A friend of mine paid for some research recently where they asked 16-29 year olds what they thought about Christianity. And of the top 12 perceptions from 16-29 year olds, 9 were negative, one was neutral, and 2 were positive. Number one on the negative – 91% of 16-29 year olds shared this perception: Christianity is Anti-Homosexual. Number two: Christianity is judgmental. Now whatever you think about homosexuality, you will probably agree that this is not what Jesus wants people to think of first when they think about his followers.

But to what degree have we turned Christianity into an argument.

If I think back to the book that helped me the most in learning how to share my faith when I was a new Christian, it was called Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Great book. Helped me a lot. But have you ever thought about what that suggests. “Hi. Let me drag you into court and convince you that you’re wrong and guilty.” Have you ever thought about that? The language of the court. Christianity is an argument. We use words like “targeting” people. “He gave me some good ammunition.” Woah. We’re really moving in a good direction. From the courtyard to the battlefield. “Culture wars.”

Do we know how to talk about the Gospel in some category other than argument? You say, “Well what would that be?” Just a thought, I mean, I’m not saying this is how we’ve got to be, but Jesus called his message “news.” We might just think about that as a category. News – it’s stories about what’s happening… what you need to know.

News comes in all these different sections. If the news were to be here today, which section would you put it in – the Good News of Jesus. Would you put it in the religious news page? Would you put it in the world news page? Does the Gospel of Jesus have anything to say about business or local life? And I think that when Jesus talked about the Good News it wasn’t an argument, it was news that affected every area of life. Think about the message of Jesus: “The kingdom of God is at hand. Change your way of thinking. Follow me.”

…

She goes on. “When we started dating, we set up two ground rules. Number one, he doesn’t try to convert me, and number two I don’t demand that he gets involved with the Gay rights movement that I am very much involved with.” Oh boy. There it is. The big issue.

And let me just say – whatever you think about homosexuality, you’d better realize this: when a person like April talks about homosexuality, obviously she has a boyfriend – it’s not her own self-interest here. When she thinks about it she’s thinking about it on this level of human rights. How do we treat people? So often when Christians talk about it, they’re talking about it on this level of genital sexuality.

And so here we’re talking about two different things under the same word of homosexuality, and we’d better realize that if we want to talk to somebody like her, we’d better start talking about the same thing – make it clear what thing we’re talking about. Do we care about human rights? How do we want people to be treated? Do we want homosexual people to be shamed? Do we want them to be beat up? Do we want them to be mocked? Do we feel like, “Don’t let them have a job?” You know – how do we want homosexual people to be treated? Forget about whether they’re behavior is right or wrong – that’s the issue that she’s dealing with. And it’s interesting – she says “Look, my boyfriend feels like he has a morally superior position to mine because he’s a Christian and I’m not. He’s agreed to be tolerant of me, and I’ve agreed to be tolerant of him, even though I feel that he has a morally inferior position.”

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holiday for newlyweds

from Jennifer, over at the AFC blog…

Much more so than Valentine’s Day, Christmas is truly a holiday of love. We celebrate, with the people we love, God’s ultimate act of love for us. The gift was small- a tiny, beautiful baby, born to parents of seemingly insignificant birth and social status, in a barn. Not a lot of show, but definitely a lot of love.

full article here

or (for now) here

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the shortest day of the year

I drove home on what turned out to be the shortest day of the year. As I woke up this morning at 7 to drive to a Christmas celebration, I was amazed at how dark it was. Surely it can’t be 7:00! A quick check of my cell phone and my computer showed that it was, in fact, time for me to get up.

There are places in the world where this phenomena is carried to extremes. Places in Alaska are sometimes called the “Land of the Midnight Sun” because six months of the year they are bathed in constant sunlight (though not warm, from what I hear), and six months if the year they are in complete darkness. Apocryphally, people say suicide rates are higher during the prolonged darkness than they are at other times of the year.

Sometimes we hardly notice the changing of daylight, except in huge increments, but every now and then we notice – if only for a moment – that the night is just a bit darker than it used to be.

It’s interesting that in this season of darkness, we are greeted with the arrival of the light of the world. John, speaking of Jesus, writes that, “The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. … The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world.”

We now wait with anticipation the Birth of Christ into this dark night. The Savior of the world is coming into the world, bringing hope and light where we have only darkness.

at the AFC blog…

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my journey – part 23

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine

and puts them into practice

is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain came down,
the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against that house;

yet it did not fall,

because it had its foundation on the rock.”

Isn’t it easy to hear the words
and put them into practice

when the storms seem a long way away?

When the beach is sunny and warm
we pitch our umbrellas upon the shores of life.

Our umbrellas become shacks
our shacks houses
our houses mansions
our mansions estates

and before we know it

we’ve built our entire lives on a foundation

of sand.

But the storms are brewing.

The rain is coming.
The streams will rise
and the winds will blow.

And at that time it will not matter
how lavish a mansion we have created
how many treasures we have stored.

All that will matter

will be that left standing.

And all that will be standing

will have its foundation on the rock.

Another warning of misplaced hope. Through our lives, we build many things. We’re often proud of our accomplishments. Whether it be our belief systems, our wealth, our relationships, our social networks, our intelligence, or any other of the thousand things we build in our lives, we each have large luxurious mansions with treasures stored up. The question for us is whether we have built on the foundation of Christ.

The beach is a wonderfully attractive place. We’re lured often by the view and the serene beauty.

The only promise we have in life is that storms are coming. No matter who you are, whether you believe in God or not, your life will be pounded by storms. The issue for each of us is that by the time they hit, it will be too late to make changes to our foundation. The time to seek God is not when the storms arrive, but long before they are on the horizon.

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my journey – part 22

Joy is a funny thing.

People sometimes think that it’s being happy,
but I know people who are joyous even in a melancholy mood.

People sometimes think it comes from outside of us, that the things that happen to us determine whether or not we have that joy,
but I have seen the greatest joy in people who have no earthly reason to be joyous.

People sometimes think it comes from within us, that somehow we can act our way into having joy, or if we can focus hard enough, we’ll find it,
but I know people who are great actors and can focus very well, but have no joy.

People sometimes think it’s hard to find, that we must search in many obscure places to glean even a small bit of it,
but I know people who seem to find it everywhere they go.

If joy is not from outside of us,
If it is not from within us,
then where does it come from?

I look at people who have the most joy and I am struck with one universal truth:
their joy comes from God.

And when their joy comes from God
It’s not just being happy,
and it’s not hard to find,

for God is everywhere
and in Him is all joy.

Joy is constant. Often, I think, we confuse joy for happiness. Especially in a culture that tells us in so many ways to not be content with what we have, we are prone to think of joy and happiness together in a fleeting sense – we never have enough of what we want.

Nehemiah says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” I hope my strength is not fleeing. I hope it’s something that I can depend on.

The question, really, is where we find our joy. We store treasure in so many places. We place and mis-place hope daily. Any time we place our hope and trust in something other than the Lord, we are certain to be disappointed. Whether a person, an idea or an object, the only source of true joy and peace is the Lord.

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my journey – part 21

One time I tried to teach children to speak English. Their native tongue made it very hard for them, and they constantly struggled.

I would explain instructions slowly, in simple words.

They didn’t understand.

I would ask them to repeat the instructions.

They didn’t understand.

I would tell them again, in simpler, slower words. I felt sure they’d get it. I felt sure my point was made.
They didn’t understand.

No matter what I tried, there was still that barrier,
an absolute mountain that stood in the way
of passing what I knew onto them.

I was so frustrated. I was at a loss. All I wanted to do was to take these kids, to tell them that I loved them, and to teach them everything I knew.

And then it hit me.

In life I sit in a class, and at the blackboard stands God,
the All-Mighty God of the universe,
who is speaking to me in a wonderful and complex language of Love.

And I don’t understand.

And I hope that when I finally get something, that when a light finally turns on up in my head,

God smiles,

and feels a joy beyond compare.

I think that everyone should be forced to teach English as a second language. The lessons learned from watching people struggle with something you natively understand and not being able to communicate with them I think provides an interesting perspective on how God must see us at times.

The two summers I spent in that classroom were eye-opening in so many ways. As a teacher, I desire to pass knowledge on to my students – ultimately for my understanding of the subject to be given to them. Somehow, no matter how hard I tried, there were those who simply couldn’t get it.

But I think one of the funniest things was that it wasn’t the success of the students who never had a problem that gave me the most joy. It was when one of the slow ones – the ones who never got anything – when it clicked for one of those students, every minute of frustration was worth it.

I still wonder what God thinks as he looks at my life. I don’t know where I fit in the scheme of “fast” or “slow” learners – from my perspective it’s “slow” far too often. But I have a feeling that God feels somewhat like I did. I have a feeling that when we get something, when the light finally clicks for us, God smiles.

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my journey – part 20

What is it that saves you?

Is it some checklist?
Some recipe in an eternal cookbook, that if followed to the letter, exactly to the letter,
guarantees salvation to anyone?

Does your biblical knowledge,
your theoretical understanding of God gleaned from years of research, listening and reading,
hold the key to heaven’s gates?

Can you rest your eternal security
completely and totally on your faith in the grace of God that you can say nothing else matters,
nothing at all?

For I know many people who can follow instructions
to the letter
who make lousy cooks.

And I have brilliant friends who know more than I ever will
and understand so much
who don’t know the first thing about applying their knowledge.

And I have seen many who believe strongly
and do nothing
and in the end that’s exactly what they have.

So what is it that saves you?

Paul says
“I now consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. . . I want to know Christ . . . to become like Him in His death.”

To Paul
nothing
absolutely nothing
was more important than knowing Jesus and seeking a deep relationship with him.

I think that Paul would say
I am saved because
“I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus,
took hold of me.”

Another early foray into a more post-modern way of thinking. As I sat and pondered, I came to the conclusion that there had to be something more to it than everyone was telling me. Is salvation baptism? Is it the sinner’s prayer? Is it how much I know, or how well I follow the instructions?

Ultimately all of these answers felt hollow and empty to me. They didn’t fully answer the question that was being asked – “How do I make myself right with God?”

What Paul says here was later put to me in an extremely cogent fashion by my mentor – “Relationships are more important than rules.” All too often we get caught up in the rules about what it means to be a person of faith and what we have to follow. Ultimately we have to follow Christ, and the relationship we have with him is more important than the rules.

Far more important.

“Relationships are more important than rules.” – Good words to live by.