Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Emergent Christianity

"What are you guys doing?"
Had someone from my Canadian home church ask what was up with the "more decentralized ... church model stuff" we've been living in for the last several years. How should I articulate what we're about to people who would probably only see a methodology if they were to look at or visit us? It's simple, yet tricky, because although what we do is different, it's not "about" a method or a model. People learn about our organization, our methods, or our church model thinking that will tell them what we're about. But the number of planned meetings, the size, the deliberate networking, etc., is all very much peripheral to what we're about, even though those things are the most immediately apparent identifying characteristics.

We are trying to authentically and fully embrace, enter into, and share life with each other with God. We are trying to offer ourselves to God (as individuals and as sisters and brothers together) as malleable as possible so that we can grow more fully into the life that our Creator invites us into. We are trying to allow God to form us into the people we are created to become so that we may live more fully with our Creator in the most abundant life possible, for which we are created. This all boils down to one thing: pursuing God together.

Although we did not know it at the time, we've ended up in what can be identified as a missional community that is part of the Emergent church conversation and experience.

Websites with stuff re: Missional/Emergent church worth reading:
Allelon: Living the Story, Embodying the Kingdom
Emergent Village
Short Article: "Just Who Is Emergent, Anyway?"

There is a foundational shift in the way people are understanding what it means to be followers of Christ, to be people living with God through Christ together in the power of the Spirit. When those understandings change, what we do also begins to change to better express our understandings of who, what, why, and Whose we are. What we're doing is part of a growing phenomenon of Christians re-examining very basic understandings and assumptions of what it means to be and live as God’s people in the world - but think of it as "conversations" rather than a "movement."

Most recently, this happened in the UK about 30 years ago when Christians experienced the death of Christendom: churches became museums and Christians were left with a major identity crisis and few meaningful ways to express their faith. North America is now experiencing its own version of a similar phenomenon right on schedule, about one generation (Canada) or two (the U.S.) behind Western Europe. This is mostly old news to many Christians in Vancouver, Toronto, and the "blue states" of the USA. Many in the “Bible Belt” still don’t see what all the fuss is about, but they will.

Emergent Christianity: the Negative Reaction of Malcontents?
It is becoming embarrassingly obvious that much of Christianity as we know it, experience it, and express it, is fast becoming increasingly irrelevant to the world and the churched. It's one thing to appear irrelevant to the world: that might mean that as God's people need to better articulate ourselves (verbally and non-verbally). It's another thing when the sincere pursuit of God and Kingdom life becomes stymied by the very institutions, practices, and teachings that are intended to facilitate genuine life with God through Christ. Which group of people did Jesus reserve His harshest rebukes for? The acute disconnect many Christians are experiencing between "real life" and their church/religious/Christian experience is reaching an intolerable threshold and provoking a fundamental re-examining of our basic understandings regarding who we are and what our purpose is.

Some attempt to do this in a negative reaction to whatever church tradition they grew up in. Guys who grew up in pop Evangelical or fundamentalist/legalistic churches get disillusioned and see it all as shallow, compromised, flaky, fake, and fearful (esp. if they're in their first year of seminary). Sometimes they'll turn to more liturgical or historical Christian traditions (Anglican/Episcopal, Catholic, Orthodox, mainline churches) – I have peers pursing each one of these. (Let's not forget that people are flowing out of those traditions, too, and faster than Evangelical malcontents can replace them.) Some get bitter and judgemental and ditch church altogether – I have friends (ministry students!) doing this as well. Others look to forms of Christianity that are "on the edge," and when asked, "Why are you getting into Missional/Emergent/organic church stuff?" their answer is often, "Because traditional church sucks/is dead/is full of hypocrites," etc. Basically: our stuff is right because their stuff is wrong. That's a poor reason to pursue anything. If something is worth pursuing, it should be so because of its own merits, not the lack of merit in something else.

Personally, I think these malcontent scenarios are often (not always) caused by failure on the part of disillusioned 20-somethings to recognize a regular stage of personal growth. Rather than finding something on which to blame the discomfort we feel during transitional stages in life (like the ones where we learn to own our own faith), we should look first to our many "planks" (to commandeer one of Christ's metaphors for my own purposes). Judgemental condemnation, regardless of its degree of accuracy, is a poor response, in my opinion. To echo one popular ACU professor, when we bring critique of the church we must do so as "loyal opposition" with "tears in our eyes" - there must be no question that love is the motive delivering these hard truths.

Emergent Christianity as a Positive Pursuit of God
Given the times in which we live, our faith journeys will likely expand beyond the borders of whichever denominational heritage nurtured us in spiritual infancy. No one Christian tradition, no matter how old it claims to be, has cornered the market on facilitating life together with God. But that particular heritage in which we were re-born (whatever it may be) should not become the scape-goat we use to avoid owning up to our own spiritual immaturity and experiencing the spiritual crucible. Ditching one tradition simply to adopt another is ultimately futile. An equal-enough degree of frustration with the new heritage will only be avoided through ignorance. I tried it once. We ought not to cut ties with our denominational roots; rather we should expand the diversity of our personal Christian territory.

When we choose change, or rather, choose to grow, it should be for the goodness of that which we pursue, not primarily for the lack of badness that we are trying to leave behind. I believe I can honestly say that pursuit of God and genuine life with Him led me to re-ask basic questions about the nature and purpose of God’s people and God's Kingdom. My current pursuit and experience of life with God in His family can be categorized as emergent because what I have found to be the best means of facilitating the pursuit of God in community happens to fit what is being called emergent. I didn't choose the emergent bandwagon because I'm cheesed off at more traditional expressions of Christianity or because I think it's "better than" something else. Our approach to life with God can accurately be called emergent, but we pursue God in that way because it is the best way we know to pursue God – we would live this life at this time regardless of the state of traditional or emergent Christian practice.

We were looking for a community in which our allegiance to and pursuit of God through Christ together could take priority over our allegiance to pretty much anything else. We found the willing, and our journey continued.

What we do (methods, organization, etc.) is now determined according to what best facilitates our growth toward who we understand we are supposed to be in Christ and the purposes for which God redeems, grows, and interacts with us. The perceived failings of traditional Christianity don't really factor in. We are not promoting one “way” to do things – the specifics of what is best to do will change somewhat with the context. We are basically attempting to rediscover “the plot” of the Big Story into which God is inviting us, and in that rediscover our identity and role in that Story: redemption and life with God in His Kingdom, through Christ, empowered by the Spirit. The point is the pursuit of and life with God through Christ in the Spirit together. The nature, intentions, and activity of God determines the nature, activity, and intentions of the community.

For Church of Christ folks, MissionAlive.org and TheTruthTree.org/MetroSoul are good CoC examples of attempts to put this stuff in action in North America.

What we’re doing with our ‘simple/organic church networks’ in Abilene (oh how we long for decent terminology! =) is missional and unavoidably part of what is being described as the Emergent church (the wide variety of 'new' missional expressions of Christianity and Christian life) – or at least, we're travelling that path. I should note that most of the people in our network aren't aware of this, nor would they care to know. They are just sharing life together with God the way they most faithfully know how – and that’s how I think it should be. Those of us with seminary training don’t teach about ‘missional’ or ‘emergent’ explicitly in our churches. It’s about living with God together and engaging Life with Him... not perpetuating a ‘movement.’ You’ll see in emergent church discussion that it is often described as the emergent church “conversation” and rarely as a “movement” – there is a serious effort not to lose the Plot and get sidetracked from the original purpose of all this: authentically living into life together with God as His people.

Among the variety of missional, emergent church expressions, we are a form of “simple church” or “organic church” or “house church networks.” Emergent/missional attempts can manifest themselves very differently, from the more radical (varieties of communal living arrangements) to the less methodologically experimental (traditional church structures with a major change of heart). But the form or model is not what is most important here. Models are tools, subject to constant revision. It's the 'why' that is most important:
…because we are trying to give our allegiance to God through Christ above all other allegiances;
…because we are trying to enter more fully the life into which God invites us;
…because we desire to live together with God as we are intended to live;
…because we desire to become the people we are created and intended by God to become;
…because we desire to live with our Creator in His life and mission…

…ultimately, because God.

2 Comments:

At 7/22/2005 11:12:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

good words brother.

i just think about moses. he broke the stone tablets because he was pissed. he ground up the idol and made the people drink it. then he unleashed the levites on the people with swords!

i'm not proposing anything near as drastic as that.

however, i think we should apply the question you ask about love and anger to this situation... was Moses angry? did Moses still love the people?

he did convince God not to destroy them.

what about the flood? was God's love for the victims of that catastrophe dead?

did Jesus love the pharisees and teachers of the law less or indeed at all?

well he died for them.

was he pissed at them? i think there's a pretty strong argument that he felt that emotion toward them from time to time.

there is a time for love to be incensed. there is a time for truth to be expressed over the point of the sword.

but we always look for the opportunity to restore, heal, release, set free...

always!

 
At 2/26/2006 01:23:00 AM, Blogger SM said...

7/08/2005 09:51:52 PM

Glad it was helpful... it was a rush job (trying to get it out before we left for NH), so it ended up waaaay longer than it needed to be.

To be honest, I am not all that familiar with all of what is going on under the umbrella of emergent Christianity. Being part of the 'emergent church' is no interest of mine... it just happens that what we're interested in can be categorized that way. We've pursued life with God the way we have these last years pretty much totally unaware of the Emergent conversation. Part of writing this post was simply me trying to get an understanding of how what we're doing relates to what's happening in the broader Christian world. This understanding won't change anything. Some of the guys teaching and writing missional stuff (academics) have cautioned some of our networks' seminary students from using the term emergent - it's too new and nobody knows what's going to happen with it all. And it refers to a huge diversity of Christian expression, some of which many are not comfortable with. I just started reading Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy... the introduction to that book illustrates what we're about well, and i noticed he has some stuff on the Allelon site. That looked like the better site to me from first impessions.

 

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Friday, June 17, 2005

The Beginning of Lasts

Now that we're living out of cardboard boxes in a borrowed apartment, I'm constantly painfully aware that the clock is ticking on what's left of our time in Abilene. We've hit that part of a major life transition where you begin facing "last times." With some people and events there's a confident hope that we'll experience them again years down the road. With others I wonder at the possibly of this being our last time together, ever.

We moved apartments and got rid of all our furniture ---> including the dinner table! (f.y.i. all you non-simple church folks: dinner tables are a big deal.) Losing the table signifies to me that we've hosted our church family in the dorm for the last time.

Bio, a friend and classmate from Recife, finished defending his Master's thesis on Friday and left with his family for Brazil on Tuesday. That means we've spent an evening of endless easy-flowing conversation where time has no meaning with Bio & Dayse and their daughters Hannah and Jasmine for the last time. (If you don't know any Brazilians, you are missing out!)

We've worshiped on a 1st Sunday with our whole church network for the last time.

Last night was 3rd Wednesday, the one time a month when all the churches in our network get together for a meal and worship. After doing it for years, I have planned and led the worship for that spiritual family the last time.

Kelly and Houston, friends with whom we've shared prayer and mentoring groups, Africa internships, bachelor parties and a whole lot else, are leaving for Sudan on Monday with D. & B. So many memories... but standing stark-naked with Houston (when you're a naked white boy in rural Africa, stark is exactly what you are) on banana leaves, hanging our clothes on tree branches while trying to take a sponge bath in near-total darkness is one I won't forget any time soon. That village had never seen the night so bright! Naming our goats before we beheaded them is another one. We'll say goodbye to D., our weekly mentor and friend for something like two years along with his wife B., tomorrow over lunch. As far as the Abilene chapter of our life is concerned, we've hung out with them for the last time.

My apologies that this is so depressing (what do you expect, we're trying to close out 8 years of life here =)! Here's one "last" that I've been looking forward to for a while... Yesterday the Ducky (our mostly-yellow 1977 Chevy Nova) started making noises I have not heard before. But since we're getting rid of it in a few weeks and it's pushing 40 degrees (100'F) outside, I refuse to check it out... that means I've done repairs on that car in the Texas summer sunshine for the last time!

These are just some of our most recent "lasts" and we know there are many more to come. Even though I have learned to appreciate aspects of Texas over the years that I could not see before, I still don't think I'll miss this town (no offense, but this town is not my home and for 8 years I've been just a-passing through! =). But our extended Christ community has become home. The paths ahead of us to Canada and then China are as exciting as all get out (8 years and I still don't know what that means), but I think a part of us will be left behind - not in Abilene, but in the shared lives in Christ of Sean, Brian, Ed, Iris, Nelson, Josh, Ralph & Tracy, Kelley & James, Darryl & Suzy, Brian & Holly, Travis & Alicia, K. & K, Miller & Deanna, and a long list of other sisters and brothers. Leaving and losing like this is an unavoidable part of the life we've chosen, but if we have to leave a piece of us behind, I can't think of any other people I'd rather leave it with. Thank God for Christ's family!

1 Comments:

At 6/19/2005 06:42:00 PM, Blogger Tony said...

What's up Canuck!!! Steven Burgess said hello from you to us, and Zee and I both smiled at the thought of you guys. I think that its great that you are headed to China, I know that God will bless you adventure there. I look forward to hearing all about it.

Tony

 

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Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Leaving...

This post is two weeks late…but honestly, this is the first time I’ve been able to put any words to my feelings about the beginning of the end of our time here in Abilene. Sunday night, two weeks ago, SM and I finished moving out of the Residence Director’s apartment in the dorm where we’ve lived for two years. It was a busy, long, dreadfully tiring weekend…as all “moving weekends” are. Never mind that we only moved about 10 feet away into the Assistant’s apartment at the dorm (our new temporary home until we leave Abilene at the end of July), it was still a loooong weekend.

Late Sunday night, while lying on the bed in the new apartment and resting for a few minutes before finishing up the last few details, I stopped thinking about all of the packing and moving and started to think about how empty and bare everything was. The tea-colored carpet and sand-dollar colored walls were a vast expanse of emptiness, and that odd echo that belongs to empty rooms had crept in throughout the day as we emptied things out. I realized that I’d been keeping myself busy so that I wouldn’t feel sad about what we were doing. I’d been trying to tell myself, “It’s just an apartment…just a place that we’ve been living for a few years.” But that Sunday night, the memories of the past two years ambushed me, and I was surprised and overwhelmed by my deep sense of loss. In reality, that place has been HOME to us, and I hope to a few others as well. So much of what we have been doing for the last two years as we’ve been learning how to live and share Life with others is linked to our experiences in that house…my staff meetings, our church family, mentoring group, prayer groups, Christ family meals, playoff hockey games watched with SM's hockey buddies, years two and three of our marriage…all of these things happened in that place. So much of who we are becoming has been formed within those walls, and shaped by the people that we’ve been blessed to share life with during our time here.

Here’s a smattering of the memories that came to mind as I laid there on the bed: Brian and Holly flirting with each other from across the room during church family meetings….Travis screaming and bouncing on the couch while watching hockey games…wonderful, amazing times of worship and prayer….me “pouncing” on Bonnie during one of our staff meetings… SM's honesty with me at a really challenging point in our marriage...an endless stream of dorm residents that came with roommate concerns, or to go to the ER, or to borrow a thermometer or a sewing machine, or to tell me that their toilet was exploding, or wouldn’t stop flushing…being gathered around our candle-lit table sharing meals and communion…the staff gathered around SM and I, laying hands on us to pray for and to bless us…decorating our Christmas tree with Anna and Jeff…”Muffin Nights” with Houston and Kelly…wrapping presents for my nephews with Alicia…drinking tea with anyone that ever came to visit us…playing “Scum” around the dining room table…Brian and Ron going a little wild when we busted out the cards... praying and snuggling on the couch with SM... Thanksgiving dinner with my family and anyone else that we could find to share it with…finding “Smoochy” after he jumped out of the bowl…too many all-nighters…lingerie showers, birthday parties, celebrations for no particular reason and too many other memories to list. A whole lot of laughter, prayer, songs, tears, hugs, and even a few bodily functions (the culprits shall go nameless…you know who you are!!!).

Even now, as I write this, the deep sense of loss has returned. I thought I was at a place where I could finally write about this without crying, but I was wrong. We won’t even leave Abilene for another month and a half, but my heart knows that we are leaving and I am sad. It is time for us to go and I’m looking forward to the next part of our adventures, but for tonight, I have to be honest.

I’m finding the parting much more difficult than I had imagined.

1 Comments:

At 6/08/2005 06:08:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

awww...that made me cry. abilene will not be the same without you two here!
you've made such an impact on our lives and marriage, and not only through muffin night.
we love you guy!

kelly shearon

 

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