The People Formerly Known as the Congregation
So this is buzzing around the blogosphere. As a pastor am I allowed to post this? to agree with this? Enjoy –
From Bill Kinnon –
“Let me introduce you to The People formerly known as The Congregation. There are millions of us.
We are people – flesh and blood – image bearers of the Creator – eikons, if you will. We are not numbers.
We are the eikons who once sat in the uncomfortable pews or plush theatre seating of your preaching venues. We sat passively while you proof-texted your way through 3, 4, 5 or no point sermons – attempting to tell us how you and your reading of The Bible had a plan for our lives. Perhaps God does have a plan for us – it just doesn’t seem to jive with yours.
Money was a great concern. And, for a moment, we believed you when you told us God would reward us for our tithes – or curse us if we didn’t. The Law is just so much easier to preach than Grace. My goodness, if you told us that the 1st century church held everything in common – you might be accused of being a socialist – and of course, capitalism is a direct gift from God. Please further note: Malachi 3 is speaking to the priests of Israel. They weren’t the cheerful givers God speaks of loving.
We grew weary from your Edifice Complex pathologies – building projects more important than the people in your neighbourhood…or in your pews. It wasn’t God telling you to “enlarge the place of your tent” – it was your ego. And, by the way, a multi-million dollar, state of the art building is hardly a tent.
We no longer buy your call to be “fastest growing” church in wherever. That is your need. You want a bigger audience. We won’t be part of one.
Our ears are still ringing from the volume, but…Jesus is not our boyfriend – and we will no longer sing your silly love songs that suggest He is. Happy clappy tunes bear no witness to the reality of the world we live in, the powers and principalities we confront, or are worthy of the one we proclaim King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
You offered us a myriad of programs to join – volunteer positions to assuage our desire to be connected. We could be greeters, parking lot attendants, coffee baristas, book store helpers, children’s ministry workers, media ministry drones – whatever you needed to fulfill your dreams of corporate glory. Perhaps you’ve noticed, we aren’t there anymore.
We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We have not stopped loving the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Nor do we avoid “the assembling of the saints.” We just don’t assemble under your supposed leadership. We meet in coffee shops, around dinner tables, in the parks and on the streets. We connect virtually across space and time – engaged in generative conversations – teaching and being taught.
We live amongst our neighbours, in their homes and they in ours. We laugh and cry and really live – without the need to have you teach us how – by reading your ridiculous books or listening to your supercilious CDs or podcasts.
We don’t deny Paul’s description of APEPT leadership – apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. We just see it in the light of Jesus’ teaching in Mark 10 and Matthew 20 – servant leadership. We truly long for the release of servant leading men and women into our gifts as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. We believe in Peter’s words that describe us all as priests. Not just some, not just one gender.
We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We do not hate you. Though some of us bear the wounds you have inflicted. Many of you are our brothers and our sisters, misguided by the systems you inhabit, intoxicated by the power – yet still members of our family. (Though some are truly wolves in sheep’s clothing.)
And, as The People formerly known as The Congregation, we invite you to join us on this great adventure. To boldly go where the Spirit leads us. To marvel at what the Father is doing in the communities where He has placed us. To live the love that Jesus shows us.”
Emerging Church Blogroll
A spiffy cool new resource/bloglist thing is in the works over at Subversive Influence. The point is to increase the traffic and awareness on Emerging Church blogs. Sounds great to me – keeping up with the conversation is fun. Some on the list I already know and love, others I look forward to exploring.
Here’s what to do. Think of between 3 and 5 blogs which you think are under-rated, under-appreciated, or under-valued. More people should be reading them, in other words. They need to be blogging largely on EMC themes and topics, and they should not be on the list of leading blogs on these areas, say 150ish+ links on Technorati.
To participate, copy this list into a new post on your own blog, and add the names you have to the bottom of the list, and encourage others to do the same. The list could get fairly long, but that’s part of the point — each link will help boost the undervalued blog’s profile… and you might even get some link love from it too! Include these instructions (this and the preceding paragraph). When you’ve done that, leave a trackback or comment below, or link to this post so we can keep track of who ends up participating. Okay, here we go, in no particular order:
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- and my additions –
- Who’s Next?
Make a Call for Haiti
For all of those in our church networks that have a special focus on Haiti, here’s this from the Jubilee USA group –
Make A Call for Haiti. We need your help to expand the promise of debt cancellation to more countries, including Haiti, the most impoverished country in our Hemisphere.
Today marks the 20th anniversary of Haiti’s constitution, a significant milestone in the decades long struggle for democracy and respect for human rights. This day is being observed by groups in Haiti and internationally.
Haiti is eligible for debt relief but continues to face delays and is not projected to see full debt cancellation until 2009. By that time, Haiti will have paid $138 million in debt service to creditors. Haiti can’t wait that long; it needs full debt cancellation now.
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), have joined with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) to introduce H.Res. 241, the Haiti debt cancellation resolution. The resolution urges the US Treasury, IMF, and World Bank to expedite debt cancellation for Haiti and to provide full debt cancellation without further delay, so that Haiti can use the money to fight poverty.
Will you make a call today for Haiti? Jubilee USA is organizing a national call-in day to the Capitol today. Please call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121, and ask to be connected with your Member of Congress. When you reach your Member’s office, please ask for the staffer who works on international affairs and international debt relief. Then ask them to co-sponsor H.Res 241, the Haiti Debt resolution. Click here for the phone script.
The Cover
Emerging Women Midwest Gathering
Hi
So I’m back from the Emerging Women Midwest Gathering. I’m tired and trying to catch up on a million details, but at the same time excited and inspired by our time there together. I’ll write more about the event later. For now, I’ve posted a brief summary and some of my talks about the theme and purpose of the weekend over at the Emerging Women blog – here.
It was really really fun to stay in the Castle at the Stronghold. I love that place as a retreat center and the Castle was just too much fun. All of its nooks and crannies, secret passages, and quiet rooms for reflection made it the perfect setting for our event. Below is my favorite thing I stumbled upon on the Castle grounds this weekend – a St. Francis statue with a bird’s nest in it. I just loved that. Enjoy and stay tuned for more thoughts.
Life
Hi readers
A few people were asking – I am slowly healing from my side injury (internal bruise). I can move again and am not popping pain killers all the time. It will apparently be a long process, but I can see that normalcy is beginning to return.
I’m going crazy at the moment trying to pull together all the final details for the Emerging Women Midwest Gathering this weekend. I’m really looking forward to it, but there is so much to do. So I doubt there will be much in the way of blog posts here until after the retreat.
I do have to say that I’m loving that we are experiencing a bit of a Spring teaser this week here in Chicagoland. I can go outside and be warm – not just not cold, but warm. It’s great.
Moral vs Social Reform
This past week I was involved in a very interesting conversation with a man who emailed me regarding the emerging church. More specifically he was genuinely curious about the movement and was hoping to find an answer to a question that he hadn’t really seen addressed. He wanted to know what was emergent’s stance on abortion. For privacy’s sake, I won’t quote his email, just my responses, but I should say it was a nice (not extreme or overly emotional) dialogue. Although, I am not exactly in a position to speak for Emergent (but this is an open an organic conversation, right?), here’s the main part of my initial response.
First, I should make it clear that the emerging church is not a denomination with a set of beliefs or doctrines. It is a conversation that is very ecumenical in nature. There are churches that self identify as emerging but which are also part of various denominations and so abide by the beliefs of those groups. There are groups like Emergent Village or Emerging Women that exist to serve those involved in the conversation but who don’t promote a particular set of beliefs. For example, at our upcoming Emerging Women gathering we have women from at least 15 different denominations attending. Many of us involved in this conversation hold tightly to certain sets of beliefs, and some people even publish books under the label emerging or Emergent that detail their particular beliefs. This of course causes disagreements and discussion, but people are not excluded from the conversation because of a particular belief. It makes some people uneasy to discover that there is no central emerging denomination with a concrete set of beliefs. They want to know exactly what THE emerging church thinks about ___________ issue (abortion, homosexuality, predestination, tongues, Eucharist, …). But the reality is that there are a number of opinions on those issues and all of those are expressed in the emerging church conversation.
At my church (which identifies with the emerging conversation), we agree to disagree on issues. These are not issues of salvation, but part of what comes with the journey of the Christian faith. So all people, whatever their opinions, are welcome. I would say most of us are opposed to abortion, one guy I know insists that abortion doctors should receive the death penalty. Others support abortion in various forms and there are women there who have had abortions. I will of course promote my beliefs on the issue, but not in a way that hurts or excludes those who think differently.
All that said, I think there is a lot of work being done by those who call themselves emerging to help stop abortions. Many emerging Christians support universal healthcare so that women don’t have to fear a life of debt and extreme medical bills if they keep their child. Welfare reform, raising the minimum wage, and support systems for single moms are also topics of concern. Gender equality is another major cause so that in countries where women are currently considered inferior they will no longer be aborted for failing to be male. Also teaching equality so that women are respected by men and not just viewed as sex objects to be used or pawns that must submit is a way to address the underlying causes of abortion. Those who support life want to do so throughout a person’s life – in the womb and out of it. They realize that loud protests that condemn abortion are ineffective in actually lowering the number of abortions. They want to come alongside the women contemplating abortion and help them have that child. That means addressing social issues like poverty and healthcare, being there as incarnations of Christ’s love to those women, and helping fix a broken system. Those aren’t loud newsworthy ways to address the abortion issue and they take way more time and effort, but I see a lot of it happening in the emerging church and I applaud those who care about following Christ that much.
I hope this helps answer some of your questions.
Shalom
In his response to what I wrote there, he pointed out that the things I mentioned had to do with social reform. He wondered what the emergent church was doing about moral reform relating to the dignity of life. I responded –
Thanks for the reply. I have a couple of thoughts on your question.
I do hear a lot of talk in emerging church circles about the dignity of life. This is a moral issue that relates to abortion as well as other issues like war, the death penalty, poverty, AIDS, sex trafficking, fair trade, and immigration. So the conversation is broader than just abortion even though that is obviously a major part of it. We are all children of God – made in his image – born or unborn, male or female, young or old, Iraqi or American. All life is precious and worth defending. This is a constant point of conversation in the emerging church.
But I think you would confuse most emerging church people by trying to draw a distinction between moral and social reform. Most emergents see social reform as a moral issue – it is how our words, theology, and ideas gets fleshed out. There is of course room for discussion of ideas (sometimes too much of this in my opinion), but its meaningless unless we give it feet and put our words into action (faith without works is dead and all that). So to impose a moral judgement on a person (abortion is wrong) without being there to help her have a dignified life is hypocritical. Morality is way more complicated than that. These are real people in real situations that need help. Most of them know abortion is wrong, many of them know sex before marriage is wrong, but they don’t see a way out of the system. So changing the system, showing love, and doing all that social reform stuff is how moral reform gets done for most emergents.
I’m sure other would answer this differently, but this has been my experience and exposure in this area.
This whole distinction (or lack thereof) between moral and social reform has been bugging me the last few days. I keep wondering, is it even possible to have moral reform without social reform? Doesn’t living out our faith necessitate action? I too often do live the life of the mind and don’t put action to my words as often as I should. So I’m thinking through what this looks like – any thoughts?
Book Review – Sex God by Rob Bell
So I recently finished reading Rob Bell’s new book Sex God and I have mixed feelings about it. I’m not a fan of his “write-like-I-talk” style (although I love his preaching, he is in fact the only person I can stand to listen to recorded), but that’s a hurdle I dealt with with Velvet Elvis. I’m not going to give a complete summary or review of the book here, I’ll join everyone and direct you to Ben Witherington for that. I liked this book, but at the same time it disappointed me. For all of its expanding the boxes of how evangelical Christians usually approach the sex topic, it still avoided the complexities of the big picture.
I began reading this book full of uncertainty and caution. Why? Because most Christian books on sex leave me nauseated. They dwell in the realm of stereotypes and promote repression for the sake of repression. They hold the complexities of sex hostage to the anti-homosexual agenda – leaving us with a seriously problematic “sex is only for procreation” answer. They talk as if physicality is a taboo thing to be ashamed of and that it must be translated into spiritual terms in order to be baptized as appropriate for Christians to discuss or engage in. So I must say that compared to most of those sort of books, Sex God is a refreshing alternative.
I liked how the book addresses the heresy of dualism. We are not separate in body and soul, but integrated in all ways. As Rob puts it, we are neither animals or angels. Too often the message gets sent in Christian circles that to avoid all of the horrible evils of physicality one must deny that one is a sexual being and pretend to be an angel. Much has been written on how badly this messes up people’s (mainly women’s) experience and conception of sex down the road, but it’s still the message that gets taught (especially to youth groups). So the affirmation of body and soul needs to be made – a lot. We need to affirm that sex is good but that we aren’t slaves to our physicality. We also need to affirm that sex is about deeper intimacy and connection. What I didn’t like about his treatment of this typical dichotomy is his assumption that people who have sex outside of the intimacy of marriage do so because they are just animals. Yes, some sex is just sex for the sheer physical pleasure of sex, but its a tad naive to label it all that way. Just because people may not have gone through a ceremony does not mean that their lives, relationships, and sex are devoid of intimacy and connection. Bell’s quick division of good vs. bad sex (in the moral sense, of course) is too simplistic for me.
I liked the discussions of unconditional love and how love is the giving up of control and the need to manipulate the other. This was a great introduction to that concept, although I preferred Peter Rollins treatment of the same in How (not) to Speak of God. Those concepts go beyond marriage relationships to all relationships involving love. I am reminded of the themes proposed by unconditional parenting advocates that encourage parents to stop manipulating their children (through rewards, punishment, praise and disappointment) to get them to do what the parents want or as conditions for the parents showing love to them. I also liked Bell’s discussion on sacrifice and submission. I think that particular discussion is bigger than he made it out to be, but he gave some much needed correction to traditional pop interpretations of those ideas.
What I didn’t like the most was the limiting of sex to one purpose. I have always been disappointed with theories that limit sex to being just for procreation or just for pleasure. According to Sex God, sex is just for connecting. Connecting intimately with one’s spouse and connecting with God (and of course there will be no sex in the world to come because we will all already by intimately connected). This imho, fails back into the trap of dichotomizing body and soul. All it really does is disparage the body as being less important that the soul – because connection happens on the spiritual level. And it ignores other purposes for sex – like procreation and pleasure. I know Bell is trying to make a much needed point about connection, but he does so at the expense of the big picture.
On the whole, Sex God is a good read. It includes many great stories to illustrate the concepts of intimacy and connection (and no, not those sort of stories…). I appreciated the exploration of what goes into a healthy relationship. It is a simple, straightforward book that addresses the issue in refreshing ways. I just wished it had admitted the complexities and the nuances of sexuality and been willing to expand its scope.
Chocolate and a Slave Free Easter
In my recent post on ending slavery, I talked about the issues with chocolate. Around 12,000 children have been traffiked into the cocoa farms on the Ivory Coast so we can have cheap chocolate. Chocolate isn’t so sweet when you know that children in slavery were forced to make it for you. We talked about this at church one week and listed the companies that buy from farms that make use of traffiked children – companies like Nestle, Hersheys, Mars/M&Ms. Then the very next week someone brought Nestle chocolate for our fellowship food. I have no idea who it was, but I was appalled. I’m sorry but once I discovered the facts, I can’t knowingly pay people to abuse and imprison children anymore. Knowledge is power, but we are also responsible for our knowledge. If we know that buying slave made chocolate is wrong and yet continue to do so, is that not a sin?
I can’t force people to care or to change. But I can make them uncomfortable. I can keep talking about it. I can keep providing resources. And I can keep pushing for change.
In regards to getting the word out. Please download this free “children’s” book – Chaga and the Chocolate Factory. And check out what these kids are doing to promote a slave free Easter. Maybe this year Christians will stop stressing over the Easter bunny vs. Jesus nonsense and think about if the chocolate their kids in their new Easter dresses are loading their baskets with was made by enslaved children. But who am I kidding… I haven’t seen any fair trade chocolate bunnies yet, and we all know that you just can’t have Easter without them…
UPDATE – I just got my “a greater gift” catalog and discovered that the fair trade company Divine Chocolate has chocolate eggs new for this year. No bunnies, but you can buy slave free chocolate eggs here