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I remember the day the new Christian Business Directories came to the door of the church. It was just like Christmas, only colorful wrapping paper was supplanted by a clear plastic covering and bright ribbons by those infuriating plastic ties that require you to stick your fingernail under the overlapping segments and pick at it until either you free your quarry or you make your finger bleed. The sense of excitement was thick in the air, palpable. The delivery man (presumably a Christian delivery man) left with a wave and I and my fellow church employees were left to peruse the adds for Christians from every line of work imaginable: Christian doctors, lawyers (cough), plumbers, bail bondsman. We reveled in the "savedness" of them all.

Until I threw them in the dumpster.

I'm not sure if this was an act of sheer rebellion (more likely) or prophetic leading (less likely), but I acted nonetheless. This colossal waste of precious paper products was motivated by, I think, a feeling of confusion and frustration regarding the attitude that proclaimed we were more likely to engage in commerce with Christians than with others. This was not only an acceptable method of pimping products in church either, but one that was implicitly encouraged, as if by giving ones business to Christians one was committing an act of piety.

I remember listening to a conversation last year in which a person voiced their support for the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl because their head coach, Tony Dungy, was such a "strong Christian." I found this a puzzling thing to say. Upon finding out that Lovie Smith, coach of the opposing Chicago Bears, was also a "strong Christian," I was flummoxed. Perhaps I should root for one to receive all the blessings of victory, the crown for the race completed, while for the other I contend that with persecution comes perseverance and with perseverance character, etc.

I understand that we are likely to be drawn to those with whom we share similarities, but at what point does Christianizing every aspect of life block out those who don't know share our beliefs, who don't know the secret handshake. Are we not, as Christians, called to be salt and light to the world? Salt and light both require reaction to mean anything. They're no good on their own. Salt requires contact with blandness and decay. Light must meet darkness in order to even be recognized as light. Do we not then have an obligation to interact with and develop relationships with those in world, those outside of our comfort areas? Would it not be better to have an Non-Christian Business Directory in our churches so we would know where we could go to obtain goods and services and to share of ourselves at the same time?

May we be the type of people who go out of our way to encounter those who do not make us feel better about what we believe. Rather, let us be a people who seek with every inconspicuous interaction to live the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to those who do not yet know it.

A Psalm

I'm really not very good at this whole blog thing. Wes is much better than I. He did have a super-cool way of linking to my Mark Driscoll video discussion with Mark, though, so I'd like to think that I'm more qualified than I actually am.

This has been a very tough week. I have been confronted with not only my humanity (which is no great revelation to me), but with my depravity. I can (and do) lie to the people I love the most. I am fully capable of the foulest of behavior, and my pride is such that it eats away at me from within, consuming me alive. I have come face to face with my most dogged adversary (and he is me).

And yet...

I do not despair. I do not give up hope that I will be transformed. I do not lie down and shower down stones upon myself, committing the murder that I feel I deserve.

I release myself from judgment. I plead the blood of Christ on my behalf.

God, save the world from me and those like me. Tend and nourish the part of me where you live, and let that me undo the other me. Break my heart to mend it. Break my will to correct it. Let my love be your love.

Heal the ones I've wounded, including me, and including you.

Be the God I need you to be.

MC535 Week 10 Post (Emerging Churches 11 & Conclusion)

Chapter 11: Merging Ancient and Contemporary Spiritualities

I am very much drawn to the idea that while "religion" as we've known it is on the decline, "spirituality" is really incredibly popular. Rather than argue about terminology or whether or not we're watering down the gospel by embracing spirituality, I believe we must be pro-active. This is where I find the ideas of the emerging church to be so refreshing:

"...emerging churches provide correctives to popular spirituality in that they are rooted in the practices of both the Hebrew and Christian Scripture. They are also rooted in the ancient practices of the Christian tradition and are strongly corporate in their expression." (223)

A theme in my postings this quarter has been emphasizing the "otherness" of the church and of the Christian life. Christians are not called to look like the rest of the world. They are called to be "other." This means in a world where life is "supposed to be" hyperactive, stressful, and individualized, Christians must live in the opposite extreme. By living as a people who are reflective, refreshed, and corporately connected, the church will find its place in the chaos of today's media culture.

MC535 Class Post 10.2

I really liked our last class discussion today. Maybe it was the fact that we addressed some of the charismatic roots of the emerging church in the UK and John Wimber... or maybe it was the fact that it was the last day of class! I've really enjoyed going through the material for this class. Here's to continued discussion.

Thank God for Small Mercies

With papers and finals breathing down my neck, I give you the Diamonds (they come from Glasgow).

MC535 Class Post 10.1

Well, we're winding down...

Today's discussion about leadership was interesting. I think that one of the major hurdles the emerging church will have to overcome is the CEO/Manager model of the pastor. It's going to require a shift in the way we view seminaries, salaries, vocation, etc. I do think, though, that this is a necessary change, and that with this shift we'll hopefully see an end to the overworked/burned out pastor of modernity.

MC535 Week 9 Post (How [Not] to Speak of God by Peter Rollins)

This was one of the more interesting reads of the year for me. Peter Rollins, a very bright guy involved in the Ikon congregation in Northern Ireland, seeks to explain some of the philosophical and theological undercurrents of the emerging church movement. I appreciate the scope and depth of Rollins work, and the two-part system of "Heretical Orthodoxy" and "Towards Orthopraxis" works to illustrate his points and bring them down to a workable level.

One aspect of Rollins’s work that I really enjoyed was his emphasis that the system of beliefs that we currently hold about God is nothing more than a feeble attempt to understand the unknowable:

“The point is not that our beliefs are inherently problematic but only that they become problematic when held in a manner that would claim more than some provisional, pragmatic response to that which transcends conceptualization.” (26-27)

I believe that Rollins’s ideas here hold a lot of potential. It’s unfortunate that in Christianity we have many who claim to have nearly every aspect of God nailed down. They feel that any variance in another’s perception of God reflects not the multifaceted transcendence of God, but the lack of faith on the part of the “other.” As Christians, we must understand that we see through a mirror darkly, and we must be gracious with what we hold to as essentials. We must never come to the place where we do not allow the Holy Spirit to move in us and teach us more about God, even if it comes through unorthodox channels.

Rollins asserts that most of our beliefs about God and the systems we then base on those beliefs are, in reality, idols or, more specifically, “conceptual idols”:

“The only significant difference between the aesthetic idol and the conceptual idol lies in the fact that the former reduces God to a physical object while the latter reduces God to an intellectual object.” (12)

This is at the same time a terrifying and liberating thought. The idea that I have made my conceptualization of God into an idol that dethrones God is quite unnerving, and yet I can see where Rollins is coming from. It is quite invigorating to be freed from my system of belief about God, which is full of inconsistencies and difficulties, and to simply realize that I can only know the hyper-present God as much as I can discern in my humanity. I’m also sympathetic to Rollins’s use of the Biblical text to reject conceptual idolatry.

The second half of How (Not) to Speak of God was also useful, if only to see how Rollins incorporates his somewhat revolutionary ideas in his local faith community. He wisely warns against carbon copying these methods and transferring them to any local congregation. I found myself thinking that while I might not employ any of the methods that Ikon did in exploring these ideas, his outlining of these practices will serve as great conversation starters.

MC535 Class Post 9.2

Better late than never, I always say.

Deep, deep conversations yesterday. It's incredibly interesting to talk about modernity, post-modernity, McDonaldization, etc. I'm not sure which movement will win out in the end, but it's apparent to me that we are living in an unprecedented time of change. Add to that the fact that we can communicate from anywhere on the globe to anywhere else on the globe, and it becomes obvious that we cannot simply fall back on what's "tried and true" in regard to church.