TheBolgBlog

First Day of "Emerging Churches: The Class"

I'm really excited -- today is the first day of class for "Emerging Churches". Eddie Gibbs and I will be teaching through all our material for the first time. The class runs from 3pm to 6pm each weekday for the next two weeks. From a few stray pre-class emails, I believe we might have a really good mix of students -- we have pre-service combined with some seasoned church leaders and mission executives -- 27 in all.

As a grad student, I loved the classes taught by authors, where the students, having read the author's book, would dialogue with them. The best. It didn't get much better than that for me. Now it is flipped around -- Eddie and I created a class built around our Emerging Churches material. I hope we can come close to the kind of dynamism I enjoyed as a grad student...

Besides the dialogue learning in class, the students will analyze a church or mission in light of the nine patterns of Emerging Churches. In addition, they will examine that same community in light of the insights of Jamieson, Frost and Hirsch, Pagitt, and Steve Taylor. Finally, they will prescribe changes for their congregation or mission in light of the insights gained. See Current Classes on my left sidebar to access the class. All of you are welcome to post. Here is the link directly: http://www.thebolgblog.com/mc535_w06 ...

As with the class I taught in the fall, the students will create blogs to report on their experiences and interact with others in their small group. The class wiki will list the communities on which they are reporting.

Each class is essentially a one-time event -- the same community, both teachers and students, will never gather again as that community and around those same texts. For this class it is especially true, for it is likely to be the first and last time Eddie and I teach it together, as Eddie Gibbs will be retiring in June. :^(

For all these reasons, I'm excited for this class beginning today. I'll give frequent updates on the class in this blog for the next couple of weeks.

Technorati Tags: Eddie Gibbs, Emerging_Church, Fuller Theological Seminary

Brainstorming with Wess Daniels

I have known Wess for a year -- he has been a star student in class and in an independent study, and beginning last quarter, as my TA. Not only does he know the missiological stuff, he is technologically savvy as well. We have a great working relationship together. Because we have so many common interests, our meetings  are tremendously unproductive. And I wouldn't have it any other way! We'll use the posted agenda as a starting point, then go down the road of emerging church, mission, Jesus, denominational life, seminary,  or technology. We might eventually get to issues of our current class, which is usually the stated agenda.  But mainly, our conversation goes this way and that, meandering here and there, and the hours slip by. I had one of those meetings today with Wess as we worshipped, er, um, sipped coffee at Peet's, our favorite place to imbibe my favorite drink...

Technorati Tags: Fuller Theological Seminary, C. Wess Daniels

Get Writing Again

I had a great conversation (performance review?) with the Dean of my school yesterday, Doug McConnell. We talked about how many courses I'm teaching next year (8 1/2) and whether that was a healthy course load (2 1/2 too many) and whether I'm focused on the right things or not (mostly yes). Great discussion. I loved it because he serves me as a mentor, boss, spiritual director, and friend. Very cool. I find these times so helpful and they are exactly what I need to keep focused. What we determined was that because of the steep on-ramp of developing new courses to teach (six this year), spending time on committees, and re-thinking some of our core issues in my school, my writing has taken a back seat. Writing, in terms of my stuff (i.e. books), not chapters or articles for others. Eddie Gibbs and I finished writing Emerging Churches last spring and I have not started on a second project. Mostly because of reasons above, but also because the writing of the book just wore me out...I really have enjoyed the diversions of talking about the book, re-connecting with all my interviewees, blogging, teaching, and meeting new friends. But it is time to re-engage new material and write again...

Good news is I have a publisher for a second work, and we agreed on a topic. Basically, the task is to popularize (read translate) my dissertation into language that ordinary people speak. It would not necessarily be the book I feel like writing -- it will be a difficult challenge, but it is a good idea to create a popular version of a dissertation before the research becomes outdated (it was published in 2003). I've had friends read it and I have lectured through much of the material in three classes. The feedback has been very good, and students really connect to the material, but when they pull the one copy off the shelf in the library, it doesn't make sense to them. I always need to sit down and explain what I'm talking about. Just a hunch, but sales might be limited if I need to sit next to each potential buyer of the book to explain what I am talking about!

For those curious, the title of my dissertation is:
Jesus For and Against Modernity: Practice-Redemption as Missiological Response to the Rules of the Modern Powers.

A mouthful, I know. The dissertation deals with Jesus' interaction with culture as a paradigm for our interaction with modernity/postmodernity. I analyze Jesus' interaction with the powers in light of practice theory and the missio Dei. It looks at issues of Christ and Culture but with a very different rubric.

So, this should be a fun ride -- I'm looking forward to wade back into the deep water again...

Technorati Tags: writing, C. Douglas McConnell, Fuller Theological Seminary, Jesus

Why Emerging Churches are Nonviolent

In my interviews with churches in the West, those that highly engage culture, I've noticed that none or very few were of the just-war perspective when it came to issues of war and peace. If they were not outright pacifists, they leaned that way, and much of their talk reflected that nonviolence was consistent with their overall set of Christian practices. Some critics dismiss emerging churches' disposition towards nonviolence as simply part of an unthinking liberal agenda of some sort. I disagree. I think the emerging churches move towards peacemaking is rooted in something much deeper than than any sort of knee-jerk political reaction.

Looking back In Christian history, there have been two primary positions towards war, the just-war position rooted in Augustine's thought, and the position of non-violence rooted in the life of Jesus and the early church. Just-war advocates appeal to Old Testament kingdom understandings or to a church and state synthesis that began in the West in the early fourth century and continued until the middle of the twentieth century. Pacifism or nonviolence was the standard position of Jesus, Paul, and the countercultural church of the first two to three centuries. It has existed as a minority view within the period of Christendom.

Many Western churches operate today as if Christendom still existed. They fulfill their ever-diminishing role as spiritual chaplain to the society, baptizing the goals of the nation as a whole and by encouraging people to play nice. Those churches that are not a direct benefactor of Christendom, those minority faith traditions in the West and those outside the West, lived much differently -- simply to survive. They couldn't baptize the nation's goals because they weren't part of those goals. They needed a different set of narratives to give shape to their lives. Instead of the Christendom story, they chose the scriptural stories of God's people who were not in power. The very existence of their community served as a prophetic witness to the nation as a whole, both in Scripture, and today. Sometimes the witness was overt, such as with Dr. Martin Luther King, sometimes it was unspoken, simply by embodying a different way of life.

The Emerging Church movement is one of the first truly post-Christendom movements in the West. Emerging churches do not lament Christendom's demise nor do they desire its return. They do not seek a favored place in their nation's capitol, although they live highly political lives. They do not draw lines in the culture war, but they live the Jesus-life within all of culture. They do not look to historic Christendom positions on war or any other issue as their referents, as they have little relevance for a Christ follower in a post-Christendom world. The primary narrative of emerging churches is the Jesus story, continued today. Not a 'spiritualized' Jesus who only lives in the heart or in ecstatic experience, but a Jesus who served by example, who confronted the powers, in community, through a countercultural way of life that demonstrated hospitality to the outcast. To be a gospel-like church in post-Christendom, i.e. to be a Christ-following community at the margins that prophetically embodies and engages all of life, is to be a community of peacemakers, regardless of how that plays out in any particular nation's political landscape.

Technorati Tags: Emerging_Church, Enemy-love, Jesus, Martin Luther King, peace

S3K Emergent Final Thoughts

Here are a few pictures taken at the event --

Just a few final musings -- with emergent synagogues and emerging churches moving to less institutional and more organic forms, new space is created for renewed dialogue. Our American form of faith community has largely been determined by modern culture with little critique from the respective traditions. Emerging synagogues and churches have deconstructed these forms, creating simple spiritual communities formed around texts (texts that share a good deal of common ground). Because of these similarities from one to another, I believe we will see much fruitful interaction between the two communities in the years to come.

Amen.

Technorati Tags: Doug Pagitt, Dwight Friesen, Emergent, Emerging_Church, J. Shawn Landres, Ron Wolfson, S3K, Synagogue 3000, Tony Jones, worship

S3K Emergent Reflections #3 -- Godtalk sneaks in the back door

I don't know if this was intentional in the planning of the event, but it worked out brilliantly. The explicit focus of the gathering dealt with congregational change in the light of culture. Because that was the main text there was little overt expectation or pressure on the many subtexts of the event, e.g. the content of specifically religious or theological dialogue. Because of this, discussions of our theological perspectives popped up everywhere, but with little positioning or defensiveness. I offer some examples, some shared in a group, some shared informally. Some of the things I heard the Jews say was that they were inspired by Christian worship (I never knew that committed Jews ever visited Christian churches) . I heard some Jews comment that the Christians at this event frequently talked about God, remarking that they themselves rarely talked specifically about God. One rabbi talked about Jesus and the Romans with great insight (I didn't know Jews knew so much about Jesus!). I heard Christians say they envied the deep connection the Jews had with their tradition, how they raised their kids in the faith, how they created and maintained a Jewish culture for their people. It became readily apparent how secular we Western Christians are -- the Jews at this event continually invoked blessings and sayings at many points of the day (We Christians were at a loss when it was time to confer an after-dinner blessing). Both Jews and Christians shared frequently about Hebrew characters in the Bible. More formally, both groups shared in the devotional reading of Scripture and the singing of simple Hebrew and English praise songs or chants. Inspiring!

Emergent (Christians) could not have been better represented... (I didn't know the other groups before this meeting, so I cannot speak of how they related to their constituency). Each of these emerging Christian voices had struggled with congregational angst in the late nineties; they had already wrestled with issues of church and culture, and they came to solid theological conclusions several years ago. Who better to represent the Christians than these? Tony Jones was very clear and direct in his theological language, he opened with a teaching on Jesus and his interaction with the Jews of his day, and connected those interactions to issues of community today. Doug Pagitt's extroverted nature, his charisma, and his welcoming heart drew a few of the young men and women rabbis to himself. So cool! I was not at the session where Dwight Friesen discussed 'Orthoparadoxology' but both pastors and rabbis kept referring to his conceptualization throughout the event (awesome to see those outside the Christian community benefit from Dwight's complex thinking). Dieter Zander came with his pastor colleague from BayMarin, David Cobia. Dieter, pastor of the first 'Gen X' service back in 1986, has been part of most of these conversations for the past twenty years and has seen it all. Nanette Sawyer and Heather Kirk-Davidoff added a more mainline perspective to new forms of Christian community, which was particularly helpful. I had never met Troy Bronsink from Atlanta, but he offered insightful theological contributions throughout the event. Maybe my favorite moment of the whole seminar was when Tim Keel shared spontaneously about Samuel and Eli and their connection to our current situation. After he finished there was a hushed silence in the room, and then, quite spontaneously, one of the Jewish elders spoke a few words of Hebrew (or were they Yiddish?) affirming Tim by saying the 'rabbi has spoken wisely' or something to that affect. Powerful stuff. I still get goosebumps.

On Monday, I will post my final musings on the event and the pictures...

Technorati Tags: Emergent, Emerging_Church, S3K, Synagogue 3000

Consumer influence in congregations is not limited to Christians -- S3K/Emergent Reflections #2

Many of the discussions were not directly theological as much as they were practical, dealing with daily congregational concerns. What became clear to me was the depth to which American religion (and not just the church) has adopted the language of consumer spirituality. In my observations at the S3K/Emergent event, I heard voiced desires of 'attracting young people', of relevance, of meeting needs, and of gaining numbers. This way of speaking and thinking captured the heart of American congregational life over the last twenty years, for both Christian and Jew.

"I hope you are going to share how you attract the 18 to 30 year olds to your service", a Boomer from the S3K community blurted out. I saw the resultant expressions on both the Emergent Christians and Jews faces -- 'you don't really understand what we're all about do you'?

"Do you know how we deal with numbers?" an emerging church leader later remarked. "We don't care about them". Consequently, on the Boomers face, I saw a similar perplexed look: 'What could you possibly mean?'

Two utterly different visions of how to embody their faith. Some of these conversations were identical to the many Boomer/consumer church vs. Emerging Church discussions I've witnessed the last few years. These conversations go like this:

Boomer: How do we become relevant so you'll come?

ECer: You are asking the wrong question. The question is, how do we live the way of Jesus in our culture. In other words, how do we create a way of life that has integrity both within our faith tradition and in our culture, regardless of numbers...and, by the way, please, please, please, never do church for us...

Because of the strength of this consumer/boomer mentality on congregational life in America, I saw a real connection for those not buying it: the emerging church and emerging synagogue types at this gathering. There was a solidarity between each other that often was lacking with those in their own faith traditions. "Whew! There are other people going through the same frustrations that I am!!" It was very cool to see. Remove the yarmulkahs and you would think you were at an Emergent gathering.

Tomorrow I'll talk about the very inspiring spiritual dynamics I saw between the groups, and yes, yes, the pictures...

Technorati Tags: Emergent, Emerging_Church, S3K, Synagogue 3000

The S3K Emergent Gathering -- First impressions

Having recently returned from the historic S3K Emergent event held in Simi Valley yesterday, I will offer some first impressions while they are fresh in my mind.

S3K, newly formed, explained the vision of their ministry (not just this event) to us. They hope to create a place for Jews to ask questions about their faith. They desire to create a research institute that studies synagogue's lives. They want to host Jewish seminaries across the US to participate in these activities. They seek to foster and deepen relationships with 'emergent synagogues'. They want all their insights funneled into creating web resources (e.g. podcasts) to serve congregations throughout the US. For this meeting in particular, S3K had a learning posture -- they wanted to know how to attract young people to their congregations, and they hoped that Emerging Church folks would share their insights. With the emergent synagogues, they hoped to connect with them and begin a working relationship.

J. Shawn Landres, a primary mover in making the event happen, opened the lunch on Monday (the first of four meals together) with a few comments, and it went sort of like this: "To my fellow Jews, you are going to hear a lot about Jesus. Don't freak out. To my Christian friends, you are going to hear a lot about Torah." Again, the implication, don't freak out. S3K were great hosts like this. They would offer a narrative, a running subtext, to all that happened. It was as if the narrator would step in and explain to the characters what was going on...

There were four groups that participated in the event: one, the hosts, i.e. the leadership team of Synagogue 3000 (they formed the largest group), two, some key thinkers/practitioners in Emerging Churches, three, outside-the-box practitioners of synagogues in the US, and four, guests/academics. Most attendees did not know anyone from the other groups. Within the groups, the leadership team of Synagogue 3000 had met several times before and some knew each other fairly well, likewise, many of the Emerging Church folks knew each other quite well (some for over ten years), but the 'emergent' synagogue types had never met together (they had a double challenge -- not only did they not know the other groups, but they did not know each other). I don't believe the academics or guests had ever met as well...

The hosts created an environment of dialogue between and within the different groups. For example, the leadership of the Synagogue 3000 would meet with Emerging Church leaders while the emergent synagogue types would meet on their own. Then, they would switch and have the two emerging streams meet together while S3K and guests would meet on their own. They did this repeatedly. The format in each of these venues was highly conversational, often with a leader or speaker spurring the conversation in particular directions. In one set meeting, 'emergents' from both camps met one-on-one or in twos, walking and talking. These represented some of the most powerful moments for the participants as they got to know other 'emergents' across faith boundaries.

There were three of us who came as the 'academics' -- Wade Clark Roof, Sociologist of Religion from UC Santa Barbara, Steven M. Cohen, sociologist of American Jewry at Hebrew College in New York, and me. We had an evening of sharing, and we were called on at various times to comment on what we heard. Dr. Roof identified the differing expressions of congregations in American history. I found stimulating his discussion of 'intentional congregations' in the 1990s, with their flexible structures, their pursuit of authenticity, their embodied way of life, and their re-appropriation of certain traditions. Dr. Cohen's discussion was equally stimulating -- his knowledge of the minute details of the who, what, where, why, when, and how of American synagogues was so impressive. I have not met anybody who knows the church as Dr. Cohen knows American Jewry! I shared about the history of the church growth movement at Fuller seminary and how it is we came to understand the emerging church. I explained that the American church growth movement did not deliver on its promises -- although some American churches may have grown in numbers by following these principles, these churches did not produce the hoped-for transformation in individuals or structures. The study of Emerging churches required a shift in our approach to assessing congregations. Numbers were not important in this movement; instead, expressing a Christlike way of life within contemporary culture was the sole pursuit. In my presentation, I shared my hope that the leaders of S3K would learn from our mistakes, that in the evaluation of a community, it is not the numbers in seats that are primary but the depth of theologically rich activities (like serving, hospitality, etc.) that were of foremost importance. Thus, in the formation of their new institute, I encouraged them to root the evaluation of synagogue practices not in a consumer-focused narrative but in the narrative of the Torah.

There is more I want to relay about this event. I was touched deeply by some of the encounters I observed. I will explore these in tomorrow's post (and post some pictures too!)...

Technorati Tags: church growth, Emergent, Emerging_Church, J. Shawn Landres, S3K, sociology, Steven M. Cohen, Synagogue 3000, Wade Clark Roof

Marks of a Missional Church

Eddie Gibbs and I were interviewed (on video) for an upcoming workshop "Living Missionally" in Ventura, CA on January 21, hosted by Reggie McNeal.
Here are the prep questions that were asked (and a partial summary of my answers):

1. What are the marks of churches (people) who live missionally?
They no longer see the church service as the primary connecting point with those outside the community. Connecting with those outside happens within the culture, by insiders to that culture who express the gospel through how they live.

2. What is it that keeps a church (people) from thinking missionally?

We have been raised with the idea that much of our life and our responsibilities as Christians are reflected in the weekly church service. It is how we think as Christians in Western cultures where 'going to church' has been an essential part of being a Western citizen. Our context has changed, Christendom is crumbling, but the shift to missional living is a huge shift for Western Christians. It might take the Western church fifty to a hundred years to make the shift, and many won't make the journey. In contrast, those Christians outside the west, who have never lived within 'Christendom', do not think of the church service as the connecting point. They have no illusions that those they are serving would be remotely interested in a church service. Instead, they embody the gospel through serving, both in deeds and words.

This is a big, big, shift, and it scares a lot of people.

3. When people (church) suddenly "get it", what does that mean? ... and what
do you think brings the revelation?

Christian leaders are burned out. They spend an inordinate amount of hours just keeping the machine running, both in mainline and seeker/purpose driven/gen-x churches. They know no other way to do ministry, and if running the machine isn't it, then what is? When these Christians discover a more organic way of serving God, of emulating Jesus, it gives them hope. They do not need to leave the faith to find integrity or rest. Granted, this shakes up their world, and their future is anything but smooth. But they find a passion again, like a first love, and it sustains them for the tough road ahead...

4. What is/are the hardest obstacle(s) for people/church to overcome in
order to being living missionally?

Early in the 21st century, the American church is trained to consume, to be recipients of ministry, to go to church to 'get needs met'. It is how we are formed in the culture, and the church does not train us to be any different. To be active, to be a producer in the faith community, to share the burden, are the birth pangs in the formation of a missional community. Facilitating this type of transformation is one of the most important tasks of leaders today...

5. What is/are the most exciting examples of a people/church who is/are
living missionally?

In my book with Eddie Gibbs, I share many, many stories that reveal what missional living in the postmodern West looks like...I couldn't be more excited about these people or their journeys...

6. What was it that drew you into seeking what you found? ... what did you
find?

Like many of the people I interviewed, I was on a journey. Was there a way that I could express my faith in my world that would have some integrity? That would look like Jesus? That wouldn't make Christians look unnecessarily weird? As I began to spend time with these leaders and these communities, I found hope. They were asking the same questions! They became my teachers -- and more importantly, my friends...

Here is a video I did on the difference between missional and emerging churches...

Technorati Tags: mission

I did nothing over break -- and loved it...

First time in maybe six years I didn't have a book deadline hanging over me at Christmas. Wow. Just hung out with Julie and my two kids for two weeks. We celebrated twelve days of Christmas -- played lots of games, spent days in pajamas. Didn't really go anywhere special. It felt like an end of year sabbath rest. I really needed this downtime to sloooowwwww dowwwwwnnnn....
Now on the other side of Epiphany, I'm looking forward to so many good things this year...

Technorati Tags: everyday life