A New Kind of Christianity
By Brian D. McLaren
Harper Collins, New York, 2010
In his book, A New Kind of Christianity, McLaren addresses in a new way many of the questions that postmodern clergy, church people, and congregations have been asking for a generation or more. A little background about McLaren would be appropriate as we put into context his ideas that I believe have some merit and begin to formulate a theological, biblical, and ecclesiastical argument for a new way to understand the Christian faith for a new age.
First, it is important to know that McLaren has not been formally trained in a theological institution that has shaped generations of theologians throughout the ages. This is by no means an evaluation upon McLaren’s work as he has thoughtfully and skillfully put together an argument for change that has some relevance for us today. McLaren was trained as a teacher and out of a quest for spiritual understanding revisited his own evangelical upbringing only to find its theology lacking and meaningless to a new generation of seekers and believers. In this quest, he and his wife began a small house church that continued to grow, but a lingering tension remained for him and his growing congregation, “The tensions between something real and something right in the Christian faith.” After many setbacks and soul-searching, McLaren concluded that it was “the search for something right in the Christian faith” that kept him going and from this tension McLaren skillfully creates a philosophy, a theological system that has found its fruition in his most recent book, A New Kind of Christianity.
McLaren’s book is filled with thought provoking and an energy and excitement that compel the reader to engage in his or her own system of beliefs that have been, for generations, thoughtlessly accepted as orthodox or right thinking. McLaren challenges the understanding of beliefs that have been a part of church life for thousands of years and is courageous enough to write and speak about a new way to embrace the meaning and life of Jesus Christ without the layers of doctrine and dogma that has defined the faith for two thousand years. McLaren raises five critical questions that are worthy of discussion and I will do my best to summarize. Although McLaren takes these six questions and tests them against some of the more controversial and dogmatic issues of our time, I will not address them in this review as they are better discussed in small groups rather than in the context of a review.
The six questions McLaren raises are 1) the Narrative question, 2) the authority questions, 3) the God question, 4) the Jesus question, 5) the Gospel question, and 6) the question of the church. Let’s begin with the first question, the narrative question. What is the overarching story line of the Bible? McLaren makes the point that most people ‘read the Bible as a series of disconnected quotes and episodes yielding maxims, rules, formulas, anecdotes, propositions and wise sayings.’ [McLaren, Page 19] McLaren argues that years of biblical interpretation has been done through a Greco-Roman lens as opposed to the understanding the bible as a Hebrew account of a dynamic God who continues to develop and evolve with God’s creation. This is to say that the Western church has understood that the earth and all its creation was created perfect and it has been the choices of humanity that have corrupted creation and has made the earth imperfect. The Greco-Roman understanding of this is to believe that imperfection is evil and therefore created the notion of Hades as a place where evil would be punished. In the Hebrew understanding of the biblical narrative, the world continues to evolve and develop as both God and human beings mature. McLaren would argue that Hebrew notion of creation is creating towards perfection and was not created perfectly in the beginning. By subscribing to this notion of God and creation, we admit that our The second question relationship to God, to one another, and to all creation continues to evolve to a more perfect union which we may want to understand as the Kingdom of God or God’s heavenly realm. By approaching the Bible in this way, we are clearly co-creators with God and neither the creation of the earth or humanity is complete and perfect – we are still evolving and becoming and so is God.
The second question is the authority question. In this chapter, McLaren makes a distinction between reading the Bible as a legal constitutional document or if we read the bible as a community library. The distinction that is being made is that when we read the Bible as a legal, constitutional document, we are being unfaithful to the Bible. Throughout history the Bible has been used to justify everything from multiple wives, to slavery, and violence to humanity and the earth. When we use the Bible to squelch our differences and cut off debate, we create walls as barriers that divide and destroy. McLaren believes that if we keep our arguments alive and continue to talk about our differences, we will be more faithful to the intent of Bible and stories that have shaped the Christian community. McLaren believes that the Bible as an inspired library preserves, presents, and inspires and ongoing vigorous conversation with and about God, a living and vital civil argument into which we are invited and through which God is revealed. [McLaren, Page 83] Given this notion, one could conclude that Biblical authority comes from the community of the faithful. What has been deemed authoritative by the community is what is accepted. In addition to authority given by the community, McLaren also believes that revelation through personal conversion is also authoritative. He believes that the Bible is an invitation to enter into a conversation with the ages and find God in new ways.
The third question is the God question. He raises this question in the context of history in which nearly all religions of the world have evoked God’s name to justify killing people and each other. The question he raises about God is a question of violence, is God violent and genocidal? McLaren goes back to his earlier argument about the Greco-Roman God Theos who is constraining and violent. McLaren argues for a God who continues to evolve from a God who is largely distant or absent to a God who is not so interested in manipulating us to fulfill his desire but to be a God who is present in the world to guide and empower people to do good. McLaren makes this point about God’s evolving character, “…in some passages God appears violent, retaliatory, given to favoritism, and careless of human life. But over time, the image of God that predominates is gentle rather than cruel, compassionate rather than violent, fair to all rather than biased toward some, forgiving rather than retaliatory. In this more mature view; God is not capricious, bloodthirsty, hateful, or prone to fits of vengeful rage. Rather God loves justice, kindness, reconciliation, and peace; God’s grace gets the final word.” [McLaren, Pp. 101-102]
The fourth question McLaren raises is the Jesus Question. The Jesus presented by most churches today seem to be a version of the Christ that is more of a turn off to new believers than one that draws people into the Christian story. We are faced with the challenge as to which Jesus is more trustworthy, more faithful to the gospels. McLaren believes that Jesus came to announce a new kingdom, a new way of life, a new way of peace that carried good news to people of all religions. McLaren will argue this question by suggesting that Just as the Hebrew people ended the book of Genesis with Joseph’s act of reconciliation with his brothers, Jesus comes to reconcile God with humanity. McLaren uses the story in John where Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him and in this act, reconciled Jesus with his disciples and so Jesus is God’s act of reconciliation with our imperfections and through Jesus gives us “life abundant” or perhaps better translated as “life of the ages.” Jesus is a summons, an invitation to humanity to rethink everything and enter a life of retraining as disciples or learners of a new way of life, an opportunity to be new citizens of a new kingdom.
The fifth question is the gospel question. McLaren uses the Hebrew prophets and Paul’s letter to the Romans to show how the gospel is more prophetic than dogmatic and more inclusive than exclusive. In the context of the prophets, the gospel is not about what will come but what is already at hand. What is at hand had been the cry of the prophets and was inaugurated by Jesus. Jesus talked about how the dream – the kingdom of God is happening in our midst. McLaren then makes a shift, arguing that Paul, in his letter to the Romans made something that the Hebrew people made inaccessible to accessible. Paul does this brilliantly in a series of seven moves. First, he reduces Jews and Gentiles to the same level of need. Second, he announces a new way forward for all – the way of faith. Third, he united all people in a common story with four illustrations, the Adam story, baptism, slavery, and remarriage. Fourth, he unites all people into a common struggle and a common victory. Fifth, Paul addresses Jewish and Gentile problems by showing God as the God of all. Sixth, he gives both the Jews and Gentiles a common life and mission, and ending with the seventh theme of unity.
The sixth and final question McLaren addresses is the question of the church. McLaren, like many new thinkers believe that the hope of the church lies in its diversity. He believes that diversity must be celebrated if we are going to find solutions to common problems facing all the earth’s people and its religions. He believes that the church must exist to form Christ-like people with Christ-like love. Returning to McLaren’s earlier thought of a maturing and evolving God-human-earth relationship, McLaren believes that there will be no maturity without love. Paul says this throughout his letters and McLaren continues to develop this Pauline theology. When our churches misunderstand the meaning of love, we will continue to be immature in our understanding of the meaning of church and the gospel. The church, above all, must train people in the way in love and McLaren, like Paul, believes that love is more important than knowledge.
In summary, McLaren’s book, A New Kind of Christianity, raises for me and for the Church some important questions that need to be addressed by all of us. His book leaves one with the notion that we are on the brink of another reformation – a return to a more faithful understanding of theology, scripture, Christ and the church. For any serious Christian, this book is worth reading and studying. In the spirit of McLaren’s book, I would like to invite you into a discussion, a dialogue into a new understanding of the Christian faith that may just bring a skeptical, spiritual seeker back to the Christian faith.
Showing posts with label Book Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Reviews. Show all posts
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Book Review: Tribal Church
Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation
By Carol Howard Merritt
Alban Institute, Herdon, VA., 2007
In her book, Tribal Church, Merritt gives a hopeful and powerful statement to mainline churches large, small and in between. She writes, "The mainline denomination has everything it needs to minister to the younger generation." It is this statement that compels me to read her book and to reflect upon its content. In a congregation that has a substantial number of younger people between the ages of 25 and 35, but so few are involved in a meaningful way, this book has allowed me to explore what some of the reasons young people may not be involved. By in large our young people population is not unlike many mainline churches. Each one struggles with an aging membership and each one of our churches are struggling to find that balance and that space in which younger people would consider our individual congregation. As a way to review this book, I would like to lift up some themes that seem consistent among younger people throughout the United States. With the help of the Alban Institute, Merritt has looked into this population with some intentionality and identifies ways in which the mainline denomination is in fact well suited for reaching younger people because younger people are looking for sacred space that is inter-generational, inclusive and has some traditions that provide grounding and destiny for younger people.
As a way to begin this review, I would like to reflect upon one of the more exciting and hopeful things that Merritt lifts up in her book. Merritt grew up in a mega-church with a strong youth program, mission program, and a clear delineation of right belief and wrong belief. She was moved and excited by this experience as a youth and participated in many of the activities including a youth mission trip to China to witness to the Chinese who didn't know Christ. As she moved from High School to college, she found herself questioning everything that shaped her personal Christian commitment. Everything she found herself believing in, feeling about, and wondering why, her church had an answer that felt repressive, limiting, judgmental, and contrary to everything she believed. Sensing a call into the ministry, Merritt found herself drifting away from her conservative and evangelical roots and found more space and tolerance in the mainline churches. As she completed her Seminary training, she found that her call was not to ministry in evangelical, mega-churches, but in small to mid-size Presbyterian Churches. In her ministry she observed the missing generation in such churches and so she began to explore the reasons why this was the case since she, herself, found so much peace and fulfillment in them. Merrit observes in Chapter eight, "The 'mega-churches' with its rock concert setting appeals to those in their 40s and 50s, but not so much with the younger generations. Younger people are looking for churches where the ministers knows their names, where people notice when you missed Sunday morning. They are looking for a church where they can serve God and connect with one another. Where the young and old gather together and a place where progressive theology is taught and practiced." (Merritt, Page 136) She observes that the backdoor to the 'mega-churches' are as wide open as their front door. This is a hopeful sign for those of us serving local, mainline churches.
Tribal Church is a book written not so much for young people, but for those of us who are would like to be that sacred place for young people to worship. In her book, Merritt suggest several things that will be helpful for those of us who want to be a safe, sacred place for young people to worship and grow. Let me share a few ideas with you. Young people want the generations to worship and play together. There is strength for young families to see 'church grandmas and grandpas' interact with their children. They want the wisdom of age and the vitality of youthfulness to be the grounding for their children. They want to be able to sing songs of praise with children, youth, middle-agers, empty-nesters, retired folks, and the wisdom of aging folks to be the spirit that surrounds them and gives them a reason to study and worship together. Young people are looking for ways to foster inter-generational relationships.
Young people also want church members to be less critical of their economic and spending habits. Young people have extraordinary expenses today and no longer is a woman's income considered additional income -- no, Merritt points out that both parents need to be working today if they are to make it in a world where money is often the only way to relate to one another. All of their lives, young people have been told that they must make money and if they don't they are a failure. Young people have been accused by church people of being lazy, foolish with their money, and should save just like their parent's and grandparents did. Time is money and time lost is money lost. Each day the young people have to deal with this kind of prejudice in the day to day world and they don't want to hear about it in their church. Young people need older people to understand their situation or at least be open to the reality that life is not as easy as it once was and young people are under an extraordinary amount of pressure just to make it to the end of the day. Encouragement and understanding is what young people are looking for older people and in the church they will call their spiritual home.
Young people are also looking for a safe and inclusive space to worship. Young people today do not look at sexual orientation, religion, culture, and race as wrong or even different. Young people are radically inclusive and they expect that of their church. They are not a generation that judges these differences, instead they see similarities rather than differences. Many young people have left their churches of their childhood because they have perceived that the community is often more exclusive then they are. They see diversity as a gift and are eager to learn more about their culture, their traditions, their likes and dislikes, and they want their faith community to reflect that same openness -- an unambiguous openness.
Affirming traditions is also something that young people look forward to experience. They like the special services like Christmas Eve, Easter Sunrise, or Good Friday. These special services and others like them, open up a deep spirituality that they long for and wish to be a part. They enjoy the Sunday School picnics, the youth fellowship, and the traditions that sustain the community of faith. One thing that young people resist are church supper expectations, or special events that are planned by older people who don't have financial and family responsibilities. For older churches with long traditions, it is easy to criticize young people who aren't helping with the extraneous activities such as fund-raisers and that relates back to the notion that young people don't have extraordinary amount of free time or funds to participate. It is better to let young people begin their own traditions and sometimes that means ending others. There is nothing wrong with this. Younger people are more willing to participate in the new traditions they establish. When they are given this kind of invitation rather than being scolded or criticized because they do not appear committed to old traditions is a better way to nurture a commitment from our young people.
Finally, it is important to younger people that they feel they can share in the leadership of the church on their ever changing life situation. Young people want to lead, but they do not want to participate in the leadership if they feel like they've not been given the authority. Merritt makes this observation which is so apt for young people who are seeking to lead. She says this about young adults in leadership. "I [young people] want to enjoy their youth while they are still living it. [Young People] don't want to spend time yearning for someone else's glory day and [they] certainly are not interested in going through an institutional mid-life crisis in [their] twenties." This pretty much sums up the attitudes and feelings of young people and leadership. If we're going to ask them to lead we need to share this leadership and not yearn for the 'good ole days', or participate in institutional therapy at every committee or board meeting. Extra time is not a luxury for young people and being conscientious of young children at home may require that we shift our 'regularly scheduled' meetings to a time more accommodating to young people, and yes, we need to consider the possibility of childcare if we want our young people to serve.
As Merritt draws her book to a close, she uses a hopeful illustration from our Native American brothers and sisters of the Sioux tribe. She writes, "The Sioux nation of Nebraska uses a circle in their walking meditation. It's big, a bit like a labyrinth, but this one has only two simple paths intersecting in the middle of it. One runs from west to east, symbolizing our lives, the other from south to north representing our hardships. And in the center, where the path of being and adversity meet a tree of life grows up, strong and beautiful." [Merritt, Page 150-151] Here in the center where our lives intersect with adversity is the tree of life -- a safe and sacred place where the our lives intersect and we experience a place of healing and growth and it is here, in the center of our world that our communal life intersects and where ministry with young people begins.
By Carol Howard Merritt
Alban Institute, Herdon, VA., 2007
In her book, Tribal Church, Merritt gives a hopeful and powerful statement to mainline churches large, small and in between. She writes, "The mainline denomination has everything it needs to minister to the younger generation." It is this statement that compels me to read her book and to reflect upon its content. In a congregation that has a substantial number of younger people between the ages of 25 and 35, but so few are involved in a meaningful way, this book has allowed me to explore what some of the reasons young people may not be involved. By in large our young people population is not unlike many mainline churches. Each one struggles with an aging membership and each one of our churches are struggling to find that balance and that space in which younger people would consider our individual congregation. As a way to review this book, I would like to lift up some themes that seem consistent among younger people throughout the United States. With the help of the Alban Institute, Merritt has looked into this population with some intentionality and identifies ways in which the mainline denomination is in fact well suited for reaching younger people because younger people are looking for sacred space that is inter-generational, inclusive and has some traditions that provide grounding and destiny for younger people.
As a way to begin this review, I would like to reflect upon one of the more exciting and hopeful things that Merritt lifts up in her book. Merritt grew up in a mega-church with a strong youth program, mission program, and a clear delineation of right belief and wrong belief. She was moved and excited by this experience as a youth and participated in many of the activities including a youth mission trip to China to witness to the Chinese who didn't know Christ. As she moved from High School to college, she found herself questioning everything that shaped her personal Christian commitment. Everything she found herself believing in, feeling about, and wondering why, her church had an answer that felt repressive, limiting, judgmental, and contrary to everything she believed. Sensing a call into the ministry, Merritt found herself drifting away from her conservative and evangelical roots and found more space and tolerance in the mainline churches. As she completed her Seminary training, she found that her call was not to ministry in evangelical, mega-churches, but in small to mid-size Presbyterian Churches. In her ministry she observed the missing generation in such churches and so she began to explore the reasons why this was the case since she, herself, found so much peace and fulfillment in them. Merrit observes in Chapter eight, "The 'mega-churches' with its rock concert setting appeals to those in their 40s and 50s, but not so much with the younger generations. Younger people are looking for churches where the ministers knows their names, where people notice when you missed Sunday morning. They are looking for a church where they can serve God and connect with one another. Where the young and old gather together and a place where progressive theology is taught and practiced." (Merritt, Page 136) She observes that the backdoor to the 'mega-churches' are as wide open as their front door. This is a hopeful sign for those of us serving local, mainline churches.
Tribal Church is a book written not so much for young people, but for those of us who are would like to be that sacred place for young people to worship. In her book, Merritt suggest several things that will be helpful for those of us who want to be a safe, sacred place for young people to worship and grow. Let me share a few ideas with you. Young people want the generations to worship and play together. There is strength for young families to see 'church grandmas and grandpas' interact with their children. They want the wisdom of age and the vitality of youthfulness to be the grounding for their children. They want to be able to sing songs of praise with children, youth, middle-agers, empty-nesters, retired folks, and the wisdom of aging folks to be the spirit that surrounds them and gives them a reason to study and worship together. Young people are looking for ways to foster inter-generational relationships.
Young people also want church members to be less critical of their economic and spending habits. Young people have extraordinary expenses today and no longer is a woman's income considered additional income -- no, Merritt points out that both parents need to be working today if they are to make it in a world where money is often the only way to relate to one another. All of their lives, young people have been told that they must make money and if they don't they are a failure. Young people have been accused by church people of being lazy, foolish with their money, and should save just like their parent's and grandparents did. Time is money and time lost is money lost. Each day the young people have to deal with this kind of prejudice in the day to day world and they don't want to hear about it in their church. Young people need older people to understand their situation or at least be open to the reality that life is not as easy as it once was and young people are under an extraordinary amount of pressure just to make it to the end of the day. Encouragement and understanding is what young people are looking for older people and in the church they will call their spiritual home.
Young people are also looking for a safe and inclusive space to worship. Young people today do not look at sexual orientation, religion, culture, and race as wrong or even different. Young people are radically inclusive and they expect that of their church. They are not a generation that judges these differences, instead they see similarities rather than differences. Many young people have left their churches of their childhood because they have perceived that the community is often more exclusive then they are. They see diversity as a gift and are eager to learn more about their culture, their traditions, their likes and dislikes, and they want their faith community to reflect that same openness -- an unambiguous openness.
Affirming traditions is also something that young people look forward to experience. They like the special services like Christmas Eve, Easter Sunrise, or Good Friday. These special services and others like them, open up a deep spirituality that they long for and wish to be a part. They enjoy the Sunday School picnics, the youth fellowship, and the traditions that sustain the community of faith. One thing that young people resist are church supper expectations, or special events that are planned by older people who don't have financial and family responsibilities. For older churches with long traditions, it is easy to criticize young people who aren't helping with the extraneous activities such as fund-raisers and that relates back to the notion that young people don't have extraordinary amount of free time or funds to participate. It is better to let young people begin their own traditions and sometimes that means ending others. There is nothing wrong with this. Younger people are more willing to participate in the new traditions they establish. When they are given this kind of invitation rather than being scolded or criticized because they do not appear committed to old traditions is a better way to nurture a commitment from our young people.
Finally, it is important to younger people that they feel they can share in the leadership of the church on their ever changing life situation. Young people want to lead, but they do not want to participate in the leadership if they feel like they've not been given the authority. Merritt makes this observation which is so apt for young people who are seeking to lead. She says this about young adults in leadership. "I [young people] want to enjoy their youth while they are still living it. [Young People] don't want to spend time yearning for someone else's glory day and [they] certainly are not interested in going through an institutional mid-life crisis in [their] twenties." This pretty much sums up the attitudes and feelings of young people and leadership. If we're going to ask them to lead we need to share this leadership and not yearn for the 'good ole days', or participate in institutional therapy at every committee or board meeting. Extra time is not a luxury for young people and being conscientious of young children at home may require that we shift our 'regularly scheduled' meetings to a time more accommodating to young people, and yes, we need to consider the possibility of childcare if we want our young people to serve.
As Merritt draws her book to a close, she uses a hopeful illustration from our Native American brothers and sisters of the Sioux tribe. She writes, "The Sioux nation of Nebraska uses a circle in their walking meditation. It's big, a bit like a labyrinth, but this one has only two simple paths intersecting in the middle of it. One runs from west to east, symbolizing our lives, the other from south to north representing our hardships. And in the center, where the path of being and adversity meet a tree of life grows up, strong and beautiful." [Merritt, Page 150-151] Here in the center where our lives intersect with adversity is the tree of life -- a safe and sacred place where the our lives intersect and we experience a place of healing and growth and it is here, in the center of our world that our communal life intersects and where ministry with young people begins.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Book Review: A Primer on Postmodernism
A Primer on Postmodernism
By Stanley J. Grenz
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Grand Rapids, MI. 1996
We are living in a time when there are more and more resources available to us as we try to wrap our heads around postmodernism and how this relatively recent school of philosophy is impacting our churches today. In his small, but compact primer on postmodernism, Grenz attempts to put postmodernism into the context of modernism. In his book, he appropriately reflects upon the leading postmodern philosophers, Foucault, Derrida, and Rorty. Grenz gives us a thumb-nail sketch of the evolving characteristics of postmodernism and ends with a careful reflection on postmodernism in the context of evangelicalism. Grenz's primer is not exhaustive by any means, but he is liberal with his footnoting and provides substantial referencing to those who wish to explore further the philosophy of postmodernism. Since I am more of a practitioner than a thinker, I intend to reflect on the evolving characteristics of postmodernism and how these characteristics are impacting the church today.
Grenz book, A Primer on Postmodernism, is the result of a paper he presented at the Southeastern Regional meeting of the Evangelical Society in 1994. Grenz, is himself, more evangelical than I and tends to be more skeptical of postmodernism than I have found myself to be. In his interpretation of the church's doctrine and dogma through the lens of a postmodern philosopher, Grenz seems more reserved and falls a little short of dismantling and deconstructing the acceptable interpretations of church's belief as a postmodernist is inclined to do. He does, however, caution the evangelical gate-keepers to reconsider the radical individualism of modernism. In addition, evangelicals will need to be less dualistic and more holistic in their understanding and presentation of the gospel if our evangelical beliefs are going to be attractive to the coming generations.
Grenz identifies three themes that define the bulk of postmodernism. He identifies "rejection of self" and a greater awareness of "otherness". Second, he identifies logocentricism as destructive to the human community and believes that human beings create their own reality and their own understanding of truth with words and postmodern thinkers understand words as extraordinarily subjective. Finally, Grenz suggests that Richard Rorty's pragmatic utopia is also a hallmark of postmodernism. Rorty suggests that postmodernism understands truth as what works rather that what is theoretically correct. Each of these characteristics of postmodernism are a foundation for a system of thought that in the context of the gospel can be summarized in four areas of interpretation, post-individualism, post-dualistic, post-noeticentric, and post-rationalistic. Following, I will attempt to summarize each of these four themes and how it applies to church today as we move into this time we call post-modernism.
Let's begin with post-individualism. Individualism was the hallmark of the modern era. The post-modernist is less interested in the "I" of modernism and more interested in the "we" of today. Post-modernist believe that truth is not based upon hard science or data, truth is what the community believes is important and truthful. Post-modernist believe that it "takes a village to raise a child" and that truth and personal identity develops through the telling of a personal narrative that is embedded in the experience of the significant community, tribe, or family. The goal of post-modernism is the establishment of community in the highest sense. Post-modern people are unimpressed by a verbal presentation of the gospel. Instead, the post-modern generation wants to see wholesome, authentic, and healing relationships. Post-modernism is about "we" and not "I".
Second, the post-modernist struggles with the dualism of the modern era. The post-modern thinker is skeptical of the split between the physical and the spiritual. Soul and body is confusing and meaningless to a generation of people are reacting against individualism. The next generation of Christians is more interested in the human person as a unified being. The post-modern thinker integrates the emotional-affective as well as the bodily-sensual with the intellectual-rational person. One only need to think of the original Star Trek series where Dr. Spock struggled with balancing the perceived weakness of humanity with the more superior nature of knowledge and intellect to begin to see how modernism and post-modernism works itself out in popular culture. Then think about Star Trek: The Next Generation when we meet people like Troi and Data and we begin to see how Gene Rodenberry and the writers of Start Trek made their shift from modern to post-modern thinking.
A third characteristic of post-modernism is post-rationalistic. Post-modernism are not anti-knowledge as much as they believe that Christianity needs to be more than "right thinking" or correct doctrine. Post-modernist find truth validated in in the context of the transformative moments that move us from one dimension of truth to another. A post modern Christian understand religious truth as a personal experience of the faith that clarifies personal meaning and truth.
Finally, let me reflect upon the fourth characteristic of post modernism which Grenz identifies as post-noeticentric. First let me define noeticentric, noeticentric is the attainment of knowledge and wisdom. Post-modernist object to spirituality as the attainment of wisdom. They believe that knowledge is good only when it facilitates a good result. The post-modernist believes that one is not finished when they reach heaven, nirvana or some other state of intelligence. Consistent with post-modern thinking, spirituality must move us from passive reflection about goodness and heavenly things to activism and justice that facilitates goodness for the earth and all humanity.
Each of these characteristics reflect something of the Christian faith, but also all faiths. Although I would fully embrace many of these post-modern characteristics, I would caution post-modern Christians that the ministry we do is because of our Christian convictions and not because of our altruism or idealism. The gospel of Jesus Christ has gone forth in every era. While modernist believed in the superiority of humanity and intelligence, the post-modern believer seeks to be more relational with less emphasis on "right doctrine" or right faith. For me, I am empowered by the post-modern thinking and believe that the Christian faith was always about what the post-modernist believed, but somewhere in the transition from superstition to the modern era we began to believe that knowledge and wisdom had become a nomenclature for God and our theology and our understanding of faith began to migrate from the heart to the head. What post-modernism does for us is to give us the foundation to build a more holistic, and consequently more holy union between the heart and the head.
By Stanley J. Grenz
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Grand Rapids, MI. 1996
We are living in a time when there are more and more resources available to us as we try to wrap our heads around postmodernism and how this relatively recent school of philosophy is impacting our churches today. In his small, but compact primer on postmodernism, Grenz attempts to put postmodernism into the context of modernism. In his book, he appropriately reflects upon the leading postmodern philosophers, Foucault, Derrida, and Rorty. Grenz gives us a thumb-nail sketch of the evolving characteristics of postmodernism and ends with a careful reflection on postmodernism in the context of evangelicalism. Grenz's primer is not exhaustive by any means, but he is liberal with his footnoting and provides substantial referencing to those who wish to explore further the philosophy of postmodernism. Since I am more of a practitioner than a thinker, I intend to reflect on the evolving characteristics of postmodernism and how these characteristics are impacting the church today.
Grenz book, A Primer on Postmodernism, is the result of a paper he presented at the Southeastern Regional meeting of the Evangelical Society in 1994. Grenz, is himself, more evangelical than I and tends to be more skeptical of postmodernism than I have found myself to be. In his interpretation of the church's doctrine and dogma through the lens of a postmodern philosopher, Grenz seems more reserved and falls a little short of dismantling and deconstructing the acceptable interpretations of church's belief as a postmodernist is inclined to do. He does, however, caution the evangelical gate-keepers to reconsider the radical individualism of modernism. In addition, evangelicals will need to be less dualistic and more holistic in their understanding and presentation of the gospel if our evangelical beliefs are going to be attractive to the coming generations.
Grenz identifies three themes that define the bulk of postmodernism. He identifies "rejection of self" and a greater awareness of "otherness". Second, he identifies logocentricism as destructive to the human community and believes that human beings create their own reality and their own understanding of truth with words and postmodern thinkers understand words as extraordinarily subjective. Finally, Grenz suggests that Richard Rorty's pragmatic utopia is also a hallmark of postmodernism. Rorty suggests that postmodernism understands truth as what works rather that what is theoretically correct. Each of these characteristics of postmodernism are a foundation for a system of thought that in the context of the gospel can be summarized in four areas of interpretation, post-individualism, post-dualistic, post-noeticentric, and post-rationalistic. Following, I will attempt to summarize each of these four themes and how it applies to church today as we move into this time we call post-modernism.
Let's begin with post-individualism. Individualism was the hallmark of the modern era. The post-modernist is less interested in the "I" of modernism and more interested in the "we" of today. Post-modernist believe that truth is not based upon hard science or data, truth is what the community believes is important and truthful. Post-modernist believe that it "takes a village to raise a child" and that truth and personal identity develops through the telling of a personal narrative that is embedded in the experience of the significant community, tribe, or family. The goal of post-modernism is the establishment of community in the highest sense. Post-modern people are unimpressed by a verbal presentation of the gospel. Instead, the post-modern generation wants to see wholesome, authentic, and healing relationships. Post-modernism is about "we" and not "I".
Second, the post-modernist struggles with the dualism of the modern era. The post-modern thinker is skeptical of the split between the physical and the spiritual. Soul and body is confusing and meaningless to a generation of people are reacting against individualism. The next generation of Christians is more interested in the human person as a unified being. The post-modern thinker integrates the emotional-affective as well as the bodily-sensual with the intellectual-rational person. One only need to think of the original Star Trek series where Dr. Spock struggled with balancing the perceived weakness of humanity with the more superior nature of knowledge and intellect to begin to see how modernism and post-modernism works itself out in popular culture. Then think about Star Trek: The Next Generation when we meet people like Troi and Data and we begin to see how Gene Rodenberry and the writers of Start Trek made their shift from modern to post-modern thinking.
A third characteristic of post-modernism is post-rationalistic. Post-modernism are not anti-knowledge as much as they believe that Christianity needs to be more than "right thinking" or correct doctrine. Post-modernist find truth validated in in the context of the transformative moments that move us from one dimension of truth to another. A post modern Christian understand religious truth as a personal experience of the faith that clarifies personal meaning and truth.
Finally, let me reflect upon the fourth characteristic of post modernism which Grenz identifies as post-noeticentric. First let me define noeticentric, noeticentric is the attainment of knowledge and wisdom. Post-modernist object to spirituality as the attainment of wisdom. They believe that knowledge is good only when it facilitates a good result. The post-modernist believes that one is not finished when they reach heaven, nirvana or some other state of intelligence. Consistent with post-modern thinking, spirituality must move us from passive reflection about goodness and heavenly things to activism and justice that facilitates goodness for the earth and all humanity.
Each of these characteristics reflect something of the Christian faith, but also all faiths. Although I would fully embrace many of these post-modern characteristics, I would caution post-modern Christians that the ministry we do is because of our Christian convictions and not because of our altruism or idealism. The gospel of Jesus Christ has gone forth in every era. While modernist believed in the superiority of humanity and intelligence, the post-modern believer seeks to be more relational with less emphasis on "right doctrine" or right faith. For me, I am empowered by the post-modern thinking and believe that the Christian faith was always about what the post-modernist believed, but somewhere in the transition from superstition to the modern era we began to believe that knowledge and wisdom had become a nomenclature for God and our theology and our understanding of faith began to migrate from the heart to the head. What post-modernism does for us is to give us the foundation to build a more holistic, and consequently more holy union between the heart and the head.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Book Review: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
By Donald Miller
Thomas Nelson Publishing, Nashville, TN., 2009
In his thought provoking and light hearted writing style, Donald Miller reflects on his life when he is invited by a producer and a camera-man to create a movie about his life. As he begins to reflect upon his life, he soon realizes how so many of his memories have slipped into the recesses of our mind how difficult it is to access the memories. He begins to wonder if his life is just too boring, too ordinary for a movie -- a movie that moves quickly and is completed in in a little over two hours long. In his book, he reflects upon the characteristics of what makes a good story and in the process he discovers that his story does have meaning and purpose.
Miller begins his life's reflections with the question: "Is life and love and death anything more than random happenings?" In his book this question compels him to find an answer to this driving question and in doing so he is writing a new story. He soon discovers that sometimes we have to choose a different story to write than the one we're in and sometimes we need to let God and the circumstances of life shape our story. In his growing frustration in creating a compelling life story, Miller attends a writing seminar with a friend where he learns that life and good movies requires a few essential and memorable events that change your life and your expectations.
In his book, Miller reflects upon weddings and funerals. This becomes a significant analogy for Miller because it is the motivation that changes his life. In chapter six, Miller writes about how much he enjoys weddings and how dreadfully sad and disappointing funerals are because they end good lives. Here is Miller's observation of funerals and weddings: "I heard that a lot of playwrights used to end their stories with a funeral if it was a tragedy and a wedding if it was comedy. I think that's why we make such a big deal out of weddings, because a wedding means life, and because the bride and groom are old enough to write a thank-you note for the serving spoons you gave them. And perhaps because you get to drink and dance, no matter how old you are. I only dance at weddings. I practically only drink at weddings, too, mostly because that's where I do my dancing. One of the things that gives me hope is that, even with all the tragedy that happens in the world, the Bible says that when we get to heaven, there will be a wedding and there will be drinking and there will be dancing." [Miller, Page 32]
In this context Donald Miller reflects upon the death of his Uncle who he believed wrote a beautiful story about his life. It is his reflection upon his uncle's life and the boy's camp he founded in Florida. Miller's uncle took juvenile delinquents, brought them to the camp and he would teach them how to work and how to solve conflicts and get along with one another. Miller admired his uncle's story -- the one that told a good story with his life. The sad part for Miller is that the story of his uncle's life ended too soon, he wasn't finished with his story. It is his uncle's story that shapes his choices in the book and helps him complete the movie script that he and his friends are working on throughout the book.
The unfinished story of his Uncle Art was the motivation he needed to explore his own story. He didn't want to wait until he was older to create the story. Instead, while he is young and still able to make a difference in his life and the lives of others, he was going to write a different story than the current story he was living. Miller reflects upon the importance of taking risks and not to be afraid. Miller observes fear as something that can guide us and keep us safe, but it's also an emotion that that can trick us into living a boring life. He observes that "...fear causes an inciting incident that when the protagonist passes through this doorway, he cannot return." [Miller, Page 108]
Through humor, changes in choices made, conversations with an array of interesting people, Miller finds himself participating in stories that others are writing and soon discovers that he too is writing an interesting story about his life. As Miller continues to reflect upon his life and live into his story that he and God are writing together, he is happy with his story. In the beginning, Miller reflected upon a life that was totally random and events and circumstances just happen to him without cause or concern. He lives for his television, barely getting up in the morning to take Lucy, his dog, for a walk. Through the hard work of producing a movie, Miller loses himself in the story he and God are writing. Miller writes, "I take my dog to Westmoreland Park, where she plays in the creek. She runs up and down through the creek bed, diving headlong into the water, chasing ducks. Sometimes when I watch her I think about how good life can be, if we only lose ourselves in our stories. Lucy doesn't read self-help books about how to be a dog; she just is a dog. All she wants to do is chase ducks and sticks and do other things that make her and me happy." [Miller, Page 246]
Life is about getting lost in the story that you and God are writing. Miller's concluding reflection about his wedding day in heaven has this to share with all who are seeking meaning and purpose in life. He writes, "I don't wonder anymore what I'll tell God when I go to heaven, when we sit in the chairs under the tree, outside the city. I'll tell [my story] to God, and he'll laugh, I'll think, and he'll remind me of the parts I forgot, the parts that were his [sic] favorite. We'll sit and remember my story together, and then he'll stand and put his arms around me and say, "Well done," and that he liked my story. And my soul won't be thirsty anymore." He goes onto to write, "Finally, he'll turn, and we'll walk toward the city, a city he will have spoken into existence, a city built in a place where once there had been nothing." [Miller, Page 249-250]
By Donald Miller
Thomas Nelson Publishing, Nashville, TN., 2009
In his thought provoking and light hearted writing style, Donald Miller reflects on his life when he is invited by a producer and a camera-man to create a movie about his life. As he begins to reflect upon his life, he soon realizes how so many of his memories have slipped into the recesses of our mind how difficult it is to access the memories. He begins to wonder if his life is just too boring, too ordinary for a movie -- a movie that moves quickly and is completed in in a little over two hours long. In his book, he reflects upon the characteristics of what makes a good story and in the process he discovers that his story does have meaning and purpose.
Miller begins his life's reflections with the question: "Is life and love and death anything more than random happenings?" In his book this question compels him to find an answer to this driving question and in doing so he is writing a new story. He soon discovers that sometimes we have to choose a different story to write than the one we're in and sometimes we need to let God and the circumstances of life shape our story. In his growing frustration in creating a compelling life story, Miller attends a writing seminar with a friend where he learns that life and good movies requires a few essential and memorable events that change your life and your expectations.
In his book, Miller reflects upon weddings and funerals. This becomes a significant analogy for Miller because it is the motivation that changes his life. In chapter six, Miller writes about how much he enjoys weddings and how dreadfully sad and disappointing funerals are because they end good lives. Here is Miller's observation of funerals and weddings: "I heard that a lot of playwrights used to end their stories with a funeral if it was a tragedy and a wedding if it was comedy. I think that's why we make such a big deal out of weddings, because a wedding means life, and because the bride and groom are old enough to write a thank-you note for the serving spoons you gave them. And perhaps because you get to drink and dance, no matter how old you are. I only dance at weddings. I practically only drink at weddings, too, mostly because that's where I do my dancing. One of the things that gives me hope is that, even with all the tragedy that happens in the world, the Bible says that when we get to heaven, there will be a wedding and there will be drinking and there will be dancing." [Miller, Page 32]
In this context Donald Miller reflects upon the death of his Uncle who he believed wrote a beautiful story about his life. It is his reflection upon his uncle's life and the boy's camp he founded in Florida. Miller's uncle took juvenile delinquents, brought them to the camp and he would teach them how to work and how to solve conflicts and get along with one another. Miller admired his uncle's story -- the one that told a good story with his life. The sad part for Miller is that the story of his uncle's life ended too soon, he wasn't finished with his story. It is his uncle's story that shapes his choices in the book and helps him complete the movie script that he and his friends are working on throughout the book.
The unfinished story of his Uncle Art was the motivation he needed to explore his own story. He didn't want to wait until he was older to create the story. Instead, while he is young and still able to make a difference in his life and the lives of others, he was going to write a different story than the current story he was living. Miller reflects upon the importance of taking risks and not to be afraid. Miller observes fear as something that can guide us and keep us safe, but it's also an emotion that that can trick us into living a boring life. He observes that "...fear causes an inciting incident that when the protagonist passes through this doorway, he cannot return." [Miller, Page 108]
Through humor, changes in choices made, conversations with an array of interesting people, Miller finds himself participating in stories that others are writing and soon discovers that he too is writing an interesting story about his life. As Miller continues to reflect upon his life and live into his story that he and God are writing together, he is happy with his story. In the beginning, Miller reflected upon a life that was totally random and events and circumstances just happen to him without cause or concern. He lives for his television, barely getting up in the morning to take Lucy, his dog, for a walk. Through the hard work of producing a movie, Miller loses himself in the story he and God are writing. Miller writes, "I take my dog to Westmoreland Park, where she plays in the creek. She runs up and down through the creek bed, diving headlong into the water, chasing ducks. Sometimes when I watch her I think about how good life can be, if we only lose ourselves in our stories. Lucy doesn't read self-help books about how to be a dog; she just is a dog. All she wants to do is chase ducks and sticks and do other things that make her and me happy." [Miller, Page 246]
Life is about getting lost in the story that you and God are writing. Miller's concluding reflection about his wedding day in heaven has this to share with all who are seeking meaning and purpose in life. He writes, "I don't wonder anymore what I'll tell God when I go to heaven, when we sit in the chairs under the tree, outside the city. I'll tell [my story] to God, and he'll laugh, I'll think, and he'll remind me of the parts I forgot, the parts that were his [sic] favorite. We'll sit and remember my story together, and then he'll stand and put his arms around me and say, "Well done," and that he liked my story. And my soul won't be thirsty anymore." He goes onto to write, "Finally, he'll turn, and we'll walk toward the city, a city he will have spoken into existence, a city built in a place where once there had been nothing." [Miller, Page 249-250]
Friday, May 21, 2010
Book Review: The Once and Future Church
The Once and Future Church: Reinventing the Congregation for a New Mission Frontier
By Loren B. Mead
Alban Institute: New York, N.Y., 1991
In his book, The Once and Future Church, Mead makes the following observation about the church today. "The Church of Christendom structured itself to address mission beyond the Empire. That meant that it built parish systems, regional structures, and national entities that could gather and deploy resources to the critical point on the missionary frontier. Because that frontier was far away, it required the kinds of logistics and organization it takes to mount a military campaign in a far-off land. There were lots of training camps to prepare the key troops, special training for the leaders, airplanes ans hips for transport, policy decisions at high levels at meetings of the generals and the prime ministers, and total support from the citizens at home." [Mead, Page 58]
This quote puts into perspective both the result of 2000 years of building up the church that we know today and why we need to move to a new paradigm to define the church and its mission. In many ways, Mead has been prophetic in his analysis of the church today. This is not the first time that I have read this book. In fact, I've read his book twice before and continue to be amazed at his insights and his analysis. In 1991, Mead was already beginning to see the amazing shift of the church from a centralized, well organized, well funded and resourced church to the shrinking "mainline" church that is struggling to remain a viable faith community in changing times.
Mead's fundamental thesis in this small, but powerful book is that the Christendom paradigm has become so much a part of the society's social, economic, and political structure that it has forgotten its purpose as a missional church. He argues that now is the time (really the decade of the 90's) is the time to break loose from the structure and trappings of the establishment and return to the Apostolic model that he believes is more faithful to the intent of the early Christian community and more quickly adaptable to the rapid changes we are experiencing in this high-tech and globalized world. In the review that follows, I will look at what Mead believes the best model for the church must be if we are to adapt to the 21st century.
Mead believes that the Christendom paradigm is no longer an effective model for the church today. The Christendom paradigm began in the fourth century with Emperor Constantine when in 313 A.D., Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman empire. This declaration by the Roman Emperor, the congregation was enlarged to include everything Roman. The congregation was the church; the church was the empire. With this new relationship between the church and Empire the structure, its mission, the congregation, and expectations of clergy and laity changed. In effect this relationship fortified the church from the mission field, which up until this point, had been the mission of the local congregation. Now, in this new paradigm, mission had become a "far-off enterprise". No longer would mission be the direct responsibility of the ordinary person, but it would become a ministry of the"larger church", the institutional church.
Besides the change in the congregation's understanding of mission, with the Emperors decree, the boundaries between the sacred and secular became blurred. Bishops, kings and princes were leaders of the church and of the empire. In this new context, the nature of the church was no longer a tight community of committed and embattled believers that would support one another in the hostile environment. Rather, the empire divided up the congregation by geographical boundaries and identified an area as a parish. The drive to unify this diverse people across vast geographic areas gave way to regional bodies governed by a Bishops, Priests, or Cardinals, thus creating a hierarchy that did not exist before this time. This hierarchical system was then imported to the United States where we adopted similar models in order to unify our congregations. During this time, clear roles and expectations were set between the clergy and lay leaders. Instead of being zealous missionaries where leadership was often assumed by passionate lay people, the church became a religious system that was more passionate about morality, turf, doctrine, structure, and denominations than they were about mission. Nearly two thousand years later, we are still working under a structure that we inherited from Constantine and the Holy Roman Empire.
In his book, Mead would argue that today's congregations are living in a time when familiar landmarks have been erased and old ways have stopped working. He believes that if the church is to survive into its next incarnation, we will have to return to the church of an earlier time, a model Mead has called the Apostolic paradigm. The Apostolic paradigm for the church is a community formed of common values and shaped by a story within a larger, hostile environment. The apostolic community was called to reach out to the environment or as Jesus said in Matthew, "...go into the world" and be in the world but not of it. This is the church's new call.
In his book, Mead identifies the changes that are occurring in church life and whether we want it to or not, we are in the midst of a seismic shift in our understanding of church. Destiny has placed its hand upon Christendom and the shrinking pool of resources, religious people, and the competition of many, many spiritual and religious options that are available to the population is forcing its hand upon the changes that have begun and will continue to transform the church in the 21st century. In this time of transformation, Mead identifies three polarities that will define the church of the future. They are Parish vs. Congregation, Servant-hood vs. Conversion, and whether the congregation identifies itself as an exclusive organization with a clear understanding of who is in and who is out or whether it chooses to be an inclusive congregation that risks a more laissez faire attitude where anything goes. Each of these polarities alone is not the church of the future, rather it is a creative tension between them and with an eye always toward the hostile world around us.
In summary, Mead's thesis is that a new church is being born around us. This notion is better presented and argued in the previous book I reviewed entitled, Borderland Churches. Both Mead and Nelson would agree that the Christendom paradigm is rapidly fading. The theology, the structure, the mission priorities of Christendom still surround us, support us, and frustrate us all at the same time. God's call for the church is God's call for newness, not only for the church, but also for a new world. Those of us serving, participating, and leading in this new movement are called to renew and embrace the new church, not as an institution from the past, but as a centering presence from which we may serve the new church and the new world that God is creating around us. Now is the time to see the new possibilities and the new ways in which God is renewing and re-creating his Church.
By Loren B. Mead
Alban Institute: New York, N.Y., 1991
In his book, The Once and Future Church, Mead makes the following observation about the church today. "The Church of Christendom structured itself to address mission beyond the Empire. That meant that it built parish systems, regional structures, and national entities that could gather and deploy resources to the critical point on the missionary frontier. Because that frontier was far away, it required the kinds of logistics and organization it takes to mount a military campaign in a far-off land. There were lots of training camps to prepare the key troops, special training for the leaders, airplanes ans hips for transport, policy decisions at high levels at meetings of the generals and the prime ministers, and total support from the citizens at home." [Mead, Page 58]
This quote puts into perspective both the result of 2000 years of building up the church that we know today and why we need to move to a new paradigm to define the church and its mission. In many ways, Mead has been prophetic in his analysis of the church today. This is not the first time that I have read this book. In fact, I've read his book twice before and continue to be amazed at his insights and his analysis. In 1991, Mead was already beginning to see the amazing shift of the church from a centralized, well organized, well funded and resourced church to the shrinking "mainline" church that is struggling to remain a viable faith community in changing times.
Mead's fundamental thesis in this small, but powerful book is that the Christendom paradigm has become so much a part of the society's social, economic, and political structure that it has forgotten its purpose as a missional church. He argues that now is the time (really the decade of the 90's) is the time to break loose from the structure and trappings of the establishment and return to the Apostolic model that he believes is more faithful to the intent of the early Christian community and more quickly adaptable to the rapid changes we are experiencing in this high-tech and globalized world. In the review that follows, I will look at what Mead believes the best model for the church must be if we are to adapt to the 21st century.
Mead believes that the Christendom paradigm is no longer an effective model for the church today. The Christendom paradigm began in the fourth century with Emperor Constantine when in 313 A.D., Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman empire. This declaration by the Roman Emperor, the congregation was enlarged to include everything Roman. The congregation was the church; the church was the empire. With this new relationship between the church and Empire the structure, its mission, the congregation, and expectations of clergy and laity changed. In effect this relationship fortified the church from the mission field, which up until this point, had been the mission of the local congregation. Now, in this new paradigm, mission had become a "far-off enterprise". No longer would mission be the direct responsibility of the ordinary person, but it would become a ministry of the"larger church", the institutional church.
Besides the change in the congregation's understanding of mission, with the Emperors decree, the boundaries between the sacred and secular became blurred. Bishops, kings and princes were leaders of the church and of the empire. In this new context, the nature of the church was no longer a tight community of committed and embattled believers that would support one another in the hostile environment. Rather, the empire divided up the congregation by geographical boundaries and identified an area as a parish. The drive to unify this diverse people across vast geographic areas gave way to regional bodies governed by a Bishops, Priests, or Cardinals, thus creating a hierarchy that did not exist before this time. This hierarchical system was then imported to the United States where we adopted similar models in order to unify our congregations. During this time, clear roles and expectations were set between the clergy and lay leaders. Instead of being zealous missionaries where leadership was often assumed by passionate lay people, the church became a religious system that was more passionate about morality, turf, doctrine, structure, and denominations than they were about mission. Nearly two thousand years later, we are still working under a structure that we inherited from Constantine and the Holy Roman Empire.
In his book, Mead would argue that today's congregations are living in a time when familiar landmarks have been erased and old ways have stopped working. He believes that if the church is to survive into its next incarnation, we will have to return to the church of an earlier time, a model Mead has called the Apostolic paradigm. The Apostolic paradigm for the church is a community formed of common values and shaped by a story within a larger, hostile environment. The apostolic community was called to reach out to the environment or as Jesus said in Matthew, "...go into the world" and be in the world but not of it. This is the church's new call.
In his book, Mead identifies the changes that are occurring in church life and whether we want it to or not, we are in the midst of a seismic shift in our understanding of church. Destiny has placed its hand upon Christendom and the shrinking pool of resources, religious people, and the competition of many, many spiritual and religious options that are available to the population is forcing its hand upon the changes that have begun and will continue to transform the church in the 21st century. In this time of transformation, Mead identifies three polarities that will define the church of the future. They are Parish vs. Congregation, Servant-hood vs. Conversion, and whether the congregation identifies itself as an exclusive organization with a clear understanding of who is in and who is out or whether it chooses to be an inclusive congregation that risks a more laissez faire attitude where anything goes. Each of these polarities alone is not the church of the future, rather it is a creative tension between them and with an eye always toward the hostile world around us.
In summary, Mead's thesis is that a new church is being born around us. This notion is better presented and argued in the previous book I reviewed entitled, Borderland Churches. Both Mead and Nelson would agree that the Christendom paradigm is rapidly fading. The theology, the structure, the mission priorities of Christendom still surround us, support us, and frustrate us all at the same time. God's call for the church is God's call for newness, not only for the church, but also for a new world. Those of us serving, participating, and leading in this new movement are called to renew and embrace the new church, not as an institution from the past, but as a centering presence from which we may serve the new church and the new world that God is creating around us. Now is the time to see the new possibilities and the new ways in which God is renewing and re-creating his Church.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Book Review: Borderland Churches
Borderland Churches: A Congregation's Introduction to Missional Living.
By Gary V. Nelson
Chalice Press: St. Louis, 2008
In a previous blog I reflected upon the church in exile and found Borderland Churches to be an incredibly practical and insightful book, but one that is not without its challenge. The challenge for me as a pastor in these changing times, is how to apply Nelson's insights to my church or any church that is struggling with the notion of how to be the church in exile, a church that is no longer the center of the community's life and now finds itself on the edge of civilization or what we shall call, the borderlands.
Nelson makes a compelling argument that the since 1955, the "mainline" churches have been slowly pushed to the edges of society (into the borderlands) for a variety of reasons. Today, affluent people have more choices as to what they can and are able to do and church activities are no longer a first consideration. In the borderlands, there is clearly a lack of support from the community, the schools, the athletic teams, the merchants and community leaders for our churches today. These choices and others that have been made over the the last fifty plus years have pushed our churches to the borderlands.
Early in his book, Nelson makes the following observation, "My experience of ministering to this diverse crew of people often left me wishing it could just be "normal" -- a place where attendance was sure and language, rhythms and ethos recognizable to that in which I had grown up." [Nelson, Page 2] We long for normal. The trouble is that our perception of normal is based upon post WW II structures, institutions, attitudes, and expectations. Nelson goes onto say in Chapter 1 that churches, and especially pastors, who live and work out of this 1955 paradigm will not survive the exile. "How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?" (Psalm 137:4) And so in his book, Borderland Churches, Nelson helps us find our way through this holy time of living in the borderlands.
Nelson is very clear in his book that the churches today must embrace, joyfully, their new status, churches doing ministry in the borderlands. The author contends that the borderlands is where the church should have always been -- at the edges of society. It is in the borderlands where Christian faith, other faiths, and un-faith intersect. Mission is always lived in the borderlands. Nelson believes that the churches that can embrace a missional vision within the community in which our churches and congregations reside, will survive this time of exile. He believes that the church today has constructed a God of our own making -- a God who is way too safe. [Nelson, Page 5] Nelson believes that God who is unpredictable and "holy wild" is not to our liking, but it is where the church today must be -- on the borderland.
Nelson does not leave the reader to his own vices and his own imagination as to the "how to" of being a borderland church. His book takes the reader through the journey of embracing the "holy wild" of God. There are many, many helpful suggestions that are bound in this book and one could spend many weeks, perhaps years moving from the predictable institution of the church to the wild and unpredictable ways of the Holy Other in the borderlands. However, there are two images that I believe summarize this journey for the church today that I think have some practical ramifications for all of us who are a part of emergent and emerging church. Nelson uses the Hebrew word, h'abar, which translates in English as "crossover" to talk about what must be done if we are to survive this time of change for our congregations and our churches.
H'abar first appears in Joshua, Chapter 3 in the context of the Jordan River and the Promised Land. The people of God are musing over their movement across the Jordan to the Promised Land. They are curious and afraid all at once as they gaze across the great river. Joshua, attempting to encourage and challenge them about their next step speaks out. His words portray great understanding of the mix of emotions they are feeling as they look out into the unknown. [Nelson, Page 27] He even heightens their anxiety, reminding them that they "have not passed this way before." (Joshua 3:4) Once we cross the Jordan River -- to the borderlands -- we can never turn back for from that moment on, our life will be forever changed. This renewal will not emerge from new programs, transformed denominations structures, or creative strategies. This 'abar time will require a re framing of attitudes, assumptions and frameworks long before the finished product emerges. [Nelson, Pages 33-34] Nelson spends most of the book from this point on writing about, helping church leaders, and showing us how we can make that transition to the borderlands where the church is free to do the missional work that God has always wanted from us.
The "crossover" to the Promised Land, the Border Land, is the first step of faith for Church today. In addition to this inspiring vision of the church, I also share with you another vision of the Border Land Church. This helpful image of living in the borderlands, comes to us from the prophet Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 29, the Hebrew people find themselves captive in an unwanted world. They are void of familiar rhythms and themes and the psalmist cries out through the ages, "How can we sing the the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?" (Psalm 137:4) In Jeremiah 29, God still responds to our cry. In chapter 29 from verse four through eleven, the prophet informs the exiles how to behave in exile. Although frustrating to us, these words state a critical truth for those of us who are fearful of the future, angry at the present, or simply paralyzed to do anything about the reality of a broken world. God's answer to the Hebrew exiles and to us comes with a pragmatic command to live in these days. We did not choose to live in these times and God most certainly does not call us back to a previous time where all appeared predictable, sterile, and safe. No, God calls us to live in these challenging times and to believe that if God put us here in this time and place and under the very circumstances that confound us, God will most certainly deliver us to new heights, new places and bring us to a deeper, more abiding faith that can endure life in the borderlands. God commands the Hebrew people to "...Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters...Increase in number there and do not decrease."(Jeremiah 29:5-6)
In summary, let it be said that for various reasons the Church today is at a point where radical decisions must be made. The past is no more and in essence, the prophet Jeremiah says to the Hebrew people, to you and to me that we must deal with this new reality -- this reality that we did not choose to embrace, but now must. Although the prophet may seem harsh, he leaves us with good news. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) Let it be said and let us believe that we will not be left alone along this borderland journey. For as God has been with the faithful throughout the ages, so will God be with us today, leading us through the borderlands to the Promised Land where things cannot return to what was, but can become an even more perfect gift. Welcome to the borderlands!
By Gary V. Nelson
Chalice Press: St. Louis, 2008
In a previous blog I reflected upon the church in exile and found Borderland Churches to be an incredibly practical and insightful book, but one that is not without its challenge. The challenge for me as a pastor in these changing times, is how to apply Nelson's insights to my church or any church that is struggling with the notion of how to be the church in exile, a church that is no longer the center of the community's life and now finds itself on the edge of civilization or what we shall call, the borderlands.
Nelson makes a compelling argument that the since 1955, the "mainline" churches have been slowly pushed to the edges of society (into the borderlands) for a variety of reasons. Today, affluent people have more choices as to what they can and are able to do and church activities are no longer a first consideration. In the borderlands, there is clearly a lack of support from the community, the schools, the athletic teams, the merchants and community leaders for our churches today. These choices and others that have been made over the the last fifty plus years have pushed our churches to the borderlands.
Early in his book, Nelson makes the following observation, "My experience of ministering to this diverse crew of people often left me wishing it could just be "normal" -- a place where attendance was sure and language, rhythms and ethos recognizable to that in which I had grown up." [Nelson, Page 2] We long for normal. The trouble is that our perception of normal is based upon post WW II structures, institutions, attitudes, and expectations. Nelson goes onto say in Chapter 1 that churches, and especially pastors, who live and work out of this 1955 paradigm will not survive the exile. "How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?" (Psalm 137:4) And so in his book, Borderland Churches, Nelson helps us find our way through this holy time of living in the borderlands.
Nelson is very clear in his book that the churches today must embrace, joyfully, their new status, churches doing ministry in the borderlands. The author contends that the borderlands is where the church should have always been -- at the edges of society. It is in the borderlands where Christian faith, other faiths, and un-faith intersect. Mission is always lived in the borderlands. Nelson believes that the churches that can embrace a missional vision within the community in which our churches and congregations reside, will survive this time of exile. He believes that the church today has constructed a God of our own making -- a God who is way too safe. [Nelson, Page 5] Nelson believes that God who is unpredictable and "holy wild" is not to our liking, but it is where the church today must be -- on the borderland.
Nelson does not leave the reader to his own vices and his own imagination as to the "how to" of being a borderland church. His book takes the reader through the journey of embracing the "holy wild" of God. There are many, many helpful suggestions that are bound in this book and one could spend many weeks, perhaps years moving from the predictable institution of the church to the wild and unpredictable ways of the Holy Other in the borderlands. However, there are two images that I believe summarize this journey for the church today that I think have some practical ramifications for all of us who are a part of emergent and emerging church. Nelson uses the Hebrew word, h'abar, which translates in English as "crossover" to talk about what must be done if we are to survive this time of change for our congregations and our churches.
H'abar first appears in Joshua, Chapter 3 in the context of the Jordan River and the Promised Land. The people of God are musing over their movement across the Jordan to the Promised Land. They are curious and afraid all at once as they gaze across the great river. Joshua, attempting to encourage and challenge them about their next step speaks out. His words portray great understanding of the mix of emotions they are feeling as they look out into the unknown. [Nelson, Page 27] He even heightens their anxiety, reminding them that they "have not passed this way before." (Joshua 3:4) Once we cross the Jordan River -- to the borderlands -- we can never turn back for from that moment on, our life will be forever changed. This renewal will not emerge from new programs, transformed denominations structures, or creative strategies. This 'abar time will require a re framing of attitudes, assumptions and frameworks long before the finished product emerges. [Nelson, Pages 33-34] Nelson spends most of the book from this point on writing about, helping church leaders, and showing us how we can make that transition to the borderlands where the church is free to do the missional work that God has always wanted from us.
The "crossover" to the Promised Land, the Border Land, is the first step of faith for Church today. In addition to this inspiring vision of the church, I also share with you another vision of the Border Land Church. This helpful image of living in the borderlands, comes to us from the prophet Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 29, the Hebrew people find themselves captive in an unwanted world. They are void of familiar rhythms and themes and the psalmist cries out through the ages, "How can we sing the the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?" (Psalm 137:4) In Jeremiah 29, God still responds to our cry. In chapter 29 from verse four through eleven, the prophet informs the exiles how to behave in exile. Although frustrating to us, these words state a critical truth for those of us who are fearful of the future, angry at the present, or simply paralyzed to do anything about the reality of a broken world. God's answer to the Hebrew exiles and to us comes with a pragmatic command to live in these days. We did not choose to live in these times and God most certainly does not call us back to a previous time where all appeared predictable, sterile, and safe. No, God calls us to live in these challenging times and to believe that if God put us here in this time and place and under the very circumstances that confound us, God will most certainly deliver us to new heights, new places and bring us to a deeper, more abiding faith that can endure life in the borderlands. God commands the Hebrew people to "...Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters...Increase in number there and do not decrease."(Jeremiah 29:5-6)
In summary, let it be said that for various reasons the Church today is at a point where radical decisions must be made. The past is no more and in essence, the prophet Jeremiah says to the Hebrew people, to you and to me that we must deal with this new reality -- this reality that we did not choose to embrace, but now must. Although the prophet may seem harsh, he leaves us with good news. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) Let it be said and let us believe that we will not be left alone along this borderland journey. For as God has been with the faithful throughout the ages, so will God be with us today, leading us through the borderlands to the Promised Land where things cannot return to what was, but can become an even more perfect gift. Welcome to the borderlands!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Book Review: Not Just a One Night Stand
“Not Just a One Night Stand: Ministry with the Homeless”
By John Flowers & Karen Vannoy
Discipleship Resource: Nashville, TN., 2009
In preparation for my time at Open Door Community, a ministry with the homeless, the marginalized, the incarcerated, and those released from prison, I felt it was important to read material that would reflect the kind of ministry I would anticipate at Open Door Community.
Flowers and Vannoy were two pastors serving Travis Park United Methodist Church (UMC) in San Antonio, Texas and through their leadership they transformed a silk stocking dying church into a cotton stocking growing church. This book is a reflection on how they were able to be transformed and to transform others by embracing their call to work with the homeless and the marginalized.
Flower and Vannoy stress early on that the goal of their ministry would be “mutual transformation” of the congregation, the members of Travis Park UMC, and those who participated in the Day Treatment program at Travis Park, UMC. Their authority and their permission comes from the urgency of gospel. They write, “We don’t need to wait for empowerment; we already have everything we need to build community of faith that embodies the gospel, and the world has never needed its transforming power more than it does now.” (Flowers, 2009)
Flowers and Vannoy know that the hearts of Christian people are in the right place. Flowers notes that people are compassionate and will not tolerate injustice when they understand the human story of suffering. We do good things for often the wrong reasons. The authors contend that our hearts are in the right place, but ministry among the homeless and marginalized is not something that we do a couple of times of year to relieve our middle-class guilt. No,the authors would rather work toward mutual transformation. Mutual transformation happens when we realize that we are more alike than different. Mutual transformation happens when we realize that the poor have as much to give to us as we have to give them. The authors observe that “when we are in the same space, at the same time, sharing our stories with equal air time and equal attention , mutual transformation has a chance. (Flowers, 2009)
With this notion of mutual transformation, the idea that we do not do ministry for the poor and the marginalized, but rather we do ministry with the poor the marginalized, the authors go onto share several ways in which this kind of ministry can become transformational. The authors suggest several steps that need to be taken in order for a ministry with the poor and marginalized can happen. They suggest that beginning with prayer and discernment is an important first step.
It has been said, “Morality begins at 1500 calories a day.” Clearly, this means that we cannot expect people to make sound moral decisions if they are hungry and so we need to eat. The author points out that we are also social creatures and suggest that this would be a wonderful way to make connections by eating together. By doing this we facilitate trust and build community. Eating together is a matter of survival.
Another way we can work toward mutual transformation is by paying attention. The best way to pay attention is when we can take time to listen to their stories. When we take time to listen, we don’t bring any demands, contrive expectations, or pass judgment. Instead, we enter their space and listen to their stories. Among other ways we work toward mutual transformation is by sharing power, careful discernment of “down and out” stories, and creating a safe, open, and inclusive space for worship. Each of these topics are addressed in some detail in subsequent chapters. The question that we as a church must struggle with in all facets of ministry is whether or not we ready to be the church or continue to play church.
Biblically, there are so many references to our call to reach out to the homeless, the poor, the marginalized, the incarcerated, and the forgotten. In light of this, let me end where I began with a quote that gives us the scope of our ministry. “…we need to build community of faith that embodies the gospel, and the world has never needed its transforming power more than it does now.” This is our call to mutual transformation.
By John Flowers & Karen Vannoy
Discipleship Resource: Nashville, TN., 2009
In preparation for my time at Open Door Community, a ministry with the homeless, the marginalized, the incarcerated, and those released from prison, I felt it was important to read material that would reflect the kind of ministry I would anticipate at Open Door Community.
Flowers and Vannoy were two pastors serving Travis Park United Methodist Church (UMC) in San Antonio, Texas and through their leadership they transformed a silk stocking dying church into a cotton stocking growing church. This book is a reflection on how they were able to be transformed and to transform others by embracing their call to work with the homeless and the marginalized.
Flower and Vannoy stress early on that the goal of their ministry would be “mutual transformation” of the congregation, the members of Travis Park UMC, and those who participated in the Day Treatment program at Travis Park, UMC. Their authority and their permission comes from the urgency of gospel. They write, “We don’t need to wait for empowerment; we already have everything we need to build community of faith that embodies the gospel, and the world has never needed its transforming power more than it does now.” (Flowers, 2009)
Flowers and Vannoy know that the hearts of Christian people are in the right place. Flowers notes that people are compassionate and will not tolerate injustice when they understand the human story of suffering. We do good things for often the wrong reasons. The authors contend that our hearts are in the right place, but ministry among the homeless and marginalized is not something that we do a couple of times of year to relieve our middle-class guilt. No,the authors would rather work toward mutual transformation. Mutual transformation happens when we realize that we are more alike than different. Mutual transformation happens when we realize that the poor have as much to give to us as we have to give them. The authors observe that “when we are in the same space, at the same time, sharing our stories with equal air time and equal attention , mutual transformation has a chance. (Flowers, 2009)
With this notion of mutual transformation, the idea that we do not do ministry for the poor and the marginalized, but rather we do ministry with the poor the marginalized, the authors go onto share several ways in which this kind of ministry can become transformational. The authors suggest several steps that need to be taken in order for a ministry with the poor and marginalized can happen. They suggest that beginning with prayer and discernment is an important first step.
It has been said, “Morality begins at 1500 calories a day.” Clearly, this means that we cannot expect people to make sound moral decisions if they are hungry and so we need to eat. The author points out that we are also social creatures and suggest that this would be a wonderful way to make connections by eating together. By doing this we facilitate trust and build community. Eating together is a matter of survival.
Another way we can work toward mutual transformation is by paying attention. The best way to pay attention is when we can take time to listen to their stories. When we take time to listen, we don’t bring any demands, contrive expectations, or pass judgment. Instead, we enter their space and listen to their stories. Among other ways we work toward mutual transformation is by sharing power, careful discernment of “down and out” stories, and creating a safe, open, and inclusive space for worship. Each of these topics are addressed in some detail in subsequent chapters. The question that we as a church must struggle with in all facets of ministry is whether or not we ready to be the church or continue to play church.
Biblically, there are so many references to our call to reach out to the homeless, the poor, the marginalized, the incarcerated, and the forgotten. In light of this, let me end where I began with a quote that gives us the scope of our ministry. “…we need to build community of faith that embodies the gospel, and the world has never needed its transforming power more than it does now.” This is our call to mutual transformation.
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