i am paradox

Prophetic ?

"You and I happen to have been born at an edge, at a time of high tectonic activity in history--the end of one age and the beginning of another.  Yesterday's maps are already outdated, and today's soon will be, too. But right about now, some of us are wishing we could go back to the old world. We love our old maps and wish the world still matched them.

And if we have a new world, we will need a new church. We won't need a new religion per se, we will need a new framework for our theology. Not a new Spirit, but a new spirituality. Not a new Christ, but a new Christian. Not a new denomination, but a new kind of church in every denomination."

Brian McLaren, Church on the Other Side, pgs. 12-14 (1998)

21st century spiritual formation

One of the most important problems facing the church in America today is that people are more interested in spirituality than ever before, and we don't know what to do about it. More and more people are talking about and quoting stats about how many churches are closing, dying, etc. I think we will continue to see a paradox in the time that we live in: on one hand, we will see the largest churches in history and churches grow larger and larger.  And on the other hand, we will see churches close and die at a rapid pace.

Brian McLaren has a new article on the new kind of conversation website about spiritual formation in a postmodern context. This could be one of the keys we need in the time in which we are living.

21st century spiritual formation

And here is an interview with Dallas Willard and Richard Foster also on the same topic.

The Making of the Christian: Richard J. Foster and Dallas Willard on the difference between discipleship and spiritual formation

Interview with Rob Bell

Rob Bell Interview

Rob Bell is one of the leading influencers in the world of the emerging church.

Teach what you know, produce what you are

Came across an archieved article from the BBC about Benny Hinn's trip to Nigeria. What bothers me doesn't really have anything to do (or what bothers me more) with Hinn, but rather the pastors who live and work in Nigeria.

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In March 2003, a cashier at a five-star hotel was arrested for allegedly stealing nearly 40 million naira (then about US$400,000) from his employer.

His colleagues were shocked because there was nothing to suggest that he was living above his means - he had no car and he lived in a rented flat in a non-fashionable part of Lagos.

The man confessed that he gave all the money to his Pentecostal church in cash and equipment.

In another case a bank clerk stole 40 million naira from his employer and gave 10 million to his church as 'seed money' in the belief that the seed would germinate and yield several fold as promised by his pastor."

What if we are just now starting to see some fruit from the seeds American missionaries have sown ? Have we influenced others more negatively than postively?  There's an old saying that you can teach what you know but you produce what you are. Have we passed our greed onto Nigeria ?

Twist of Faith

Attracting worshippers with alternative religious experiences

While most Christians in the 'Burgh attended well-lit services at cathedrals and churches, members of three "emerging" churches -- purveyors of alternative religious services -- took turns praying in a recently refurbished but still primitive space below East Carson Street. Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community, The Open Door and Three Nails all were represented in that mission outpost, operated by Hot Metal's like-minded neighbors, The End Ministries.

At the end of their round-the-clock Easter Week prayer vigil, the plan was for these distinct but closely knit faith communities to conduct a joint Holy Saturday service in the basement of Bellefield Presbyterian Church in Oakland.

Open Theism and the Emerging Church

I am sure that it's probably no news to you that the Emerging Church has both been getting a lot more press and criticism lately. One of the newest that I have heard, from more than one blog I might add, is that open thesim is a large part of what this group believes. I disagree. I honestly haven't heard many people in this emerging context refer to it. Am I wrong?  For those of you who consider "emergent", is open theism a big part of our conversation or not? 

Worship Leader Magazine: Emerging Face of Worship

"A large room is filled with garbage, but will soon become the scene for communion. A multi-media labyrinth leads participants through a one-hour encounter with their creator. A senses lab includes a wind tunnel for meditating on God’s spirit. Another room is filled with incense and the soft light of candles. It is called the Luscious Room and passages from Song of Solomon are written on the walls. The dance space is completely  saturated with video images and electronic worship mixed by DJs from Switzerland. There is a birthday party where people on all four levels of the atrium are eating cake and celebrating life, yet there is also a memorial space for a friend that died a few weeks earlier. There are over a dozen worship environments occurring simultaneously but none of them have a stage.                            
There is an abundance of music but no bands. People  weep as they meet with God, but no one leads the meeting.  Is this the emerging face of postmodern worship, or just a moment in time when those on the journey towards  holistic, authentic worship find themselves caught up in creating something that will never be repeated?"

http://www.worshipleader.com/feature_n.htm

Community?

Should a pastor live in the community that he serves?  If not, can he really be a part of that community?  I am not referring to the example of someone who just lives the next town over 10 mins away, but to those who drive over half an hour to be with their congregation.

Press Release

Youth Specialties announced today that they will no longer be co-hosting the Emergent Convention (nor the National Pastors Convention) recently. My question is if this affects the bookline as well. 

From their Press Release: “The emergentYS Convention began only two years ago as a partnership between Youth Specialties, Emergent, and Zondervan ChurchSource. This event was warmly received by people doing church ministry in new ways to meet the changing needs of our culture in a postmodern society. After much thought and prayer, Youth Specialties has decided stop producing these events. “It became clear that we needed to regain focus on what we exist for-and that is youth workers,” said president of YS, Mark Oestreicher. “This decision was not financially driven, and certainly not a matter of distancing ourselves from our fantastic partner organizations - this was purely driven by a recommitment to our organizational identity.”

The Emergent Mystique

The 'emerging church' movement has generated a lot of excitement but only a handful of congregations. Is it the wave of the future or a passing fancy?

One spring sunday morning, I was on my way to visit Mars Hill Bible Church, one of the largest and youngest churches in the country, with 10,000 meeting weekly for worship in a converted mall outside Grand Rapids, Michigan. As I took the freeway exit, unsure of the exact directions, I noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of me. "Love wins," it said, in distressed white type on a black background. In the rear window was a decal with an intricate pattern—half Art Deco, half Goth tattoo—that incorporated a cross and a fish.

Neither the bumper sticker nor the tattoo-decal alone would have induced me to set aside my hastily scribbled directions and simply follow the car straight to the Mars Hill parking lot. But I knew I'd found my mark when I saw the passenger lower the sun visor, look into the makeup mirror, and meticulously adjust his hair.

Gentlemen, start your hair dryers—not since the Jesus Movement of the early 1970s has a Christian phenomenon been so closely entangled with the self-conscious cutting edge of U.S. culture. Frequently urban, disproportionately young, overwhelmingly white, and very new—few have been in existence for more than five years—a growing number of churches are joining the ranks of the "emerging church."

Like all labels, this one conceals as much as it reveals. But the phrase "emerging church" captures several important features of a new generation of churches. They are works in progress, often startlingly improvisational in their approach to everything from worship to leadership to preaching to prayer. Like their own members, they live in the half-future tense of the young, oriented toward their promise rather than their past. But if their own focus is on what they are "emerging" toward, perhaps most surprising are the places they are emerging from.

The Emergent Mystique By Andy Crouch