A Memo to All Asburians (and Wesleyans):

John Wesley doesn’t like you (and you may not really be too fond of him either)

I have a confession

I love electronic music.

Really. Ok, not that impressive – not a very juicy confession. But still.

Check this out: Laptop Battle

or

Fourth City DVD (free!)

Anybody know of any good local electronic music artists?

From Subversive Influence: 6. I long for a church that can be outwardly-focused…

This is good and ties in with an email that Dave Barr recently wrote about VC (for those in the know).  I’ve been thinking about similar thoughts of late.  They are still brewing….. 

I long for a church that can be outwardly-focused without constantly pushing evangelism on the congregation, and for a church that does not relate evangelism with church growth as an end.

So quoth I a few weeks ago in this post, which I recommend reading if you haven’t yet. (The post has also been republished at emergingchurch.info.) This was point number six of nine, and I am continuing to elaborate on them one by one and one after another after another as I continue to process their meaning.

In this installment to flesh out my sixth longing, the first aspect is that in the church I long for, the congregation doesn’t sit through endless urgings to do “missions”, to “witness”, and to “share your faith”… often while practising a cloistered lifestyle in which church events keep people far to busy to actually know who their neighbours are. Rather, the church I long for is simply oriented toward being in contact with the culture in which they live and the people with whom they share it. In this blog, I have mentioned a “touchstone phrase” several times: “Live your faith. Share your life.” This is at the heart of what I long for on this subject. We attempt to “share our faith” as if it’s all about our explanations and urgings to confess Jesus. Far more effective would be to just live what we believe, and share our lives. In this manner, people will get the message far more powerfully… and it’ll be genuine.

In short, this is about being missional. As it turns out, Andrew Hamilton just pointed out “A Strange New Voice: Who are Missional Leaders?“

This is one way of understanding what’s happening to us right now: We are being forced, perhaps kicking and screaming, to become missionaries. Whatever else this postmodern thing is doing, it is making it hard to avoid thinking like missionaries.

I asked here rhetorically once, why ecclesiology and missiology weren’t the same conversation. I want a church where they are.

Secondly, my longing is for a church that doesn’t equate evangelism with church growth. Seems it’s all about the numbers, which I want to get away from… if they were that important, it seems to me that at least one of the gospel writers would have told us how many “decisions” were made by the people to whom Jesus preached.

We’re geared toward the stats, but I don’t so much think that God is. God is geared toward relationship, and he’s interested in quality of relationship more than how many of them he can get. More importantly, church growth is bad motivation for evangelism. If the numbers are the motivation, then it’s more about what people can do for you by coming to your church. Relationship, on the other hand, is great motivation.

Related…

[Subversive Influence]

Change & Liminality (3.28.05) – Len Hjalmarson, Eric Herron

Hip, Hip, Hooray!!! We recorded and editted and posted a new conversation. Click to get the newest Conversatio Fide podcast.

This one is REALLY good. Thanks so much to Len and Eric who conversed on this one.

May you be blessed by it.

Aaron Klinefelter ~ blog

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Peace.

Links for me, links for you

Coalition for Christian Outreach

Independent Eye – click especially if you live, like, or have heard of Cincinnati

My Del.icio.us

Hebrew anyone?

http://hebrewlog.blogspot.com.

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What Can Brown Do for You

There’s a place where strangers become friends and friends become family. A place where depths are plumbed and addiction revealed>relieved>released. Where cuts bleed out and wounds are treated. Healing happens in this place – but it is hospital for the soul and it is slow. Drama is in the living – the day to day to day…… even today. Something happens in this place…. it is mystical and practical, naturally supernatural. Warmth exudes from wood of the place – as though a fire burns within its very walls…. warming, soothing, comforting…. and yet, dross never stood a chance. The old is gone the new has come. Life>Death>Rebirth. How like a seed. This place is rich soil for such a thing. Perhaps not surprisingly we call it Brown.

Brown is forgotten. Ignored. But deep. So very

very

very

D

E

E

P

.

.

.

.

down to the heart of it all where families are made.

This place called Brown.

Read what these people say – they live it:

Brandon

Julie

Kevin