When tempest tossed
The waves that lost
The broken plate
The misplaced mate
When tempest tossed
The car exhaust
Smells of rotten rinds
And forgotten lines
When tempest tossed
And listening costs…
“But I wondered what if churches redefined what it meant to be big. The New Big would purposefully remain smaller, need to sustain very little organizationally, and automate everything else so it could be free to live out its dreams accordingly.”
Can size be an idol? Big or small?
Link: willzhead: A Response to Bill Easum’s Thoughts on the Emerging Church
This industrial cycle is one that Easum stands at the end of, and one that was largely driven by a scientific epistemological approach to ecclesiology. This epistemology affected the way Christians conceptualized being a follower of Jesus and greatly influenced the kind of congregations we created. Thus, theological orthodoxy became accedence to a set of propositionally constructed truths, as opposed to adherence to belief statements. And, as proof that “form follows function,” a kind of methodological orthodoxy crept in as well, enabling an ongoing conversation about which model is right. Thus was born the need within the Church for firms whose sole purpose is to help churches connect with the right model and grow, with growth generally being measured in economic and consumer terms as more: more people, more buildings, more giving, more small groups, etc.
Good post from Will Samson. I submit that you may agree or disagree with his assessment of Easum’s assessment, but I think it is a good engagement with the core issues at hand in the shifts taking place in the church.
Pasadena Star-News – Seminary to expand
Good article on Fuller. As a former resident of Pasadena and current (sorta, 5 classes left) student of said seminary, I loved that Fuller was located in SoCal, Pasadena specifically. Wonderfully diverse neighborhoods, easy walking to and fro campus (and theatres and coffeeshops and shopping and friends and …..).
All this business about discipleship as apprenticeship to Jesus has caused me to wonder what it really means to follow Jesus in 21st century America (specifically Cincinnati). I mean he lived 2000 years back, in a vastly different world/context. So when we read the things he said and did and what he called folks to do as they followed him then I’d say we have a good bit of translation work if we are going to apply that to ourselves. That much, I suspect, is obvious to most.
It is his talk of the Kingdom of God that fascinates me. When I read the Gospels now it just leaps out at me, but when I was in high school starting to read the Bible for the first time (seriously, not just as “children’s stories” for Sunday School) I never noticed the Kingdom. So, how do I translate this Kingdom stuff to 21C Cincinnati? Well, how do WE translate Jesus’s message about the Kingdom to 21C Cincinnati? Great question…. let’s live the answer!
So… hum…. I wrote this post in August, but forgot to publish it. Oops. The INTERalliance camp (mentioned below) was great. Cloey’s 3 year old angst has abated some and she’s made a good adjustment to Big Sisterhood. She’s also started preschool, which she loves, but does obliterate nap time (not good). We’re headed down to Stamping Ground, Kentucky today to visit a new nephew born to Sarah’s brother. Here’s the post that didn’t get published:
The INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati - I’m off to go to this today. 8:00-5:00 each day – it will be Sarah’s first week solo with both kids. Pray for her! Call her if you are so inclined! The big adjustment to having a brother is fully upon our dear Cloanna – we’ve had some exciting moments of 3 year old angst. We’ll survive, but it doesn’t make it any easier in the moment of a tantrum. Cloey is a great kid and I know she’ll be fine.
I’m also pretty excited about this – http://www.christianaudio.com – Jeana Clark hooked me up with a link and I’m pretty impressed with the selection and diversity (not to mention the “free-ness” of much of their stuff). As school gets ready to get underway (and my 30 minute each way commute) I am looking forward to listening to some good stuff. My commute has really become a little study cell on wheels this past year. I ended last school year listening to a New Testament history course from Covenant Seminary (I actually have a couple lectures left to hear). I’ve listened to D.A. Carson, Dallas Willard, N.T. Wright, Todd Hunter, Brian McLaren, Richard Mouw, Erwin McManus, even Marshall McLuhan and a whole host of podcasts, sermons, lectures, interviews, and the like. If I’m not listening to that (or music) then I’m talking to DG Hollums or Neil Tibbott and others about church planting, life, ministry, family, education, etc… Strangely enough, I’m actually looking forward to being back into it (the commute, the listening, and most importantly the LEARNING)!
Speaking of learning I have 5 more course in my Fuller Seminary degree … if anyone is so inclined to contribute to the “Pay for Aaron’s Schooling” fund – feel free!
I’ve been reflecting lately on the idea of competition. Particularly in the arena of church planting. In the modern marketplace we have enshrined the act of competing. It is what fuels our economy – from dish soap to cars to sports to education. Unfortunately it is what also seems to fuel our ecclesial life. I wonder if perhaps the impetus to birth new churches is too often found in what we don’t like or disagree with another church. I know that when I begin to think of what this emerging community of faith will be like I find that my internal dialog is us versus them (“them” being this church or that). I find that when I start trying to describe what this new church plant I default in how we won’t be like ________ or we will be like _______ in this way or that. This, I do not like.
It is not that I am anti-competition. Far from it. I enjoy sport and the motivation to excell. I actually think there is a place for competition in the body of Christ – just not between the body of Christ! My goal is to describe who and what we are in ways that are not divisive – for the Body. So we may be communal versus individualistic (or endeavoring to be so), but not because we’re better than another church. No, I want my internal dialog to focus on how we are different from the destructive, fragmented, broken, lost, dying world. Wasn’t it Paul who said something about not being against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities? I don’t mind competition – as long as who I’m competing against is not on the same team.
I’m blogging. Really I am. It has been a challenging start of the school year (not to mention the adjustment to having 2 kids!). Life continues with its ebbs and flows (mostly flows at present).
Church planting pondering and dreaming and planning continues. Had some good conversations with the RCA recently and Sarah and I will be going to the RCA church planting event called Thrive! coming up in October. I’m pretty excited about the possibilities.
I’m hoping to blog more, but frankly I’m still a bit gun shy about what I say and how I say it. My desire is to reflect honestly on my life and to edify the Church (and the emerging church plant in our midst).
Speaking of said church plant… what of it? I’m not sure yet – it is still a dream looking for a form. But I sense that form is coming. Part of that form-ing is the “who” question. Who will be part of the beginnings of this new community? We shall see.
Here’s another copy-paste from some church plant journaling I did in June:
Why another church? Because there is an “unreached people group” right next door. There is a missional space – a gapping hole actually – that God is calling us into. I believe that the time is right for a church in the gap… a church that connects young professionals, creatives, artists, single moms, stay-at-home dads, mystics, dreamers, blue-collar workers with and in the Kingdom of God and the Person of Christ. But this is not a church for everybody. This is not one-size-fits-all, generic, vanilla, mechanistic, programmatic, buffet-line church. This is not quick-fix, get out of jail free, self-help, with a dash of Jesus on the side church.
This is People of God church. This is community church, where we live and breathe and move as a community – a People (of God), a Body, a Band of Brothers (and Sisters) AND we care for, love, look after, tend to, cry over, work in, and live in our community (neighborhood, street, block, apartment building, dorm, village, ‘burb, and city). We are a church that is grounded in space and time. We are not merely an abstract, spirituality center for health and well-being; rather we are a living, breathing organism that is present in a place. We may not (and probably won’t) own any property, but we take seriously where we are. In fact, I would love for those who call us home live together or at least in close proximity to one another. What could it look like for more that 50% of our life together would be spent within walking distance of each other on a small group (house church) level. Our church network may span beyond walking distance, but we don’t walk by our neighbors to go serve God and other people somewhere else!
Time matters to us. We stand on the shoulders of 2,000 years of Jesus-following – we actively learn from and build on all of that rich (and sometimes poor) history. Our worship and our theology (the thoughts we think about God and related matters) live within the context of our heritage. We don’t worship the past, nor do we try to “get back to how it used to be”, we’re not stuck, still, or stasis. We innovate, experiment, create, and lean way out over the edge… but we don’t do it blindly or without a healthy measure of skepticism (and probably cynicism thrown in for good measure). We aren’t the greatest thing since sliced bread (or toasted communion wafer).