Kruse Kronicle

Learning to Fail Fast (in the church)

Lewis Center for Church Leadership: Learning to Fail Fast

"... Petrie advocates what he calls "vertical development" or the advancement in a person's capacity to think in "more complex, systemic, strategic, and interdependent ways (in contrast to horizontal development that adds knowledge, skills, and competencies). New leaders must think differently before they can act differently.

Often the qualities we see in church leaders are precisely those most associated with a low level of vertical development (dependent/conformer) — team player, faithful follower, reliant on authority, seeks direction, and aligns with others. A smaller number function at the next level (independent/achiever) — independent thinker, self-directed, drives an agenda, takes a stand for what they believe, and guided by an internal compass. But today's need is for the more highly developed independent/collaborator leader characterized as interdependent thinker; sees systems, patterns, and connections; longer-term thinking; holds multi-frame perspectives; and holds contradictions.

The new leader must be far more adaptable to changing circumstances. Collaboration is essential in order to span boundaries and develop networks. Leaders will need to be much more comfortable with ambiguity in order to be always looking for clues and patterns in the changing landscape. Just as important, this new way of leading must move beyond leaders to affect the entire organizational culture of the church. Congregations need to expect incomplete solutions, much trial and error, and a great deal of learning about themselves and their contexts. ..."

Amen. Reading this post brought to mind an article I read about Microsoft's evolving software development process. It used to be that Microsoft developed an operating system, released it, and then tried to stabilize it over the next three years. In the meantime, the next system was being designed, but you were mostly stuck with a given format for three years. It was much like building a house and moving in until you moved again in three years, and for that reason, each house had to be delivered pretty much as a fully functional operational house when you moved in. Now operating systems have ongoing updates. There are still occasional major revisions, but there is also constant evolution and correction. The church has got to think more that way as well. The article is somewhat lengthy but an interesting read: How Microsoft dragged its development practices into the 21st century

Saturday Links

1. Building Congregations Around Art Galleries and Cafes as Spirituality Wanes

"... Although the number of evangelical churches in the United States declined for many years, the trend reversed in 2006, with more new churches opening each year since, according to the Leadership Network's most recent surveys. This wave of "church planting" has been highest among nondenominational pastors, free to experiment outside traditional hierarchies.

"I hear a lot of pastors say, 'I'm not just trying to be creative and avant-garde, I think this is maybe the last chance for me,'" said Doug Pagitt, the founder of Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis.

Mr. Pagitt has written several books on church innovations, many of which were first developed in the "emergent" church movement of the last decade or among "missional" churches whose practices focus on life outside the church.

Many of their innovations are being adopted by an increasing number of pastors in the mainstream.

..."

2. Signs of Changes Taking Hold in Electronics Factories in China

... But in March, unbeknown to Ms. Pu, a critical meeting had occurred between Foxconn's top executives and a high-ranking Apple official. The companies had committed themselves to a series of wide-ranging reforms. Foxconn, China's largest private employer, pledged to sharply curtail workers' hours and significantly increase wages — reforms that, if fully carried out next year as planned, could create a ripple effect that benefits tens of millions of workers across the electronics industry, employment experts say.

Other reforms were more personal. Protective foam sprouted on low stairwell ceilings inside factories. Automatic shut-off devices appeared on whirring machines. Ms. Pu got her chair. This autumn, she even heard that some workers had received cushioned seats.

The changes also extend to California, where Apple is based. Apple, the electronics industry's behemoth, in the last year has tripled its corporate social responsibility staff, has re-evaluated how it works with manufacturers, has asked competitors to help curb excessive overtime in China and has reached out to advocacy groups it once rebuffed.

Executives at companies like Hewlett-Packard and Intel say those shifts have convinced many electronics companies that they must also overhaul how they interact with foreign plants and workers — often at a cost to their bottom lines, though, analysts say, probably not so much as to affect consumer prices. As Apple and Foxconn became fodder for "Saturday Night Live" and questions during presidential debates, device designers and manufacturers concluded the industry's reputation was at risk. ...

3. Yet another reflection on the impact of 3-D printing in Spiegel: Technology May Bring New Industrial Revolution

4. Some states are no longer requiring that cursive writing be taught. The Wall Street Journal laments The Lost Art of the Handwritten Note

5. Speaking writing, an e-company has developed a new spin on celebrity autographs: Is This Really the Future of the Autograph?

"...Launched in July, the Seattle-based Egraphs' business model is simple, but pretty clever. Fans can peruse the company website to see if their favorite athlete has partnered up with Egraphs. Each player's section has a number of professionally shot action photographs included, typically priced between $25 and $50. The fan pays and sends the athlete a message through the website, including some personal details or memories.

The athlete then receives that message on his custom iPad app, using the the information provided to write a personalized note and electronic autograph on the selected photo. The photo is then sent electronically to the fan, who can save it digitally, share it on social media or order a physical print. Revenue is split between company and athlete. ..."

6. Hispanic Pregnancies Fall in U.S. as Women Choose Smaller Families

7. Huffington Post ponders whether or not Biblical Baby Names Falling In Popularity

8. This month is the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion nationwide. Time magazine has a feature article about the Pro-Choice movement this week that suggests 1973 may have been the high-water mark for the movement. Unfortunately, the article is behind a paywall. Here is a short clip summarizing their take.

9. Why Are College Textbooks So Absurdly Expensive?

"...Academic Publishers will tell you that creating modern textbooks is an expensive, labor-intensive process that demands charging high prices. But as Kevin Carey noted in a recent Slate piece, the industry also shares some of the dysfunctions that help drive up the cost of healthcare spending. Just as doctors prescribe prescription drugs they'll never have to pay for, college professors often assign titles with little consideration of cost. Students, like patients worried about their health, don't have much choice to pay up, lest they risk their grades. Meanwhile, Carey illustrates how publishers have done just about everything within their power to prop up their profits, from bundling textbooks with software that forces students to buy new editions instead of cheaper used copies, to suing a low-cost textbook start-ups over flimsy copyright claims. ..."

10. Feeling thirsty? Consider that Bottled Water Is More Dangerous Than Tap Water.

11. Good news for history mystery buffs. Amelia Earhart Plane And Flight 19 Wreckage Could Be Found By New NOAA Technology

12. Baseball Pitchers like Phil Niekro, Tim Wakefield, and now, R. A. Dickey did their magic by throwing a knuckleball. Pitchers who master usually do very well, and it puts less stress on the arm. So why don't more pitchers throw it? Why the Knuckleball Isn't Thrown by More Pitchers in Major League Baseball

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Progressive vs. Emergence Christianity: From Where I Sit (Phyllis Tickle)

Patheos -Progressive Christian Portal:  Progressive vs. Emergence Christianity: From Where I Sit

Despite the sharing of conversations, there still are some distinct differences between Progressive Christianity and Emergence Christianity.

... Despite that sharing of conversationalists, however, there still are some distinct differences between Progressive Christianity and Emergence Christianity, at least three or four of which should be mentioned even in so brief an overview as this one. For example, Progressive Christianity pivots on social justice. Social justice is, likewise, a major concern and hallmark of Emergence Christianity, wherever in the Latinized world it may be forming and becoming operative. The difference—and it is, to me, a telling one—is in the underlying approach to the issue.

In dealing with matters of social justice, the Progressive stance and course of action generally are first intellectualized, then politicized, and finally formalized. By contrast, the Emergence posture or approach is far more pedestrian and humble in both its articulation and its delivery. Emergence Christians will defend vigorously their position that as long as some act of social justice has been a matter of "our doing something for them," the act is fundamentally one of enlightened or informed self-interest, if not plain old commonsense. Social justice, Emergence contends, really is—really must be—an exercise in "us helping each other" in whatever way possible here and now because of the bond of commonality that is Christ in all of us. ...

... Almost as remarkable is the way in which the operative approach to Scripture differs between the two groups. The Progressive stance, once again, is far more intellectualized than is that of Emergence. Born in a time of burgeoning Pentecostalism, Emergence Christianity and Emergence Christians are naturally inclined—increasingly so, in fact—toward the approach of communal discernment and direct appeal to the Holy Spirit for explication and direction. Such a stance allows Emergence to be more or less innocent of biblical literalism and far more inclined toward a kind of apophatic or Orthodox actualism.

Authority, for Emergence, is not yet firmly defined or ensconced, whereas for Progressives it tends to be fairly well rooted in situational, critical, and historical analysis. ...

The Future of the Mainline Church: PCUSA Stated Clerk Interviews Brian McLaren

Evangelicals ‘Crossing the Tiber’ to Catholicism

Religion Dispatches: Evangelicals ‘Crossing the Tiber’ to Catholicism

Under the radar of most observers a trend is emerging of evangelicals converting to Catholicism.

... McKnight first identified these converts eight years ago, and the trend has continued to grow in the intervening years. It shows up in a variety of places, in the musings of the late Michael Spencer (the “Internet Monk”) about his wife’s conversion and his decision not to follow, as well as at the Evangelical Theological Society where the former President and Baylor University professor Francis J. Beckwith made a well-documented “return to Rome.” Additionally, the conversion trend is once again picking up steam as the Millennial generation, the first to be born and raised in the contemporary brand of evangelicalism, comes of age. Though perhaps an unlikely setting, The King’s College, an evangelical Christian college in New York City, provides an excellent case study for the way this phenomenon is manifesting itself among young evangelicals. ...

Emerging Church and Mainliners

I've been saying for years that much of the emerging Church is simply Evangelicals embracing Mainline Protestant theology while experiencing reticence about Mainline institutions. While "emerging church" encompasses a broad range of expression, in the Mainline world, it is almost monotone. Emerging Mainliners have little dispute with Mainline theology or the deep commitment to progressive/liberal politics. It is overwhelmingly about polity, structures, and frustration with lethargy. In this sense, it is not genuinely post-evangelical and post-Mainline ... that is ...  it is not truly emergent. The Mainline emerging church does not embrace the emerging church movement because it is something new but precisely because it dovetails so perfectly with their theological and political persuasions. And it really borders on comical to listen to some emerging church types describe the emerging profound new reality when they are describing what Mainliners have been saying for decades. It is new and emerging to them only because their horizons have been so small.

At the PCUSA General Assembly this month, Landon Whitsitt, a pastor in my presbytery in the Kansas City metro (Heartland Presbytery), became the vice-moderator for the denomination. On some issues, I'm sure Landon and I are very different (for one thing, I don't have a PCUSA tattoo on my forearm) but read what he said in a recent interview with columnist Bill Tammeus:

What can the Emergent Church Movement, which has come primarily out of the evangelical branch of the church, teach the Mainline churches? On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is that movement?

"I don't know if ECM can 'teach' the Mainline anything, frankly. I have always kind of thought that the ECM is the vehicle that is dragging Evangelicalism into a form of faith similar to what the mainline churches experience.

"I'm sure they'd disagree, but, as an example, a lot of folks in the ECM are jazzed to the hilt about Walter Brueggemann right now. I'm so sick of Bureggemann after reading countless books during seminary. They love N.T. Wright. I'm not trying to be rude when I point out that those are Mainline folks.

"What the ECM challenges us on, however, is our creativity. We've gotten liturgically and politically lazy. No one wants to be a part of a bureaucratic institution anymore and no one wants to spend a hour on Sunday morning sitting through what is essentially a business meeting with some hymns. But 'emergence' in general (a la Tickle): This is nothing short of our age's Reformation. ...

Landon is spot on. I'd also add that, unlike some other segments of the ECM, within the Mainline, to be emerging is close to synonymous with being politically progressive in your cultural engagement. And in that sense, it feels to me very much like the emergence of a progressive tribalism that is a mirror of, say, Southern Baptist conservative tribalism. I'm sure whether all this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on your perspective. But I don't think it is emergent in the sense of deeply reassessing what it means to be the Church and our engagement with the world. It is the extension of Mainline sensibilities with new modes of relating.

Free-Marketeers, Environmentalists, and Emergent Church

Pileus: Why Free-Marketeers Should Be Environmentalists (And Vice Versa)

It is no original insight to note that ecologists and economists both derive equilibrium theories from the Darwinian assumption of natural selection of the traits of successful replicators – organisms for ecologists, firms for economists. Like an ecosystem, the economy is an “emergent” or “spontaneous” order, in which the decentralized actions of countless individuals generate a complex system with properties irreducible to those actions. Michael Polanyi and F.A. Hayek distinguish these spontaneous orders from planned orders, in which a system’s operation is guided or designed by a central engineer, and argue that spontaneous economic orders yield greater social welfare over the long run than planned ones.

Similarly, naturalists find that undisturbed ecosystems find their own equilibrium, in which each organism, as if guided by an invisible hand, seems to approach perfect adaptation to its niche relative to all other organisms. Extirpating one species or introducing another risks upsetting the equilibrium and extirpating more species. Since emergent orders are characterized by “tacit knowledge” unavailable to the outsider, we cannot easily replace them with designed orders that function “as if” spontaneous. Thus, the precise consequences of disturbing an ecosystem are as unpredictable as the precise consequences of disturbing a market (Bastiat’s “That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen” is relevant here).

The principal difference between economic and ecologic orders is that the former are composed of more-or-less rationally choosing actors, many of whom are consciously considering the ultimate equilibrium that will obtain in a given market, while the latter are composed of nonrational organisms behaving according to evolved instinct. What this means in practice is that we should expect economic orders to approach equilibrium more nearly and more quickly than ecologic orders, which must wait for generations of organisms to survive and reproduce before desirable traits are passed on. Nonrational organisms seem to learn less about assuring their collective survival over their own lifetimes than do humans.

These considerations tell us that human engineering or central planning of an ecosystem is unlikely to work for the benefit of the inhabitants. ...

And this ties in with my post in March at Jesus Creed, Selective Emergence? The "Emergent" or "emerging church" moniker came from chaos theory, focusing on how order emerges from seeming chaos. The emergence of quality in the eco-system and other parts of the natural world was a parallel with how people see the life of the Church unfolding.

When I first got acquainted with the emerging Church more than ten years ago, I fully expected to run into a bunch of libertarian-minded folks. After all, if emergence was so obvious in these arenas, how could you miss it in the economic sphere of life? On the contrary, I've found the emerging conversation dominated by political progressive or liberal mindsets. In fact, my perception is that in the PCUSA, "emerging church" and "progressive" are nearly used synonymously. "Emergence" is used selectively to legitimate selected cherished agendas but is opposed when it challenges notions of the political/economic order.

Selective Emergence?

I have a post up at Jesus Creed today about emergence, emerging church, and economics. Feel free to join the conversation: Selective Emergence?

What Became of Opposition to "Empire?"

Yesterday at Jesus Creed, Scot McKnight linked a great post by Allan Bevere where he raised an excellent question:

I know I am not the only one who has noticed that all the Christians comparing the USA to the Roman Empire during the reign of George W. Bush are strangely silent now that we are under the emperorship of Barack Obama. And yet, how much of President Obama's foreign policy looks virtually the same as his predecessor.

I've also been very aware of this absence and find it quite revealing. Here is what I wrote (slightly edited) in a lengthy comment.

The defining feature of Empire is its totalitizing agenda. Everything and everyone must come under the service of the Empire. That certainly has implications for how and empire relates to those outside its immediate influence but it equally involves how it subjugates those who reside in the empire.

Liberals have used the Empire motif for American international interventions under Republican leadership. It is a characterization worthy of reflection. But what about the Empire building of progressivism?

Not long before being elected senator, Obama talked of a Second Bill of Rights … channeling FDR. It is a common mindset shared by the left. The original Bill of Rights lists “negative” rights, telling what the government will not do. The Second Bill of Rights would be “positive” rights guaranteeing everyone a home, health care, education, recreation, and so on. In other words, government moves from being a referee for free and virtuous people taking responsibility for themselves and their communities to government being the direct or indirect provider of every aspect of our basic existence. Every sphere of life … business, education, medicine, compassionate care … becomes an extension of government management used toward government’s guarantee of positive rights. All institutions and traditions in our various spheres of life are made to serve the Empire.

If you’ve read much of Roman history you will know that Rome was a Republic until just a couple generations before Christ was born. There was some separation of powers and checks on power in a system governed by patricians and plebes, each with their own pyramidal network of client/patron connections. With the rise of the Empire, Augustus and later Caesars began to portray Rome as a household with Caesars as the paterfamilias of the household. All other households were now clients to the one household of Caesar.

At Christ's birth there was still a considerable distribution of social strata running from senator to slave. But over the next two or three centuries, freedoms eroded while land and produce was steadily siphoned away from citizens by powerful government elites to the point that the elaborate hierarchy of Roman society had been flattened to a handful of wealthy elite and everyone else. That was the Empire that had just found its legs during the era of the N.T. Church.

Thus, Empire isn’t just about international expansionism but bringing every sphere of life under one authority placing those spheres into the service of that authority. True Anabaptists that I have known over the years get that. That is why they come out from society to be a separate witness. What I don’t get are the self-proclaimed Hauerwasian Emergent style Anabaptists who level the Empire critique against Republican internationalism while actively and fervently campaigning for social progressivism. It strikes me merely as social progressivism dressed up in spiritual language.

I’m not an Anabaptist but neither do I believe political solutions are the primary answer to most human problems. The threat of Empire is ever present yet I believe we are called to be present in all spheres of human life, and discerning how best we can continue to nudge our communities and structures toward a more shalom –filled world. My experience is that most of the Empire talk has little to do with robust theological analysis and much to do with legitimizing political agendas.

Knocking Holes in the Darkness - Adam Hamilton

SMU: Knocking Holes in the Darkness

The Rev. Adam Hamilton, pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, is the recipient of the 2010 Perkins School of Theology Distinguished Alumnus Award.

The award recognizes a Perkins graduate who has demonstrated effectiveness and integrity in service to the church, continuing support and involvement in the goals of Perkins School of Theology and SMU, distinguished service in the wider community, and exemplary character.

Rev. Hamilton was appointed in 1990 to a start-up mission in Leawood, Kansas, a southern suburb of Kansas City. He has overseen the growth of that congregation, the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, into one of the largest in United Methodism, with a membership of more than 12,000.

Following is the text of his acceptance speech. You may also hear/download a recording of the speech or read more about him.

Hamilton frames his remarks:

... But I’m going to do that by speaking of three tasks I think we must be about if we are going to be effective Christian leaders today.  We must,

 •  Preach sermons that speak to both the head and the heart
 •  Help people make sense of God in the light of their experience of the world
 •  Help churches move from an inward focus to an outward, missional focus.

Great stuff! Check it out.

Smart guys on the future of the mainline

Call and Response Blog: Smart guys on the future of the mainline Jason Byassee

One advantage of my job is getting to meet the smart, dedicated church leaders who attend our Leadership Education events. Recently I got to meet with two: a terrific young UCC conference minister named Mike Denton and the well-known author Brian McLaren. I put the question of the future of the mainline to both of them, and asked especially about the effect of the economic downturn.

Denton, a member of the UCC’s Pacific Northwest Conference staff, lives in culturally liberal Seattle. It’s a region that often called “the None zone,” since so many people check “none” in survey boxes for their religious adherence. The UCC, like other churches, has been hard hit economically out there -- so much so that ministers have been forced to take sabbaticals every year. Many take the summer months off. This has had two surprising benefits. One, the pastors come back refreshed and ready to do ministry. “They read, they think expansively about their ministry, and they come back recharged with ideas and energy and ready to go,” Denton said. Two, lay people are learning that the minister is not the only minister in the congregation. For a quarter of the year, while the pastor is on forced sabbatical, the place is theirs and only theirs. “We’re going to do more lay training,” Denton said. ...

... McLaren is well-known as a leading light of the Emerging Church Movement, though he spends less time these days with his former travelers among evangelicals and more with mainline church leaders. He draped praise on the heads of denominations with whom he was meeting, saying such dedicated churchmen and women give him hope. He pointed to one innovative idea from a mainline denominational executive that will see several thousand seminary graduates next year. The communion only foresees having some 200 openings, and most of those will not go to fresh-faced newbies just out of school. There will be hundreds of young ministers without work. What should they do?

McLaren sees the Anglican movement called “Fresh Expressions” as a source of creative inspiration. Here the Church of England has granted status as recognized ministries to whatever an ordained pastor chooses to bless with her or his time and ministry. So, one priest has chosen to take on a local skating group. Kids were using a church parking lot illicitly, to the consternation of the church, especially for insurance reasons. So this priest said the gathering would now be a “church,” got the Church of England to recognize it as a “Fresh Expression,” and baptized several dozen skaters. ...

Proof of our pluralistic culture

PGF Outbox: Proof of our pluralistic culture

Whenever I am speak to a church or group of lay leaders about the missional church movement, I inevitably spend the greatest amount of time trying to convince them that "Christendom" is over.  From now on I am going to come with the new Gap Ad ready to play.  If you haven't seen it, watch it :

For the record, I like the artistic composition of this ad.  I think the costumes (Gap clothes) are fun and the dancers are talented and beautiful.  The choreography is top-notch.  High school dance teams the nation over will be mimicking this ad all year.

Let's take a look at the lyrics:

2, 4, 6, 8!
'Tis the time to liberate!
Go Christmas!
Go Hanukkah!
Go Kwanzaa!
Go Solstice!
Go classic tree, go plastic tree, go plant a tree, go without a tree!
You 86 the rules!
You do what just feels right!
Happy do whatever you want-a-kah and to all a cheery night!

First notice that Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Solstice are all equated. But of course, they are very different holidays. ...

... The missional church movement begins by acknowledging that proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is a radical, counter-cultural act that requires courage and conviction.  If you don't believe that being a Christian is outside the norm of American culture, then just watch this ad again.  And then imagine how your church needs to change inside and out to reach secular Americans with the Good News.

Read the whole thing. Great post.

"Deep Church" - Book Review

Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional

Just over ten years ago, my friend Steve told me he was part of a core group that wanted to plant a church in my neighborhood, not far from downtown Kansas City, MO. He wanted to know if I knew of a place they could meet. I suggested the unused third floor of our church building. That was the beginning of Jacob’s Well, an emerging congregation pastored by Tim Keel.

The struggling Presbyterian (PCUSA) congregation of which I was a part played the supporting role of landlord and cheerleader from 1998 until 2003 to the newer merging congregation. In 2003, the Presbyterian congregation dissolved and sold the facility to Jacob’s Well. Jacob’s Well now has three Sunday worship services and a vibrant ministry presence in the community.

I found a lot in common with Jacob’s Well and the questions they wrestled with. I’ve attended a couple of Emergent Village events. I’ve attended local discussion groups. I continue to read books, articles, and blogs by several key personalities connected with the emerging church (of which Emergent Village is but one expression.) There is also a community of Emergent folks inside the PCUSA called Presbymergent that I follow. I’ve been at least at the edge of the emerging church movement since before it … well … emerged. So what is the emerging church all about? 

Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional is a book by Jim Belcher, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Newport Beach, CA. Belcher offers a brief account of how the emerging church came to be and acquaints readers with the significant contours of at least the American expression of it. I like his characterization of the emerging church movement as a desire for what C. S. Lewis called mere Christianity or “deep church.”

Belcher lays the defining features of traditional Evangelicalism and characterizes the Emerging church as a protest movement against Evangelicalism’s cooption by Modernism. While many emerging church folks share some common critique of traditional Evangelicalism, Belcher identifies three types of responses:

The Relevants. Still hold to traditional theology but believe that worship and ministry need a serious makeover for the message to become more relevant to the postmodern world.

The Reconstructionists. Tend to be influenced by Anabaptist “resident aliens” perspectives and a desire to return to a pre-Constantinian early church model … they hold to more orthodox views of Scripture but see a need for more radical change in mission and ecclesiology.

The Revisionists. They are questioning core theological understandings and virtually every other aspect of what has historically been known as Christian. This third group includes some key leaders of the Emergent Village and is the group that most people first think of when the “emerging church” moniker is mentioned. (It is also safe to say that most Mainline Christians who call themselves emerging are of this camp.)

Over the last two-thirds of the book, “Protest, Reaction and the Deep Church,” Belcher walks us through seven key issues the emerging church is protesting. With each, he explains how traditional Evangelicalism has responded to the protest and then how he sees Deep Church as a response. The book is written in a very engaging, gracious conversational style, with Belcher offering considerable autobiographical accounts that relate to his journey and the formation of the church he planted.

I think Belcher has his finger squarely on the pulse of what is happening with the emerging church. He offers some insights into how church could be done differently that escapes some of the Evangelical versus emerging church conflict, as well as some useful insights about church that have applications beyond that conversation.

The book also really taught me why I always feel like an outsider to the emerging church conversation. My frame of reference is Mainline Christianity, which has a different set of Modernist baggage than Evangelicals. Postmodernism presents major challenges here as well. The only “emerging church” conversation I find is with those who identify strongly with Belcher’s Revisionist group. I’m not a Revisionist. Go to any emerging church venue that Revisionists don’t dominate, and it’s like walking in on someone else’s family squabble (i.e., Evangelicals versus Emerging). Where is the conversation for non-Revisionist mainliners who aren’t Hauerwas Anabaptists or McLaren social progressives but see the need for a serious rethinking of what it means to be the church? This is not a criticism of Belcher’s book but rather an acknowledgment of how his clarity helps bring other issues into focus.

If you want to get a handle on what the Evangelical and emerging church controversy is about, and gain considerable insight into alternatives to the controversy, you need to read this book. It is one of the best two or three books I’ve read on the emerging church movement. Hat’s off to Belcher for a very important contribution to the conversation.

Emergent Pencils and the Emerging Church

This week marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most brilliant and enjoyable economic essays ever written. It's titled I Pencil: My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read. It beautifully illustrates that no one is in charge of making pencils (there is no pencil czar),, yet there is always an abundant supply of pencils. It demonstrates the concept of emergence within economies.

What I find particularly fascinating is that this essay, now fifty years old, captures many of the dynamics that led Emerging Church leaders to label their movement emergent or emerging. Order seems to spontaneously emerge from independent entities pursuing their own aims without direction from large institutional structures. With emerging church folks, there is a decided bias against structures that try to shape and control how things should operate based on this understanding of emergence. Anti-denominational sentiments are strong, or there is at least a denominational minimalism.

My appreciation of the emergence encountered in my studies of physical science and economics attracted me to the emerging church conversation as it was forming ten years ago. But over the years, I've become less and less interested in this conversation as I've tried to engage with economic issues. Emergent Christians are among some of the least emergent-thinking people I encounter regarding economic questions. There is a widely shared embrace of social progressivism with its belief that a centralized government entity can produce the best and most just economy.

If you read my blog, you know I'm a big believer in market economies, but I repeatedly acknowledge that people are not entirely rational utility-maximizing machines, and markets do not function with perfection. I'm not a libertarian. There is a place for government. But on the Church front, unlike so many Emergent folks, I do believe there is a role for larger institutional structures. Whether it is governments or denominations, their role is to "tend the soil" so that vibrant and healthy things can emerge. They also help resist parasites and other threats to the environment.

My frustration with the Emergent conversation is that folks frequently overplay the emergence within the church and are virtually oblivious to emergence in economic matters. We need better reflection on how emergence works and the role of large entities across a range of social contexts.

Jesus as an Emergent Talker

Jesus the Radical Pastor: Jesus as an Emergent Talker

Exhausted from global warming in oppressed Palestine, Jesus chilled at Jacob’s Well in the realm of “the other” called Samaria.

Jesus’ cohort left him to buy organic at the nearest kiosk.

A Samaritan woman-”the other to the second power”-approached the community’s gathering space, carrying the symbol of her status in a harsh patriarchal culture.

Jesus said, “Water is good. Water is to be shared. Water is life. May we share in a drink of water together?” He lit two candles, too, symbolizing the two flames of life at the well.

The woman replied, “I am in the oppressed class (Samartian) and you are in the religiously oppressive class (Jew). I am victim. You are power. How is it that you encounter me in an egalitarian way in a world of power-assigned values?”

Jesus pushed back, “Woman, I am post-Jewish. I am post-Second Temple Judaism. I am assigning new symbolic value to people, places and religion itself. I am on a journey through liminal space into the emerging reality.”

“Friend,” the woman asked, “what will this new reality be?” ...

This one is just hilarious!

PCUSA and Missional Church

What does “missional” mean? Earlier this month, I was at a Presbyterian Church, USA meeting that included presbytery and synod executives, General Assembly Council members, and a few other leaders of denominational entities (see earlier post). We had read articles by Darrell Guder in advance and then heard a presentation on being missional by Guder to kick off our time together.

As the group engaged in small group discussions, it was clear that the term “missional” had a range of diverse meanings for us; some would likely be unrecognizable to those who first popularized the term. Feedback from small groups suggested that we must first define “missional” before we seek to explore its implications for our lives together. There was real doubt about whether or not we Presbyterians could ever settle on such a definition.

However, some among us asserted that we had already defined “missional.” Chapter 3 of the PCUSA Book of Order describes being “missional.” Here is what the writing team offered as a “definition” of missional. What do you think for those of you who are passionate about being a missional church?

The Church and its mission is given by God’s activity in the world as told in the Bible and understood by faith….

The Church of Jesus Christ is the provisional demonstration of what God intends for all of humanity. The Church is called to be a sign in and for the world of the new reality, which God has made available to people in Jesus Christ. The new reality revealed in Jesus Christ is the new humanity, a new creation, a new beginning for human life in the world: Sin is forgiven. Reconciliation is accomplished. The dividing walls of hostility are torn down.

The Church is the body of Christ, both in its corporate life and in the lives of its individual members, and is called to give shape and substance to this truth. The Church is called to tell the good news of salvation by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Lord, proclaiming in Word and Sacrament that the new age has dawned. God who creates life, frees those in bondage, forgives sin, reconciles brokenness, makes all things new, is still at work in the world.

The Church is called to present the claims of Jesus Christ, leading persons to repentance, acceptance of him as Savior and Lord, and new life as his disciples.

The Church is called to be Christ’s faithful evangelist going into the world, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all he has commanded; demonstrating by the love of its members for one another and by the quality of its common life the new reality in Christ; sharing in worship, fellowship, and nurture, practicing a deepened life of prayer and service under the guidance of the Holy Spirit; participating in God’s activity in the world through its life for others by healing and reconciling and binding up wounds, ministering to the needs of the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the powerless, engaging in the struggle to free people from sin, fear, oppression, hunger, and injustice, giving itself and its substance to the service of those who suffer, sharing with Christ in the establishing of his just, peaceable, and loving rule in the world.

The Church is called to undertake this mission even at the risk of losing its life, trusting in God alone as the author and giver of life, sharing the gospel, and doing those deeds in the world that point beyond themselves to the new reality in Christ.

The Church is called… to a new openness to the possibilities and perils of its institutional forms in order to ensure the faithfulness and usefulness of these forms to God’s activity in the world, [and] to a new openness to God’s continuing reformation of the Church ecumenical, that it might be a more effective instrument of mission in the world.

(Book of Order, Chapter III, “The Church and Its Mission,” G‐3.0100, 3.0200‐3.0400, 3.0401c,d.)

Emerging Theology, Liberal Politics

Christianity Today: Emerging Theology, Liberal Politics

...Liberal politics and emerging theology go hand in hand. But what is the connection? Must one lead to the other?

Christians are drawn to the emerging church for many reasons. Many are uncomfortable with the evangelical status quo, especially the bond between conservative politics and conservative theology. Others simply see the winds of culture shifting, and they don't want to be left behind. But I would suggest some deeper connections between liberal politics and emerging theology. ...

But despite the emerging church's talk about community, postmodernism actually encourages greater individualism. It does this through a view called perspectivalism. At its best, perspectivalism reminds us that our knowledge is limited and conditioned at least in part by our experience. ... however, this means all theology is temporary. It is relative; it doesn't transcend time or geography. Extreme perspectivalism can wreak havoc on biblical hermeneutics. How are we supposed to apply the Bible's teaching today? ...

...This kind of perspectivalism compounds existing problems for evangelicals trying to make policy judgments. Evangelicals don't have a long history of sophisticated political thinking. We too often confuse ends with means. ...

...History teaches us another lesson. We celebrate those Christians like Bonhoeffer or Wilberforce who stood on biblical principle and challenged the evils of their day. Timeless theology enabled them to see what their contemporaries sinfully ignored....

Collin Hansen offers some wonderful insights in this article.

McLaren Emerging

Christianity Today: McLaren Emerging (by Scot McKnight)

In his last two books, Brian McLaren presents more clearly than ever his vision of the gospel.

The most stable location for the earliest understandings of the Cross, from Jesus all the way through the New Testament writings, is the Last Supper—and not a word is said there about violence and systemic injustice. Other words are given to explain the event: covenant, forgiveness of sins, and blood "poured out for many." Insight into the Cross must start here. In fact, I question whether a cross that only undoes violence is enough to create liberation, peace, and a kingdom vision. Can McLaren's view of the Cross create the emergent understanding of kingdom? ...

Emergent Village is the Antichrist

David Brush has uncovered incontrovertible evidence, through Google Reader, that Emergent Village is of the Antichrist.

The Church Basement Roadshow - Kansas City, MO

Tera Yakel sent me an email announcing that:

Jacob’s Well will host the Kansas City leg of The Church Basement Roadshow A Rollin’ Gospel Revival on Sunday, July 13th at 7:30 pm in the sanctuary.

The tour featuring Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt and Mark Scandrette will hit thirty-two cities across the U.S., with a message that combines old time revival flair with a 21st century gospel. Tony, Doug, and Mark will present a 90-minute show (including a 20-minute intermission) that will combine humor and passion, speaking and video, preaching and dialogue. Audiences will be entertained, to be sure, but, more importantly, they will be given a vision of an alternative Christianity. There is a $10 suggested donation at the door.

I saw the event in San Jose a couple of weeks ago and wrote a review here. It's worth your time. I don't know that I'll be at this event as I have just finished my softball game and will likely be in traction.

A View from the Pew of One Emerging Presbyterian Woman on the Recent GA

Here is a letter from one of my loyal Presbyterian readers in California and an avid Emerging Church conversationalist. She wrote this letter to Bruce Reyes-Chow, our new moderator, in response to a post he wrote Can we agree to disagree about homosexuality? She expresses well what I hear others saying. (Name is withheld, but if you want to hunt it down in the comments, you're welcome to.)

****************

Hi Bruce. I'm grateful that folks had the sense to elect a younger moderator with the sensibilities you seem to have (not trying to sound rude, it's just that I haven't heard of you before...). May God bless you and your work. Since you have a blog and have asked for input, here goes.
 
The commenter above who said that most PCUSA people are not at the extremes is correct. Not only that, but it's my experience that most PCUSA people don't even have the denominational structure/leadership on their radar screens. Except for dust-ups that come from hearing about what happened with the latest hot-button issue at the latest GA, the denominational workings are *totally irrelevant* to the average congregant. We  therefore have a *functionally* congregational ("Baptist"?!!) polity in terms of how we actually do what we do in any given congregation. There are two reasons the PCUSA has held together as long as it has, and I think they would apply to the other Presbyterian iterations in this country, if I understand the history aright. One is that there is some sort of agreement on the constitution and what it means to abide by it by those in leadership on the presbytery level, even with all the tension. The other is that there are (still) lots of Presbyterians who are loyal to the denomination and derive their identity from being Presbyterian. (Neither one of these is a bad thing, although the latter sometimes is carried too far, imo.)
 
Now we are asked -yet again- to vote to amend the constitution. We have already done this, as another commenter has said, at least twice in recent memory, with the same results both times. Therefore, istm that the message is clear:  the majority in the middle of a mainline denomination does not want the constitution amended on this matter. I think an amicable, gracious split would not be the worst that could happen; it would surely be better than the unamicable ones of the past. In that case, since the majority wants to abide by the constitution as it is, it would seem to me that it is incumbent upon those who have tried and failed to change it to leave, with their property and pensions, and form their own constitution that they can abide by.
 
You speak of faithfulness. If we call ourselves Christians, I agree that it is important to be faithful, first of all to Jesus:  the incarnate God/man who lived, called people to the Kingdom of God (as 1st C. Jews understood that idea), was crucified and died, and bodily arose on the third day. I have difficulty with the concept of ordaining people who deny that Jesus is both God and Man and that he was bodily resurrected after having been dead. That is what marks Christianity out from all other religions; indeed, it is the only explanation for the existence of Christianity at all. I'm not going to presume to judge about anyone's eternal destiny- that is God's business only- and I know we're all over the map in our theological understandings. But istm that that needs to be the first order of faithfulness in our leadership if we're going to call ourselves Christian. We have "fudged" on this one for a long time, at least 40 years.
 
WRT "the hot-button issue", most Presbyterians I know hold to what has been the teaching of Christianity from the beginning:  1) Jesus accepts everyone. (Acceptance in and of itself is not the issue. Demonizing or otherwise belittling same-sex attracted people is just plain wrong.)  2) Overseers are to be faithful to one (other-gender) spouse if married and celibate if single. No one attempting either one of these avenues of faithfulness would say either is easy; but neither are they impossible. (Slavery and ordaining women are not comparable, in terms of our being "more enlightened now", because there were early Christian voices against slavery, and the only voices against slavery until very recently have been Christian; and in the early years of the church there were ordained women, especially to the diaconate, for a significant amount of time, and women have continued to serve  even in the years when women's ordination was lost. Divorce might be comparable, but even so it is still considered to be a sin, or at least a grave failing.)
 
I come to this discussion from "the outside". I was not raised in the Presbyterian church and have been a member for only 8½ years. Though I have been a part of several Christian traditions, I am not a church hopper; in 52 years, I've made two church changes because of conscience, and the rest because I've moved to a different town. My husband and I will probably move again within a few years, and I don't envision myself continuing as a Presbyterian. I live in a small town, so my church options are limited. I love the people in my PCUSA congregation. They accept me and help me serve where I am gifted and called, and they seem to think I help them too. They hold generally to theological understandings I can agree to in good conscience. That is why I am currently a Presbyterian.
 
I am otherwise pretty ambivalent about the denomination. Because of the way the P. church governance is set up, it does feel mechanistic and moribund, and sometimes it looks like the leadership, even "down to" the presbytery level, is about power struggles, if not on the ordination issue, then others. That's the down side. The up side is that the PCUSA supports many who are faithful to Jesus and care about people, who do a great deal of good in their communities and all over the world. 
 
I am not an inerrantist, but I do believe words have meanings. I feel like most of those who are for ordaining non-celibate gays and lesbians have been trying to pull the rug out from under the feet of most PCUSA-ers, especially in instances of using the same words but changing their meanings.
 
I think the emerging conversation is one of the best things happening in the global church, and I'm very glad the PCUSA is a significant conversation partner in its US expression.
 
Thanks again for listening.

D.

Church Basement Roadshow - San Jose

I'm in San Jose for the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly. My first day here was a non-stop string of meetings from 8:00 am to 6:30 pm, but I made the fifteen-minute walk to First Presbyterian Church just in time to see the Church Basement Roadshow: A Rollin' Gospel Revival.

The event is a combination of book readings and musical theater. Doug Pagitt, Mark Scandrette, and Tony Jones are three Emergent leaders who take on the personas of 1908 revivalists. Similarities between our world and the world of 100 years ago are cleverly demonstrated. Interspersed throughout the event are some engaging video clips and readings from books each of the three has recently written. If the show comes to your area, you should check it out. Here are a couple of pics.

Here are Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones:

Here are Tony Jones and Mark Scendrette:

Top ten reasons why the emerger didn’t cross the road?

Last week I presented ten reasons why the emergent chicken crossed the road. Now Michael Patton has identified the top ten reasons why the emergent chicken didn’t cross the road. Check it out!

Why I’m not a Red Letter Christian

Are you a Red Letter Christian? "Red Letter" refers to versions of the Bible that put direct quotes from Jesus in red ink. Red Letter Christians believe that the ethics and teaching taught directly by Jesus should take priority over other agendas presented in the Bible. Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis are two figures who have been prominent advocates of this framework. In fact, Sojourners has created what they call the Red Letter Christian Network. The listing of leaders in the network includes (among others) Randall Balmer, Diana Butler Bass, Shane Claiborne, Obery Hendricks, Tony Jones, Brian McLaren, Ron Sider, and Barbara Brown Taylor.

I reject this title and always have. It strikes me as an overreaction to excesses many perceive to have come from the religious right. I believe this new Red Letter agenda is as flawed as the agenda it seeks to replace. Why? To answer that, I'm going to give you this wonderful excerpt from Jack Stackhouse's Making the Best of it: Following Christ in the Real World. This comes from a section dealing with mistaken perceptions of what it means to imitate Christ.

“What would Jesus do?’ therefore is the wrong question for Christian ethics. If we keep asking it, moreover, we will keep making the perennial mistakes many have made, such as prioritizing church work over daily trades (“because Jesus gave up carpentry for preaching the gospel”); valorizing singleness, at least for clergy (”because Jesus didn’t marry”); and denigrating all involvement in the arts, politics, or sports (“because we never read of Jesus painting a picture or participating in political discussions, much less kicking a ball”). Instead, “What would Jesus want me or us to do, here and now?” is the right question – or, if I may, Who are we, for Jesus Christ today?

Connected with this material issue, the issue of the imitation of Christ as the main motif of Christian discipleship, is a formal issue for ethical method. Many Christians, including some quite sophisticated theologians, seem to equate the priority of Christ himself versus other figures with the priority of the gospels versus other books of the Bible, such as the prophets or the epistles. But this is an important hermeneutical error (bemusingly reminiscent of 1 Cor. 1:12: “I belong to Paul” or “I belong to Cephas” or “I belong to Christ.”), and in at least four respects.

First, even though the gospels come first in the canon of the New Testament, they are probably not the earliest testimonies to Jesus in the Bible. Paul’s early letters, most scholars agree, predate most or all of the four gospels. So if we are seeking access to the most primitive layer of “Jesus tradition,” in terms of whole books (rather than this pericope or that saying or this hymn or that parable in the gospels), Paul’s work would deserve priority.

Second, we should not be privileging whatever we guess is the earlier material in the New Testament versus the later, because all of it is inspired by God and therefore has the same status: Holy Scripture. Any historian knows that sometimes later accounts are better than earlier ones precisely because the later accounts can have benefited from access to several earlier accounts plus perspective that only time can bring. So there is neither theological nor historical ground for preferring “earlier” to “later” – and that goes for preferring Mark’s gospel to John’s too.

Third, privileging the gospels in the name of privileging Jesus would make sense in terms of the relative status of the Lord Jesus versus his disciples, the epistle writers Paul, Peter, John, and others. But the gospels are authored not by Jesus but by other Christians: traditionally, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So to privilege them is simply to prefer Matthew to Paul, or Mark to Peter, or John to, well, John (I-III John) – which reduces to a preference of genre, of gospels versus epistles. Such a preference hardly has literary or theological merit. (Indeed, the championing of the gospels over the rest of the New Testament is particularly odd coming from educated Christians, who sound as if they have discovered a red-letter edition of the Bible, except that their new version prints all of the gospels in red ink, while the rest of the Bible remains in black.)

Finally, the story of Jesus is, of course, the key to history. But to emphasize the gospels over the rest of the New Testament is to forget that Jesus is Lord over all of history, Head of the church that succeeds him in earthly ministry, and in fact Author of the whole New Testament via the inspiration of the Holy Spirit – as he is the God who inspired the whole Bible. The better hermeneutical path, therefore, is to keep clearly in view what each of the books of the Bible has to offer us and to draw upon them according to their distinctive natures, regarding not only their genre strengths and limitations but also the place of their subject matter in the Christian Story. We Christians are not to be forever repristinating the experience of the disciples trooping about with Christ in ancient Judea – nor, for that matter, the experience of the disciples in the early chapters of Acts. For there are more chapters in Acts, and the unfinished nature of the book has itself prompted many readers to the conclusion that God intends the rest of the church to keep writing it, generation by generation, until the Lord of the church returns, to fulfill the promise made at the book’s beginning (Acts 1:11) (190-192)

Amen!

Why did the Emergent Chicken Cross the Road?

Why did the Emergent Chicken cross the road? Here are my top ten reasons in no particular order:

• The Chicken was drawn to the candles and incense on the other side of the road.
• There was a Hauerwas discussion group at the coffee shop on the other side of the road.
• The idea to cross the road emerged from the chicken’s generative cohort.
• It was more “post” on the other side of the road. (i.e, postmodern, post-evangelical, post-colonial, post-institutional, post-post, etc. Pick your favorite "post.")
• D. A. Carson showed up on the chicken’s side of the road.
• Obama was on the other side of the road.
• To demonstrate that it is more environmentally sustainable to walk across the road than to drive across the road.
• Bono said crossing the road would save Africa.
• The chicken was seeking change.  Everything must change!
• The question is merely a foundationalist modernist attempt to distill complex realities down to a single proposition in accordance with some metanarrative.

Any others to suggest?

Emergent's New Christians and the Young and Restless Reformed

Christianity Today: Emergent's New Christians and the Young and Restless Reformed

A new movement is attracting a younger generation of Christians, shaking up institutions, denominations, and churches along the way. Not everyone in the movement is attracted to it for the same reasons, but they gather at conferences and online to share thoughts, debate, and learn from the elder statesmen of the group. Now a new book attempts to explain, sympathetically, what's really going on.

Actually, it's two books, and two movements.

Collin Hansen's Young, Restless, Reformed started as a September 2006 Christianity Today article. Now editor-at-large for Christianity Today, Hansen has examined why many young Christians are drawn to Calvinism, whom these new Calvinists are listening to, and what they're passionate about.

Hansen's book begins with a note comparing the relative obscurity of the new Calvinism and the prominence of the emerging church. Among his interviewees was Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village, and author of the new book The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier.

Jones is the author of several previous books, but The New Christians is more journalistic in its approach, describing the origins of the emerging church, why it's growing, and how it's changing.

The books and movements share a number of themes: reaction against entertainment-driven church life, desire for transcendence, rediscovery of tradition, and a need to answer common misconceptions about the movements. Christianity Today invited Hansen and Jones to read each other's books and discuss how the rise of one movement might illuminate aspects of the rise of the other. Are both movements scratching the same itch? Are there internal tensions in one movement that also appear in the other?

The conversation will continue over several days. ...

MEC: Concluding Post on "Everything Must Change"

It is time to close this series on Brian McLaren's Everything Must Change. I've focused on the economic aspects of the book. There is far more to the book than this. Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed did a broader eighteen-part series on the book last fall. (In fact, six posts into my series, I realized I had unconsciously stolen his series title.) It is a good series with far less snarkiness than mine. :)

I like the effort this book makes to think systemically. The "Kingdom of God versus the Empire" is an important theological lens. The book has its moments in raising some important issues. Yet the rhetoric and frequent one-dimensional analysis were so irksome that I found it hard to focus on positive contributions.

At the conclusion of McKnight's series, he writes:

This book needs to be seen as a definitive book for emergent and from now on no one can speak responsibly about emergent without knowing this book. As you know, I am keen on using “emerging” for the larger movement and “emergent” for the think tank facilitated by Emergent Village. This book, so it seems to me, while not speaking for anyone but Brian, will be definitive for the emergent dimension of the emerging movement.

I agree that McLaren's book captures the ethos of the emergent conversation (and I share McKnight's distinction about "emergent.”) Frankly, that is what I find the most disappointing. Here are my primary contentions with the book and, by extension, with the ethos of the emergent conversation.

Parochialism of the Present

In C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, the demon Screwtape presents advice to his demon apprentice nephew Wormwood on how to divert human beings into making bad decisions (copied from Good Intentions, p. 24)

“The enemy loves platitudes,” Screwtape writes. “Of a proposed course of action He wants men, so far as I can see, to ask very simple questions; is it righteous? is it prudent? is it possible? Now if we can keep men asking “Is it in accordance with the general movement of our time? Is it progressive or reactionary? Is this the way history is going?’ they will neglect the relevant questions.”

McLaren's book has no grounding in history. It seems to suggest that before the developments of the past couple of centuries, humanity lived in sustainable bucolic bliss. Then evil theocapitlists came along, invented poverty, and drove the masses into it. As we saw, life has been highly precarious for the masses throughout history. The changes of the last two centuries have brought unprecedented improvements to most people across the globe, albeit at an uneven rate (just as with any other human innovation we've witnessed.)

Instead of celebrating these developments and asking how we might more justly expand the good and minimize the bad, McLaren labels all this as a theocapitalist "suicide machine," born of the Enlightenment, and moves to "free us" from it. He denounces economic growth as an abstraction but replaces it with abstractions of "sustainable growth" and "the common good." Instead of asking the threefold question of what is righteous, prudent, and possible, he offers ideals of sharing, loving, and oneness with nature. Concerning details of implementing this new vision, he reminds us, "…Jesus was unconcerned with those details; he left them up to people like us, I think, to work out." (214) Who are these "people like us?"

In his previous book, The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything, In Appendix I ("Why Didn't We Get it Sooner?"), McLaren notes that all the writers who've impacted him significantly are contemporaries. He gives eight reasons why he believes this is valid, and we should privilege these more recent understandings. Before giving his reasons, he writes:

…Those reasons do not include any arrogant or naïve notions that we in the twenty-first century are somehow better or smarter or more enlightened than our sisters or brothers from times past. Standing on their shoulders, then, we look back and consider a number of possible reasons for our slowness to see the message of the kingdom. In fact, without their legacy we couldn’t see what we now see. (211)

How can we see better and be better informed, yet we are not more enlightened? In short, "people like us" are people who "get" the secret message of the Kingdom, know that everything must change, are not obligated to learn from the wisdom of the past, throw prudence and practicality to the wind, declare themselves to have better sight, and lead people in the emerging direction of our time. I'm being a little sarcastic here to make my case, but this is the vibe I get from McLaren and the vibe I feel from many emergent conversations. It feels very Wormwoodian. :)

Neo-Malthusiansim

I found considerable murkiness about several important issues in this book, but McLaren's neo-Malthusian commitment was crystal clear. It is pivotal to themes that are pervasive throughout the book. Malthusianism links back to the parochialism described above. Locked in the present, it projects present realities into the future unaltered by the dynamic evolving nature of market economies.

When political and economic freedoms are present, a dynamic feedback loop is created between societal wants and resources. Wants and needs, adapt and change. Improved resource extraction and processing technologies drive costs lower. Substitute resources are devised as some resources become more costly (and as noted, there are few items, even steel, for which it is impossible to conceive of renewable replacements.) Side effects of production are addressed by replacing imperfect technologies with less imperfect technologies. We have 200 years of watching this dynamic pattern unfold, yet new generations of Malthusians rise to constrict economic behavior to save us from resource exhaustion.

A deep conviction about cataclysmic, human-caused climate change is related to a devotion to neo-Malthusianism for many. I continue to be amazed at the fundamentalist-like embrace of claims made by highly politicized representatives of this nascent area of science. For so many intellectuals, it is such an affirming confirmation of what they have always known concerning how evil market economies are that the science behind it and priority-setting questions it may raise are irrelevant. Prudence is rarely considered a virtue with this issue. While McLaren is among those persuaded of grave danger, he at least tends to cast climate change within a broader context of other environmental concerns.

(Based on quotes and footnotes, it appears that Herman Daly's Beyond Growth heavily influences McLaren's thinking on these issues: The Economics of Sustainable Development. Daly is a leading ecological economist, a sub-discipline responsible for the latest revival of Malthusian economics wedded to ecological studies.)

Christian Progressivism

In God at Work, David Miller of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture writes:

Many of today’s leading senior theologians, ethicists, and clergy are deeply influenced by Christian Socialism, branches of Barthianism (that accent the action of God, the finitude of the person, and Barth’s early theological support for socialism), liberation theology (emphasizing state-controlled economic structures, rejecting free markets, and viewing capitalist businesses as oppressors), and even some Franciscan and monastic strands that glorify poverty and simplicity. In particular, many of today’s religious professional were trained in liberation theology as a normative way of thinking that was fashionable in mainstream seminaries and divinity schools during the latter three decades of the twentieth century (and that remains so in many programs.) Liberation theology’s preferential option for the poor is often interpreted in material terms (no spiritual) and has resulted in a de facto bias against the theological and human possibilities of the marketplace and those involved in the business world. In similar fashion, many of today’s leading systematic theologians, ethicists, and clergy are heirs of Christian socialism, which was popular among many leading mainstream theologians, including to varying degrees Rauschenbusch, Tillich, Barth, and Reinhold Niebuhr, during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century. Both Christian socialism and liberation theology rely heavily on Marxist categories of analysis, and historical interpretation, and methodology, which presuppose a prima facie rejection of: capitalism, nonstate-controlled forms of economic organization, ownership of private property, and the role of religion. (89-90)

Everything Must Change is a progressive work that accords well with the above. By progressive, I'm referring to those who see society and its institutions as highly malleable, capable of being shaped and managed by government toward equitable ends (however equitable may be defined.) Conservatives tend to be folks who believe considerable wisdom has built up over time about the functioning and interrelationship of social institutions. They are reticent, whether by government or other means to make sweeping changes, thus "conserving" and preserving the wisdom established from the past. As I described in the post about The Macrosociology Dilemma, there are virtues and perils with each of these.

One of the most perplexing problems I have with emergent is that when it comes to ecclesial issues, the idea of non-hierarchical networks of people relating freely to each other is openly embraced. Instead of churches and fellowships, there are "generative cohorts" organically interacting with each other. From this seemingly uncontrolled chaotic environment, unplanned order emerges. That is the whole idea behind "emergent." Switch this imagery to economics; you have an almost libertarian view of the world. Yet when McLaren (and many emergent friends) turn to questions of economics, freedom is distrusted. Oversight, constraint, and limits by hierarchical bodies become the default mode of operation. I've never quite grasped the reconciliation between the two visions.

The very title of the book, "Everything Must Change," could be regarded as the progressive motto. I don't find the vision offered in the book to be particularly innovative. If anything, it strikes me as a revival of the Baby Boomer era (the 1960s and 1970s) Christian political progressivism, whether of the Mainline denominational variety or the more Evangelical variety espoused by Jim Wallis. While at a conference recently, I heard Ron Sider comment that while he was getting too old to be much of an idealist, he was encouraged to see some in the church (including emergent types) coming around to what he and Wallis and others have been promoting for 35 years. This is not some new third way.

Conclusion

I don't know Brian McLaren, but from what I know, I get the sense that he is a guy who loves Jesus. I have no personal axe to grind. What I've written goes to the content of his book and, by extension, to the content of what I see as the dominant ethos of the emergent conversation. I'm in strong disagreement with significant aspects of this ethos. In fact, I fear the result of well-intentioned visions like this is the creation of a suicide machine.

I said at the beginning of this series that I wasn't sure this series was a good idea. I'm still not sure it was. Some of my readers prodded me to share my thoughts on the book. I've learned a lot by trying to process my thoughts, but I don't enjoy spending much time being critical of others. I'd rather write about positive visions I see. So I'm redirecting my attention back to that now. If nothing else, I hope I've offered some alternate perspectives to consider.

[Previous] [Index]

MEC: Moronic Markets and Equity

In Chapter 28 of Everything Must Change, McLaren writes:

What can be done to deal with this gross and growing inequity that is being produced by our societal machinery? Many claim that the invisible had of free markets will resolve these problems naturally, over time. But to reiterate J. F. Rischard’s analysis:

Whether from intellectual laziness or from single-minded pursuit of ideology, what these free-market fundamentalists fail to see is that while central planners were either cretins or fools, the market is a moron. An effective moron, but a moron nonetheless: left to its own devices, it will churn mindlessly … [If we are complacent,] if we leave all problem-solving to the market, emerging social problems will be left unattended … We’ll end up with scores of unnecessary social stresses over the next twenty years – and a lot of protesters on the street. (245)

There are some valid points to this critique, but I want to point out what is one of the great ironies I see in the Emergent Church conversation, a community of which McLaren is a leading figure. The Emergent Village has as its tagline:

Emergent Village is a growing, generative friendship among missional Christians seeking to love our world in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

There is strong resistance by many Emergent folks to anything institutional or hierarchical. Free Church ecclesiology predominates. Generative cohorts emerge and seek to live out life together. Out of this seeming chaos, orderly patterns emerge, dissolve, and then new patterns emerge. I think I've read or heard most of the more prominent leaders of this community give hat-tips to the importance of chaos theory somewhere along the line. I came to similar conclusions about social systems years ago, and one of the things that hooked me about the emerging church conversation (nearly a decade ago) was their appreciation for this dynamic in the functioning of the Church.

But now let me paraphrase Rishard's quote so that it becomes about emerging Church ecclesiology.

Whether from intellectual laziness or from single-minded pursuit of ideology, what these free-church fundamentalists fail to see is that while ecclesial leaders were either cretins or fools, the generative cohort collectively is a moron. An effective moron, but a moron nonetheless: left to its own devices, it will churn mindlessly … [If we are complacent,] if we leave all problem-solving to cohorts, emerging problems will be left unattended … We’ll end up with scores of unnecessary stresses over the next twenty years – and a dysfunctional church.

Why does a community so heavily invested in non-institutionalism that they have "generative cohorts" (not congregations, fellowships, or communities; all too institutional) have a consensus of people with disdain for a generative cohort economy? Now I know some will say that in the economy, there are big corporations that can dominate the economy. But don't a small handful of individuals within the Emergent conversation have megaphones and audiences far in excess of everyone else? I'd suggest that McLaren is an Exxon in the economy of the Emergent conversation. :) We need a less free Church and a more fair Church. :) I'm not as free Church oriented as many Emergent folks are (though I'm sympathetic), and I'm decidedly more free-market-oriented than most folks I encounter (though I don't embrace libertarianism.)

Many Emergent folks have come from ecclesial settings with a heavy emphasis on church hierarchy and conservative/libertarian politics. I detect a strong reactionary streak that opposes church hierarchy and embraces political progressivism to escape a rejected past. The result too often is a contra-Evangelicalism.

But coming back to the book, you need to know that McLaren does point to the importance of developing families and communities. He also talks about the importance of personal responsibility. I don't recall any specific recommendations for government management of various parts of the economy. I see the renewal of the family and mediating institutions as the focal point of cultural transformation, and I expect McLaren and I would find some common ground here about vision, though I'm not sure about strategy.

He does talk about the importance of identifying and remedying systemic evil. What, precisely, the systemic evils are, is not always clear. Economic growth, or at least "rapid" economic growth (however that is measured), is one systemic evil. He believes free trade needs to be replaced by fair trade (although I would argue that free trade is fair trade, and what is driving the "fair trade" talk is the erroneous acceptance of claims by exploiters that they have been practicing free trade.) On page 258, he writes:

...we need to make it easier for people to grow small businesses. This will often involve both deregulation (cutting red tap for poor but aspiring entrepreneurs and for small-business owners who are expanding their businesses and thus providing more employment) and regulation (restraining powerful, large corporations – especially transnational ones – from crushing local entrepreneurship while exploiting local resources and cheap labor.)

Emerging economies don't just need more small businesses. They need large homegrown corporations. Each industry has its own unique set of variables. Some will have a small handful of corporations. Others will have a highly fragmented small business model. Some will have a variety of mixtures between those two. If you read my blog regularly, you know I'm a big fan of microenterprises. But emerging economies will never fully emerge until they have the full range of industries and business enterprises.

I don't have as negative a view of large corporations as McLaren's (but by no means a naïve view about the problems.) Large corporations in emerging nations have important spillover effects on local economies. Large corporations frequently raise the level of human capital as locals work for or interact with these corporations. Locals develop acumen for technology and businesses. Large corporations often spawn the emergence of new local businesses that help to supply the large corporation. Foreign corporations usually pay higher wages than local businesses pay, stimulating the economy as well. As we saw yesterday, the poorer the nation, the greater the embrace of foreign corporations. As we have also seen, the claim that the predominant economic impact of corporations is the flow of wealth out of emerging nations doesn't pass muster.

Of all these issues, the one that alarms me the most in this discussion is the idea that we need to slow down the economy, particularly when it is paired with the assertion of an imminent ecological apocalypse. If you make it easier for entrepreneurship to emerge in emerging economies, you will have significant growth. How exactly do we accomplish this slowdown of the economy?

Calls to change personal consumption habits are admirable, but I don't know anyone who believes that this strategy alone will precipitate the radical level of change the prophets of doom are demanding. I'm disturbed by the silence on this, especially in light of McLaren's seeming disdain for markets, the fact that he views national government as the primary institution in economic matters, and the fact that environmentalism is the new home of socialist and communist movements all over the planet (They see the narrative McLaren is casting as an opportunity for the realization of totalitarian visions.) How do we slow the economy without massive, if not totalitarian, government intervention? Let's not be coy here.

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MEC: Emerging (Evangelical?) Christians

At the beginning of Part 3 (Chapter 10) in Everything Must Change, on "Reframing Jesus," McLaren offers the emerging view of the gospel contrasted with what he considers the conventional view. At the end of this section, McLaren will write that his conventional view articulated here "…can be modified with an almost infinite number of variations – Protestant or Catholic, Calvinist or Arminian, Pentecostal or traditional – but the basic shape of the story is similar despite differences in the details: …" (80)

The Human Situation: What is the story we find ourselves in?

Conventional View: God created the world as perfect, but because our primal ancestors, Adam and Eve, did not maintain the absolute perfection demanded by God, God has irrevocably determined that the entire universe and all it contains will be destroyed, and the souls of all human beings – except for those specifically exempted – will be forever punished for their imperfection in hell.

Emerging View: God created the world as good, but human beings – as individuals and as groups – have rebelled against God and filled the world with evil and injustice. God wants to save humanity and heal it from its sickness, but humanity is hopelessly lost and confused, like sheep without a shepherd, wandering further and further into lostness and danger. Left to themselves, human beings will spiral downward in sickness and evil.

Basic Questions: What questions did Jesus come to answer?

Conventional View: Since everyone is doomed to hell, Jesus seeks to answer one or both of these questions: How can individuals be saved from eternal punishment in hell and instead go to heaven after they die? How can God help individuals be happy and successful until then?

Emerging View: Since the human race is in such desperate trouble, Jesus seeks to answer this question: What must be done about the mess we’re in? The mess refers both to the general human condition and to its specific outworking among his contemporaries living under domination of the Roman Empire and who were confused and conflicted as to what they should do to be liberated.

Jesus’ Message: How did Jesus respond to the crisis?

Conventional View: Jesus says, in essence, “If you want to be among those specifically qualified to escape being forever punished for your sins in hell, you repent of your individual sins and believe that my Father punished me on the cross so he won’t have to punish you in hell. Only if you believe this will you go to heaven when the earth is destroyed and everyone else is banished to hell. That is the good news.

Emerging View: Jesus says, in essence, “I have been sent by God with the good news – that God loves humanity, even in its lostness and sin. God graciously invites everyone and anyone to turn from his or her path and follow a new way. Trust me and become my disciple, and you will be transformed, and you will participate in the transformation of the world, which is possible, beginning right now. That is the good news.

Purpose of Jesus: Why is Jesus important?

Conventional View: Jesus came to solve the problem of “original sin,” meaning that he helps qualified individuals not to be sent to hell for their sin or imperfection. In a sense, Jesus saves these people from God, or more specifically, from the righteous wrath of God, which sinful human beings deserve because they have not perfectly fulfilled God’s expectations, expressed in God’s moral laws. This escape from punishment is not something they earn or achieve, but rather a free gift they receive as an expression of God’s grace and love. Those who receive it enjoy a personal expression of God’s grace and love. Those who receive it enjoy a personal relationship with God and seek to serve and obey God, which produces a happier life on Earth and more rewards in heaven.

Emerging View: Jesus came to become the Savior of the world, meaning he came to save the earth and all it contains from its ongoing destruction because of human evil. Through his life and teaching, through his suffering, death, and resurrection, he inserted into human history a seed of grace, truth, and hope that can never be defeated. This seed will, against all opposition and odds, prevail over the evil and injustice of humanity and lead to the world’s ongoing transformation into the world God dreams of. All who find in Jesus God’s hope and truth discover the privilege of participating in his ongoing work of personal and global transformation and liberation form evil and injustice. As part of his transforming community, they experience liberation from the fear of death and condemnation. This is not something they can earn or achieve, but rather a free gift they receive as an expression of God’s grace and love. (78-80)

What is the basic story common to conventional Christianity?

Earth is doomed, and souls are eternally damned unless specifically and individually saved, and the purpose of Jesus was to provide a way for at least a few individuals to escape the eternal conscious torment of everlasting damnation. (80)

I think McLaren is overreaching here. Christian Century magazine was founded 100 years ago because Mainline Christianity believed that the Kingdom of God would be ushered in during the twentieth century. A few decades later, there would be disillusionment with this expectation, but Mainline denominations, who continued to dominate the religious scene until at least the 1970s, never adopted the "conventional view." Nor do I believe many Roman Catholics would subscribe to the conventional view. This conventional view strikes me as reductionistic to the point of becoming a caricature of any Christian who doesn't share the "emerging view."

The conventional view strikes me as indicative of certain streams of conservative and Fundamentalist of Christianity from which I think McLaren wants to emerge. I think his "conventional view" is the context from which he has emerged. There is nothing wrong with this. We all come from some context. What I find objectionable is the extrapolation of his context to the context from which Christianity is emerging. As someone who has been wrestling against the liberal foundationalism of Mainline Christianity, I don't even exist according to this framing of the issues.

This has been a persistent experience of mine as I've tried to engage in emerging church conversations. The emerging church conversation to this day still seems to be driven by its response to (and defining itself contra to) evangelicalism. I think this presentation of two views reflects this. Apart from ecclesiastical critique, there seems to be little critical engagement with Mainline Christianity (or any other stream). The theological critique is about how not to be an evangelical. On the contrary, based on the references in McLaren's book, there appears to be a ready embrace of theologians like Jesus Seminar promoters Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossen, so popular in Mainline circles. From my context, this isn't emergent. It is merely revisiting the same old things those of us in Mainline denominations have heard for years.

I'm not going to spend considerable time on theological issues, but I wanted to raise this issue because I believe it is indicative of a tendency to be contra-evangelical. This affects how issues like prosperity are viewed later in the book.

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Brian McLaren Joins the Southern Baptist Convention

I could never have imagined this story, but McLaren has joined the Southern Baptist Convention. For the details, click here.

Brian McLaren Responds to Everything Must Change Concerns

Tall Skinny Kiwi (Andrew Jones): Brian McLaren Responds to Everything Must Change Concerns

Heres a little email chat I had with Brian McLaren recently. He agreed to let me post it on my blog. I reviewed Brian's book "Everything Must Change" but my mixed review was a little harsh and I had a few questions unanswered. I thought it would be worthwhile to post the conversation here in case you had the same questions as I did. Anyway, thanks Brian for your responses. Here is the conversation:  ...

Shopping for justice: The trouble with good intentions

Christian Century: Shopping for justice: The trouble with good intentions

Julie Clawson needed a new bra. Most of the time Clawson, a Chicago-area pastor, would have just gone to the store, plunked down some cash and headed home with a new bra. But she had been reading about globalization, and her conscience made her wonder where her money was going and what was being done with it. So she decided to try an experiment. She decided to find a "justice bra"—to make a purchase that could do no wrong.

"The bra had to be made from an organically grown material. No synthetics made from petroleum, no pesticides . . . and no unsustainable practices," she wrote on the God's Politics blog. The bra must contain no toxic dyes, and it had to be "fairly made. From the farmers who grew the fibers, to the weavers who spun the fabric, to the tailors who assembled it, each person (adults, not children) along the way had to have been paid a living wage . . . not been coerced to work, and treated humanely."

Did such a bra exist? After searching for a couple weeks, Clawson found one. An online retailer based in Canada had a U.S.-made organic cotton bra that met her "justice bra" standards at a price of about $30—not much more than she would have spent at the mall.

Most of our clothes—and many other products we use each day—are made overseas. It's not just underwear that raises justice issues. In recent years, the living and working conditions of those making American clothes have come under greater scrutiny.  ...

...And it's not at all clear that Clawson really achieved the greatest justice by buying the "justice bra." At best, Clawson could hope for a long-term effect: if enough people think like her, then maybe working conditions around the globe could improve as demand for unjust bras wanes. At worst, buying an American-made bra from a Canadian company made some poor sweatshop worker a little worse off.

Is Clawson's willingness to pay $30 for justly made underwear typical of most Americans? The Wal-Mart store in Lake Zurich, Illinois, has a wide selection of bras ranging from $8 to $15. Undoubtedly, these fail Clawson's justice criteria. But they were probably made by poor-country workers doing jobs they prefer over their other options. And the low price allows low-income Americans to stretch their hard-earned dollars farther. So which bra does more justice?

Related: See my book review of the authors' book: Good Intentions: Nine Hot-Button Issues Viewed Through the Lens of Faith

What are Emerging’s advantages?

Jesus Creed (Scot McKnight): What are Emerging’s advantages?

Greetings Scot,

I was one of your students at Trinity Evang Div School… Although my leanings are not emerging/emergent, I want to be fair, honest, and even-handed as I share on the emerging/emergent movement. My questions are these:

1) Could you (or your blog responders) share what you all consider to be the strengths of the emerging/emergent movement?

2) What would you want me to share with other pastors about this movement?

Thanks for any consideration you might give to this.

Various regular readers of the Jesus Creed are offering their thoughts in the comments.

What does General Assembly Council do?

What does the General Assembly Council of the PCUSA do? Here is a nineteen-minute overview that will give you a sampling of what your mission dollars do. For emerging church types, take note of the inclusion of Hot Metal Bridge. (With my connection, it takes ten seconds for the video to execute once you hit play, so be patient.)

Click here to order a DVD.

(Note: I've had some problems with the embed code given in the video above. If you use the following code, it should work okay: <iframe align="middle" src="http://vidego.multicastmedia.com/player.php?p=5933w61a" frameborder="0" width="352" scrolling="no" height="370" allowtransparency="true"> </iframe> )

I Received a Fascinating Email…

Tony Jones: I Received a Fascinating Email…

…from one of my heroes and a pioneer of the internet. He encouraged me to post this but asked that his identity be withheld.

Dear Tony,

I actually procrastinated a bit this morning and read your chapter (partly because I’m interested in new books, as I’m writing one of my own). Obviously (given the length here) either I really wanted to procrastinate, or your writing struck a chord. Probably both....

..........

The only other movement I can think of that really successfully mixes the cherished doctrines of the traditional left and the traditional right is the libertarian movement. But libertarianism is still an ideology! It still takes specific positions on the above ideological divides: less legislation of morality, less control of economic life, more secularization.

Still, I think it’s great, if true, that a new kind of Christianity is emerging in which left and right are brought together and put their differences aside. If it does so by pretending that there aren’t differences, or that the differences aren’t meaningful or that they don’t matter, however, they’re fooling themselves and the facts sure to come back to bite them in their fantasies, as facts are wont to do!

If I had to guess, I would say that the leaders of the emergent Christianity phenomenon (as you’ve described it) are, in fact and perhaps unadmitted to themselves, good old-fashioned liberals. It is one of dear old habits of the left to reject all “categorization” in political terms, or to say that they lack ideology, or are “mainstream” or “moderate” (with everyone to their right often being dismissed as knuckle-dragging right-wingers). But if they are liberals that actually tolerate conservatives, instead of dismissing them as knuckle-draggers, that’s wonderful. Likewise, if the movement has fundamentalists who nevertheless are willing to break bread with gays instead of saying they’ll go to hell, great. Sounds like real Christian love to me.

The point, which I’m not saying you don’t already get, but which doesn’t come out in the first chapter, is this: you can’t escape ideology except by escaping politics altogether. You can, of course, form communities in which ideology doesn’t matter so much. ...

And this goes to one of my biggest irritations about Emergent. It isn't that Emergent leaders appear to be political liberals. I spend much of my time within the hierarchy of the PCUSA, where in meetings, I'm nearly always in a non-liberal minority and not infrequently in a minority of one. I can live with that. What I find irritating is the persistent proclamations by Emergent-types of being an expansive movement that transcends all boundaries (political included) and foreshadows the emerging work of the Holy Spirit in the world while using (with only very narrow shades of difference) the same religious left perspective that Mainline denominations (i.e., National Council of Churches club) have been using for decades. Whether influenced by denial, naivete, or cold calculation, many of these folks need to get in touch with their inner liberal and own it. :) Maybe we could ratchet down the messianic sanctimony and have a conversation.

Americans Embrace Various Alternatives to a Conventional Church Experience as Being Fully Biblical

Barna Group: Americans Embrace Various Alternatives to a Conventional Church Experience as Being Fully Biblical

(Ventura, CA) 2008 promises to be a year of significant change for Americans. The presidential election has already introduced significant transitions into the political process and conversation. The sagging economy is altering many people’s financial behavior and lifestyles. New technology is transforming perceptions of the world and how we connect with people. And a new study from The Barna Group suggests that a major shift in people’s spirituality is now well under way.

Change of Heart

For decades, American Christians, who comprise more than four of our every five adults, assumed they had one legitimate way to practice their faith: through involvement in a conventional church. But new research shows that this mind set is no longer prevalent in the U.S. The latest Barna study shows that a majority of adults now believe that there are various biblically legitimate alternatives to participation in a conventional church.

Each of six alternatives was deemed by a most adults to be "a complete and biblically valid way for someone who does NOT participate in the services or activities of a conventional church to experience and express their faith in God." Those alternatives include engaging in faith activities at home, with one’s family (considered acceptable by 89% of adults); being active in a house church (75%); watching a religious television program (69%); listening to a religious radio broadcast (68%); attending a special ministry event, such as a concert or community service activity (68%); and participating in a marketplace ministry (54%).

Smaller proportions of the public consider other alternatives to be complete and biblically valid ways of experiencing and expressing their faith in God. Those include interacting with a faith-oriented website (45%) and participating in live events via the Internet (42%). ...

Emergent Church Difficulties and Differences

Tall Skinny Kiwi: Emergent Church Difficulties and Differences

The phrase "emergent church difficulties and differences", although it sounds like a new book title, is actually found in a document from 1622 known as the Propositions of the Synod of the churches of New England, which convened in Boston that year. This document was part of the affirmation of the Halfway Covenant of 1622. ...

Tom Brokaw on the Emerging Church

For a video of Tom Brokaw's report on the Emerging Church click here.

On the Value of the Term “Emerging Church”

Faithmaps Blog (Stephen Shields): On the Value of the Term “Emerging Church”

Andrew Jones asks:

I ask this every year. This year, MOST people in my world say that the label “emerging church” or “emergent church” does not define or describe the kinds of ministries they are doing. That also means that many books on the subject do not speak for these people and most of the criticism misses its target. Not only that, but using the term is problematic for some Seminaries and ministries. What do you think? Is the term helpful to you or a hindrance?

In comments, I noted:

thanks for asking the question. I go back and forth. the emergent thread of the emerging church seems to have most of the emerging famous and so it draws most of the attention and most of the criticism. …I definitely consider myself emerging but haven’t resonated as much with the emergent side of the conversation, though I have friends there. And I have gotten publicly criticized by those who consider me emergent and don’t seem to be saavy to the distinction. In fact, it seems to me that most outside of the conversation aren’t saavy as to the distinction. Because of this, I’m wondering if we non-emergent emergers should just call ourselves missional and be done with it. ...

"Intuitive Leadership" Book Review

What might leadership look like for the Church in the 21st Century? Tim Keel, pastor of Jacob's Well in Kansas City, MO, writes about the mission of the Church in his book Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor and Chaos:

To be missiological in a post-Christendom world is not to be more committed to programs of mission but hold resolutely to an ecclesiology that is incomprehensible apart from mission. … In this context, we do not seek to “reach” a “target group or demographic with a message. We live incarnationally in order to demonstrate the new reality that is being revealed in Jesus Christ and embodied by his people the church. A hunger for this kind of living is what I sense in the email from the young man I quoted above. This longing is something for which the religious structures of the world, such as they are, have no imagination or framework. This is what I experienced firsthand in college that was transformational for so many.

The gospel is not a location to be defended. It is an alternate reality based on the person of Jesus Christ, who has called around himself a new community to live his life out in the world of hope, courage, and joy. We are called to live out our faith in the margins, witnessing to the gospel as communities of disciples following in the ways of our Master, Jesus Christ. The false dichotomies between evangelism and discipleship, between justification and sanctification break down, and we are joined holistically with God as we pursue Christ and his intentions for the world. (156)

Keel makes the case that we need leadership that fosters this expression of the Church, but Keel clarifies that there is no simple recipe for birthing such an environment.

What Keel gives is a testimony coupled with his reflections on what is happening in culture. He describes his journey into Evangelical Christianity as a teenager and the twists and turns that led him to birth Jacob's Well ten years ago. There is a lot of rich material to reflect on. At the book's conclusion, he suggests that rather than looking for a ten-step program for transformation, leaders might do better to develop certain postures. He suggests nine for consideration:

• A posture of learning: From answers to questions
• A posture of vulnerability: From the head to the heart
• A posture of availability: From spoken words to living words
• A posture of stillness: From preparation to meditation
• A posture of surrender: From control to chaos
• A posture of cultivation: From programmer to environmentalist
• A posture of trust: From defensiveness to creativity
• A posture of joy: From work to play
• A posture of dependence: From resolution to tension – and back again

Several of these could be read as moving from one pole to another. I think it would be more helpful to see the direction of movement indicated with each posture in terms of the need to live more fully within a polarity (ex. embracing both head and heart versus trading one for the other.) At any rate, I found the thrust of what he had to say here very helpful and worthy of much reflection.

Keel is one of the original folks that brought together what has become Emergent or the Emergent Village. It is one semi-institutional expression of a much larger and more diverse movement called the emerging church movement. Those who read my blog regularly know my deeply ambivalent feelings toward Emergent. Where I resonate most with the Emergent conversation is in their exploration of missiology, ecclesiology, incarnational living, and leadership. Tim's book gives wonderful insight into these topics. I think his book is reflective of what drives a great many in the emerging church movement.

Some of you probably know I have a strong personal connection with Jacob's Well. Jacob's Well meets in the old Roanoke Presbyterian Church building in the next neighborhood south of where I live. Melissa and I joined that Church in 1993 and were there until 2003. A good friend who was a part of the Jacob's Well core group in 1998 asked me if I knew of any space where a church plant could meet in the neighborhood. I suggested the third floor of our facility was unused and the rest is history. That gave me front-row seats to the first five years of Jacob's Well emergence. (The Roanoke Presbyterian congregation dissolved in 2003 and sold the building to Jacob's Well after a major institutional train wreck in 2002. I differ with Tim's brief characterization of the Roanoke collapse, but that is an irrelevant footnote.) I still drop by Jacob's Well occasionally and have several friends who worship there. I love Tim's heart and watch with fascination what God is doing among the Jacob's Well community.

Anyway, the short story is, buy the book! It is a thought-provoking look from the very creative mind of a challenging emerging church leader.

(Tim will meet with the KC Emergent cohort to talk about his book on Thursday the 6th at Noon at the Westport First Watch for those of you in the Kansas City area. If you have free time, come on by. I hope to be there.)

The Well Spring

Wall Street Journal: The Well Spring: Maybe Christianity in Europe hasn't run dry.

BRUSSELS--Old ladies sitting in otherwise empty churches. That's the picture most of my American friends have of spirituality in Europe. Well, that or a continent being overrun by jihadist Muslims. It's not an entirely incorrect picture (the empty churches, not the scimitar-wielding immigrants). How is it, then, that a guy like me, Bible Belt-born and -bred, lifetime churchgoer, has found spiritual renewal in this pit of secularism? And am I the only one?

The hard data show that Christianity remains in long-term decline here. A 2004 Gallup poll found that 15% of Europeans attend a weekly worship service of any faith, compared with 44% of Americans. And the spiritual gap between the U.S. and Europe is actually "worse than people think," says Philip Jenkins, author of "God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis."

But the light is not yet out. Those remaining believers and the faith communities they form are what Prof. Jenkins calls "white dwarves"--because "they're smaller than the sun, but they shine brighter." I'm no astrophysicist, but it seems to me that such intense bodies--when composed of people who believe passionately in a cause--are more likely to expand than to contract.

This is certainly true of the church in which I'm involved here, which has grown to 120 members--larger than the average church in Belgium--in just a couple of years.

.......

The Well doesn't gather as one large group in a church building but rather as a few smaller groups in cafés and restaurants. That's in part because we don't actually own a building. But there's a purpose behind this, too: It's far less intimidating for newcomers to visit a public space with a dozen or so other people than a normal "church" with pews and a steeple and a hundred strange faces. In the course of our gatherings, we also meet people who were just going out for coffee and probably wouldn't have wandered into a sanctuary along the way.

This emphasis on the nontraditional is intentional. For many of the Europeans I've met here, it's not God who is dead to them as much as it is The Church--the official, often state-supported church, be it Catholic, Anglican or Lutheran. Now new life is being infused into these churches by missionaries from America and even Africa.

Bummed About Bailey Book

Five months ago, I learned Kenneth Bailey had a new book called Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels. I wrote then that I thought announcing such a book was cruel and inhumane and then made me wait five months. As the weeks rolled by, the release date was finally set for November 9, 2007. I got my pre-order in at Amazon. Last week I pulled out my theological dinnerware, complete with extra sharp steak knives, prepared to cut into a nice thick Kenneth Bailey teaching steak. I checked on my order on the 10th, the 11th, the 12th, and again today. It still kept showing the book in pre-order mode. So I finally went to the IVP Academic website and, to my horror, discovered it has been delayed until February of 2008! Arrrrrrrgh!!! Okay IVP. You now owe me a free advance copy to review on my blog.

For those who don't know about Kenneth Bailey, you should check out his stuff. He lived and taught in the Middle East for the better part of forty years; he is a Bible translator and has written and lectured extensively on understanding the Bible from within the Middle Eastern cultural context. Reading and listening to him makes the Bible spring to life. You will find Bailey referenced if you check the footnotes carefully in some of N. T. Wright's work. In Exclusion and Embrace, Miroslav Volf says at the end of chapter 3 that the parable of the two lost sons in Luke 15 inspired him to write the book. This parable has been Bailey's lifelong favorite; sure enough, Bailey is one of Volf's prime sources for his analysis.

Emerging church folks are big on the importance of cultural context and understanding the Bible within its cultural context. One of the things that makes me suspicious of so much emerging church analysis of the Bible is that I never see Bailey's work engaged in the process. He is one of the most profound biblical scholars of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. Based on the emphasis placed on cultural context, I'm not inclined to give emerging church theology much credibility until I begin to see some interaction with Bailey.

I wrote a series almost two years ago on Bailey's analysis of Luke 15, at the end of which I recommended three of his books. For some of his lectures on DVD, click here. And if you wait three more months, another book may be added to the list. Arrrrrgh!

A Force for Good (Emerging Church)

USA Today: A Force for Good

For a growing movement of believers, an activist faith means more than proselytizing about Jesus and stoking the fires of our culture wars. Welcome to the new (and yes, liberal) world of evangelical Christianity.

A passerby might not have known: Was this going to be a church service or a concert by an alternative rock band? The set-up on the stage suggested the latter — a drum kit, guitars on stands, several microphones, and large screens flashing iconic Portland scenes — and so did the look of the young, urban-hip crowd filling up the auditorium.

Then the band hit the stage with a loud, infectious groove, the front man singing passionately about God, and it was clear that the Sunday gathering of Portland's Imago Dei Community was both alt-rock concert and church service, or neither, exactly. So it goes in the new world of alternative evangelical Christianity, better known as the emerging church.

There's a growing buzz about the emerging movement, and depending on your point of view, its robust growth and rising influence are worthy of applause, scorn, or perhaps just puzzlement. Fitting for a movement that eschews hierarchy and dogma, emergents defy simple definition. Perhaps the best one can say is that they're new-style Christians for the postmodern age, the evangelicals of whom the late Rev. Jerry Falwell disapproved. ...

Idealism Will Burn You Out

John H. Armstrong: Idealism Will Burn You Out

I grew up in the 1960s generation. That tells you a lot really. We were disillusioned, on a very profound level, yet very idealistic on another. I adopted elements of both of these as my own intellectual and spiritual life developed over the decades that followed....I dreamed about making a huge difference by pastoring a faithful and biblical flock. Over the last fifteen years, or so, I have had to resist the opposite extreme, disillusionment.... I have seen so much that breaks my heart, in me and in others, that I wonder about the whole business.

.......

It seems to me the real problem with the idealist is that he or she is more in love with ideals than with people and the Church. This is Bonhoeffer's famous "wish dream." The problem with disillusionment is that you will lose your way just trying to get by and not mess things up too much. Don't misunderstand me. This latter response is not totally bad. Young adults must face life and experience their hard knocks like everyone else. Middle aged adults tend to still think that they can get it right if they only have the "perfect storm" come along. By this stage of life I just want to love God and love my neighbor and remain a truly faithful follower of Christ.

.......

Many of you know that I have a deep personal interest in many people and ideals within the emergent movement. You can praise it or condemn it. Because I do neither some find me an easy target. But I count many of the writers and leaders in these circles as friends. At the same time I profoundly disagree with some of these men and women on some very important issues.

One of the concerns I repeatedly have, after conversations with emergent leaders, or when I read the newest highly-promoted book release like Brian McLaren's Everything Must Change (Nelson, 2007), is simply this: "When will this idealism run out and people will begin to burn out?" Brian is so interesting, so serious, and so engaged. At the same time he writes some of the best, and some of the worst, material from within this movement. His ideals are stimulating and his prose moving.

.......

...I am concerned, however, for many of the young people who follow these trends and the continually moving ideals generated by this, or any similar, movement. Where will this lead these young adults when these communities do not work the way they are supposed to work? Where will they be when the music stops and the movement is no longer exciting? Where will they be when the trendiness no longer seems trendy enough? What then?

John has more than decade headstart on me but reading this post I felt like John was reading my mind. Very well said.

Tim Keel Book Signing

If you live in the Kansas City area, you might want to drop the Barnes and Noble on the Plaza about 7:30 this evening. Tim Keel, pastor at Jacob's Well, will be having a book signing for his new book Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, and Chaos. I haven't read the book yet, but it is next on my list. I'm looking forward to it, and I'll do a book review once I get it read.

Tim gave a great presentation at Nazarene Theological Seminary yesterday on imagination. It included a clip of the music video Lets Get Started by the Black Eyed Peas. (But for some reason, the Nazarenes weren't dancing to the beat.) If you were there, it was similar to his presentation at the Emergent event in Nashville a couple of years ago. Good stuff!

Anyway, if you have time and are in the neighborhood, stop by the Barnes and Noble on the Plaza and get an autographed copy of the book. Tell Tim I sent you; he will surely add a 20% surcharge to the book.

Quiet Flirtation: Monasticism and Evangelicals

Breakpoint Worldview Magazine: Quiet Flirtation: Monasticism and Evangelicals

About eight years ago, I found myself in a convent in Bogotá, Colombia. I had not planned to get me to a nunnery. But it just so happened that I had signed up for a women’s retreat with the Baptist church where I was serving with youth that summer, and since the local convent had a bit of extra space, they hosted us for the weekend. My room—quiet, clean, white—lacked only one thing: distractions. It was perfect. It felt like I had entered rehab for the chronically over-stimulated. That weekend, I got a taste of something that hordes of evangelical Christians are flirting with today: monasticism.

Be it Baptists, Presbyterians, or Pentecostals, evangelicals of all stripes can be found flitting around the ancient pathways of the Franciscan, Dominican, and Benedictine orders. What’s the attraction? I decided to investigate. It seems the frenzied and the frenetic are finding stillness and order; the alienated are discovering the richness of belonging; and the non-committal are jumping headlong into the freedom of vows. ...

Emergent churches seek new ways to worship, serve

Presbyterian Outlook: Emergent churches seek new ways to worship, serve (Requires free registration.)

Emergent worship folks in the Presbyterian church are trying to figure out where to go from here – along the way taking the temperature of people interested in the emergent life, and planning more conversations.

A new book — An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, including some essays written by Presbyterians — attempts to lay out aspects of emergent thinking. There’s ongoing conversation about where and how missional and emergent approaches converge and diverge.

And a tantalizing question asked at a July emergent gathering in San Francisco, according to Karen Sloan, a Presbyterian who’s the author of Flirting with Monasticism: Finding God on Ancient Paths and who’s been helping to organize some of these events, was: “What is presbymergent’s agenda?” and does it intend to change the church?

Her answer: “I want to make more friends.”

What she meant, Sloan wrote at the presbymergent.org Web site, is that she sees her work as “contributing to a network of friends, of finding and connecting those seeking to be a part of reformed missional communities located in postmodern contexts.”

It’s like this: She doesn’t have the game plan.

She’s along for the journey, the conversations, the mutual searching for God. ...

Young evangelicals diverge from GOP

Washington Times: Young evangelicals diverge from GOP

Young evangelical Protestants continue to cling closely to their bedrock conservative values. Yet they are abandoning trust in the White House and straying from the Republican Party, according to an analysis that tracked waning sentiments from 2001 to 2007.

"An examination of the younger generation [those ages 18 to 29] provides evidence that white evangelicals may be undergoing some significant political changes," said Dan Cox, a researcher with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. "The question is whether these changes will result in a shift in white evangelical votes in 2008 and beyond." ...

Postmodern Youth Ministry Conference

I got back from PCUSA General Assembly Council meetings last night. Then I rushed out to Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe, KS, for a worship service that was part of the Postmodern Youth Ministry conference led there by Tony Jones of Emergent Village. The worship team from Jacob's Well did the music, and Mike King of YouthFront gave the message.

Here is a shot of Mike Crawford leading the worship team. He tells me they finished the recording studio in the basement of the building and Jacob's Well in July and are already booked until April.

Here is Mike King delivering the message.

Here is a shot of Tony Jones with Kansas City Emergent Cohort diva, and fellow PCUSAer, Tera Yakel.

Tim Keel was there, but he saw me coming and hurried out the door before I could snap him (Actually, I think he had some little ones to get home to bed.) Don't forget to buy his first book just being released Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, and Chaos. It was a great time, and King seemed to think the conference was going well.

KC Emergent Cohort Location Change

From Tera Yakel

We are making a location change for our gathering on Friday night. We will now be meeting at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ in Olathe KS (map).

We are gathering at 6:00pm Friday, September 21st to have a conversation with Tony Jones (National Coordinator for Emergent Village) about what is happening and the future of Emergent. Following our dinner conversation many of us are planning on making the short trip over to Mid-America Nazarene University for a 8:00pm worship service that will be lead by the folks at Jacob's Well.