sustain:if:able kiwi

two contrasting missional opinions

It appears that Al Hirsh and Frost are busy shaping things yet to come, down on the emerging church in Pittsburgh. Holly reflects here “what threw me for a loop was how so many folks did not equate the emerging church or emergent with being missional.

Contrast the angst in Pittsburgh with Scott McKnight, commenting here:

Fundamentally, the Emergent movement is a “missional” movement and it is holistic in its mission, and until it is addressed from that point, it won’t be addressed centrally … Not long ago I spoke with a Christian leader who speaks quite often to Emergent churches and this person told me that the Emergent movement does not have that many conversions. Now I don’t know if this person was accurate, and it does not matter, but I still think the issue is missional in the sense that the Emergent is trying to work out the gospel in a postmodern context – and that context exists and it is worth letting the gospel have its way in that context.

Personally, I warm to Scott’s breadth of missionality, with the focus on culture rather than church growth statistics in China. I wonder if the emerging church is now such a large elephant that people grasp an ear or a tail and pronounce themselves “emergent experienced.” I also wonder if the postmodern shift is so deep, so profoundly disorientating, that the need for deep mission demands a focus on context, that might yield very little fruit for many years. After all, it took Isreal over 70 years to emerge from exile, let alone rack up the “conversions.”

emerging church teens

In response to the skinny kiwi’s open letter to don carson:

some of us are babies, needing nuture, care and gentleness. to be abandoned by parents is devasting.

some of us are teenagers, still wanting the approval of our fathers and mothers. to be talked over, talked down to, unrecognised in conversation is painful.

different emerging church people, different emerging churches are at different places in this journey. this makes the current conversation difficult.

i’m praying for the day when we are all adults, the froth from my beer sitting beside the froth from Don Carson’s (or Brian’s ) latte, enjoying our differences in friendship and mutuality.

creativity and anger drive emerging church I said with a smile

Don’t I look cheery? This is a photo of me being interviewed in the Methodist Touchstone denominational magazine (I blogged about this back here). The article is titled “Creativity, anger drive emerging church?” and starts “Media-driven cultural change and resentment against established institutions are the two forces behind the alternative congregations commonly labelled ‘emerging church’. This is the view of Rev Steve Taylor”

Seeing the words “anger” in black and white sort of sat me back a bit. Is it a fair description? Is it a worthy energy driver and a healthy missionary motivation?

PS. There are also articles on two emerging churches; Side door (one of the congregations at Opawa) and Urban Vision, in Wellington.

touchstone and emerging

Just had a very pleasant lunch with the New Zealand Methodist denominational magazine, talking emerging church. They are doing a major feature. The conversation ranged over midwives, soteriological entrepreneurs, institutions and motivations.

are supermarkets emerging church

I read this quote recently; Recently I spoke to an architect at a local firm who works exclusively on churches. He’s designed two megachurches in the metropolitan area, and told me that certain elements are commonly used to make megachurches look and feel like shopping malls. Like any successful business, location, convenience and service are key. Article here

And my skins crawls. I hate the way that church is linked with supermarket and convenience and money.

Hang on though, I often preach about the need for the church to be closer to the culture. And emerging church is meant to embrace postmodern culture. Supermarkets are part of postmodern culture. So, why are some parts of the culture OK, and others not?

Steve the puzzled emergent

Fuller schedule: Tuesday, February 1

10:00 – meet with a group of students for a discussion on the
emerging church, organized by Ryan Bolger. ( 1 hour, I believe)

1-2:45 – meet with Doug and the faculty of the SIS for their
regular Faculty Lunch/discussion time.

3-6:00 – invited by Eddie Gibbs to join his class on the emerging
church.

Emergent tribes

Preparation for the San Diego -U.S.-trip

If I were to sketch a range of distinct emergent tribes, I would note …

Evangelicalism with a navel piercing – This tribe gathers to sing and preach. The theology seems familiar, even when done with candles, a trendy piercing, loud bass beat or bleached hair.

Art collective – tends to be visible monthly, around highly creative worship. The use of video, contemporary music and hip graphics ensure a service of the cool. Followed by the requisite pub visit.

Nu monastic – a recent innovation. It needs a place, whether café, tea rooms, free wi-fi or art gallery. From an incarnational location, emerges a life that embraces regular prayer ritual, committed relationships and creativity. Can be very expensive.

House church – very difficult to see publicly. More often found in a lounge, over food, desperately seeking community. Structure and leadership are dirty words that are replaced by vulnerability, relationship and the Kingdom of God.

What tribes, what detail, am I missing?

Dan says

-change is harder than creation

-what’s church in a society that no longer has a Protestant guilt about not going to church?

-we’re connecting with people to call them to a new way of being

soundbites from Dan@signposts

emerging church vacancy

Dear Steve

Anwers to Phil Le Quesne – email Philleq at aol dot com.

hillsong, emerging church and denominations

Back in October I made a brief post on the topic of “emerging church=hillsong“, with some quotes from from a denominational leader here in New Zealand, who was praising Hillsong London and attacking unnamed emerging church leaders who weren’t successful. (I am still trying to figure out if I was being attacked or not). Following the quotes, I then asked for feedback on Hillsong London.

The blog entry has come alive, with two provocative new comments posted in the last 2 days; one from a Hillsong London punter who notes “I have brought many friends to Hillsong church, mostly non-christian and i have seen many of my friends give their life to Christ.”

The other is from the demoninational leader who made the original quotes. In a fairly lengthy comment he writes “Here’s a challenge to think about. From all that I’m reading and observing there is a gnawing observation I have of a small sub-culture of emergent church thinkers out there who only ever discuss their theories about church with each other, read each other’s books and lavish their own with quotes from friends who think just like them, are into art and not at all “moved” by sports, and who prefer to throw rocks at the historical church from outside of it rather than engage in dialogue from the inside.” (Yep, still trying to figure out if I am being attacked or not).

So feel free to head on over and feel some heat. Please, if you are going to leave comments, leave them there, not here.

If I’m honest

If I’m honest, I find it really hard to engage with current criticisms and questioning of the emerging church. I see them on good friends – say, Maggi Dawn or Paul Fromont or Phil and Dan – and my eyes just glaze over.

So many words. I’m not sure why I glaze over – whether my context is so different, or perhaps I’m just so immersed I have little time to think.

Or perhaps I’m not emerging. Maybe I should change my blog name. That will be a good holiday project – to come up with a new blog name!

emerging and Advent

I’ve been using the same Advent benediction for each week of Advent so far. I have been loving the line;
Awaken within us the richness of our origins and the depths of our past
that we may be a people old in experience and young in hope.

I love that mix of old/wise/experience/rooted in tradition and new/vibrant/young/hopeful. That’s why I’m part of the emerging church and that’s why it’s my home. Because ideally, at it’s best, it is taking the best of the past – Scripture, church traditions etc – into a newly postmodern future. That’s why it’s emerging, not from something or against something, but in this changing world we’re DJing a new mix, that because of the Spirit and the humility of its practioners and theo-blogians, resonates with the depths of the past.

So this Advent, rather than attack the emerging and critically nibble at our edges, why not pray for the emerging church; to become a people old in experience and young in hope.

the emerging church and the wilderness of God

Christianity emerges from a wilderness spirituality;
John the Baptist, camel haired and with locust wings in mouth, emerges from the desert;
Jesus in preparation for ministry, walks into the wilderness;
Israel finds God in the desert, where in the wilderness Moses is called and a nation is shaped.
The rough places and tough spaces become the place of encounter with God.

So what is the place of a wilderness spirituality in the emerging church? A book like The Shape of Things to Come takes growth – in the early church, in China – as the benchmark. A history of vitality becomes the shaping spirituality. When the emerging church emerges from the evangelical church in the US, a history of vitality is the shaping spirituality.

So what of a wilderness spirituality? Where is the encountering of God in the rough and tough? How does the emerging church embrace the wilderness, rather than the myths and shadows of vitality.

Is it time for the emerging church to find new partners in its spirituality? Is it time to stop dreaming of early church glory and embrace God in the rough?

I wonder if this is where the experience of the de-churched becomes redemptive gift. Those who have entered the wilderness and have learnt to find God in the raw might have spiritual gifts to offer.

Wilderness God
Hidden in the deep valley
Obscured by rocky outcrop

This Advent
May we be found in Your wilderness.

in the beginning it was not the word

After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea. Colossians 4:16

The letter to Colossians is to be read, and it is to be read in community.

Then the printing press changed the world. It made the Bible available to many individuals. But in doing so, it changed the Bible from being located as oral and in community, to written, private, individual text.

What does it mean for us to, in the spirit of Colossians, read the Bible orally and in community? And if our world is becoming image-based and digital, how will this re-shape our interaction with the Bible?