Protecting & Preserving

The Providence Seminary prof I had for Historical Theology (which is a fascinating area of study) had a perspective on the motivation of differing theological streams that I really appreciated.

Most times, you hear people talk about the great Councils of the early church in terms of (obviously) "right" versus (obviously) "wrong". They tend to forget or ignore that, with the exception of people like Marcion who were quite heretical, the various parties involved were all sincere, devout followers of Jesus who were quite serious about being true to Him and His teachings.

This prof focussed on each group in terms of "what they were trying to protect"; he wanted us to more fully understand that the reasons behind some of the debates were based on concerns of entering a "slippery slope" towards false teaching if certain emphases were not protected (sound familiar?). The intent of many of these people was to preserve Truth from being watered down or hijacked by heretical fringe groups with an agenda to grind. Our prof's approach was very grace-based, and probably more historically accurate.

When we approach different church structures and theological emphases, I think it only makes sense that we adopt a similar approach: working to understand what people are trying to protect when they react against what they perceive as a "slippery slope" of postmodernistic relativity and subjectivity. Instead of writing them off as "hopelessly modern" and hyper-religious people who simply "don't get it" (which I still hear too many times), why not work a little bit harder to understand what they're trying to protect, and either:

(A) help them understand that the outcome they fear isn't necessarily a sure-fire thing, or

(B) realize that pomergent people are no less prone to wandering into (unintentional) compromise and error than any other generation, and that some warnings we're getting from people are both justified and helpful.

Laughable Links

Hey, if pomergent people can't recognize their own goofy foibles and enjoy laughing at themselves, then maybe we all need to lighten up a wee bit and re-learn the art of self-deprecation.

Check out these links. Jo & I almost pee'd ourselves silly over these (that's a Canuck term for "laughed a lot").

Purveyor of All Things Postmodern
Creative Artist
Spiritual Director
& my personal favourite: Ex-Youth Pastor Now Known As Director of Next Generational Ministries

Enjoy! These are brilliant (and funny). Keep the bathroom door open for easy access...

I Wish I'd Said That...

Todd Hunter wrote awhile back:

"Merely messing with models of church is not going to get us where we want to go.

"Without a serious intent to pursue spiritual transformation, our self-centered characters will overwhelm any system of church AND keep us from submitting our personal, God-given kingdoms to the Kingdom of God. I am not saying this to bash the church. On the contrary, I am wondering if the church or "how one does church" really matters or is at all to blame -- within reason, of course. And of course there are some better ways than others. We are all trying to find a better one.

"But, the people I most admire and respect in life are not focused on "church" as a place, event or thing. They just quietly participate in non-descript churches and submit themselves to be used by God, to be ambassadors of his Kingdom in those communities of faith… as everywhere else in there their life: no dualisms. That attitude -- whole life self-surrender -- is rooted in a different kind of life: life from above, eternal life. It is what we must pursue for our selves and those we serve. It will make most models work.

"But again this does not mean we abandon our pursuit of better models. It means that models are second; spiritual transformation is first, in community, for the sake of the world." (emphasis added)

Father's Day (slightly late)

This past Sunday, I spent the whole day with my eldest daughter Jo. The other two kids were with Wendy up north, so it was just Jo & I all weekend. We had a great time eating at Montana's, where you can draw cartoons all over the table without getting thrown out or billed for refinishing the tabletop. The waitress came to take our order, and we told her "hang on, we're in the middle of this drawing..."

Years ago, when Jo was two years old, I had my favourite picture of her put on a coffee cup. For Father's Day this year, she had Wendy take another picture of her, in an identical pose, and put it on a coffee cup which she presented to me on Sunday as a Father's Day present.

From the moment I first held her, minutes after her birth, and I looked into those incredibly deep blue eyes, I was instantly and totally in love with her.

Thanks, Jo, you rock!

Found This One

I found this entry on Andrew Jones' blog (after seeing a link to it from Charlie Wear over at Next-Wave.org), and it's one of those posts that makes you say "Yeah, THAT'S what I've been trying to say!". Normally, I'm not one to post somebody else's work, but I really like the way Andrew put this. Read on...

When We Stop Emerging

I was just wondering... what happens when those of us in the emerging church stop emerging. I mean, we are always changing and keeping up with the Spirit, but when our new church structures actually settle down, and stop evolving, then we will no longer be able to call ourselves emerging church and we will just have to settle for "church". Maybe thats not a bad thing. It has happened before.

In the 80's, we were youth church or "contemporary church". But we either grew up, or the "contemporary" word got stuck and no longer defined us.

In the early 90's, we were "Gen X Church", but the name came to be associated with slackers and go-tees and some of us moved on from being boxed up by the boomers into a tidy marketable package.

In the late nineties, we were "postmodern church" but the pomo argument became very abstract and locked into philosophies of the 70's, and we were more holistic than that so we dropped the name. (Although others still call us "pomo")

Also in the nineties was the concept of "rave church" and and "club church" which was somewhat helpful, sometimes. But many of us now are post-club and too old to stay up really late. And having kids changes everything.

"Emerging church" was a good option - bigger than philosophy, not locked into age-specific ministry, non-reactive, and highlighted because of its evolution and constant change - the new thing on the horizon, taking shape, not yet formed, quasi-modo. But the fact is that many of us have already taken shape and we are not actually changing enough to be accurately defined as "emerging". We have done house church, celtic spirituality, moved into monastic structures, done rave worship, tapped into ancient liturgies, utilized internet technologies, and now we are settling down into a new way of being church - a new way that is not necessarily changing or emerging.

So, what happens when it is dishonest to use the word "emerging"? Will we be the emerged church? No. Because there will be another wave of emergence happening in the margins, quite possibly ignored by us as well as the mainstream. What goes around...

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Great insights, eh? What do you think about Andrew's observations?

As Requested...

Maggi Dawn, among others, requested a pic of me with 18 inches less hair than I had a couple of weeks ago. This is the "new me", with what the lead singer of our band announced to the crowd in Regina as my "failed attempt at respectability". Wendy, in her usual insightful way, says that if people think the most radical thing about me was my long hair, then they're in for a shock...

Learned Helplessness

I spent the middle of this week in Toronto, where I had the opportunity to meet and hang out with a variety of youth leaders and pastors, and also with leaders of churches who don't have youth leaders but have a heart for the youth that are coming to their churches.

It was a great time of hearing many stories of how God is working among the emerging generations in the Toronto area, and of trying to find ways to encourage some struggling youth leaders, and also seeing one very surprising element crop up again and again.

Learned Helplessness.

It could almost be described, with not too much exaggeration, as a fiercely-held determination to fail. Some of the youth leaders I talked to -- and their situations were difficult, to be sure -- were highly resistant to any suggestions, training, or resources that Darren, Steve & I were trying to steer them towards. Their main theme seemed to be "nothing works" while they simultaneously seemed to resent the fact that we couldn't wave a magical ministry wand over them and their churches, and make everything instantly better.

A couple of them even declined to let us lay hands on them and pray for them. They walked away, some with tears in their eyes, still despondent but refusing to re-consider the ways they were approaching ministry.

Wow. I have so many friends who are eagerly pursuing new ways of re-thinking, doing and sharpening their ministries, which only made the determined helplessness of these people all the more jarring.

My friend Darren, who was my host for the few days that I was there, later told me in our hotel room that his biggest struggle has always been dealing with these kind of people: they know what they're doing isn't working, but they steadfastly refuse to evaluate, critique, revamp, or start fresh.

It's difficult to lead, encourage, or resource people who have already made up their minds that nothing works and nothing will change. I really felt bad for them -- they were truly despairing -- and also for the youth in their churches (I can only imagine how the modelling of frustrated helplessness has impacted them).

There were some really great times of ministry in Toronto as well (not to give an unbalanced report), but it was sobering to see how entrenched this kind of leadership-desperation dynamic was for some people. Would a verse like "Jesus told him, 'Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.'" (Matthew 8:22 NIV) apply to a situation like this?

Mysterious Ways

Last weekend, I was playing in Regina at "Mosaic", which is their version of Winnipeg's "Folklorama". Naturally, we were playing the Irish Pavillion (as we will be at Folklorama in August), and the two nights of concerts played to about 1700 people. It was a great time -- it's always fun to play on a concert-sized stage where there's lots of room to move around (with our wireless instruments), and although it was really hot in the venue, we put on possibly two of our finest shows since I've joined the band.

The "mysterious ways" bit was that I was able to spend a lot of time with some local Christians, all of whom had become followers of Jesus within the last year. The original contact had been that one of them was a waitress at the pub that we usually play in Regina, and she had numerous friends who, like herself, had recently become Christians, and were very interested to find out that one of the band members was a Christian.

We all spent most of Saturday together, and it was incredibly encouraging to hear their stories of how they became followers of Jesus, and how things like alcoholism and drug addiction had been left behind, and one of the teenagers had not only completely quit drugs, but had seen her school marks jump almost 20% -- "it's mostly because of how Jesus changed my attitude" was her comment on her scholastic improvement. She proudly wears a pink-and-white baseball cap with the words "Truckin' With Jesus" wherever she goes.

It was another reminder of the mystery of how when Christians meet, no matter how little personal history they have with each other, the Holy Spirit in me is the same Holy Spirit that is in them, and we are quickly able to have great times of talking, sharing, and praying together. When we were sitting in a local restaurant having supper, holding hands around the table and praying together, I couldn't help but marvel at how God brings people together, even if only for a couple of days, to encourage each other and be reminded that the Kingdom of God is advancing everywhere.

They kept telling me how much I'd encouraged them, but I think they totally underestimated how much more they had been an encouragement to me. It was a great weekend as a performing band, but an infinitely better one for the spiritual fruit of God's "mysterious ways".