in the open space: God & culture

Members of the minyanim are looking for “redemptive, transformative experiences that give rhythm to their days and weeks and give meaning to their lives,” said Joelle Novey, 28, a founder of Tikkun Leil Shabbat, whose name alludes to the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, or repairing the world. It is an experience they are not finding in traditional Jewish institutions, she said. . . . “Established synagogues are worrying about how to attract and engage younger people, and younger people are looking for a sense of sacred community, and they are going elsewhere,” said J. Shawn Landres, director of research at Synagogue 3000, an institute for congregational leadership and synagogue studies. “For a lot of people, it’s like two ships passing in the night.” --from NY Times article, Challenging Tradition, Young Jews Worship on Their Terms Hat tip my uberfriend Susan who alerted me to this article in the NY Times . These quotes could have been about followers of Jesus longing for a fuller exp...

I'm pretty much a newcomer when it comes to the “emerging church movement,” but one thing I’ve noticed is that it seems to be rather confusing to folks. More than once, after people find out I’m interested in the subject I’ve been asked questions like: What the heck is it? And just what is it these emerging people believe? And in those questions and conversations (and, I’ve noticed, often in articles or blog posts) I’ve also run across a couple of common misunderstanding about the emerging movement—in particular, that it has a set theology or doctrine—as well as the tendency to lump all emerging folks into one pot when it is actually full of a wide variety of opinions and directions (which probably adds to people's confusion). So, as I’ve spent time explaining and discussing the movement with others, a kind of basic spiel has developed. Now, I’m pretty there’s a plethora of folks who could do this better than me. I’ve only been following the emerging movement for a little over...

Heads up, folks. Scot McKnight is starting a series of posts on Brian McLaren's new book, Everything Must Change . He's asking some very interesting questions, both in the post as well as the comments: Did Jesus address the Roman Empire’s biggest questions? Did he address the world’s biggest problems? Did he address Israel’s biggest problems? Did he address the Galilee’s biggest problems? Now another: Does Jesus provide for us a way to address the world’s biggest problems? And: What I’m getting at here is “Did Jesus scan the area to see the problems and then go after those?” or, “Did he already know the story and try to get others into that story?” And: Did he already know the problem or did he scan the evidence to discover the problem? Did Jesus know Torah, know how Israel was to live, say “We are not matching up,” or did he inquire about the problem? There is, in my judgment, more for Jesus in the former than the latter — not to say he didn’t see needs and then respond to th...

See more at Emerging Grace . Hat tip TSK .

Scot McKnight has some interesting posts up at Jesus Creed, the first of which reviews Craig Allert's A High View of Scripture?, which McKnight recommends . Here's the thrust: Tied into our view of the Bible is our view of the Church. No matter how much we’d like to say “The Bible is my only creed” the facts are against such a view. Why? The Bible we believe in did not drop from the sky, nor was it discovered in a bundle all at once — Presto! there it is on the day the last book was written. There’s no signs that God’s big business was getting the whole Bible put together so we’d have something for our sermons. It’s all messier than this. . . . The major thrust — in fact, it dominates the book — of Allert’s intelligent and important book is that one is hard-pressed to believe in the Bible without believing in the process the Church used to discern those books. In other words, the notion that we can believe in the Bible alone wrecks against the reality that Bible was never alon...

I just got to Renovare’s July 2007 Perspective (thanks for the copy, Dad), and appreciated Richard Foster’s letter on the front, in which he addresses the propensity of churches to preserve the institution rather than get about living the life Jesus brings. Many of his thoughts and observations are familiar to me, and I welcome Foster’s willingness to bring them to his readers again. In this particular letter, he lists several problematic characteristics of today’s church culture (emphasis on religious consumerism, style over substance, obsession with success and productivity, and “hectic, frenetic, jangling babel”) and observes: And, sadly, we feel helpless to change these discouraging realities. We have not been given an alternative vision. We are afraid this is the only way of “doing church” in the modern world. He goes on to list some tell-tales when institutional preservation is rearing its head (ie, energy expended on turf protection, “spirit of protectiveness,” or time and ene...

In the Washington, D.C. area, there’s an incredible amount of movement when it comes to people needing to get in and out of this government and industry hub. Even with six-to-eight-lane highways moving in and out of the Capitol, roads are literally carpeted with cars during certain hours of the morning and afternoon. Easing the problem are government/municipal-created metros, bus lines, commuter lots for carpools and bus stops and High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes (where each vehicle must have at least three persons in order to use them during those high traveled hours). But there’s one other mode of commuting worth noting—and this one wasn’t created by and isn’t run by any government or municipality. This one is entirely organic and unregulated, and it’s called “ slugging .” According to slug-lines.com , slugging began in 1972 when the first HOV lanes were opened. Originally, drivers would cruise bus lines and offer rides to two other individuals in order to meet the requirements to ...

It’s a bit late, but here's a head's up that Next Wave posted an article by Scot McKnight called What is the Gospel? It is rather long, but well-worth the read. McKnight puts the gospel in the context of the story it is—and then asks, Where do we begin that story? Here’s a snippet: Instead of beginning the gospel story with the Fall, I am suggesting we begin with the Creation of humans, both male and female, as Eikons of God. That is, as made in the image of God (imago Dei). The gospel begins, and only begins, because humans are Eikons of God. Instead of seeing humans first and foremost as sinners, we need to see them as Eikons of God, created to relate to God, to relate to others, and to govern the world as Eilons. The Fall affects each of the previous: our relation to God, our relation to others, and our relation to the world. Humans, then are cracked Eikons. There is all the difference in the world in depicting humans as simply sinners and seeing sinfulness as the conditi...

A list has been started of underprivileged emerging blogs! It's like a chain-post. To participate, copy this list into a new post on your own blog, and add the names you have to the bottom of the list, and encourage others to do the same. They should be people with under 150 links so we can truly mess with the Technorati rankings. When you’ve done that, leave a comment at Brother Maynard’s blog so he can keep track of who ends up participating. HT David . The Blind Beggar Emerging Grace Robbymac Lily Nathan Colquhoun John Smulo Todd Hiestand Theopraxis Chuck Warnock John Lunt Webb Kline Mark Wilson Rick Meigs Brother Maynard MakDaddy Glenn Hager Paul Mayers Jamie Swann Paul Walker Jerry Frear Phil Wyman Shannon Matt Stone Erika Haub John Santic Colin Lamm Julie Clawson Phil Johnson Andii Bowsher John Moorehead Paul Fromont & Alan Jamieson Tom Allen Karen Ward Malcolm Chamberlain Adam Moore Cheryl Lawrie Mark Berry Moot Brushed Blog (Andy) Emerging in Ludlow (David Bole) hold...

A few weeks ago, I asked a friend of mine what book I could buy her for her birthday, and she indicated she’d like to read some books by G.K. Chesterton —an early 20th century writer and thinker who journeyed through post-Christian culture into Christianity. As I researched books to send her, I ended up also ordering one for me: Orthodoxy , in which Chesterton lays out his journey to find answers to life’s problems and the Christian theology he settled on. In the first chapter, Chesterton likens his journey of sifting through culture (both secular and sacred) for Truth to an Englishman in a boat who thinks he discovered a new land only to find he’s standing on the shores of his beloved England: I am the man who with the utmost daring, discovered what had been discovered before . . . . I did, like all other solemn little boys, try to be in advance of the age. Like them, I tried to be some ten minutes in advance of the truth. And I found that I was eighteen hundred years behind it . . . ...

Recently, I stumbled across EmergingUMC , a year-old blog self-described as “a place for United Methodists and others to explore and share their ideas, resources, visions, and dreams of or about mission, ministry and worship in the emerging church.” Being that I’m currently camping in a church in that domination and with this blog’s interest in the emerging movement and rethinking how we do church , I was curious enough to scroll through recent posts. I’m glad I did because I ran across a post about to roll off the front page. In " How do we live a call within our structure? " one of the blog’s 12 contributors, RevrdMark , ruminates on the implications of the observation that the group of people leaving the church the fastest are actually the disciples and “the dissatisfaction of some people who are deeply committed to Christ, who genuinely want to follow him, and live a life that reflects that relationship with the process of maintain the institution of the church for the i...

For a condensed—and still easily readable—version of Scot McKnight’s What is the Emerging Church (a speech he gave at an October contemporary issues conference at Wesminister Theological Center), see Five Streams of the Emerging Church at Christianity Today . In the article, McKnight aims to examine key elements, “undermine the urban legends and provide an accurate description of the movement” in North America—and, like much of McKnight’s work, I find he’s fair, thoughtful and easy to take in.

A few tidbits of God-talk out there on the infobaun: First up Elliot at Claw of the Conciliator points to The world according to Paul , where the blogger ruminates over what it means to care for people in a post titled provocatively Fiction of pastoral care : “I don't know if you can care for someone just because it's your job. Is it actually possible to care for someone you don't know? Is it possible to provide pastoral care for someone you don't actually care about? It seems to me that genuine care requires trust that can only be built up over time—and that the attempt in many churches of institutionalising care is, in practice, a denial of care.” Emerging in Ludlow’s David and gang put together a program for their kids, one that ended up feeling a little like family—which makes me think he and his friends are on the right track. New Testament scholar and Jesus Creed blogger Scot McKnight looks at some interesting questions in line with emerging thinking. In one p...

Recently, I ran across a couple of helpful and rather thoughtful ruminations on the emerging movement: Hat tip to Andrew Jones (aka Tall Skinny Kiwi) for the heads up on this great piece by Scot McKnight. What is the Emerging Church? is the text from McKnight’s speech at an October contemporary issues conference at Wesminister Theological Center (TSK calls it “a superb speech - maybe the best I have heard from an American,” heh) which gives us a grasp on the emerging movement and what characterizes it. As always, McKnight is easy to read, comprehend, digest and carry away—the marks of a great teacher, imho. I highly recommend this peice if you want to know what this thing called “emerging” is all about—and even if you’ve got it down, it’s a good way to get a picture of where the conversation’s at right now. Some favorite tidbits: The church is not sacramental but the alternative community through which God is working and in which God manifests the utter credibility of the gospel. . ....

Here’s some of the God-talk I ran across in my infobaun meanderings this week: The End (How Postmodern Protagonists Live: Not Happily Ever After. Or Even at All ) is a great Washington Post article about the latest hope-less trend in horror films (and books) to kill off all the characters. In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t watch these kinds of films these days. I had a hard enough time in the early 1980s watching horror films where people actually survived, like the now-considered-classics Halloween , Friday the 13th and The Shinning . Anyway, Hank Stuever writes with a humorous edge (which helps in dealing with the subject matter) and leaves us ruminating about evil and its portrayal in films. What do we do with it? How much evil is too much evil? What about hope and the value of life? ( Warning: the article spoils the endings of several films and books and also contains descriptions of scenes within them. ) As I was reading, I couldn’t help but think of the 2004 BBC inte...

Here are some links to peruse during your downtime (what’s that?) this weekend: BeliefNet has a piece about how most evangelicals are quiet about war in Lebanon . Out of Ur lists Australian church resourcist Steve Addison’s 20 things to do while not planting churches . Ouch. That ineffable Tall Skinny Kiwi (aka Andrew Jones) explores a link between medical doctors and house churches . David in Ludlow points to Global Rich List , which gives you your ranking among the world’s richest. Check it out, especially those of you in the Western world. It’s rather sobering. Over at Jesus Creed , Scot McNight ruminates on the emerging movement and its relationship (or lack thereof, in some cases) to orthodoxy here , here , here and here (while also giving those of us still unable to articulate exactly what the movement is a bit more of handle on the conversation), while Dr. Tony Beam at Crosswalk.com takes a swip at emergent church in an article about postmoderism, calling much of its theo...

Here are some more God-talking articles your afternoon coffee break: For a look at how Christian products are used as evangelical tools , see fav-of-this-blog Stephanie Simon’s piece, which has rerun in several major media outlets (which the folks at GetReligion picked up on , too). Out of Ur ran a thoughtful piece by Dan Kimball ( pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California, and author of Emerging Church and Emerging Worship ) who was writing about the end of Willow Creek’s Axis. A good quote: “To be missional to a cultural population that is different in more than age, means looking at everything through a different lens. It means looking at community differently, spiritual formation, evangelism, membership, leadership, communication all through the lens of the new culture and bringing the gospel to them in the unique way that connects to them as any missionary would. This means that the whole culture of a church will change, not just what happens in a worship gath...

Here are a few tidbits of God-talk out there on the infobaun—including the 50 most influential churches in the U.S., religious persecution in Korea, the emerging movement, a collection of American spirituality stories and more about Barna's new film company: Hat tip to RevAbi for the heads up on Church Report’s 2006 list of the 50 Most Influential Churches in the U.S. Wow, I’m going to #25 on the list. In Montgomery, Alabama. Who’d have thunk it. So, how did they come up with the list? According to the Report , they emailed a survey to leaders of “more than 2,000 of the largest non-Catholic congregations in the nation by Church Growth Today” as well as a “small selected group of smaller churches” asking them to “recommend up to 10 churches . . . they considered to be among the nation’s most influential.” Top o’ the list? Willow Creek and Saddleback. As you might imagine, there’s lots of thought fodder about this list cropping up in the blogging community . If you have the time, s...

A few God-talk tidbits out there—from football to pirates to innovative evangelicals to Africa and Katrina—to read with your Saturday morning coffee: 1. For you football fans out there, check out Fans Put Faith in a New Saint , a Washington Post article posted earlier this week that is chock-full of some of the most creative God-talk language. Reminds of the paragraph nestled in the Get Religion piece Kicking the bucket through those great goal posts in the sky . Truthfully, I hadn’t really had a true glimpse of the religious sports experience until I came to the South. Yowzers. 2. Out of Ur comes Dave Terpstra, pastor of The Next Level Church in Denver, who wonders why Christians loudly protest Harry Potter but are relatively quiet when it comes to Captain Jack Sparrow —who, says Terpstra, “when asked about his plans by two bumbling members of the British Navy he confessed it is his intention to ‘raid, pillage, plunder and otherwise pilfer my weasely black guts out.’ Not exactly C...

Here are some more God-talk tidbits out there: 1. Rick Warren announces that he’s been invited—and has accepted that invitation—to preach in North Korea. Is he concerned the invitation is laced with ulterior motives? "I know they're going to use me," Warren said . . . . "So I'm going to use them." 2. Baptist Standard reports on a presentation by Atlanta church planter Jake Myers on how the emerging movement might be a fit with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. 3. Terry Mattingly of GetReligion reports on the Money of the past vs. Money of the future (updated) , which focuses on the current situation/crisis within the Presbyterian and Episcopal churches. 4. When you’re done with that one, Mattingly has an op-ed up at USA Today: The media, God and gaffes. The bottom line? “Bias is a problem. But, in my experience, apathy and ignorance cause most of these laugh-to-keep-from-crying gaffes. It would help if newsroom executives spent more time thinki...