Deep Church

(In our discussions this week, Paul Mayers posted this parable in a comment.  I couldn’t resist and have re-posted it here in full, under his name – Jason)

Maybe it would seem we need to rediscover the wonder of parables, those stories that take our everyday encounters and transmutes them somehow. If we can hear them in the first place.

The third space one would be a great example, I can almost hear Jesus saying…

‘a man and women walk into starbucks, pay £8 to sip their and sip their skinny latte and chi tea. They leave feeling less thirsty and more virtuous having discussed their spritual journies and resolve that in this space they can be truly free. Before parting they agree to meet back their the same time next week where they will this time discuss how to resolve world hunger over a chocolate muffin and a piece of blueberry cheesecake. Who do you think is richer for this experience, the economy of God or the economy of the market?’

At once Peter spoke up, ‘Guru, you have made me think that if we offer free muffins and better coffee we will be able to attract more followers, for as you have said man and women need more than just ciabatta alone.

No, no, said Judas, who managed the on-line bank account and charitable donations, we should buy shares in this starbucks. It would seem its business model is most profitable.

The disciples began to bicker amongst themselves, one saying for the coffee plan and another for the investments, still a third argued that they should set up their own chain and a fourth that maybe it would be better to run a pub.

Finally Jesus spoke again, oh you and your consumer ways, do you not realise that you seek to take on the forms of this world rather than embody the values of my Father. For it is not about the coffee blend or the pastries that you consume but rather what it is that consumes and makes your identity. Broad is the market and many believe find it easy to find their selves accomodated within its many niches but narrow is the way of true self formation, denying your right to yours right and instead following me.

The disciples wondered at his words as they entered into the McD’s drive through…

I’m travelling tomorrow to Portland, Oregon,  for the  M.Div/MA class  on ‘The Theology and Purpose of the Church’, that I get to teach twice a year at George Fox Seminary. As usual I’m looking forward to trying out my ongoing PhD research, and to meeting the students that I’ve been working with online this past term/semester.

I try to post all my speaking engagements with ‘trip it‘, and my main web site www.jasonclark.ws pulls that information through showing upcoming trips.

So I’m first up with a reflection on the nature of the bible, with regards to our new series of re-imgaining Vineyard Church distinctives .

I’m not going to critique the Vineyard Churches use of the bible (a task too huge for any blog post).  Rather I am going to take  the idea that as a value, axiomatic and disctinctive, of holding a high view and confidence in the role of the bible in the christian life and mission of the church, and run that against a current issue from our emerging missional context

For this post I want to take on the issue of the stories that shape our imaginations, what we really organise life around, and how the bible might figure in relation to that.

In terms of space, the places where church life takes place, there has been a headlong rush into the ‘third space’  for church. This is the notion that, between the home and workplace, there is a neutral ‘third space’ that people inhabit, be it in the form of cafes or sports clubs, into which we need to incarnate the church. Incarnating mission into the spaces that people inhabit is one thing, but the complete reduction of church into that space seems to pander to the worst of consumerism.

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So this week we begin our series with guest authors in reflecting on Vineyard Church distinctives and re-imaginging them for our emerging contexts.

My hope is that this process will also be helpful for others outside Vineyard Churches, as they seek to do the same with similar distinctives.  And that anyone outside vineyard churches, will lend us their needed perspectives on these values.

One common theme I’ll be suggesting for all these ‘distinctives’ is how they need to find their ‘renewal’ within a resourcement by the larger church in history.

We start this week with the bible, and I’ll make the first post in response tommorow.  So you’ll see posts by me and guest authors this week, so jump in with comments when you are ready.

1.  The Bible: Having a passion for the bible, with a centrality and confidence in bible for the Christian life.

So we are getting ready to theological re-imagine some core vineyard values, and axiomatics as per my earlier posts.  We are going to kick off next week, taking one value at a time, and a group of guest bloggers will be responding to each value.

The values we’ve decided to reflect on, are those articulated by the National Director of Vineyard Churches in the UK and Ireland, John Mumford, at the Vineyard National Leaders Conference in January 2010.  You can listen to the podcast of John Mumford’s talk, ‘Distinctives of the Vineyard‘.

I am going to make a summary of them here, with the following caveats.  This is not an initiative of Vineyard Churches, and is my take on them.  Also the presentation is subject to my interpretation of the presentation and my note taking.  All errors in transcription are my own making.

Also another caveat to make, these distinctives are not made to be elitist, or contra any other church groups.  In fact many church groups would have many of these values in common.  They are how ever a presentation of some of the key values, of what might be some of the core values for people involved with Vineyard Churches.

They are not going to be disputed in this series, but taken as read, and then used for us to reflect on them theologically to explore then afresh for today.  Many of them will need expanding to make sense to people outside the Vineyard movement, as I use a degree of shorthand below. I hope that will take place as the series unfolds.

John prefaced the 10 ‘distinctives’ talking about what made people belong to Vineyard Churches.  Firstly ‘calling’ a sense that God wanted us involved, and secondly the relationships within our experience together.  Then the third thing that flows from that is our ‘distinctives’.  They are:

1.  The Bible: A passion for the bible, centrality and confidence in bible for the Christian life.

2.  The Kingdom of God: An understanding of the ‘now and not yet’ of the Kingdom of God, for understanding mission, the church, eschatology etc. Continue reading »