The church in deep church…
29 Oct 2008
Paul writes…I got some +ive feedback from someone who read this site last week which was good to hear. The only slight problem, my encourager suggested, was that this site is deep in the sense of being hard to understand and made him feel a bit on the thick side. I agree, sometimes I have no clue what that Clark is going on about, lol.
Sometimes this site will err on the technical theological/sociological/any-other-”ical” but the deep in deep church is not meant to be dense. The deep is meant to be about connecting us into the wider traditions of the universal catholic church, appreciating 2,000+ yrs of thinking and practice and letting that inform our own today. We all draw from a deep well that is the source of our faith as well as inspiration for us practicing following Jesus today. Or, perhaps, as T.S. Elliot put it:
“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.”
So that’s the deep part but what about the church part of deep church? Well it’s our belief that the church is the community/family/people of God that gathers together and then disperses, gathers and disperses. Like breathing in or out. Like blood being pumped through the heart. Like waves lapping on the shore.
In short we believe that we cannot fully follow Jesus outside of participating in this concrete community of Christ, embracing its moments of wonder and reflected glory as well as all its flaws, imperfections and problems.
Or to put it another way: the little old lady, in the picture that accompanies this post, in her institutional church tradition, who has lived a life of trying to follow Jesus is just as much as part of the family of God as I am. That she is just as likely to find Jesus sitting next to her in the pew in her church as I am in mine. We both have a shared faith in Jesus and we have something profound to offer each other in our diversity.
Tomorrow I want to write about those pains we feel from being involved in church. What can i diagnose from those symptoms of discontent about my own condition of broken humanity? How does the grace of God working through the church act to treat my condition and what are those side effects?
Today though I just want to end with a pause, to reflect on all those great moments of the full life of God that have burst into mine (and yours) through church. For…
the laughter shakes
the tears shed
the friends found
the frustrations caused
the profound pains
the healing process
the shared journey
the hands dirty
the crap caused
the congratulations received
the love found
and love given away.
Jesus in our midst
the miracle of unity
in all of our diversity
sometimes
[Feel free to add your own]…
10 comments
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Comment by Jason Reid
3.09 pm on 29 Oct 2008
Paul, it is strangely refreshing that the discussions here are on the less purile side and it brings up issues that require some good thinking. There’s enough shallow dross out there and I for one enjoy having my cognitive functions stretched a bit. Enjoy grace
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Comment by Paul
6.28 pm on 29 Oct 2008
Thanks Jason, I’m all for good thinking just challenged in how we write so that we can help as many people as possible participate and add to our understanding from their own experiences.
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Comment by Jonathan Brink
4.48 pm on 29 Oct 2008
Paul, perhaps this early stage is about learning your own language for speaking what Deep church is. And you’ll lose some people but gain more in the long run.
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Comment by Paul
6.30 pm on 29 Oct 2008
Thanks Jonathan. I like the idea of having many voices to help speak about deep church in ways that allow as many people as want to be join in the conversation be able to do so.
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Comment by rodney neill
11.58 am on 30 Oct 2008
I try reading the church and pomo website which often is way over my head with technical specialised theological language that is used by a mainly academic readership! I personally enjoy the content of this site - the trick is to try use everyday language that avoids theological jargon as much as possible in order to connect to a wider readership. keep up the good work and I look foward to your post on church involvement!
rodney
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Comment by Paul
1.31 pm on 30 Oct 2008
Thanks Rodney, well that should be easy for me, I don’t know much theological jargon lol. But I think it is getting the balance right in being clear and explaining what we are on about and doing it in as many ways as engage. Clearly we want those steeped in technical/theological expertise to share what they know and for ordinary punters to do likewise.
Really though the language issue is a bit of a red herring, we want to be clear what we are about in terms of deep and church that make up for us deep church. We want to celebrate and learn from the past and let it infect the present. We also want to be pro church in all its good and bad mixed together forms.
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Comment by Trish
4.30 pm on 2 Nov 2008
Thanks so much for this posting. I have been getting Deep Church sent to me for a couple of weeks now and well was beginning to feel that I wasnt quite academic enough to understand or join in. That is something I dont need as the local church around here is very academic based as it is! Trying to process academic approaches to our faith is too much after a busy day at Sainsburys, cooking tea, putting the kids to bed. So for those ordinary folks out here please speak in simple terms?
With regard to discovering Jesus in our midst I am convinced that anyone who looks for Him will find Him wherever they go (to be church). Its the life after finding Him that causes the problem, do we think that church (as it is now)is able to contain the person who has encountered Jesus?
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Comment by Paul
2.12 pm on 3 Nov 2008
Thanks Trish, you’re voice is welcome here and please do help us keep it understanable or ask us what we mean if we start sounding like we’re speaking from another planet
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Comment by Trish
10.13 pm on 4 Nov 2008
thanks Paul been a bit busy with shopping, ironing, kids etc and wont be around for a few days cause have the rare opportunity to get away for a few days. I am increasingly concerned by the people around me who insist on making our faith something you approach with your intellect. I live in a town where most people are “just normal” and really are we in danger of making the gospel only accessible for clever people? Now there is a question for all …. we sat in a pub earlier talking to two people with very obvious problems….. I know Gods heart wants to connect with them …. can we the church do that???
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Comment by Paul
8.35 am on 6 Nov 2008
Thanks for sharing Trish, I hope you had a good break away.
I’ve been in church environments where the focuse as been more thought based and others where it has been more emotions based and some that try and bring the two together. Then again I have friends who are more thinkers and friends who are very emotional and a majority that are varying shades of both. I’ve learnt and grown a lot in all the church environs I’ve been in so welcome the diversity jus like i welcome the diversity of my friends.
Its a good question you ask: can the church do that? Seeing what you wrote before about you sitting in the pub and chatting I’d say the church is doing that in all sorts of places with all sorts of people already.
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