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My wife inspired by the a review of this book, 101 Things To Do Before You Diet, suggested I use a variation of this for a book title, 101 Things To Do Before You Leave Church. I like that idea and title, and have started working an outline for it
The idea of the diet book, is that 1) diets don’t work 2) There are lots of other healthy things to do before you try dieting.
So in that spirit, I thought I’d ask you, for suggestions, and see how many we can get towards 101.
(The rules for posting are, that they must be constructive comments about things you can do before leaving church, that might make a difference. This is not a chance to comment about why you left church or want to leave church, and is not a judgment statement about people who have left church, is not a naive belief in church, or a power play to maintain church. If you have anxieties about the nature and purpose of church and what is church, post them under other places on this blog. With all those caveats, make sure your comments follows the format below).In amongst all blue-print, idealism about church, what are the small, ordinary and yet revolutionary changes, that could transform church, before we might leave it?
I’ll start with one:
‘Be the change the want to see in the church: Before you leave because the church doesn’t do what you think it should do and be, you try and be that change first, and invite others into that, and see what happens.’
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I posted a tweet and facebook update today about how Nouwen’s, ‘In the Name of Jesus’, whilst only just over 80 pages, in large print, with a small page size format, yet has so much depth and impact.
It’s one of those books, that is challenging me to the core of my identity and relationship with Jesus and others.
Some of the facebook comments from friends, highlighted some similarly impacting books, and that got me wondering. What other treasures are out there, that have impacted you?
Now I’m looking for books, like this, that speak directly to our identity in Christ and within the Church, in terms of identity and formation. I guess people would often locate this genre under spiritual direction/formation.
Which books have moved you the most to prayer, and obedience, and submission to a cruciform identity and way of live with others?
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Emergent Village in the US have announced and opened for registration, their Autumn theological conversation. This year it’s Jürgen Moltmann.
Space are limited to 300 people, it’s in Chicago, September 9-11, and for more information go here.
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I’ve written about Todd Hunter before, and most recently in february, with a summation of what a huge influence he has been in my life.
Well Todd is now entering the episcopal priesthood, and leading a new church planting venture, focused on the west coast of the USA, for the Anglican Mission in the Americas.
You can catch a promo video here of what Todd is up to with this initiative.
Here is some more of the info I got on email from Todd: Continue reading »
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I’ve made the decision to close down the Emergent UK site following on from the review in September last year. (Whilst the site will close down, apart from a placeholder the spirit and people and projects involved will live on – I’m adding this after the comments below)The one section of the site that gets the most hits is the resource section, which we’ll try to locate somewhere else. Some of the resources are showing their age, but there are some classics.
So if you want to get them, go to here, before we take them down/move them.
The site will have a placeholder page and direct people to Deep Church and Reflective Practice.
The front page will soon say:
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Elizabeth writes… As a graduate student at George Fox Evangelical Seminary, I have the privilege of doing some really heavy reading – some of which is more rewarding and engaging than others. Among my heavy readers, Bryan Stone stands tall as offering depth and breadth in his treatment of Evangelism while keeping me engaged in the subject and rewarding me with new hope for the church and its witness in the world. The following is just a brief foretaste of what you might get out reading his book, Evangelism after Christendom: The Theology and Practice of Christian Witness.If someone were to create a cartoon called “Evangelism is…” in the fashion of Kim Grove’s iconic “Love is…” cartoon from the ‘60s, Bryan Stone’s Evangelism after Christendom: The Theology and Practice of Christian Witness would be a definitive guide for such a creation. If I were such a cartoonist, I would draw 12 images representing what Stone says evangelism needs to be today to be a credible and faithful witness to the world.
Image 1: Evangelism is… the church being present in the world. “Evangelism […] is not primarily a matter of translating our beliefs about the world into categories that others will find acceptable. It is a matter of being present in the world in a distinctive way such that the alluring and ‘useless’ beauty of holiness can be touched, tasted, and tried.”
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So I’m back from last weeks teaching stretch at Fuller and George Fox.
As I’ve taught the theology and purpose of church course a few times now, it’s changed over time, and taken shape around my research.
General outline now is:1. Contexts for the Church today: Post-modernity, Consumerism & Secularism
2. The Resources of the Church in Previous Contexts: The Church in Scripture, The Early Church, The Church in History: Orthodox, Catholic, Reformed, Radical Reformed, Free, Pentecostal
3. Emerging Ecclesiologies: An assessment of emerging ecclesiologiesA great time with the Students and lots of meeting for friends around meals and coffee.
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Call me old fashioned, but when I hear, read, meet someone giving advice on how church should change, my first thought/question is to want to know what church community they are part of, where they live. ‘How does this play out in your church community?’ I’ll ask, as kindly and playfully as I can.
You see, I have grown more than tired of, the de-churched expert, who tells us what is wrong with church, travels to churches to speak, gives advice on what churches should do, whilst having no church community that they are embedded in.
I wonder if the nature of their ongoing protest and desire to unmask what they see as wrong with church can become self-justifying, and they see nothing ironic in the fact that they are consumed with their protest and have effected very little real, concrete change.
Despite their best intentioned aspirations they can come to resemble ‘snake oil’ salesmen, selling ecclesiological fictions, that pray on the fears of Christians, selling idealised theories about church, armed with pathological descriptions of what is wrong with church and having no embodied and concrete missional and church life themselves.
The missional leader in this construction seems to be almost a form of vampirism in their consumption of the church as mission. Away from book sales, visits to churches and conferences, they may seem to embody the ultimate expression of solipsistic ecclesiologists, unable or unwilling to ‘smoke what they sell’.
Maybe a less malignant metaphor is that of the ‘ecclesiological tourist’. Whilst tourist can end up never really enters into a location, always picking the best experiences, through consumption of a location, the de-churched expert does something similar.
Sampling the locations they visit, with no embedded community of origin to bring or return to themselves, offering guidebook extracts of the best experiences of church they have visited and consumed.
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I’m off to the US for a week. I’ll be speaking at Fuller in their ‘Conversations on Culture Series’, Talk title I have been given is, ‘A New Kind of Missional Church Leader’. Then I go up to Portland, and am teaching a M.Div class on Ecclesiology at George Fox in Portland.And around the teaching times, I’m meeting up with a load of other people, engaged in missional/emerging church, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Better take my running shoes for all the meals with old and new friends.
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Paul writes… last week I was faced with moral choices… I’m not talking about the moral challenges of whether to watch porn on-line (i’ve given it up for lent), steal time from my boss, or covert then eat the Krispie Kreame donuts in the cupboard.
Those are of course all moral choices but I have a map for those, of sorts. Instinctively I’ve learnt they are all bad for me and bad = pain and pain is something I can chose to do without. In other words they are all sensible choices which help me look after me.
No I’m talking about moral choices where I chose to look after someone else. A moral choice not just cos its in my interest but because it is in their interest and costs me something of my own. My moral map seems a bit hazy and my moral compass is swinging round to S(elf).
I’m not sure what you would have decided to do in each of these situations, I’m not even sure what I would do, or even if I want to do anything at all. So let me highlight the scenarios for you and I’d welcome any wisdom and insights you may have…
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