First Break

My partner Mike is arriving in town to celebrate my 40th birthday Sunday, so this will probably be my last post until next Monday or Tuesday. I've had two thoughts that I hadn't put down yet that I thought I should do so before break. The first thought has to do with the emergent movements emphasis on "community". Let me begin by saying that I truly believe community is an essential aspect of spirituality. My only concern about the emphasis on community lies in what has happened over the years in mainlines with their experience of community. I have seen many instances where community evolved into a sense of family in such a way that it actually inhibited the faith community's missional desire. The focus on community became so great that it almost insulated the worshipping community from the rest of the world. It would be great to say that this phenomena was limited to the mainlines, but I've already heard of this happening to existing emergent communities. I met with a pastor in his 40's yesterday who told of the experience of visiting an emergent gathering Sunday and was virtually ignored by the "community" since he wasn't a 20-something like the rest of the attendees. In Denver I had also talked with a pastor whose worship group could not grow past 25 since the group was so connected to one another that they had a hard time welcoming others into the community. I have yet to read anyone from the emergent community who has honestly addressed this issue. The second issue has to do with the interest in narratives or story. I was talked with an emergent worship person recently who talked about the role of story being foundational in the community's development. Here's was my question for the individual: "If you are inviting folks to share their stories, is it a safe place for them to REALLY share their story?" How would the community respond, for instance, if a person's story included elements the community might be uncomfortable with (i.e. stories that might include the coming out story of a lesbian or gay person, a continuing battle with an addiction, a story of domestic abuse, a story that included a criminal background). My concern in my initial forrays into the emergent communities is that since many come from more theologically conservative backgrounds they may not be equipped to deal with the folks they say they would like to welcome. This concern, of course, isn't limited just to emergent communities; there are PLENTY of existing churches that have the same problem. I do hold the emergent communities to a higher standard, however, because of the values they profess. I'm thinking my exploration of emerging gatherings in communities that are larger and more urban than Spokane might help address this concern. Til next time...

Emergent Experiences in Existing Churches

As I hit the mid-point in Tim Conder's "The Church in Transition: The Journey of Existing Churches in the Emerging Culture", it is apparent to me that as a local church pastor in a mainline church, I share more experiences in common with Tim than any of the other authors I have read to date. Let me tell you why I say that. I bonded with Tim's pastoral experiences right away when he identified the greatest fears existing churches have in incorporating emergent experiences: these fears include "losses related to changes in music and hymnody, adaptions of other elements of worship services, the loss of sacred language describing fellowship and spirituality, the marginalization or departure of beloved leaders who feel uncomfortable in a changed church environment, transitions in church polity and structure, new facilities, or simply a change in the weekly church calendar" (79). These observations obviously come from a local church pastor who has lived (and not just researched) these painful and challenging realities. I also enjoyed Tim's exploration of the fears that exist around the effects on church culture. As a pastor serving an ecumenical church aligned with three Protestant denominations, I'm in a particularly unique situation when it comes to factoring in issues of tradition. For at Mountain View, we seek to balance Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ, and United Methodist traditions along with the traditions of our local church. At times this makes me long for the post-denominational reality that many claim we live in. The fact that we have not yet arrived there was brought home to me in a worship team meeting one time where much thought was given to whether we call the "object" at the front of the sanctuary an altar (according to United Methodist tradition) or a Communion Table (according to Presbyterian tradition). I was reminded of this experience through Tim's words: "The word tradition is meaningless without a frame of reference" (79). The challenge is to get individuals to be honest with themselves and the worshipping community so that they can realize their appeals to tradition are often not as universal as they would like to believe. Finally, I connected most with Tim's exploration of traditions when he wrote that the greatest challenges we face involve those moments when our innovations affect unspoken traditions or values. The two most prominent of these unspoken values - in Tim's words - are "comfort and safety" (81). Getting folks to see (and admit that) is a Herculean task for most local pastors and worship faciltiators. I'll end today's entry with one word of caution Tim raised about exploring emergent worship from a trendy (rather than theological) perspective. "In some emerging churches I've visited, being culturally 'cool' takes a prominent seat at the banquet of values." He goes on to tell the story of a worship gathering that featured an engaging piece of art. When he asked about its meaning in the gathering, "their response was that they had no clue what the piece meant or why it was in their worship space - but is sure was cool" (81). So much for the intentional practices that Butler Bass wrote of. God help us so that we never go down that path. Til next time ...

Helpful Resource for Existing Churches Exploring Emergent Worship

Last night I started a new book (Tim Conder's "The Church in Transition: The Journey of Existing Churches into the Emerging Culture"). I think it has the possibility of being the most helpful resource I'll find this summer as I grapple with the process of introducing an emergent worship experience into an existing church. In my first 10 days, I've noticed that there are a couple of serious divides that separate communities exploring emergent worship: the most obvious are mainline efforts vs evangelical efforts; another is existing churches vs new church starts. Conder's first chapter helped me realize an unexplored assumption of mine. I had previously assumed that evangelical new starts would have a serious advantage in their emergent efforts over mainlines. I no longer think that is the case. For the past week I've been watching an emerging community attempt to emerge as a new church start from an evangelical community. What I've noticed is that this community seems to be grappling with some issues left over from the contemporary worship orientation of their previous community. It would be EXTREMELY difficult, for instance, to try to birth a small struggling community when you have previously been tied to a huge worshipping community with practically unlimited resources. Mainlines, unfortunately, have been more experienced with what it means to grapple with limited membership and resources. When I think about our efforts to explore emergent worship at Mountain View United, I feel particularly blessed since we have a rich mixture of an openness to post-modern theological exploration and resources (such as a wonderfully flexible church building) that will offer us many of the benefits of a variety of faith traditions. There are two statements from Conder that I feel especially compelled to share as they are both a wonderful words of warning. His first statements is about the task at hand, and puts our 21st century challenge into a balanced sense of historical perspective: "As in every era of challenge and change, our primary task is to find and to follow the leading of God's spirit, rather than stubbornly insist on the static paths of comfort and convenience made by our own hands and feet" (16). The other statement reminds me of the larger systemic issues involved with birthing an emergent community: "Churches that tend to copy the practices and methods of emergin church ministry without simultaneously pursuing the dialogue of transition in thought are very likely to exhibit the inauthenticiy of a really bad [hair] comb over". Til next time ...

Same Concepts, Different Approach

I found the time to finish Diana Butler Bass' book "The Practicing Congregation: Imaging a New Old Church". I was amazed to see how similar Butler Bass' conclusions were to Brian McLaren's. I found it fascinating, however, that Diana wasn't quite ready yet to let go of many of the modern concepts with which she was raised. For instance, she created a grid that separated Christian movements into four quadrants. The grid representated continuums between liberalism/conservatism and established practices/intentional practices (I'll explain this in just a moment). Using this grid she located four primary movements: (1) old-style mainline movements, (2) traditional/evangelical movements, (3) practicing congregations, and (4) emergent churches. While her grid was an interesting intellectual exercise, it didn't resonante with my post-modern sensibilities/spirituality. I found my thinking and experience to be closer in line with McLaren's perspective. The exciting thing, however, is that there is an acknowledgment of the emerging principles from communities of all theological/liturgical shapes and sizes! The most important thing I took from Butler Bass' book was her framing of the existing tension between communities that use established worship practices and communities that use intentional worship practices. "The essence of established churchgoing," Butler Bass wrote, "was that one assumed denominational loyalty, received certain beliefs and practices from earlier generations with few quesions, and expected these patterns to continue indefinitely. Indeed, to break the pattern revealed a certain kind of fmailial disloyalty, and religious conversation was socially fatal." Intentional worship communities, however, are markedly different. "Intentional congregations are marked by mobility, choice, risk, refexivity, and reflection. They think about what they do and ask why they do it in relation to their own history, their cultural context, the larger Christian story found in scripture and liturgy, and in line with the longer traditions of Christian faith." My goal in moving toward the new worship gathering this fall is to help create an "intentionial" worship gathering - one that defies the grid that Butler Bass created, however, and instead gives glimpses of both the immiment and transcendent God who is larger than the confines any grid. Til next time ...

One Down, Many to Go...

What a weekend it's been. One full of all kind of wonderful experiences. I had a chance to finish Brian McLaren's "A Generous Orthodoxy". I am so glad I read this at the beginning of my exploration of the emergent worship movement. The book offered an amazingly gracious overview of one individual's understanding of the core values driving the emergent movement. I said in an earlier post I was somewhat suspicious of McLaren and his rock-star like status in some emergent-circles. Having completed the book, however, I can see the temption to accord him such status. Nearly every page was chocked full of wonderfully rich, memorable lines that challenged me to rethink (and more importantly, re-experience) my spiritual commitments. In the end, I found the fullest characterization of what McLaren hoped to accomplish in his project in these words: "To be a Christian in a generously orthodox way ... is rather to be in a loving community of people who are seeking the truth on the road of mission" (333). I had the opportunity to worship at a United Church of Christ congregation in Spokane yesterday. The service was wonderfully spiritual (and an incredibly authentic expression of the community's values). The service reminded me, however, of the challenge faced by many mainline churches in their attempts to birth new worship gatherings. Some of these challenges were physical (pews nailed into the floors); others related to service components (finding music for the congregation to sing that is invitational). It felt great to be a worship participant instead of a worship leader for a change! After having the foundation for my future research and study laid with McLaren's book, I think my next book will Diana Butler Bass' "The Practicing Congregation". Til next time...