Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

The emerging church is probably not a good entry point into the faith…?

Paul writes – Quite provocatively Andrew Perriman makes the following comments in the context of a reflection on the Alpha Course.

 

“…We should keep in mind, however, that the emerging or postmodern church phenomenon is largely a reaction against the modern evangelical-charismatic movement. It is driven and defined for the most part by people (like me) who have spent 10 or 20 years in this world and have got tired of its contradictions and constraints, and so on. This means that the emerging church is probably not a good entry point into the faith – it has evolved to deal with a quite different set of issues…”

 

What do you think? Is he right? Or is it again a problem that the term “emerging church” is so amorphous – it can mean so many different things in so many different contexts. For example, often lumped in with “emerging church” are those expressions of church, quite distinct, I would have thought from say Alt-Worship congregations, that emerge (or are the result of renewal and re-vitalisation) from an intentionally “missional” journey.  Surely these must provide an entry point into the faith?

 

That said, it is a subject that plays on my mind, and thus for me prioriterises missional intentionality. If I was, for example, to start a new expression of church from a “clean sheet of paper”, it would inevitability be most appealing to people like me, and would thus reflect a longer journey that started with the basics of Christianity (within the reformed, English puritan, and evangelical / charismatic stream) and while not discarding this foundation, faith has continued to grow and change.  I’ve not been involved in a church (in the traditional sense of the word) for 4-years, I’m very very well read (both in terms of breadth and depth), and my sense of church / worship (while remaining sacramental at its heart) is very different from the form of church that introduced me to the faith and enabled me to lay a solid theological foundation upon which to build. But, then growth is not just about rational belief - discipleship is not less than that, but it's a whole lot more than that.

 

In a very real sense then, if I started a church from scratch, and prioriterised church over mission, I feel pretty certain that Andrew’s statement would prove true – that kind of church (if it was to meet in some measure my own needs of church belonging) would not provide an entry point to the Christian faith without a huge amount of creativity, imagination and intentionality. But then, are established churches any better at making disciples and growing distinctive Jesus-followers. Do they provide better entry points... particularly for the rare person (young adult / adult) who wants to explore Christianity as part of their spiritual search? I'm not sure they do either, so we're back to square one... Do we require different kinds of churches, for example, like Church of the Saviour in Washington DC which was profoundly and creatively engaged in forming people in the faith and making well-rounded followers of Jesus...?  

 

You can read the rest of Andrew’s post here (you might need to scroll down a little). Also, worth a read in relation to the Alpha course is Martyn Percy’s essay “Shopping for God: Production, Consumption and Globalisation” in his collection of essays The Salt of the Earth – Religious Resilience in a Secular Age. Also, S. Hunt’s Anyone for Alpha?...

Thomas Merton – Becoming Myself.

Paul writes – For anyone engaged with or interested in the deeper questions of self and in becoming more fully and authentically human, or who feel bogged down in issues of “mid-life” and identity, Catholic Priest/Monk Thomas Merton is an indispensible guide and companion on the journey. Here’s a quote (originally) from him from his Seeds of Contemplation (pub. 1949), now contained in New Seeds of Contemplation. The quote is from page 64.

“...In order to become myself I must cease to be what I always thought I wanted to be, and in order to find myself I must go out of myself, and in order to live I have to die.

The reason for this is that I was born in selfishness and therefore my natural efforts to make myself more real and more myself, make me less real and less myself, because they revolve around a lie.

People who know nothing of God and whose lives are centred on themselves, imagine that they can only find themselves by asserting their own desires and ambitions and appetites in a struggle with the rest of the world [and others]. They try to become real by imposing themselves on other people, by appropriating for themselves some share of the limited supply of created goods and thus emphasising the difference between themselves and other [people] who have less than them, or nothing at all.

They can only conceive one way of becoming real: cutting themselves off from other people and building a barrier of contrast and distinction between themselves and other [people]...”  

Marilynne Robinson Interviewed

Paul writes – This morning on Radio New Zealand there was a fascinating interview with US author Marilynne Robinson.  Robinson is the author of three novels: Housekeeping (1980, Faber and Faber); Gilead (2004, Virago), which received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; and Home (Virago), which won the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction.

 

She has written two works of non-fiction: The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought (1998, Houghton Mifflin, ISBN: 0395926920), and Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution (1989, Faber and Faber, ISBN: 978-0571154531). Marilynne teaches at the Iowa Writer’s’ Workshop, and held a Dwight H. Terry Lectureship at Yale University this year, giving a series of talks entitled Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self.

 

You can find the Mp3 or listen to the interview by going here.  

Alan Roxburgh – In the Midst of the Ordinariness

“…We didn’t talk about false dichotomies, like inwardly and outwardly focused churches, but looked at how God always begins where we are, in the midst of the ordinariness of our stories and the places where we live.  These are places and ways in which the Spirit is calling forth a new imagination for the church…”

Charles Taylor: Trackless Paths and the Need for Each Other...

Paul writes – Distinguished Canadian Catholic Philosopher Charles Taylor concludes his meticulously argued 800-page A Secular Age (pub. 2007) with these sage words (p. 754):

“...None of us could ever grasp alone everything that is involved in our alienation from God and His action to bring us back. But there are many of us, scattered through history, who have had some powerful sense of some facet of this drama. Together we can live it more fully than any of us could alone. Instead of reaching immediately for the weapons of polemic, we might better listen for a voice which we could never have assumed ourselves, whose tone might have been forever unknown to us if we hadn’t strained to understand it... Our faith is not the acme of Christianity, but nor is it a degenerate version; it should rather be open to a conversation that ranges over the whole of the last 20 centuries (and even in some ways before)...”

It repays the time to read it slowly 2 or 3 times.

Taylor continues, “This, of course, leaves us with an immense set of messy, hermeneutical issues: how the different approaches relate to each other; how they relate together to questions of over-arching truth. We will never be without these issues; the belief that they can be finally set aside by some secure instance of authority, whether the Bible or the Pope, is a dangerous and damaging illusion…” (p. 754).  

“…The goal… is not a return to an earlier formula, inspiring as many of these will undoubtedly be; there will always be an element of imitation of earlier models, but inevitably and rightly Christian life today will look for and discover new ways of moving beyond present orders to God… Understanding our time in Christian terms is partly to discern these new paths, opened by pioneers who have discovered a way through the particular labyrinthine landscape we live in, its thickets and trackless wastes, to God…”

Stable Partnerships, Human Companionship and Friendship

Paul writes – given my earlier posts (this one for example) and my own thinking on the subject, I was interested to note a recent post from Peter Carrell in which he offered some of the questions (not too dissimilar from mine) he’s been reflecting on as challenges in the Anglican Communion continue to play themselves out.

Peter writes

“...Here are some things I have been reflecting on:

·         Is there not 'goodness' in a stable same sex partnership, notably the good of human companionship and friendship?

·         Is it not a very good thing when society through law protects each and every member of society from prejudice and discrimination on an arbitrary basis?

·         Consequently, can the church find ways to affirm human companionship and friendship, and to celebrate good laws operating in society?”

He also links to a post by Burke's Corner (a communitarian conservative and post-liberal Anglican) who in turn links to a series of interesting posts by a commentator I’ve come to appreciate quite a bit of late – Ephraim Radner. To Radner’s reflection (see here and here / Part 1 - Final part (#5) and other parts can be found here) I’d add this one by Tobias Stanislas Haller which reflects something of the kind of relational approach that needs to be woven through the numerous conversations happening at a global, national, and local level. 

You can read the rest of Peter’s post here, and follow his links as noted above.

For a very thoughtful read on the subject of how we might engage Scripture, and what we need to be aware of as we read it, I’d highly recommend Oliver O’Donovan’s little book:  Church in Crisis: The Gay Controversy and the Anglican Communion. Further thought-provoking reading on the subject, for the interested reader, would include the following, none of which are specifically or exclusively “evangelical”: A Question of Truth: Christianity and Homosexuality by Gareth Moore; An Acceptable Sacrifice? Homosexuality and the Church edited by Duncan Dormor and Jeremy Morris (this features an excellent essay by friend Maggi Dawn); The Way Forward: Christian Voices on Homosexuality and the Church edited by Timothy Bradshaw; ‘The Carnality of Grace’: Sexuality Spirituality and Pastoral Ministry’ and excellent essay by Kenneth Leech in Embracing the Chaos: Theological Responses to Aids edited by James Woodward; Permanent, Faithful, Stable: Christian Same-Sex Partnerships by Jeffrey John; and Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragmants Catholic and Gay by James Alison. And, while I haven’t read it, I’d add to my reading list Reasonable and Holy: Engaging Same Sexuality by Tobias Stanislas Haller. For a specifically Evangelical text which attempts to take the Biblical text and Hermeneutics seriously you could start with The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics by Robert A. Gagnon. I. Howard Marshall describes it as "...the fullest and best presentation of the conservative position..." It's a large book coming in at 520 pages. It was published in 2002.

Dave Tomlinson Preaching In Cambridge, New Zealand.

Paul writes – An update to Dave Tomlinson’s NZ itinerary (see this post here for the detail of his full itinerary). Dave will be preaching at the 8am and 9:30am Services at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Cambridge on Sunday 6^th September. All welcome. 

DIGITAL FAITH: Exploring the contours of faith in our digital world

Paul writes – Stephen Garner (has a list of the speakers and their blogs) is promoting what sounds like a fascinating workshop, although sadly because of prior commitments I won’t be able to make it. A flyer (PDF) is attached at the bottom of this post.

DIGITAL FAITH: Exploring the contours of faith in our digital world

How do the Christian faith and the Internet impact upon each other? What place might the Bible have in our digital world? Come and join us as our panel of expert speakers engage with these topics and others relating to issues of faith in the digital world.

Speakers
Mark Brown, CEO, Bible Society New Zealand. Founder Anglican Cathedral in Second Life (for an article on Mark & “Second Life” go here).

Stephen Garner, Lecturer in Theology and Popular Culture, School of Theology, University of Auckland.

Heidi Campbell, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Communication, Texas A&M University
Author of Exploring Religious Community Online.

Tim Bulkeley, Lecturer in Old Testament, Carey Baptist College
Developer of the Amos Hypertext Commentary & podBible projects.

Saturday 5 September 2009, 9am-12pm. OGGB4 Lecture Theatre, Level 0, Owen G Glenn Building, 12 Grafton Road, The University of Auckland. Please REGISTER your attendance by Wednesday 2 September by e-mail.

Download Digital Faith - Brochure 

Robert J. Wicks – Crossing our Deserts

Paul writes – In his excellent little (176p + notes and a selected biography) 2007 book Crossing the Desert: Learning to Let Go, See Clearly, and Live Simply, Robert J. Wicks (earned his doctorate in psychology and now a Professor at Loyola College in Maryland) offers in his introduction a quote from Thomas Merton (from this book).It’s a quote well worth pondering.

 

Merton writes:

 

“…These monks [who went into the Desert] insisted on remaining human and ‘ordinary’. This may seem to be a paradox, but it is very important. If we reflect a moment, we will see that to fly into the desert in order to be extraordinary is only to carry the world with you as an implicit standard of comparison. The result would be nothing but self-contemplation and self-comparison with the negative standard of the world one had abandoned .

 

Some of the monks of the desert did this, as a matter of fact: and the only fruit of their trouble was that they went out of their heads. The simple men who lived their lives out to a good old age among the rocks and the sands only did so because they had come into the desert to be themselves [i.e. to be and to become more deeply who God had created them to be], their ordinary selves, and to forget the world that divided them from themselves. There can be no other valid reason for seeking solitude or for leaving the world…

 

[Moreover,] they knew that they were helpless to do any good for others as long as they floundered about in the wreckage. But once they got a foothold on solid ground, things were different…”

 

In Islam they use the term “reversion” rather than conversion for the act by which a person converts to Islam. They use “reversion” because they believe it is only a return to what all human beings are: Muslim. This same term could be used to describe what many who went to the Desert were trying to do; they were trying to return to (reversion) and to become what they had always been – human beings, fully alive and free in Christ Jesus (the second and last Adam). In other words they were seeking to become what God always had in mind for them. The Desert is a place of deep dependency (upon God) and transformation. It’s a place where all that de-humanises is stripped away, healed and transformed to the glory of God. 

 

I first encountered “Desert Spirituality” within the Christian tradition though Henri Nouwen’s “The Way of the Heart” which I picked up and read twice through when in Los Angeles quite some years ago. Wick’s rich and important insights now join those of Merton, Nouwen, the Desert Fathers and Mothers, Belden Lane, John Cassian, Kathleen Norris, Roberta C. Bondi, Mary Margaret Funk, Andrew Louth and a whole host of others who’ve journeyed with me over the years. May they accompany you also as you journey home.

Ronald Rolheiser on Friendship and Vulnerability

“…It is because of the refusal to be vulnerable that, far too often, instead of enjoying friendship and intimacy with those around us, we find ourselves fencing with each other, using our talents, [our positions and roles], achievements, and strengths as weapons.

 

To be vulnerable in the true sense does not mean that someone must become a doormat, a weakling, devoid of all pride, going out of his way to let others know all his faults and weaknesses. Nor is vulnerability to be confused with the idea of ‘letting-it-all-hang-out’, to be vulnerable is to be strong enough to be able to present ourselves without false props, without an artificial display of our credentials. In brief, to be vulnerable is to be strong enough to be honest and tender. Like Jesus, the person who is vulnerable is a person who cares enough to let himself be weak, precisely because he does care…”

 

Ronald Rolheiser, in his book The Restless Heart – Finding Our Spiritual Home in Times of Loneliness [addition, above, is mine. Paul]