Talking Points for Relevant Faith Communities

Faith communities wanting to stay relevant through the 21st century will have to undergo radical reconfiguration to remain a viable entity. This will require us to move from tweaking to totally re-tuning, from re-forming to totally reconfiguring, from focusing on ministry (which almost always implies inside the four walls) to being a movement, from centripetal to centrifugal, from being ministers to be missionaries.

Here are the talking points for like faith communities:

1. Are we fully convinced that salvation is process or does it occur in some event and point in time? If salvation is more process than event—do we have the sort of vehicles in place that encourage the process or only assist people for a point of decision? Process evangelism in this emerging world may look very different than our point evangelism of modernity.

2. How we use biblical and extrabiblical terminology and our understanding of missiology and the kingdom are watersheds for the next edge of the emerging church.

3. If relational apologetics replaces the rational apologetics of the 20th century then what does the new relational apologetics look like? Ron Martoia has said, “People seek to believe (the quest for meaning), belong (the quest for community) and become (the quest for hope and a future).” If this is true, how do we tap into these core yearnings and help move the conversation toward Jesus?

adapted from Ron Martoia's notes

Mystery & Transcendence or Science and Pragmatism

In the Middle Ages the everyday language reflected the Christian life. The world was permeated with transcendence reminders; the sound of church bells, the music, the literature, architecture, everyday language and expressions (“God be with you”, “upon my soul,” etc.). All these reflected the central elements of a story much larger than our own story.

But the western world rejected the mystery and transcendence of the Middle Ages and replaced it with man’s confidence in science, progress, and pragmatism (the Age of Reason). Our lives now revolve around the smaller stories of politics, little league baseball, soap operas, and rap music. It’s not Pentecost; it’s time for spring training. Our best expression today is not, “God be with you,” but, “Have a good day.” The only story beyond our own is the evening news; which make no sense outside the context of the larger story. They are simply arbitrary collections of scenes and images, which lack a bigger picture to fit in.

Death Where is Your Sting?

Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Hebrews 9:27-- The Message

Christians need reminders.

The Death Clock is the internets friendly reminder that life is slipping away…second by second. Like the hourglass of the Net, the Death Clock will remind you how short life is.

Blog Review (2)

Easy to navigate, intelligent posts and an excellent layout—all characteristics of WadeHodges.com. This is a very readable net weblog. The sites plain white, two-column layout displays a header with two golden Russian crosses. There are links to articles Wade has written, stories, sermons, notes from his library of books and a plethora of resources for those who want to dig deeper. The articles are always thoughtful, well-written, intelligent, and insightful.

Wade is presently the storyteller for the Garnett Road Church of Christ (Tulsa, Oklahoma) and has been blogging since April 2002. His favorite part of sermon preparation is going to the movies. Wade says his blogging allows him the opportunity to ask questions and make quirky jokes that doesn’t always fit into his spoken teaching ministry. It also gives opportunity for his friends, family, and enemies to discover exactly what's going on inside his head.

Post timeliness varies, but generally Wade will post every one to three days. Most often anything less than daily post leads to traffic inconsistency but judging from the many comments Wade’s readers leave on his site I think it’s fair to say his readership remains loyal and solid.

If you like story, humor, culture, and gospel you’ll like WadeHodges.com.

On my blog-o-meter WadeHodges.com gets -****stars

My Pre-election Day Political Rant

This election thing is getting stale. I’m sick and tired of the political advertisements, the ugly partisan signs and yard sticks, blogs that keep pushing their political agendas, and promises, promises, promises. Are you feeling nauseated too?

I’ve been playing devil's advocate pretending that I’m a Bush supporter when in reality I’m pretty much non-partisan. But then again these Democrats keep p$%$ing me off. Come to think of it so do the Republicans.

Oh, and did I mention…the media is simply disgusting.

Good, Clean Christian Activity

Last night my wife and I helped with the campus group's Halloween Party. My wife was the pretty vampire (above) and I stood by the campfire and denied I knew her.

Blog Review (1)

On occasion I will post a review on a blog I either visit on a regular basis or have by chance intersected its path. Reviews will be brief and attempt to describe, contextualize and express an opinion about the work. Each blog I review will be rated by the following blog-o-meter system.

*blog must die
**resurrect this blog
***the wavering blog
****very good blog
*****excellent blog
If you feel your blog is worth considering for an upcoming blog-o-meter rating you can leave a link to your blog in the comments.


Stephen Shields of emergesque'

Stephen Sheilds’ blog ‘emergesque’ has a blue-easy appealing layout, visually simple and effective. No amazing graphics of any kind, but appealing nonetheless. It's a two-column layout, very tidy and the links include the usual recent posts and sites plus a long list of articles Stephen has written.

The blog boasts a very complete "bio" page with excellent insight into Stephen’s background. Stephen is marketing manager for USA Today. He is married and the father of three daughters. He was on staff with Brian McLaren at Cedar Ridge Community Church from 1999-2001. He is the founder of faithmaps.org and moderator of the faithmaps discussion group.

He comes out of the Methodist heritage where he says he started following Jesus at eighteen years of age. Stephen has been blogging since June 2002 and says the reason he blogs is because he loves to write and pull things together from different areas into a unified whole: example: neurology, philosophy and discipleship.

On inspection of ‘emergesque’ it soon becomes obvious that Stephen is a great thinker. Become a regular visitor of ‘emergesque’ and you’ll quickly learn a new language. Words like praxis, transpropostional are communicative words Stephen has adopted and uses regularly in his writings. You can depend on a daily post from Stephen and this is important for readers to become and remain ‘regulars.’ His entries vary in length and his writing style is intelligent, simple and direct with interesting links that usually take you deeper into his subject.

The blog is mostly of the emergent church venue but at times ventures into technology, neurology, and philosophy. Stephen has put a great deal of thought into building an appealing site of his own self-expression that allows a visitor to have their own unique emergesque experience as well.

On my blog-meter emergesque gets -*****stars

Thoughts on Convergence

The emergingchurch.info site shows promise; unfortunately it is rarely updated if updated at all. But an Englishman named Geoff Holsclaw has reflected on what convergence looks like for the 3rd millennial church.

After moving beyond a rationalistic faith, which reduced everything to impersonal propositions and a privatized faith, I begin looking for alternative expressions of faith. In this search I find "Celtic" Christianity, with its emphasis on nature, body/spirit holism, its prayers/rituals, etc,...or, as many others do, I go all the way back to the "Fathers" because their cultural situation is (claimed to be) like my own post-Christian culture, and therefore much could learned from them.

But instead of going through history to find conversation partners for a holistic faith, we should go global. The problem with this type of historical approach (although thinking historically is a big step) is it still only moves through "western" faith. (We move to the "Celts" back to the catholic mystics and monks, and then back to the "Fathers.") African and Asian Christians never became disconnected with nature, nor had a dualistic notion of man, and therefore are just as valuable to us as the "Celts" or the "Fathers", and even more so because we can actually dialogue with them. The Third World Church is living, and has lived, in situation similar to the Fathers for a long time now, and are therefore much farther along then us in "living" it. Let's talk with them about it. It is great to overcome our historical amnesia, but we also overcome our myopically localized vision.

Read the complete article

Creative Missional Engagement (7)

I’ve been away from teaching for over a year but I was reeled in when my friend Jeff Garrett gave me his idea on rallying a group of believers around simple acts of service that echo the love of Christ in practical ways. The ideas will allow those who have never witnessed to anyone before to impact others via guiltless, stress-less, low-risk, high grace actions instead of words. We’ll alternate one Wednesday teaching using Steve Sjogren’s The Kindness Conspiracy and then spend three weeks on the road showering people with the love of Jesus each month for the next thirteen weeks. It’s experiential evangelism at its finest.

The fall 2004 edition of Leadership Magazine just gave me Creative Missional Engagement (7)

Have a Saturday buy down at a local gas station by offer gasoline at a significant discount. (Long before the day arrives negotiate a wholesale price with the station owner) Spend Saturday morning pumping gas, washing windows and serving free snacks. When drivers ask, “Why are you doing this” it gives you the opportunity to say, “We’re showing God’s love in a practical way.”

Discussion on Cutural Changes

Conrad Gempf (author of Jesus Asked) quoted Brian Draper (of the U.K.) on his weblog...

"The church is beginning to catch up with the big changes that have been shaping society. Philosophical, technological, political and social upheavals of the last few years have re-moulded the way we live and breathe and have our being -- and much of the church has come to realise that it must engage or slowly die." [read the full text and then the comments]

Draper's comment has led to some scintillating discussion over at Conrad Gempf's blog. Rex Miller (author of Millennium Matrix) has just joined the discussion. [read the full text and then click on comments]

Fringe People

Most great ideas, inventions, scientific breakthroughs, and innovations come from the fringe, not the mainstream. Think of Einstein, DaVinci, Mozart and any other you might think of. Not one was mainstream. They all questioned convention, the status quo, and asked why.

Sample of the Continued Emerging

Futuring is something I've been fascinated with for some time. I'm constantly looking beyond the horizon, paying attention to cultural shifts, attempting to learn what lies ahead while bringing all these things together in perspective. Futuring has captured my imagination and sent me on a creative journey outside the orbit of the traditional church model.

The above is a paragraph from the article "Futuring" I wrote and sent out in a newsletter...what follows is one of many responses to this article--all offering solid examples of faith communities bodly moving forward into uncharted territory.

Below you'll find believers caught discussing the movement and the hesitance of leadership to become fully relevant. She had sent my article to another Christian and then accidently sent their conversation to me. I didn't realize this until I emailed her and asked if I could use the conversation in my next mail out; she was embarrassed but agreed--with the condition I not mention the name of the congregation. Of course, I concurred.

I really liked this Futuring article as it applies to last night's discussion. I think the great explorers of the world have always known the information in the existing maps of the day, and then set off with their compass anyway. If we do some research as ____ suggested, to learn what the information on today's "maps", but do not feel bound to necessarily follow a charted course we may just be on to something.

It occurred to me this morning that the point of divergence last night began when we started to merge "church" and "coffee shop". Issues of money and doctrine both came into play. Your idea seems to be more of an open house for people to use. Could it be "church" for you without having a "service" there so that doctrinal issues can be avoided? I know _____________ is going to get me on avoidance again, but why couldn't you let anybody use the rooms you have available and simply state that the views presented in lessons may or may not reflect the views of the management and that each person should study the bible themselves and weigh the lessons taught in their own minds against what they read for themselves? If parts of our "tribe" want to create a new "church" with whom to affiliate themselves, they could just be one of the many groups who met there. If some of us don't need a particular "church" affiliation, we could just personally mentor non-believers and NEVER send them to a "church". Those that have church affiliations could mentor, and then invite them to their church. We did that at __________. It did not seem to be confusing to the people. _____ will say that eventually you will have too many non-believers to personally mentor to without connecting them to a "church", and maybe he is right, but I'm not so sure. If God starts transforming people couldn't they continue to go to school and work, raise their families, and pursue various uses of their talents letting the effects of their transformation ripple through their relationships without ever setting foot in a church building? When they hunger to be with other believers couldn't they do that in homes and café's? Couldn't they do it on any day of the week that worked out in their schedules? They would still be "assembling", and praising God, and edifying each other.

I've gone on and on for too long and need to get busy with other things. Suffice to say that I really like how far out of the box you are. It resonates with my soul. But, I have to offer this prayer/meditation room to my brothers and sisters at ________ at least for a little while, a season so to speak. We will have to have deadlines and firm commitments for time and money eventually, but we're not there now, so I will not force them upon myself yet.

Until then, if you start feeling adrift let me know. Becoming de-institutionalized has its risks as well as its rewards. I want you to know that you will never be alone. God is with you, of course, but I am, too.

Locked in the Prison of Our Own Worldview and Having Grown to Love It

Our institutions and churches seem to be like the Titanic: heading blindly for the iceberg of the digital world, certain they can withstand the blow. So instead of thinking deeply about what kind of changes will help them move forward, many churches stay busily engaged in treating symptoms of low commitment, declining membership, or high churn—adding cutting-edge sound systems, revising their mission statements, getting politically active—without dealing with the deeper realities of a changing cultural terrain.

A similar lack of understanding is reflected in our nation’s struggles to defend against threats of terror. If you look through the frame of the Millennium Matrix, you will see the inertia of gigantic bureaucracies—entities rooted in linear thinking—compared to the agility of a loosely structured but highly aligned terrorist network empowered by digital communications. Not long ago I had a conversation with a division manager for a large defense contractor. His division specifically deals with this new form of war—called asymmetrical threats, of which 9-11 attacks are a perfect example. Such acts, he said, have an impact far greater than the amount of effort required to carry them out. The men who hijacked the planes used to destroy the World Trade Center buildings used fairly unsophisticated means that resulted in tremendous physical, mental, and emotional damage; a seemingly unending ripple effect of change.

Any organization confronted by similar asymmetrical challenges must face the great challenge of unlearning, dismantling, divesting, releasing, and moving forward. It’s a difficult demand, especially for those who are locked into the prison of their own worldview and grown to love it. Moving from captivity to freedom can be a confusing and disorienting road to travel, but the time has come to begin the journey.
from the Millennium Matrix by Rex Miller

Straight From the Heart and Homefront

My wife came from an upper middle class family. I came from a broken lower-middle class family raised by a mother who did the best she could with limited resources.

We met in college and married; had three children. My wife gave extravagantly, to our children, both in love and materially. If she thought I would disapprove of her excessive giving (the material) she kept it a secret. Guess what? This is exactly the way her mother parented. As a young father I criticized and complained-- exactly like my mother. I told myself that I would never divorce. (My parents divorced while I was a teen.) Every night you would find me at home yet often I was absent—like my father. As we parented we didn't recognize these things. It was later, after the children had grown—when we were much wiser.

Subtle and insipid, this un-willful sinning slowly does its work as it affects (undetected) the next generation of young adults who bring another generation into the world. Now in our 50s we’re convinced that we fool ourselves into believing that we can attend a few Christian seminars on parenting and become good Christian parents. These seminars are useful and good but rarely, if ever, do they break the cycle. Prayer is powerful and every parent needs to be on his/her knees but to believe that a single prayer prayed in belief breaks the cycle is Pollyanna. It’s both unfortunate and true that most young parents don't see these sinful patterns while actively parenting; quite the opposite; most are blind to them and think they are doing just fine. I thank God everyday for his grace and our children’s resilience and ability to do well in spite of our blind ways!

Brian McLaren on America Politics

Church Marketing Sucks has an interesting conversation about politics in America with Brian McLaren, pomo guru and author of a number of excellent books, his latest--Generous Orthodoxy.

Here's a part of the conversation--

Islam is one of our critical challenges, how do we act as Christians toward members of other religions? We know how to persecute, we know how to ignore, we know how to convert. But what about people who don't want to be converted, and can't be ignored, and we say we shouldn't persecute—how should we relate to them? That's such an obvious and important question. Jesus says so much about that, loving our neighbors, our enemies, I don’t think other religions need to be seen as our enemies, but anything that applies to enemies, would apply to neighbors who are different even more. So much about Jesus' life was crossing barriers and boundaries to treat people who are considered outsiders with respect.

[read the whole converstaion]

Become Anticipatory

Nothing stands still; everything is moving. The only way you can hit a moving target is to get ahead of it. It is the only way to advance the cause of Christ. In these emerging times the chief advantage lies with the offense (anticipatory leadership) not the defense (reactive leadership).

Buffalo and cattle handle storms in revealing fashion. Cattle turn and run. Buffalo turn their heads into the oncoming storm and face it. When the whitewater rafter hits the rapids he doesn’t slow down, procrastinate and backup. He paddles forward and keeps moving.

Here’s the charge leaders must determinedly pursue: to put their faces, not their backs, to the future and move in the “unfamiliar” forward direction.

Kinesthetic Learning

At Virginia Tech, some professors have created “The Cave” where learners can walk around inside a molecule.

Like these professors of learning we (faith communities) need to make learning more auditory, visual, and kinesthetic?

Biblical Metaphor? If so...

Reread the story of Jacob wrestling the angel (Genesis 32:22-32).

Is this a metaphor for our relationship with God and each other? If so, what does it mean that we are left wounded and blessed at the same time?

GMail Invitation

I have six invitations for GMail. If interested, leave me a message in the comments and I'll send you an invitation. It's the best of all avaliable web email.

New Resources for The Emergent/PostModern/.alt Church

Liquid Thinking has found some fantastic--but often overlooked--resources for post-modern ministry from the Emergent line. Here's just one of them. For more go to the Liquid Thinking blog


Is the Bucket Half Full?
Post-Modern Janitorial Ministry
by Dan Brushup

This book is written for the custodian of the Postmodern Church. Covers such important topics as:
· The Problem with Candles: Wiping out the Wax
· Toilet Bowl as Art: Going Beyond Foundational views of traditional colors of toilet bowl cleaners
· Your Own Personal Labyrinth: The sacred introspection of vacuuming.

---

The Convergent Church

I’m still combing Rex Miller’s Millennium Matrix. Here are a few thoughts.

Most of today’s church buildings sit idle during the week with 90% of their use on Sundays while Starbucks like coffee shops, for many, is becoming a secular sanctuary and community center. These have become examples for creating a tailored context and experience. Models that will help the church are not ecclesiastical; they are the places you and your kids enjoy going

Interactive church services will require a change in sanctuary design. The barriers of platforms and the configuration of seating need to communicate that this is an interactive and safe environment in which all can participate.

An Afternoon Story

I spent part of my afternoon chatting with a cool campus minister who enlightened me to what appears to be a fun, team based way to learn leadership skills.

I learned of it as he led me through a story about his college groups fall retreat to Elkins, West Virginia where the group engaged in Rope Course, an outdoor participant idea that uses a combination of Low and High Rope Courses to help participants grow in leadership, communication, problem-solving, coaching, and risk taking. The most interesting part of the story was the dare a pre-Christian made to this campus minister. In his own nervousness, at the thought of climbing a 45 foot tower to zip down it, this pre-Christian pokes, kids and chides this campus minister about his fear of heights and then he dares him to take the risk. This dare ends up leading to this pre-Christian's conversion. It’s a cool story that I plan to write at length about in one of my upcoming newsletters.

Later he and another minister gave me a quick tour of Media Shout, an awesome piece of software I'm familiar with but had never seen up close.

Creative Missional Engagement (6)

Make an investigative trip to the local Mall with intentions of leasing the next vacant storefront. Create a café environment with comfortable seating, relaxing music, and coffee. Set up a wi-fi hot spot and offer free internet access to anyone with a wireless enabled device such as a laptop or PDA. Purchase a Multimedia Projector, computer, and software and once a week offer an evening of Movie Karaoke. Don’t let “How will we finance this?” become the obstacle that stops creative enterprising. Instead, believe that God will provide the resources necessary to create a safe place for Christians to connect with pre-Christians. Connect—belong—and let God do what He wills by intentionally positioning ourselves where the people He misses most do their shopping, living, and playing. We’ve spent years and years (and millions of dollars) building edifices for our people subordinate to our plans and ideas while neglecting the common-ground principle of relating and connecting with culture.

Dan Kimball, author of The Emerging Church, says he spends two days a week in the office on the church campus conducting church business and two days outside the office at a coffee house where he prepares his lessons while establishing friendships with pre-Christians, Dan says, “I’ve realized this has extreme value, not only in building friendships with those who aren’t Christians, but it also keeps me in connection with how nonchurched people are viewing church and Christianity.”

Creative Missional Engagement (5)

Spend a quality evening with three to five close Christian friends at a Starbucks. When you place your order present the cashier with an extra $25 and tell him the group is buying for each customer that places an order until the money runs out. Let the cashier know where you’re sitting so if anyone inquires he can point them in your direction. When someone approaches your table to thank you let them know that your gift is a simple way of expressing the love of Christ in a practical way.

Creative Missional Engagement (4)

Connect with your culture by taking your ministries out of the church building and placing them in different buildings throughout the city. Most churches would never do this, for lack of a vision narrative. Yet, mobile ministries that move beyond the confines of a “one building” or “one campus” church are, first, concerned with the missing ones and attempting to minister to people all over their city.

Creative Missional Engagement (3)

Spend a couple hours on your local university or community college campus offering students $25 to come to your assembly and give a short talk on their impressions of church/Christianity. On the weekend they are to visit, prayerwalk the campus. When they arrive to give their talk—listen to learn, and watch them experience community.

With prayer and creative ingenuity--make opportunity!

the Millennium Matrix

I’m less than one hundred pages into Rex Miller’s Millennium Matrix but its obvious Miller is laying out the evolution of communication. In two-hundred and twenty pages he takes the reader through a rapid-fire review of the ways which Christianity has been shaped by oral, print, broadcast, and digital communication methods. It has both the feel and look of a textbook but unlike an academic schoolbook fresh insights continually dance across its pages. His communication and ministry theories go beyond the familiar applications found in ministry today while providing a framework and strategy for the emerging church.

The books greatest value is arguably found in the spreadsheet style contrast Miller gives his readers between the four reigning communication cultures of the last thousand years—oral, print, broadcast, and digital. [more]

Rex Miller's blog

Understand Culture-->Engage Culture

What the Bleep Do We Know?, a small film that mixes quantum physics, animation and documentary filmmaking, is spreading across the country like a New Age fad diet.

Consider it a user's manual to The Matrix.

Making Room for Creativity

The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out...
Make an empty space in any corner of your mind, and creativity will instantly fill it.

--Dee Hock, Fast Company

Re-lexiconing the Christian Vocabulary

There’s a ton of words unique to the Christian community that carries negative baggage when heard outside the kingdom. It’s time to upgrade our Christian language.

Born-again/conversion—talk about definitional freight. What do you think the pre-Christian envisions when he hears these words/phrases? Fundamentalism to the nth degree.

Lost—how would you feel if someone called you LOST?

Evangelism—word with a good heart but a poor reputation

Membership—wow! Are we exclusive or what?

Enough! We’ve exploded a few theological expressions now let’s upgrade:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Born-again/conversion—allegiance to God’s Life

Lost—missing or pre-Christian

Disciple—apprentice

Preacher—transformational architect

Evangelism—spiritual conversations/or as Jim Henderson of Off-the-Map says, “ordinary attempts.”

Membership—partnership

Seminar/workshop—Idealab
Programs—missions

New Words for an Old, Old Story [more]

Tools for a Storyteller

There is both a modern and a postmodern feel to the use of technology. Where the differences exist is in the application of the technology. Moderns use technology as an end rather than a means, and most often in a linear or didactic fashion (for example, the ubiquitous bulleted-message-points you see PowerPoint cast on a screen).

Do your listeners a favor. Stop placing those bulleted points in your sermons (and forget the fill-in-the-blank- handouts) and start telling stories about God and life. Cast your story inside the Grand Story and watch it speak to the hearts as it emboldens the unresolved toward love.

Scala or Mediashout can be to a thoughtful story-teller as a brush and canvas are to a painter... the use of art, images, film and other non-linear forms of media, can communicate the gospel to the postmodern mind and soul.

Creative Missional Engagement (2)

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
Luke 16:9

1) God has richly blessed us with the resources to serve and help others. Why not give away these material blessings in order to gain friends?

Place a large shoeboxbox with Luke 16:9 inscribed on its side in the midst of your faith community and ask their ideas for using worldly wealth to win friends. Here are a couple of examples:

Give away every fifth Sunday contribution or take a special contribution from time to time and deliver it to a secular business or government agency.

Purchase the city police department bullet-proof vest, etc.

2) Strategically prayerwalk the organizations and agencies you befriended and ask God to open their eyes and hearts. Pray on site with insight.
3) For those in the faith community who can't prayerwalk ask them to be intercessors who pray daily. Meet once a week to encourage each other with prayerwalk stories. We plant and water; God gives the increase.

Crossover!

Remember Joshua who sent out a couple of secret agents to spy out the land of Jericho. If we really desire to reach out to this culture we’re going to have to become like the spies Joshua sent out and boldly walk across borders familiar to us and engage the land God wants to give us.

It’s time we break out of our Christian circles, stop the busyness of church, and take a look at what is happening outside our faith communities.

“Go look over the land.” (Joshua 2:1)