More Emerging

Last week I had the opportunity to listen and converse some with Dr. John Franke. He is just one of many prominent voices in the emerging conversation. In that particular forum, he raised a number of issues that brought some interesting questions, discussion and reactions and deserves much credit for going into that particular lion's den to begin with.
These discussion always seem to go back to post-modernity and it's inherent disdained for absolute truth. My take on some of this - mine not his necessarily, is that we are all of us wrong. At least in part. Due to our life experiences, our heritage, our personalities and probably our sin nature as well, we all have drifted from God's absolute truth so that none of us really have it. At least not all of it. But there is the point of disagreement. What is the truth that we do have? Some might say it is agreement on the Gospel but then they differ on what they mean by Gospel. Somewhat like Dr. Franke, I believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible Word of God, a divine revela­tion, the original writings of which were verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit and that they are the supreme and final authority of faith and conduct. But, the point he seemed to be stressing was that even though we may start there (and not everyone does) it does not mean that we are infallible in our interpretations of it. Trying to figure our just how much of the truth we have to agree on in order to fully work together for the kingdom is to say the least challenging. So, for now I am still listening to the conversation and trusting in Christ alone.

Class Jesus 2

After the disciples asked Jesus to explain the parable of the sower (Mark 4), they asked why he spoke in parables. Before He explains He responds with a quote from Isaiah. (Isa 6:9 NIV) "Go and tell this people: "'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' In other words He seems to say I speak in parables so some won’t understand. The opposite of everything we try to do isn’t it?

In Isaiah, the people of Israel after having been blessed by God so much, have turned their back on Him. Gradually but consistently.
Isaiah 5 – woes, people rejecting.
5:4 I looked for good (grapes) and found bad
5:7 looked for justice and found bloodshed
5:12 no regard for the deeds of the Lord or the works of His hands

Isaiah 6 – charge to Isaiah
Isaiah 7 etc. – more rejection.
Gradual hardening. Then complete hardening.
The result – God is disgraced.

So, Here’s at least one secret. It is all about God’s glory. Its not about us its about Him. But there seems to be a second secret in this parable as well. That opportunities don’t last forever. Given that you have an opportunity now to bring God glory, how will we do it? If we keep putting it off we will eventually lose the opportunity, or be so distracted we won't even know the opportunities exist.

Classic Jesus

Sorry for the long pause between posts. The sabbatical ended and duty called, along with piles of things to catch up on. I am still processing some of my sabbatical experiences and will write on that later. But for now, I am fascinated with what I am calling Classic Jesus. OK, its my current sermon series but I would love your feedback.

In the Gospels, there is this ongoing trend with Jesus quoting Isaiah. When he does he is usually taking apart the religious establishment of the day - Scribes and Pharisees. Classic 1. Jesus is in his home town and is asked to read and presumably to speak int he synagogue. The reading for the day is Isa 61:1-2 "The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, {2} to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn," (NIV).

Actually that sounds very missional. Now there is a lot more to this passage, where Jesus goes on to proclaim its fulfillment and, I believe, in so doing proclaims Himself to be the Messiah. All of that is classic, confrontational Jesus. But in so doing He also gives us a clue. Think about this, what is good news to the poor. It seems to read as more than just poor in spirit. Good news to the poor is usually that they will have something to eat, or a place to sleep or clothes to wear. Jesus said He came to do that - in addition it would seem to the cross.

Connect that thought to another Isaiah passage: (Isa 58:6-8 NIV) "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? {7} Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? {8} Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

I other words, as we do these acts of God's grace and blessing to those in need, our light, the light of the glory of God, will shine forth (instead of being under a bushel?) and the glory of God will guard us and will be seen. It almost sounds like the result will be evangelism doesn't it? It also seems very missional!

Worship 6

I had the opportunity these last two weeks to worship in 4 different churches. The preaching was good, the music good to very good, some people were friendly and some just happy to see their friends. (Which meant visitors had to fend for themselves). There were a few particularly innovative or different elements like a call to worship and prayer given in Hebrew, that were very moving.
But, when it came to worship, what caught my attention were the distractions. Now, it was four different services so don’t get the idea that these were all in one. In fact, generally, they were all good services. But over two weeks there were quite a few distractions.
1. a microphone or monitor left on from singing that produced an echo.
2. instruments that did not blend at all well
3. a song leader whose mic was too loud and overwhelmed the others
4. drums (only once) that were over powering the other musicians
5. a really long announcement for a new ministry
6. a missionary report – good in itself but as a visitor knowing nothing about them, there were no visuals and very little to help understand their ministry.
7. someone unprepared to do their part
8. someone introduced who was not in the room
9. the wrong scripture read at the wrong time and then read again at the right time
10. a very late start
11. wrong powerpoints
12. announcements in general – although only one of the churches actually did announcements
13. lack of purpose – it often seems that worship isn’t going anywhere, it is just a collection of random songs. Probably not random to the committee that selected them but somewhere the connections often get lost to the uninformed congregant.
14. A camp like greeting of good morning how you all doing, or worse, waiting for a response. Again only once.

Each week I look forward to worship and get my hopes up that the service will lead truly into the presence of God. That His Word will speak loud and clear. More often than not (not in at least two of the churches these last two weeks) I am disappointed and wonder why anyone seeking would come back.

Those of us who are regulars take our forms for granted. We know it is important to announce the coming breakfast or special meeting – really important if we are in charge. When you come to worship though, some of those same forms can just be distractions, leading away from the reason we say we are gathering - to worship and to hear from God.

So why mention distractions? Well, sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking worship is only singing, or its only the sermon. It is all of that and more but it canbe derailed by all of the distractions.

General Thoughts

Some years ago we adopted an Acts 1:8 as our guiding verse for missions. (Acts 1:8 NIV) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

We have always been very missions minded, even from the beginning of the church. But we have struggled with the Jerusalem part. We have tried a variety of things to bring the Gospel to the community. We have helped when we could, helping both members of the church and members of the larger community.

In the larger world, the Judea outward we have supported missionaries all over the world, planted churches in Africa and Delaware and Reading; are working in Kazakhstan and Mexico and Jamaica. All good things. But (you knew there would be one.)

Are we as a church really owning the ministries we are involved in or are we just sending money? We have been blessed to give substantially to missions not only tithing the budget but through faith promises and the budget seeing about $200,000 committed to that work every year. We are giving but are we praying? Are we involved? I believe as we approach this year’s Global Outreach Conference, we will be discussing the possibility of partnering with Randy Ruth and his team in Shimkent, Kazakhstan in an ongoing neighborhood project. The possibilities are exciting but only if the Lord moves among us to raise a team of interested folks. If we are not going to really engage then we shouldn't do it.

We have a team of workers in Reading helping Carlos. We have sent some teams to Jamaica and have a team leaving today for Scotland (pray!). We are doing many things but sometimes we are still shooting over the heads of the people in our Jerusalem. Here’s where I (we) could use some help. Some of you know school board members. Ask them what a church could do to help. Some of you know country commissioners or township officials, ask them the same thing. Ask your neighbors how they think a church could help in the community. We are called to be Christ in our Jerusalem. He put our particular church here for a reason. We’ve done VBS (Kidz Kamp), Soccer, we are planning more marriage conferences, but those are events. Pray about how we can truly, as a church, be Christ in the community. Pray about how you can be Christ to your neighbor.

Emerging 2

Someone recently commented that the emerging church was new age. In some ways it is. Someone else told me that the emerging church was apostate that can be true too. Someone else told me it was the only church that got it. I am not sure that is true but it might be partly true that some of them really do "get it." Then there is there innovative worship, which some find exciting and others find really strange.

That is the problem with the emerging church. Almost anything you can say about it is probably true for some. And, nothing you say about it is true everywhere. Talk about calling for discernment! It is sort of like trying to describe people who live along interstate 95. You could make a good case and claim that these folks wear sandals and shorts. Or you could claim that they wear warm clothes. Depending on the time of year, or the location (Miami or Maine) they would both be true. Some emergents are contemplative, some are somewhat vulgar, and most are very tired of just playing church and are not interested in doing that for another generation.

I suppose we could just fight the whole thing, except emergents raise some very good issues. Brian McLaren states that the problem is that the church has failed to truly disciple its followers. He then defines discipleship his way. We might not like his definitions, but we have, in too many cases, allowed discipleship to become nothing more than an intellectual assent to biblical truths without a commitment to practicing them.

There are many things to be wary of. But, for me, here’s the take away. The next generation, seems to like authenticity, relational groups, and wants to make a difference. They are not as likely to embrace mega churches. They are more likely to reach out to those overlooked by society and try to love them for the sake of Christ without any other hidden agenda. They are more likely to embrace both the differences and the gifts of everyone who comes into their group. Perhaps the best part is their emphasis on being missional. (You don’t have to be emerging to be missional) For most, missional is more than doing a mission it is being Christ in the midst of overlooked and unjustly neglected peoples. They seek in the words of some to be incarnational instead of extractional.

This movement is more than ancient forms of worship and candles (it still seems strange to me that their "ancient" forms are not the most ancient forms). At its best it is an attempt to recapture the heart of the faith. At its worst it is heretical, ecumenical to an extreme, and willing to accept any interpretation of anything. And it might even be a little bit new age, but at the very least, the next generation of church should be a bit more authentic because of their conversation.

More worship

I was probably suffering from withdrawal from hymns last week. So, we went to a mainline church. Like other churches they are all different but in this case it was all hymns sung to an old and interesting pipe organ. There was an altar boy carrying a cross followed by the pastor in his robe. Of course there was the children's sermon, special solo's, lots of scripture reading and a shorter than we are used to sermon.

I don't know how this would have played with post Christian, unchurched, never been churched seekers. But, the church was pretty full, the people and the pastor seemed to have at least affection for one another and they loved God. This church had all of the foibles and failings that all of the current pundits ridicule, but they worshipped and loved God.

Now, I'm not suggesting we take an ecumenical turn to the left or something. But I am beginning to suspect that with all of the interest in new things and all of the talk about emergence, there are still a large number of folks who just want to love and worship God and are not all that interested in some of the discussions. I wonder of some of these folks in their own quiet and unassuming way are at least as authentic in their faith as those who talk about being authentic?

Worship 5

This last weekend I had the opportunity to worship at three different churches. Two fairly large (over 2000) and one somewhat smaller. So far this summer, in all of the different worship services, I do not remember one hymn being sung. All choruses. Most of these choruses we knew but some were new and some we didn't. In the three churches this weekend, the congregations were all mixed as far as ages went and all seemed to be fully participating in worship.

There was nothing really fancy or unusual about the worship services. One did play a video of the old Batman TV series to demonstrate the use of the belt of truth, but that was only that church and only once. Although prayer was important for these churches, as evidenced by a variety of opportunities during the week, there was very little prayer during the service itself. So far, in these as well as some of the others, there has not been any special music other than the worship team, no skits, minimal use of the screen except to show the speaker and an occasional scripture reference. The more modern of the services this week did include an occasional invitation to "text" the pastor with questions about the message and then provided the number. In these three churches the consistent theme was the importance of scripture, which was stressed primarily in the preaching.

These churches had fellowship opportunities but nothing on that day. They had refreshments but only in a limited way and they provided special gifts for visitors. (My favorite one was a box of home made cookies.) They were friendly enough but despite my comments over the years about Berks County they were really no different than.

I did notice that it is awkward at best to go into a church you know little about and to worship with people you don't know. Keep that in mind the next time you see someone new at church. Most of them would love someone to come up and be their friend - even if only for 5 minutes. A few years ago one of our Stewards suggested a 5 minute rule. The idea was that for the first 5 minutes after the service you did not talk to anyone you already knew but went out of your way to find someone new. It's a good idea, even if I haven't seen it in practice at any of the places I've been.

Worship 4

I really think the Lord is trying to tell us something. This Sunday we celebrated the Lord's Supper for the 5th straight Sunday. In this case it was just their monthly Sunday to observe it. As they celebrated what the Lord has done there were a few interesting particulars. First, they interrupted the Praise time for communion. On the one hand it "felt" early, but then they finished by continuing to sing. It was sort of like an extended doxology, thanking God with our praise for what He had done in Christ.

Communion was served by a group of servers which included men, women and children. This made no statement about leadership but it made a great statement about the inclusiveness of the family of God.

This was a large church, dedicated to the Word and to making disciples. Unlike many newer large churches (this qualified on both counts) there was no snack shop or coffee bar. No refreshments anywhere, except a few in a small room for visitors. No obvious place to gather after the service to hang out. There was a really nice book store in the lobby with a great selection of books. This church emphasized their folks to work together in ministry - of all sorts. From the parking lot attendants to the greeters to the folks at the information desk and at the doors to the auditorium, they all seemed happy to be there and happy to be helping.

On this particular Sunday they were saying goodbye to one of their pastors. He is about 50 years old, has been with the church for 27 years and is well loved and respected. But he has felt burdened to step out in faith and become the senior pastor of a small church plant. Instead of coasting in his golden years, he wants to go out with "his boots on." It was a great send off and the entire church was invited to an all church picnic following the second service.

So what was different about worship in this church. Not all that much in one sense. Except they were serious about studying the Word (I haven't seen this many people taking notes in weeks) and they were serious about doing what it says in a loving and gracious way.

Emerging 1

I read somewhere recently about the need to cultivate friendships with folks outside the church. Not just to wait for friendships to happen but to intentionally make them happen. In some ways this is where the emerging church differs from some other churches. They place a very high value on relationships and on people in general. They (I realize it is dangerous to speak in generalities) seek to value individuals, to actually listen with interest and to respond in Christ-like ways whenever possible. In this regard they tend to be less judgemental and more accepting than many typical evangelical or fundamental churches.

This week we attended a church that was started 25 years ago by Brian McLaren. (Brian is one of the more famous or infamous leaders of the movement) Like all of the other emerging type churches we have attended, they celebrated the Lord's Supper weekly. They changed it up a bit from their norm (whatever that is) and had the folks come forward in groups of 8 or 10 and serve each other - emphasizing community. Following the service, they gave out different color ribbons at the door, instructing each person to find someone with the same color ribbon and get to know them and walk with them up to the ice cream line for an ice cream social. (I passed on the ice cream, 9 AM was a bit early for anything but coffee.)

Like several other churches, the regulars were all wearing preprinted name tags. In other words, the real distinctive of this "emerging church" was that in a variety of ways they were cultivating relationships within the body. Not just waiting for it to happen but doing everything they could think of to help it happen - including weekly life groups that met to discuss the application of the sermon.

So, here is something to think about. How can we cultivate friendships, or at least real relationships within the church? And, how can we as the church be a better friend to our community?

Emerging 0

When I told a friend of mine that I was going to study the Emerging Church, he wished me luck and then laughed. He said, it is so varied that it will be impossible to define. He's probably right.

The emerging church movement, if it is a movement, is a gathering of emerging believers, a cohort of emerging seekers, a church for dissatisfied mostly younger folks, or just something that remains, as my friend suggested, to be defined.

To some degree it is a response to this generation, often referred to as post modern. Generally, this seems to mean a distrust of absolutes, a very high and wide tolerance for other beliefs and faiths and a very high regard for authenticity. It does not mean any particular worship style and the theology embraced by those who claim to be part of this trend, is so varied it is impossible to define anyone as being representative (no absolutes).

One disturbing trend among many is the idea that culture really defines our beliefs. This gains at least some support from Barth, which is why he is a favorite I suppose. On the other hand it addresses a disturbing tendency among evangelicals to proudly claim to be the only keepers of the truth. This is problematic when evangelicals themselves disagree on so many things.

I suspect worship styles to some degree, if not theology as well, are determined by what the particular Church's or gatherings have emerged from. Some, probably from more mainline churches, favor meditation, liturgy, candles, corporate scripture reading (lectio divina).
They value accepting all who come regardless of life style and seek to engage them in spiritual conversation.

One common thread is for them to seek to be missional. To take the body of Christ to those in need wherever they might be - but particularly in the immediate neighborhood. The whole emphasis of missional is to stress the importance of being the church, on mission with God, being God's instrument to serve the world around us instead of just going to church and evaluating what this particular church provides for me - i.e. consumer church.

Part of being on mission is the ability to listen and not judge. To listen and not always give answers. To listen and offer love.

This week we attended a church plant that showed up on some missional webpostings. They were strong for a new church, meeting in a movie theatre. The pastor assured me he was not really emerging and probably not fully missional either but was also listening to the "emerging conversation." Their worship was not structured much differently from most contemporary churches, but they were doing a better job than most of reaching the unchurched and loving them to Jesus.

One of my early takes on emerging is that the movers and shakers of this generation have observed what the church has become. They have observed that too few lives are being transformed. That the church is not having any real influence in the community. That it has become more judgemental than loving. And that it is time for the real church to emerge from all of the traditions that have been added along the way. As they emerge, pray that they do not leave the truth behind with some of the traditions. And pray that we might emerge from any tradition that is holding us back from becoming what God is calling us to become.

Worship 3

Today was our first real attempt to explore emerging churches. They are sometimes hard to find and I'm not sure we really found one today. The church had been around for about 9 years. They are very casual, meet in a warehouse, have some really great music, love each other and love Christ. What more could you ask for?

It is obvious they value relationships. They list the starting time as 10:30 but that is when they gather to hang out, drink coffee and get ready. Maybe 15 or 20 minutes later they start to sing. After 5 or 10 minutes they greeted each other. But, it was different. The music stopped. The musicians came down and talked to people and all over they actually had conversations. We learned about the nurse behind us, the social worker who played the bass, and a few others. Their Mission Statement is: The Well, a community of people who seek to be formed around the scriptures and prayer... They seem to be that.

They read scripture several times, discussed it sort of back and forth for 10 minutes - they call it reading scriptures as a community. Then a visiting friend from Regent Seminary, he came home due to lack of funds, gave one of the best sermons I have heard in a long time. His name is Jason Ostrander, remember it, the Lord is going to use him in interesting ways down the road.

I am going to start another thread this week on "The Emerging Church", but one of the important things I have read and observed about this movement or trend is that they value authenticity. The Well, exhibited that today.

Interesting too that the pastor, Todd Hiestand, is also a student at Biblical. Probably in some classes with last week's pastor. I wasn't looking for Biblical grads or students but seem to keep bumping into them.

PS They served communion, again in intincture (947 style). Only this time you served yourself at the table and there was a loaf of French bread you took and tore off a piece before dipping it in the cup.

Worship 2

Yesterday we went to two churches - mother and daughter. The daughter, currently about 100 in attendance, was an interesting mix of casual and formal. The pastor spoke on the paradox of God choosing us even as we are called to choose him. (Very reformed.)

This church, which I thought was emerging (more on that later) was, by the pastor's definition missional (more on that too in coming blogs). The service was similar to our 947 but quieter and brighter. They even did communion in the same way.

The mother church was about our size, had two services, one very formal the other a blend. This particular blend seemed to be in conflict with itself. So which one was better. In both, the people were worshiping. In both they were fellowshipping. (The daughter church encouraged everyone to stay for coffee and doughnuts, the mother church encouraged folks to stay for water ice.) Perhaps the biggest difference was the message, it was really much more biblically based in the daughter church. But that had very little to do with style. Now I am prejudiced, but I suspect the key to worship, at least for me, is just that - faithfully hearing from God.

Worship 1

One of my goals this summer is to study different worship styles in all kinds of different churches. I started last Sunday by worshipping at North Point Community Church, where Andy Stanley is the Senior Pastor.

The church has multiple services at two identical auditoriums. This week Andy was starting a series on Directions. Really good stuff (downloadable from their website). The service started with some very cool video segments, then an interactive skit, stressing following directions. The Host was guided by a computer On-Star type voice and selected someone from the congregation who then "found" a reward worth $100. It was very engaging. The band and singers then led in about 20 minutes of singing, followed by a very efficient offering taken to a music video, then Andy preached.

It was a great teaching environment and a great teaching/learning experience overall. Andy's points from Proverbs 27 - "direction determines destination" and "the path trumps intentions" left no doubt about the meaning of the Proverb, and was the kind of message our world really needs to hear.

So, was that worship? Obviously it was for some.

Friends

Before actually getting started on this Sabbatical adventure, I planned some vacation time with my son Rob in West Palm Beach. We spent most of the time ripping out his kitchen and then wondering how to put it back together. (We're still wondering.) Other than work we just "hung out". We had a great time just spending the time together. However, while we were hanging out, I met some of his friends. He seems to have thousands. Great folks who just love being around for one another and helping one another. It was a very New Testament experience in a non church setting. No real expectations just a general sense of acceptance and love. It made me really appreciate friends.

Starting the sabbatical officially in Florida, where I had left my car, I met my friend (I have fewer of them it seems than my son) and we are spending the week driving. Our only planned destination is Atlanta to visit North Point and sit under Andy Stanley. More on that later. But traveling with this friend, who has been in my life for about 25 years and has been sort of spiritual big brother, is already turning out to be a great way to start this spiritual adventure. The idea of the church was and is after all fellowship - koinonia. More than just a chat over coffee, it seems to be just a simple ongoing investment in someone else's life. So here we are spending a week in each others lives, in an unhurried exploration of the world around us. It's actually a fairly unique experience for me. (lesson 1?)

Good Morning!

This is the first post in my new blog. My hope is that by posting my experiences this summer as I am on my sabbatical, I can allow those in the congrgation to easily follow my journey as God leads me.

Not only can read what I post on here, but you can respond once you've registered (a simple process). I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Pastor Bob