BST's Blog

Warning--long post coming.

Tonight we saw Star Wars III. AWESOME! Although it was dark, it was really so great and set up the final 3 that I grew up on with such clarity. It made me wish that Josh and Jeremy (Morse--my cousins) were here with me to see it. Sheryl wanted to go see it on our date tonight. I was so excited! There's no one I'd rather go with.

Today was another great day at Emergent. This morning in my "learning community" we talked about "church" for 2 hours. How to think about and be the church in our post-modern North American context. The facilitators were Doug Pagitt and Al Roxburgh. Here are some things I wrote down during that time:

*Tension is--how to be missional while also being a community you can JOIN and find transformation.

*We should be a witnessing community on a journey--that's church. We tend to camp--to build and stay and make ourselves comfortable. We are to be sent--we're on a journey.

*Look at Luke 10. What was the location of the church? Where was it to be found? Jesus sent the disciples OUT. Out, with and amongst people. Church should not be what many of us have made it--a gated community that sends out a posse to bring people in--we are to be sent out. How TRUE!! WE are to be SENT OUT!

*3 characteristics of the way the church was formed in the 20th Century--
1. Corporate images and systems
2. Formed out of deeply individualistic view where the church is the provider of goods and services to self actualized individuals. (BINGO!)
3. Commerce driven society.

The next session I attended was Brian McLaren's class called "Spiritual Formation in Worship". Here are some notes:

*All practices become formative and define us. For instance--if we allow ourselves to watch pornography, that becomes spiritually forming (or malforming). The same holds true for gossip, etc.

*In order to really succeed at something you must engage in the practice of--running, playing an instrument, etc. Let's say you love music and have a passion for the violin. If you've never played it or practiced, when you pick it up to play you're going to really stink! Spiritual formation comes from discipline and practice.

Here are 10 Spiritual Practices for Public Worship--
1. Ritual--doing things I may or may not feel like doing to bond to the meaning they represent.

2. Inconvenience--going to a place I didn't choose, at a time I didn't choose, for a purpose I DO choose. Choosing to inconvenience ourselves as a discipline to get out of our selfishness.

3. Association--we meet with some people we like and some we don't for a purpose we believe in.

4. Speed--altering my pace to see what I've missed or to feel a different rhythm.

5. Hospitality--using my presence and our space to help "the other" feel welcome in the presence of our community. (Made me think about having the praise team spend some time welcoming people before church--helping guests connect once they are up front leading)

6. Attentiveness--waiting receptively for what I may receive. For instance--the sermon. Practicing a ritual of attentiveness--stopping to listen, training ourselves to stop and listen. We have to practice.

7. Generosity--taking greater pleasure in being fruitful than consumptive--practice of giving--money, talent, music, drama, art. The practice of joyful giving.

8. Modeling--exposing apprentices to masters. In prayer, teaching artistry, faithfulness, service, hospitality.

9. Justice and Mercy--preaching, singing, praying, signifying, announcing justice. Many times mercy gets the spotlight at the expense of justice...God's desire to help the poor, hurting and oppressed.

10. Catholicy-- (recognizing the church is bigger than just us) quoting others, affirming others, praying for others, inviting others.

The other thing that Brian said that I loved is that everything in our service from greeting in the parking lot, to meet and greet, to singing--or whatever-- should be spiritually formative. For instance--we should approach it in such a way that during meet and greet or whatever we have like that when we SEE SOMEONE DIFFERENT THAN US, WE SHOULD BE DRAWN TO THEM AS A PART OF OUR WORSHIP EXPERIENCE...the practice of inconvenience, etc.

Finally, the last learning community this afternoon was on "Humanity". I wasn't able to stay for it all, but we talked about two extremes. Many pastors or leaders end up feeling the "Super-pastor syndrome" while the other end is the "Struggling pastor in despair". To me, Emergent and deconstruction has paralyzed some people into the latter category--all gripe and little joy. I've been guilty of that too. Deconstruction is so important for new beginning...but there MUST be a new beginning.

All the sessions were great today. I'm looking forward to more tomorrow. Thanks for the comments today and last night. It's been a cool experience. The thing is--none of us should be afraid of having the discussion. We won't all ever--EVER-- end up on the same page, but the discussions are important and necessary. It might be time to pull up camp, Church. Are we too comfy? Are we resistant to the journey Jesus is calling us to? Are we willing to follow Him over following our man made rules? The adventure excites me!