Still Wandering

Last evening we discussed “texts”—messages and meanings from the “world” as well as those from Scripture.  One of the characteristics of emerging church is intertextuality—using texts from church and world to interpret each other, rather than privileging one set of texts completely over the other (for us that latter phrase would mean scripture always interprets world and never vice versa).  Frambach offers this thought.  “Emerging church communities take cultural texts as seriously as they take sacred texts, though cultural texts do not norm their belief and proclamation the way Judeo-Christian Scriptures do” (page 64).

 

Thanks go to Ben for sharing the song (text) with us recording by the “Wailing Jennies.”  Holding this song beside the words of 1 Corinthians 12 led to a fruitful discussion of how to use and benefit from intertexting.

 

Now to build on that.  The next item on Frambach’s descriptive list is “The Understanding of Suffering” (page 65).  “In emerging church communities,” he writes, “suffering simply is, and it is personal, social and environmental.”  The contrast is made with church as we typically know it—a place where suffering is suppressed, not discussed and usually glossed over.  Thus suffering people are often made, subtly, to feel unwelcome and are often instructed, once again subtly, to keep quiet about their struggles.  May it not be so among us.

 

Using intertextuality, we can perhaps hold cultural texts on suffering alongside our scriptural and theological texts.  I think of the recent movie, Million Dollar Baby.  It is a profound meditation on the necessity of suffering in a relationship rooted in love.  I wonder how that cultural text stands alongside a Christian text—for example, Romans 5:1-11.  I suggest this as a possibility for reflection this week.

 

Frambach offers a few more lines to guide this meditation.

--“Suffering is viewed as something to be joined, even befriended, rather than conquered or fixed” (at least in emerging churches).

--“To use a Lutheran theological category, sharing in the suffering of others is living the theology of the cross in community” (page 65, last lines).

 

Emerging Church is weary of the fraudulent triumphalism of western Christianity and seeks for the real substance of a cross-shaped church (Hennigs).

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder if a local coffee house would partner with us in our emerging ministry.  I imagine a Sunday evening in a relaxed setting.  Coffee, tea and other soft drinks are available (Fairly Traded good, of course).  Perhaps some healthful snacks are available and/or for sale as well.  It might be that a small book store has been set up in one part of the shop--a store that specializes in Christian topics of growth and depth.  It might be that this could be a book exchange as well.

 

In another corner, a local artist shares music, poetry, painting, sculpture, dance, etc., for our spiritual edification.  In a back part of the shop, a space is set aside for listening ears--people trained to hear the stories of others in appreciative, healing and life-giving ways.  There might be a time set aside for a speaker, a meditation, a discussion, an audio or video talk, or some other spark for discussion and dialogue.  Some nights could be movie nights where a film is viewed and then discussed afterward.

 

The space would also need coloring books, blocks, children's reading materials, etc.  It would be ideal if the shop were near a local park or school playground so that families with children might have an additional outlet during at least part of the year.

 

Perhaps we need to explore creating our own shop in order to incorporate all these features. I am reluctant, however, to create competition for existing local operations that struggle to offer a quality product and humane environment in the midst of McWorld, WalMartians and Starbuckets.

 

It is right that a potential partner would wonder about the benefits of such an operation.  I imagine that folks who would come to such an experience would be far more likely to patronize that shop at other times during the week.  They would also be far more likely to tell their friends and neighbors about that shop and encourage them to come as well.  I can imagine that an emerging church might pay for the use of the space--at least enough to make payroll and utilities and thus insure that the proprieter would not suffer any losses through this venture.  So it would be free advertising and an expanded customer base for the shop.

 

Well, it's not a particularly original idea.  So, what's wrong with this idea?  What's right with it?

 

When could we start, and where?