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?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great discussion of play at speakingoffaith.org.  "Stuart Brown, a physician and director of the National Institute for Play, says that pleasurable, purposeless activity prevents violence and promotes trust, empathy, and adaptability to life's complication. He promotes cutting-edge science on human play, and draws on a rich universe of study of intelligent social animals."  I wonder what this has to do with our discussions of worship in the coming decades.

A copy of my weekend message, called "Let Me Be a Potato" is now available in my public files below.

 

Last evening, our Emerging Ministry group met.  We asked one another, what would the church look like outside our walls and for the sake of others.  We discussed a roving "comfort booth" or "compassion kiosk" that could be offered in public and business places in our community.  While we didn't make any specific, concrete plans, it does present a kind of thought or imagination experiment.  And who knows, you may see a compassion kiosk on a corner near you in the future!

 

This experiment could take a variety of possible forms.  Where would people love to find a listening ear?

 

Perhaps we could create a "warm line."  This might be a telephone service offered to callers who simply need someone to listen to them for fifteen minutes at a time.  Listeners would need to be trained for the task.  This would not be a crisis help line (but referrals could be made).  This would not be about solutions but about caring, processing and offering time while asking nothing in return.

 

We could put together a portable compassion kiosk.  It might be that we would set up a little trailer in outdoor public places.  A listening ear could be available for anyone who needed it.  This would present all sorts of logistical complications, but then--that's true of every ministry worth doing.

 

Where do people go to talk in our times?  They go to coffee shops, bars, sandwich shops and restaurants.  How about a coffee shop or coffee house that specializes in listening?  Maybe a small used book store could be part of the operation.  Perhaps we could combine the above ideas and have a traveling coffee stand where we listen as well.

 

Out of the building, out of the box, out of our comfort zones, out of our power places, out of control--is this what it will take to reach those who could never imagine themselves setting a foot in our worship spaces?

 

I look forward to your thoughts.

In fact, my weekly messages seem to be at the bottom of this page in the "Public Folders" section.  Sorry for the confusion (especially on my part).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I read Nate Frambach's book, I am struck by the frequency of the word "authentic."  We seek authentic experiences of God in the faith community.  We long for authentic worship, authentic community, authentic stories, authentic service.  For those attracted to emerging ministry, the church as it is seems to be insufficient.  Let me say at the outset that I agree.

 

I'm reminded of the scene from Oliver Twist (especially in the musical version).  Oliver asks the master of the orphanage for a bit more food: "Please, sir, may I have some more?"  The master comes unglued.  He predicts that Oliver will go to prison and then to hell--all because he wants "more."  I suspect that this is the reaction of some Christians to the desire for emerging ministry.

 

For some folks, church as weekly pageant is enough.  They even find it meaningful and spiritually nurturing.  So we continue that mode of being church.    But some of us want ever so much more than a regular calendar of playing church.  Please, sir, may we have some more?

 

What, however, is the content of that "more"?  I remember words from Dr. Patrick Kiefert back in the 1980's.  One of the advantages of getting old in ministry is having an ongoing context for new information.  By the way, I hate the fashionable word "seasoned."  I'd prefer to be old rather than seeing myself as sprinkled with salt and pepper and ready to be grilled.  Kiefert described the then-new attempts at contemporary worship as "pickles and sauce for bored baby boomers." 

 

He was right.  If what we're up to is simply a new way to stimulate self-absorbed and over-stimulated consumers, then we are wasting our time.  That is an unworthy activity for followers of Jesus.

 

On the other hand, if the "more" is about deeper spiritual life, greater service, larger generosity, and broader community, that seems to be worth the bother.  That also seems to be what Frambach and others describe.  This is the harder road, the narrow way, the cost of discipleship.

 

This emerging ministry thing seems like something that could be interesting, not just entertaining.

I keep looking at books and web sites on this whole emerging church thing.  It's not news to people who have been paying attention since the mid-80's--at least if one has been able to read Loren Mead's work on the Once and Future Church.  But what is going on here--something new?  No, something deeper.  There are so many people who now say to themselves, "I should have been a pastor, minister, worked in the church, etc."

 

Well, now's the time.  The state doesn't offer a limited number of annual licenses to study biblical Hebrew and New Testament Greek.  We can do this together.  Team worship planning, one of the emerging ministry hallmarks, can happen right now.  What do you want to do in the "worship service of your dreams"?  You can get excellent theology at B&N.  NT Wright, Tony Campolo, and a host of others don't mind selling books to you.  And then let's talk.

 

What is this "emerging church"?  Not something new, I think.  Something deeper, more real, AND FAR MORE DEMANDING.  This is church where following Jesus is a vocation, not a hobby; where Jesus-talk is the primary language, not a secret code, where the world is our parish (John Wesley) and we are all priests (Martin Luther).  This is the church as town hall meeting rather than a spot in the Tonight Show audience.

 

If this is all true, then what an awesome time to be the church!

We're going to read and discuss Nate Frambach's book, Emerging Ministry, at Our Saviour's.  Early in his book, he identifies a number of changes to which the Church (at least in North America) is called to respond.

 

Well, friends, the wedding is over.  The kids are by the pool in Aruba.  We've caught up on the lawn mowing and survived multiple severe storm warnings.  Our Tanzanian friends are back in Kimangaro, reading their diaries, looking at photos and catching up on sleep and work.

 

Now, perhaps I can move into more of a post-wedding, post-Tanzania, post-craziness mode.

 

What a great conversation we had at our church council meeting last night.  The Holy Spirit continues to move us toward a new congregational start of some kind--but who, other than the Lord, knows what kind?  That just sends tingles up my spine.

 

So we're going to get under way with more conversation.  Starting Sunday, July 13, we're going to meet at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church, 1200 South 40th Street in Lincoln, Nebraska, and discuss Nate Frambach's book, Emerging Ministry, as a way to help us get our heads and hearts and spirits wrapped around this thing.  Of course, other things might happen as well--who knows?

 

We hope to get Dr. Frambach here to Lincoln after the first of the year for more conversation, planning, consulting--whatever we might need at the time.

 

If you want to get started on some more thinking, here's a brief article from Frambach with a series of 21 descriptions of this emerging church thing: http://www.spselca.org/documents/CharacteristicsofPostmodernWorshippingCommunities.pdf

 

And here's a networking site that has interesting connections and conversations.

 

Spread the word!

Thanks, Jodi, for pointing this out!

 

 

See Lutherans known and unknown (sort of like the sins we confess).

So, Barak Obama has resigned from Trinity United Church of Christ.  I find this remarkably encouraging from the point of view of a pastor.  I had no idea that the things I might say from the pulpit would become determinative for the views, positions, policies and behaviors of those who hear me over the long term.  I was under the impression, based on some measure of experience, that people in the pews in front of me tended to make their own decisions regardless of what I might have said.  Perhaps I will need to rethink that assumption.

 

Of course, the preachers at Trinity are probably far more influential and more accomplished as preachers than I will ever be.  Perhaps they have been able to exert such profound formative influence on parishioners that we must fear what they say.  I have not had that experience based on my own preaching.  It is indeed true that I have never preached to a politician who inhabits the national stage.  Apparently those creatures are more amenable to clerical suggestion than the run of the mill parishioner.  Perhaps others have noticed in history that politicians simply collapse in the face of preacherly pomposity.

 

I am inspired to try harder.

 

What is puzzling is that the simple act of resigning membership from such a congregation is seen as the remedy for this massive determination of Senator Obama's character.  Twenty years (if we assume that Mr. Obama attended regularly) of weekly influence can now be erased by a simple paper transaction.  It is difficult to work this out in my mind.

 

It seems that the preachers of that parish have mesmerizing power over even the most stalwart of members.  Then, with the flourish of a pen, that political and theological hypnosis can be wiped away.  Trinity United Church of Christ is certainly a different parish than any I have ever served.  Resignations of membership may be signs that I have had little influence on someone--but that was usually obvious long before the membership ceased.  Never has a letter of resignation obliterated the meager influence I may have had over someone's thinking and believing.

 

So the rule of political life is once again proved--this time at the expense of the Gospel.  The more absurd a proposition is, the more likely it is that people will believe it.

 

I am greatly cautioned to speak with care before all the future presidents in my congregation.  Who knows what havoc I might produce?

 

"I am not ashamed of the Gospel.  It is the power of God for salvation...through faith for faith."--Paul's Letter to the Romans

What a joy and privilege to be part of the fifteenth anniversary of the companion synod relationship between the Nebraska Synod and the Northern Dioces ELCT!  I have some updated photos from today at the synod assembly in Grand Island.  It was a magnficent celebration.  Our guests are having a fantastic time, and all of us connected with them feel so privileged to be part of this whole experience.  Tomorrow they tour the GI and Hastings area.

 

They had the chance, thanks to Greg and Susan, to see the 3D Imax at the Henry Doorly Zoo this week.  What a marvelous experience for them!  They loved the capital, Memorial stadium and Northstar High School.

 

Asante sana.  Amen.

Another preacher type has said something stupid as he tries to support the Democratic candidacy of Barack Obama.  I cannot begin to describe how many ways in which this is wrong, inappropriate and idiotic.  The content is reprehensible.  The tone is offensive.  The video is destructive for civil discourse, regardless of one's political preferences.  This is another black eye for the Christian Church in this country.

 

Christian leaders have such seductive opportunities to influence the politcal process in our country in the coming twelve months.  Some stand so close to the temporal powers that they begin to think they ought to have that power as well.  This is incredibly dangerous to the church's gospel witness and to the health of any political process.  Western history certainly bears out the idea that whenever the Christian church has accumulated temporal power, the gospel has suffered setbacks and innocent people have suffered.  Which part of that record is unclear to contemporary preachers?

 

Oh, Pastor, some might say, why can't you speak more clearly and directly about current politics?  John Hagee, Jeremiah Wright, Michael Pfleger--need I say more?  What incredibly poor judgment these leaders have exercised!  But the seductions of real power in the historical moment are intense.  These seductions are almost irresistible for some.  In the youtube age, a false step toward the baubles of power lands one on video screens around the world in hours or days.  How can this be good for the gospel of Jesus Christ?

 

The task of the preacher always is to speak God's truth in Christ to and for the historical moment.  If it is close to what God has in mind, then in all likelihood we will be equal opportunity offenders.  When people stand up and cheer (well, jeer, actually) during our sermons, we must hesitate and wonder how far from the truth we have wandered.  The law of God kills us with the truth of our sin.  It doesn't make us stand up and cheer.  Only the gospel can do that.

 

I remember a quote attributed to Ben Franklin about twice as many people showing up for his hanging as for any speech he made.  I think about Stephen stoned to death, Paul beaten with rods, the women ridiculed for their Easter witness.  When we speak truth to power, that's the kind of response we should expect.  Any other response is suspect.

 

Do we say nothing of political significance then?  No, that is the other extreme.  There is, however, plenty to say about the politics of Jesus without engaging in the full contact sport of the current campaign.  Father Pfleger, don't apologize because you might have offended someone.  Confess that you made the cardinal preacher's error, and then learn from that mistake.

 

At Our Saviour's Lutheran Church, we're going to spend summer worship and sermon time studying the Letter to the Romans.  Is the good news of Jesus Christ strong enough to overcome the divisions that are so powerful in Creation?  That is really the question that haunts Paul.  God has promised to give life to the world--to bless the cosmos, in the words of Genesis.  Does God keep God's word?  Is God "righteous" to use Paul's language?  That is the question Paul seeks to wrestle to the ground.

 

Paul's answer is a resounding "yes."  Look at the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the answer.  What, however, does that mean for life among Christians?  Is that yes big enough, good news enough, to overcome all the bad news of our division, hostility, anxiety, anger and fear?  Yes, Paul says, it is.  God is faithful, or God ceases to be God.  God's gospel is more powerful than any human ideology--even if that ideology underwrites a project as successful as the Roman empire.

 

The division Paul has in mind is that between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians in the Roman churches.  The gospel is the power of salvation for everyone who clings to that gospel--Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian alike.  It is hard to imagine how big that gulf was at the time.  After all, nearly all Christians now are Gentiles.  But this was the Grand Canyon of theological and cultural divides at the time.  God's gracious gift of trust through Jesus Christ is more than enough good news to overcome this division.  Paul pleads with the Roman Christians to be followers of Jesus Christ first and to make all--and he means all--other identities secondary.

 

This is why experiences of Christian acceptance across such divides are so powerful.  When we embrace inmates on the road to productive citizenship and gather at the same communion table with them, we testify to the power of the gospel among us.  When we love and support sisters and brothers in New Orleans or Honduras or Tanzania--often people we've never met before--we testify to the power of the gospel among us.  When we refuse to create ritual or social or politcal entrance requirements for the church, we testfy to the power of the gospel among us.

 

The good news of Christ is less a set of doctrines or fundamentals than it is a way of life--openness to the longings, the pains, the hope and dreams of those in need around us.  It is the power of God for salvation for all who trust in God the giver of life.

 

This understanding of the Gospel of Christ has clear political implications.  If we read Romans for what it is, what does that say about how we deal with the stranger, the outsider, even the enemy?  Modern imperial assumptions will be challenged by such a question.