The Emergent Church (again)

From time to time, I like to take a look at what is going on in the emerging church. Speaking on it from an historical perspective, Jonathon Stegall suggests:

“They [emerging leaders] moved from ecclesiology and missiology into other areas of theology – realizing that one’s view of church comes from one’s view of other things.”

I think this one statement shows how much sociology and religion have intermingled in the past 50 years.  Contextual theology has become the centerpiece of this emerging church.  It is these ideas that have also driven conservatives away from the emerging church.  Conservatives are simply not okay with the idea that theology changes based on the circumstances of any one generation.

As an historian myself, this is the difficult case of any type of theology.  Theologies so often seem  endlessly tied up in a time period.  Are we following God or simply following the endearing qualities of our time?  Are we following Jesus or simply a nice message that has been white-washed to sound like Jesus?  These are the difficult questions that the emerging generation.

Lieutenant Dan: Have you found Jesus, yet?

Forrest Gump: I didn’t know I was supposed to be looking for him.

…links for your linking pleasure 22…

1. Sotomayor has some mountains to climb:

2. President Obama has just finished an important speech in Cairo.  Listen to what the world has to say.

3. SpiritFarmer talks about church marketing.

4. Tim Chester reflects on evangelicalism and social class.

5. Bring your Bible and guns to church.

6. Does science make religion untenable?

7. Charlie talks about how we follow Jesus.

8. Thanks to Chris for this quote on Following Jesus from Thomas a Kempis:

Jesus has many who love his heavenly kingdom, but few who bear his cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share his table, but few to take part in his fasting. All desire to be happy with him; few wish to suffer anything for him. Many follow him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of his passion.

9. A new TIME article wonders if Christian media is dead.

10. Adbusters thoughts on Pepsi.

The new Obamacar

…links for your linking pleasure 21…

1. FFF has an interesting article up about terrorism.  Someday when I have my own classroom it would be interesting to have students come up with a definition of “terrorism.”  It is harder than it sometimes sounds.

2. Over at Open Source Theology, there is talk about theories of atonement.

3. Broadway will be putting on a play about Love, Atheists, and homosexuals.

4. Steve talks about why old monasticism is growing.

5. With yearbooks coming out at school, this article gives an interesting look at the immedicacy of facebook and how it might be affecting yearbook sales.

the ice cream truck blows by
with ice cream songs
melting an ice cream world
and I am not
nor do I want
to be a part and parcel
delivering this magnified message
to the deaf and blind.

the sound of wind blows down
hot air from high
where he sits softly,
has the whole world
in his hot hands.

and though the temperatures
differ between here and
there, we declare that you
are here and we are there

and the heavens come down
as we sing and sing and sing
from here until today.

Suburbs 1: Intersection

I am beginning a series of photoblogs intitled “suburbs.”  They are random pictures from my town with captions.  Here is the first in the series:

Intersections

….links for your linking pleasure 20…..

1.  Apparently all the nuclear weapons we have is not enough so we bought 2/3 of the nuclear power of Britain as well.

2.  Before and After in Mumbai.

3.  Daniel Farmer rethinks the least of these. See more here.

4.  JR Woodward says form comes before content.

5.  McKnight Mix-ups

6.  Mike Clawson deconstructs Santa and Backseat Writer asks if you believed in Santa.

7.  Randall talks about hope in a dark place.

Calvin and Hobbes: A Philosophy of Childhood

Calvin and Hobbes: from 1995

I generally refrain from writing intensely personal things on my blog.  I am not afraid of talking personally, but I generally find myself wanting to talk about abstract issues of theology or culture on the blog.  I actually am quite an introspective person (this may or may not be a sign of my generation).  But this comic has provided a time for me to write an autobiographical piece that may help those who read my blog.

Kids, like Calvin above, are willing to do combine anachronistic eras for no other reason than it is cool. Kids have an imagination that adults are often incapable of.  Of course of the weight of a tyrannasarous would crash an F14, but rules of physics do not apply to a child’s mind.  They are able to imagine the impossible.

I find great solace in Calvin and Hobbes because he represents, in many ways, the exploratory imagination of my own childhood.  I would play outside in all sorts of whether alone with a rope.  The rope was my Hobbes. It could be transformed to be a whip to fend off animals as we traveled on an African Safari, or into a whip of power if I was pretending to be a Dark Lord in Star Wars or a place to transport me to the inner part of a cockpit.

I would play with small animals.  They would be wrestlers.  I would watch them come to life as they moved in my hands.  This was serious business.

I was constructing a world of worlds.  In my room, I was learning about the forces of good and evil as I played out scenario’s in my head.

Sometimes I feel this:

How do I find Hobbes again?  Perhaps it is here:

…..links for you linking pleasure 19…..

1.  Over at Kingdom Conversations I am continuing my series on modern day parables.  So often, the church does not take the time to consider the power of stories–especially parables.  So far I have written on business, Vietnam, Police, gas, and resumes .  My good friend Mark has also taken some time at Kingdom Conversations to write about The Other Mark.

2. The State of the Union:

3.  Andrew talks about new ideas for pastor transitions.

4.  Charlie talks about the politics of division.  I commented over there saying that I thought pro-choice and pro-life are not as hard-line as they sometimes like to think.

5.  Cat talks about living in grace.

6.  The Houston Chronicle argues that Christians are afraid of losing power (HT: Jim West)

7.  Perhaps the Singles Ministries in churches could learn a message from this:

8.  What is trinitarian hedonism you ask?  Click here to find out.  I think that Piper’s answers to the question, why create us is insufficient only because he tries to answer it.  I don’t think there is any clear answer from scripture as to why God created us.

9.  TIME’s List of people who mattered in 2008 and also how google earth can help green.

10.  Goooooooooooooooood Morning Afghanistan.

11.  Good ol’ Calvin and Hobbes:

On the Shores of Vietnam: A Modern Day Parable (2)

[The following is a parable; for those who don't know the definition of parable is a fictional story designed to impart some deeper truth beyond the story.  Comment on the story after reading explaining how the story makes you feel.]

Not long ago, I heard a story of a Vietnamese leader of a city.  His son was getting married and he wanted to throw a huge party for him.  He owned a huge brewery, and gave his hired hands the day off to hand out invitations to all his friends and family.

The servants passed out over a thousand invitations, but the majority of them called and said they couldn’t make it.  One of his servants was even mistreated by the people he invited.  They began to beat him with a baseball bat.

The leader was so angry at the shame brought on his family that he called up one of the ruling military junta.  He showed the junta the list of guests he had invited to the party and said he would provide $100 for each head brought to him dead.  The city was in an uproar as the junta descended upon the city.

All of the thousand people on the list were found and brought out to the public square.  Their families were forced to watch with their eyes open as the military shot them through the head and burned down their houses.  All of them were found and the military junta made $100,000 in fees from the rich leader.

“I will show them how it feels to be rejected and truly shamed,” the leader replied after he had given the junta their pay.  “I will bring in the disgraced and the downtrodden.  They will come to my son’s wedding and then all those who should have come, but didn’t, will be left outside in the cold.”

And it was so.

The servants brought the homeless, the destitute, and the sick to his son’s wedding.  One woman was angered to see that the leader of the city had brought a convicted rapist into the party and a convicted drug dealer.  He opened up the jails and let the worst criminals, the ones who had raped and sexually abused children, sit in the front row.  This was the way of the leader of the city.  They had all been given the best clothes to wear, no matter what they had done.

Suddenly, however, he noticed that one man was still dressed in filthy clothes.

“What are you doing here?” the leader of the city asked.

The man said nothing.

“You dare to come into my son’s wedding without proper attire?  Get OUT!”

And at that the servants grabbed him and through him out into the cold.

This is like the kingdom of heaven.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.