The Nature of Christian Organization Today

I have written in the past on the emergent movement.  While I have never talked in much depth about their theology, I am quite interested in the sociological trends of places like emergent village.  I recieve their newsletter via e-mail and was again interested in the direction they are taking.  They are suggesting four shifts in priority that generally follow the organizational structure in our changing world:

1. Reduce and decentralize by getting rid of the national coordinator position (this means Tony will be moving on).
2. Re-emphasize the importance of the website as a central hub.
3. To decentralize by depending on grassroot organizations to plan events rather than emergent village to plan events themselves.
4. To Reconfigure the board

I do not consider myself an expert on emergent (I have not read enough of the author’s who call themselves ‘emergent,’ nor do I have the time to do so), but I have been watching the conversation for some years and have been greatly interested by the sociological trends.  All of their goals for the “new” emergent-village seem to be about less national presence and more presence as network node (perhapas the anti-federalists were right all along).  There is a term recently introduced to me by my blogging friend Nate called subsidiarity.  I am so excited by this word because it brings to term some of the ideas that have been boiling in my brain.  This concept suggests that matters ought to be handled by the smallest group possible.  It would probably have been the view of Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy and probably embodies many of the grassroots organizations throughout United States history.  There is a good conversation going on about this idea at catholicanarchy (read the comments).  I want to quote one of the comments here:

I think (and I cant take credit for this) that locality is such a wonderful answer to capitalism & globalization. Wendell berry is the best critiquer of this system that I can think of. Why can’t people be happy with solving the problems and providing for the needs of their own communities? Everything is always mass produced and shipped all over whether or not its wanted/needed elsewhere. This is where advertising and the creation of perceived needs come in. What is really troubling is when we think about how this has come into Christianity in the form of evangelism.

Why join a subsidarity movement?  Well, as Christians we hopefully realize that the best way to work is through the local church as an expression of the catholic church (universal, not necessarily Roman Catholic).  Could we argue that God uses subsidarity?  He chose a particular people group in a particular place to be the expression of his love to the world.  The particularity of God in ‘choosing’ one group to, in turn, bless the wold holistically, seem to show subsidarity, or the idea that working through one group as a kind of tree that spreads its root deep, as his guiding principle.  As Christians, we need to remember that bigger is not always better.

Seven Counterintuitive Ways to move Closer to God

1. Stop trying so hard.  The nature of Jesus Christ was one who was comfortable in his own skin to be truly human.  We were not created to be fallen creatures, but to be the imageo dei.  The fall was a choice that humanity made to follow things that are by nature not God.  It is a process to move back to the place where we view humanity primary as the image of God when it seems to have been so distorted by people, but there still is this glimmer of hope.  Rather than trying so hard to get close, let the spirit wash over you each morning as you pray to simply be in the presence of our Father.

2.  Cut things out of your schedule instead of trying to tag more “God” things in yoru schedule.  I am a big fan here that less is more.  If you are planning on meeting four people throughout the day today, try to meet only with two people for a longer and deeper amount of time.

3. Stop thinking of certain things as spiritual.  If you think of Bible and prayer as spiritual, you are, in a sense, making your job, your car, your house, your family, and your friends inherently unspiritual.  Write down ways that your relationship with God can be furthered through everything you do.  For instance, your relationship with God can be furthered with people as you talk about God with them (even if you are not “evangelizing” in the classic sense of the word).

4. Take an inventory of items in your house and decide what you do and do not need.  Get rid of the things you do not need by giving them to the poor and selling them (if they are valuable).  My suggestion is to get rid of 50 percent of things in your house.  Why do you need two TVs?  Why do you need so many dishes?  Do all households really NEED to cars?  More stuff often inhibits our relationship with God because we tend to want to play with it all rather than play with God.

5. Read less of the Bible, but read the parts that you do read more closely searching for a conceptual understanding of what you are reading.  I am not a huge fan of trying to go through the Bible in a year.  Scripture is an instrument for mediation, not a medal to be awarded once we have read it all.

6. Move slower in everything that you do.  The other day when work was really busy and everyone was moving at lightning pace, one of the girls said we all looked stressed out and that we should just be patient.  At the time it was annoying to me, but looking back on it, there is no reason to rush.  Sure, customers wanted their food, but the humanity gets lost in the rush of it all sometimes. God can get lost in this rush too.

7. Honor God by worshipping him with your body through the way one eats and exercises.  Our mental and physical health is not ever seperated from our spiritual health.  One will invariably affect the other.