“Every theology has a context...”

“To understand many of the methods in this book, you need to understand the context in which they were developed. Otherwise, you might be tempted to copy things we did without considering the context. Please do not do this! Instead look beneath the methods to see the transferable principles on which they are based.”

“I decided we would make no effort to attract Christians from other churches to _______. We would not even borrow workers from other area churches. Since I felt called to reach unbelievers, I determined to begin with unbelievers.”

“You won’t be able to transfer our context. Every church operates in a unique cultural setting. To artificially plant a _______ clone in a different environment is a formula for failure.”

So which cutting edge, emerging church, missional guru said all this?

None. They are the teachings of non other than the routinely disparaged, Rick Warren, in his much maligned book, The Purpose Driven Church. (at least here at Fuller.)

It’s not even him so much, at least not him as a person, rather it’s his way of doing church, a way that is said to be, on it’s best day, not sufficiently cognisant of its culture, and on it’s worst…down-right evil. More on that tomorrow.

What I’m getting at with these quotes is that while there may be some valid critiques of the “seeker sensitive” approach, I think what happens at many “seeker sensitive” churches may be more missional than some might like to imagine.

Think about it. If your trying to reach culturally Christian suburbanites, many of whom work in a corporate environment, is it any surprise that CEO models of pastoring, combined with a “professional” service flourish?

I like much of what I hear in the “emerging” conversation at Fuller and in blog land, and I’ll probably end up being involved in some of it. But I think that all too often there is a bad case of group think going on. What is being suggested is good, but it’s not gospel, and I believe that many that don’t speak emergingese or missionese are doing it none-the-less.

The emerging church does not have a corner on being missional in the west.

Ten on Three

This past quarter I took three classes: Christian Ethics, Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) and Forming the People of God. Here they are in ten words or less.

Christian Ethics: Euthanasia...Pacificism...Kingdom of God...Systemic Evil.

Pentateuch: Exegeses...Higher Criticism...Judgment & Mercy...God’s Narrative

Forming the People of God: Missional...Discipleship...Culture...Forms of Church...Practical Helps...Legal FYI’s

The best part of each though were the prof’s. A professor makes or breaks a class. Fortunately I had three really good one’s this past quarter, Mark Lau Branson, Erin Dufault-Hunter, and James Butler

Missionaries Get the Emerging Church

Ryan had this to say about his conversations with missionaries on the emerging church.

"...What resonated with him? A focus on Jesus stories, yep. All of life sacred, no split -- yep. Church service replaced by hospitality as the primary connecting point, check. Dialog in humility, acknowledging errors, yes. Recognizing truths in the host culture and religion, yes. Holy Spirit was there before the missionary, yes. Indigenous local, almost pagan looking worship, yes. Leadership in teams, yes. Lots of prayer and spiritual activities outside the service, yes, yes, yes..."

Read the whole post here.

"He's not a tame lion ya know, but he is a good lion."
Mr. Tumnus

New Job

Finished up my second day on a new job yesterday. I’m working as a “recycling specialist” for a company called Tomrah Recycling. Basically I help you sort your recyclables, weed out the stuff we don’t pay for, weigh it, and print your cash voucher. I think its going to be great cause I don’t have to do much thinking, and I get to rub shoulders with some great people.

At our site, people can turn in their cans one of two ways. They can use a “reverse vending machine”, or if you have a lot of stuff (or not) I can weigh it.

Done!

Yahoo!!! I'm finally done with my finals. I just printed my last paper, so for the next 25 days, I have nothing to worry about in conjunction with school. Meaning I can get back to a normal routine, which coincidentally includes blogging. I look forward to telling y'all about what they been learning me in this hear school, so stay tuned for more wild tales from the crypt (i.e. cemetery, i.e. seminary)

Missional Small Groups

There is a church in Las Vegas in which only 14 of their 25 small groups are listed in the church service directory. Why? Because the other 11 don’t have a start/stop time.

Instead they function as a family, 2’s and 3’s getting together several times a week, most of the group getting together once or twice a week for whatever, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, just generally being a family, being the people of God. Not that they are totally insular, plenty of new people come; the friends of the people that are already a part of it, in fact at any given time, as many as 50% of the people might not identify themselves as Christians.

Got any thoughts, what might the pros and cons be?