I am working on a doctoral project that seeks lessons the emerging/missional church can teach the mainline about local mission; especially in answering the question “who is our neighbor?” I have a questionnaire that I would love for folks to fill out and e-mail back to me. If you are interested, let me know. Thanks.
Who is “My Jesus”?
July 16, 2009 By 1 Comment
In his book, Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren talks about the seven Jesuses he has known. It served as a kind of faith statement for him, as he shared his journey of faith by seeing how Jesus had touched and transformed the lives of people nearby and far away.
If I have a hang up about answering “Who is my Jesus?” it in the way the personal pronoun is the first person singular. If Jesus is “My Jesus” he quits being the Jesus of someone else. If Jesus is really going to be who we believe he is, than he is my Lord and Savior, but not just for me. Jesus does not exist just to back up my opinions, or to strike out against my enemies.
But the question has been asked – Who is my Jesus? I see Jesus as a human being growing up like I have, experiencing all of the stuff of life I have experienced, with a few things left out because of time and culture, of course. But Jesus is fully human; he fully experienced everything we experience – even the experience of death.
Jesus is a teacher. He went around teaching and healing, but his big thing, apparently ,was in teaching people. He taught them about the Kingdom of God and what it looked like to live in that Kingdom. I think Jesus is still teaching me and us today. We still need to put our stuff aside, slow our lives down, get a check on our preconceived positions and listen to what he has to say.
Jesus is a prophet. That’s church talk for a spokesperson of God. He had a word from God to give to the people. Sometimes he spoke it, sometimes he lived it. Either way, he confronted people with God’s presence in their lives – not just to tell them that they had sinned and they needed to change direction. But to remind them that God loves them – and us – passionately, so passionately that God will not let us go on doing things which are not good for us.
Jesus is the one who brings resurrection. Not just eternal life, not just getting your butt into heaven. But the one who gives us renewal of life every day, every moment. Resurrection is not just an experience after death. It is a ‘during life’ kind of thing. Jesus gives us new life in the midst of life; a renewal of life that invites us to share with others all of the joy, peace and justice that following Jesus is all about.
What is Authentic Worship?
September 24, 2008 By 6 Comments
I am working on seeing how a 21st century, mainline, traditional congregation can receive new life by looking at the words of the ancient church. I keep seeing, and hearing about, people who have left the mainline church for the big megachurches but who then come back because they want more tradition, more liturgy in worship. One of the things I keep coming back to is developing a sense of authenticity in worship. Like many of you I have heard about the importance of authenticity for postmoderns, as well as for others. Folks in the pews (and in the pulpit) want to know what is ‘real,’ they want to know that what we are doing and who we are is genuine. But that can be a slippery concept. How do you define authentic worship? What determines it? What does/can it look like?
Ideas for CE Dedication?
September 7, 2007 By 3 Comments
It’s that time of year again, time to dedicate (or whatever term you want to use) our Christian Education students, teachers, programs, etc. Does anyone have any good Emerging ideas for ways to do this? I could do the same old litany and that would be fine, I guess. But I would like to do something different. Any thoughts?
Join the Conversation