Missional?

Here's some thoughts I picked up from Andrew Jones:

I love the word missional but it still has some problems:
1. It is often dumbed down by people who confuse it with "evangelistic" or "mission-minded"
2. It has often been purged by some evangelicals of its connections to the global mission movement (read 'Ecumenical') and given a newer and more acceptable face.
3. It has sometimes been co-opted by aggressive and competitive white males to drive resources to the programs that beef up their own churches.
4. It suffers from a compulsive activism, as if God was a workaholic who constantly drives on his team and never rests from his labours.
5. It lacks an immediate connection with worship which might be the flip side and a necessary balance.

What do you think?

E/emerg/ent/ing: Thoughts on Labels

There has been a huge amount of discussion throughout the blogosphere about the differences between Emergent, emergent, emerging and all other related terms. This is probably because all those who might be described by any of the above terms are thoroughly post-modern in their disposition, and as such, detest being defined and labeled. I've waded through blogpost after blogpost warning about the dangers and differences associated with each label, hoping to rise above it all. And I'm not totally opposed to a basic distrust of labels, necessarily. But from what I've seen, the pomo distrust is occasionally borderline paranoia. There is such a fear of institution and reductionistic lumping into pre-defined categories that tends to make us fearful of being associated with ideas, individuals or organizations that we'd rather not be associated with anyone.

And I won't deny that our language is important. The terms we use articulate the faith and philosophy that we hold. And yet, we are often perhaps too insistent on our terms, particularly in this recent E/emerg/ent/ing debate. Some prefer to avoid the conversation altogether and allow the cards to fall where they may (HT: Kevin Corcoran). Others want to decide between the two and pick the most inclusive (HT: Nick Fiedler). Some might say that association with the terms themselves is not bad, but over-defining is a waste of time (HT: Tony Jones). 

It goes without saying that Emergent is a term that describes an institution, but the terms emergent and emerging are not necessarily. Some have argued that since orally, Emergent and emergent are indistinguishable, it might be wise to disregard the term itself, and stick strictly with emerging.

But for me, the problem with all this defining and line-drawing is that it necessarily adds a flavor of organization and institution to a conversation that is innately anti-institutional. That's not to say that we don't operate in the midst of structures and sometimes even institutions that are the instruments and vehicles of our faith expressions. But these terms, for me, are expressions of my own faith. So, to answer the question of my own "association," I think of myself as a participant in the emergent conversation of Christians hoping to live faithfully in post-modernity. My faith is emerging from the work of God in the midst of my community and context. These words for me are not associations with some formal organization, but are rather adequate terms for my own experience of faith. And I use these terms because they do connect me with other Christians with similar struggles and hopes. And by throwing around the language of emergence and assuming that it necessarily lumps us into a labeled category, the issue is being forced. If emerg/ent/ing do truly indicate loyalty, then we must be loyal to something.

If only we could simply speak and so be. If only I could describe my faith without being lumped into an institution that doesn't really exist. If only we could enjoy our conversations without these silly dissections.

Minneapolis Pt. 2

When I last left you, we had discussed my week through Wednesday. Now it is Saturday, and you deserve the rest of the story.

On Thursday, we decided it would be best to leave the Twin Cities. But before we took off, it was time for one more emergent excursion. We headed down to Solomon's Porch for a "cohort." These are the daily breaths of the whole emergent movement. It's basically a semi-informal gathering of "friends of emergent" to discuss life and faith. This particular week, Mark Scandrette, author of Soul Grafitti was in town from San Fran. Mark is the founder of a community known as Seven. Mark was introduced as the creator of a community that was one splash SoCal, one splash emergent, one splash neo-monastic. He was also called the "Shane Claiborne of San Francisco." He was there promoting his book and sharing what was going on with Seven. He shared some interesting ideas about orthodoxy and orthopraxy. For Mark, there is an imposed distinction between the two, when really orthopraxy is an expression of an orthodox faith. I enjoyed entering this conversation. It tied in very well with our discussion of James here in Warrensburg.

Spending time in the midst of emergent, I found it interesting how little I tended to disagree. I had feared that "heresy" might run rampant in these men's lives. After all, the "orthodox," "authoritative" and "biblically-based" branches of Christianity tend to condemn these guys straight to hell. It was shocking how, though I'm sure there were aspects of their faith I disagree with, their beliefs (and by their own understandings)and their entire lives were defined by their faith in Christ and their hope in the coming of the Kingdom, the "good dreams of the Creator." These men lived in ways that were undeniably marked by a faith in Jesus and a genuine love for all people.

In fact, the only "heretical" thing I heard wasn't even from these men. At the cohort, one guy suggested that Jesus and Buddha are both ways to the same place. I'm not entirely sure whether some of the emergents agreed or disagreed with this guy's logic, but it did seem to me like the air was sucked out of the room. No one attacked the man for saying so, and no one blatantly agreed. While this might signal something bad about emergent as a movement, I think it also signified a refusal to dictate and debate what is "right" and the "only appropriate" way to believe in God. Some might say that this is a weakness of the movement, to not stand up for orthodoxy, and maybe it is. But I know I could stand to learn something about tolerance from these men.

After the cohort, we headed back for Kansas City. We made it back safely after about 7 hours. We stayed the night with Hilary's folks, and on Saturday, I got my taxes filed. Then, on our way back to the 'Burg, we picked up the guinea pigs. It was wonderful to have them back, and Stephanie did a fantastic job of taking care of them. However, she told us that Darbi was eating Obi's hair, and after referencing the book, we discovered that such behavior is very bad. It means they are too crowded and Darbi is essentially beating Obi into submission. So, tomorrow, we'll be getting another cage and unfortunately housing them separately from now on. Hilary was very sad to face these facts, but we just want healthy, happy goonies.

Today, we almost finished the guest list for the wedding. I'll be glad when all this planning stuff is over.  Good golly. It's booooring. But hey, it won't be any fun if nobody shows up. What are you gonna do, right?

Well, Hilary and I are watching Hannibal, so I better go. 

Peace.

For Family

As the two faithful readers of this blog may have noticed, I tend to only blog in intermittence. And then, as of late, I've only blogged about blogging. A slightly redundant and useless endeavor, I admit, but now I have discovered a greater reason to write.

My sister called the other night to ask a simple question about Hilary's birthday. She asked what we were up to, and was completely caught-off guard when I mentioned that we are currently hanging out in Minneapolis. To avoid any unpleasant surprises in the future, I hope to blog more often with the expressed purpose of keeping those who want to know any of the details of my life slightly more informed. I don't expect that category to actually include many people, but at least now when my mom complains I can pass the buck back on her for not checking the blog.

So, this week, Hilary, Ian and I have been hanging out in Minneapolis, Minnesota for spring break. Most people find it incredibly odd that we might come north for spring break when most people flee for the beaches. What can I say? We're freakin' weird.

Here's the back-drop. Last semester, we read a book called Church Re-Imagined by Doug Pagitt. It's the story of a church here in Minneapolis known as Solomon's Porch. It was a wonderful book, and it left us wishing we could visit it. Shortly after that, I heard about a book release and signing "party" for Tony Jones' new book The New Christians also in Minneapolis in the middle of our spring break week. At the same time, I found out that a friend from college got a job in Minneapolis as a designer for an ad firm. And then, there was nothing stopping us from coming at all.

We got here Sunday night and just hung around. It was refreshing to catch up with Casey (the friend) and tell stories about the good old days. On Monday, we went downtown and saw where Casey worked. We also ate at this really cool little Greek restaurant where we had cake. I say this, and it sounds mundane, but I ought to mention that the cake was free. This is a particularly big deal when we learned that the guys who run this place only give cake to people they like, similar to the "Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld. After Casey got off work, we hit up a grown up arcade, followed by a sweet pub called O'Donovan's.

Yesterday, we took the light rail down to the Mall of America. It was... big. We had Sbarro pizza for lunch; very enjoyable. Then we made a quick stop in the Apple Store, which proved to be a personal and financial struggle and an exercise in greedy desire.

Last night, we headed for the book signing in Edina. Being the definition of tourist, we got utterly lost and found it only by the grace of God. We picked up our books, got them signed and then ran into the aforementioned Doug Pagitt. After talking with him for a few minutes, he invited us out to dinner with some folks, including the other aforementioned Tony Jones. We got to sit and talk and laugh with some "respectable" people. What was most inspiring about it was how nice these guys were. They were absolutely the most wonderful and loving people. These two, in particular, are often at the center of controversy and often labeled "heretics," but it can't be said that they don't love like Jesus.

Today, we headed into St. Paul to check out the Common Goods Book Store, owned by one Garrison Keillor of NPR fame. Unfortunately, we didn't see Mr. Keillor himself, but Ian did buy an autographed copy of Pontoon, Keillor's latest Woebegone novel. Then we had lunch at a coffee shop right above it.

Overall, we've loved the Twin Cities. There have been so many awesome things to see, including Ian's favorite, the SkyWay, which is a series of walkways that have essentially been converted into a 2 - 3 mile mall stretching the length of downtown Minneapolis. It's been fun and relaxing.

Tomorrow, we're heading down to Solomon's Porch for a lunch gathering of Emergent that they call a "cohort." Then we'll be heading back on Friday. Then, to finish my taxes.

As the week goes on, I keep remembering this thing called my life. Growing up sucks.