Emerging Church asks, "What is Jesus' vision of the kingdom?"

The following is a fascinating review by Scot McKnight which I find very helpful as we try to understand more and more the Emerging Church movement in America. Please let me know your thoughts...

Scot McKnight is a widely-recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. He is the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University (Chicago, Illinois).


There are a number of approaches to talking about the emergent church or, as I have preferred to talk -- emerging movement and emergent village/church, and the two favorite approaches are to say: it's dead or it's undefinable. About four years ago I was asked the "Whither Emergent?" question: Where was emerging headed?

At the time I suggested three things: some emerging Christians will become mainline liberals (or progressives as many prefer to be called now), some will retreat a bit by assuming their old seats in evangelical churches, and others will continue to impact the evangelical movement in a missional or expansive, robust gospel direction. I don't have numbers, but that's probably about right, but I've since realized that there really weren't that many other options. Anyway, I'm not into futurism or prophesying.

One thing is very, very clear now: many in the emerging movement, and especially many in what I preferred to call the "emergent" crowd, have taken up solid stances in the American mainline churches. You will probably find folks like Brian McLaren and Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt and Phyllis Tickle more often among the mainline crowd than among evangelicals. It can be said that emergent's biggest influence is probably right now more with the mainline than anywhere else -- except to offer two caveats: (1) many evangelicals who have emerging sympathies were worn down by the progressive direction of others and just dropped the label and are still emerging while (2) many other emerging folks are creative and living in the cracks of the mainline-evangelical divide but really don't have a central organization right now for some kind of overt identification. I could be wrong, but this is what I'm seeing and sensing.

Which leads me to my point: Philip Clayton's new book, Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society , is nothing if it is not the fully skinny on progressive, mainline-shaped emergent theology. If Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy mapped the frustration and ambivalences of many emergent thinkers and wonderers, Clayton's book maps the terrain and the direction of the same.
Clayton argues that theology has been the prerogative an elite group of professors, but he believes it's got to be seen as what all of us do instead of just what the professors and professionals do. He outlines what can only be called a progressive emergent agenda for doing theology in a series of proposals -- too many to name here. It's a good book and I hope it gets a wide hearing. Thus, his emphases are:

Belonging, behaving, believing
Change is important and inevitable
Big Tent theology doesn't have to be divisive
Theology creates story and it leads to action
Activism is shaped by theology
Church ministries are sliding into missional churches

But what struck me about Clayton's book, and it struck me because I thought it was noticeably old-fashioned and at the same time not completely in sync with the central themes of the book itself, was the six questions of theology he thinks that folks are asking and need to ask:

1. Who is God?
2. Who is Jesus, called the Christ?
3. Who is the Spirit, or the Holy Spirit?
4. What is humanity?
5. What is the problem of sin, and what does salvation mean?
6. What is the nature and function of the church?
7. What is the future in which we hope and for which we long?

Well, as I read this, I thought -- straight out of the old categories of theological textbooks. Surprised me.

And what I found mission was a Jesus-shaped core to those questions, a Jesus whose kingdom vision was reshaping all theological questions: And Philip's book is shaped more by that set of categories than those six. So, I wonder if the first question isn't "What is Jesus' vision of the kingdom?" and how does that question re-shape the whole?

Contemporary Christianity - what might this look like for us? Here is a fresh approach which deserves some conversation.

This is a fascinating review by Gladys Ganiel -- a Lecturer and Coordinator of the Reconciliation Studies Programme at the Belfast campus of the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin. Please see her blog at http://tinyurl.com/yeb2fwm

Dave Tomlinson is one of the keynote speakers at the Belfast Re-Emergence Conference, ‘The Church is Dead, Long Live the Church,’ scheduled for March 16-18, 2010, at the Irish School of Ecumenics (Trinity College Dublin at Belfast). In his most recent book, Re-Enchanting Christianity: Faith in an Emerging Culture, (Canterbury Press, 2008) Tomlinson dissects all that is unattractive and downright revolting about contemporary Christianity in the West. From there, he offers some insights on how Christians can engage more wholesomely (I deliberately do not say ‘effectively’) with the challenges of post-modernity.

As I read the book I couldn’t help thinking of the American Methodist theologian Stanley Hauerwas, who once said something to the effect:


‘The church in the West isn’t dying, God is killing it.’

Hauerwas’ remark casts ‘secularization’ and Christianity in the West in quite a different spiritual light than they are usually seen. Christians usually feel a deep unease about declining church attendance, and all that secularization is supposed to entail. Among the faithful remnant, there has been some mourning for the ‘death’ of church institutions, and lament over the fact that the great and the good don’t seem to listen to the churches anymore.

But Hauerwas’ comment – and much of Tomlinson’s book – force Christians to ask whether the church institutions to which they cling are really worth saving in their present form. Could it be that the ‘religion’ of Christianity that has been constructed in the West is something that ‘God’ might quite like casting away?

For Tomlinson, aspects of contemporary Christianity that we would be better off without are what he sees as damaging and inhumane beliefs about how the bible should be read, the meaning of the atonement, whether or not the resurrection actually happened (and if it matters!), the uniqueness of Christ, the efficacy of prayer, and the existence of hell.

The debates and questions that Tomlinson raises around these and other issues will be especially familiar to people from evangelical and charismatic traditions. Most of his critiques are aimed at debunking the common answers to such questions offered within conservative evangelicalism.

This is not surprising, given that Tomlinson himself is the original ‘Post-Evangelical,’ the man who gave us that very term in his 1995 book of the same name. He is a former charismatic house church leader and is part of the wider ‘emerging church’ movement, which itself is a child of the discontented daughters and sons of modern North Atlantic evangelicalism.

Tomlinson offers alternative perspectives on these issues which reflect his genuine engagement with people in the culture around him (through his work now as a parish priest in North London) and a wide reading of major theologians and philosophers of the past generation, including Thomas Merton, Walter Wink, C.S. Lewis, Paul Ricoeur, Walter Brueggemann, Marcus Borg, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Rene Girard, and more.

Tomlinson handles these thinkers with a confident and light touch that is appropriate for a popular audience. But in a relatively slight book (148 pages) with 15 slim chapters, the reader is often left longing for more meat from the bones of their works. Here, an annotated bibliography would have been helpful for those who are new to some of these theologians and philosophers, or seeking further directions for reading.

In the 15th and final chapter of the book, ‘Mission Statement,’ Tomlinson identifies five areas that he thinks should ‘really matter’ to Christians in the 21st Century. When I began to read this chapter I was disgruntled about this exercise, as it seemed to me too formulaic considering the relatively free-flowing approach to faith that Tomlinson advocates throughout.

But once I got over that, I did recognise value in Tomlinson’s five observations:

Christian mission in the 21st century requires a kingdom orientation, rather than a church orientation
Christian mission in the 21st century needs to be focused on spirituality, rather than apologetics
Christian mission in the 21st century needs to be holistic rather than dualistic
Christian mission in the 21st century needs to be dialogical rather than monological
Christian mission in the 21st century needs to find expression through open, empowering church communities
These five points of course draw on themes Tomlinson develops in the earlier chapters, and include examples of and ideas about what holistic and welcoming groups of Christians might look like.

Tomlinson’s choice of the word ‘mission’, and the ways in which he thinks it should be exercised, also resonate with the international conference my school is hosting in Dublin, June 16-18, 2010, ‘From World Mission to Interreligious Witness: Visioning Ecumenism in the 21st Century.’

Like this conference, Tomlinson urges us to push beyond the easy association of mission with evangelism or proselytization, and to replace the negative association of mission with something empowering (page 130):

‘… for me, mission is not about trying to get people ‘saved’, or trying to get them to join the Church, or even about trying to get them to convert to Christianity. Mission is about making God’s liberating love and peace and justice a flesh-and-blood reality in ways that can potentially transform people’s lives, or potentially transform a neighbourhood, or potentially transform the world.’

The Dream Manager - Jan 3, 2010 - Dream, Trust, Act!

So, 2010 has begun…a whole new decade.
still seems strange to me, saying 2,010.

Nevertheless, here we are –
the beginning of another New Year…
and this always seems to be the perfect time
to dream.
Dream new dreams.

Of course, many folks like to dream or make yearly resolutions
about such things as dieting, more family time…

but I would guess,
most of us probably have our own list of things
we’d like to change in our lives
and the world around us.

Discovering a new sense of security and peace
for ourselves and those we love,
would most likely make the short list for all of us.

Including, I am sure both Mary and Joseph
who must have had similar thoughts so long ago
following the birth of Jesus.

No question, the birth of a child
is the beginning of a new adventure,
a time to dream
and yet, at the same time,
it’s a time to consider what it means
to take on this responsibility.

Matthew’s Gospel says,
An Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream
and the Angel had something very direct to say
about this new responsibility.

In fact, the angel came to Joseph and said
the child was in great danger
and the Holy Family must flee right away into Egypt.

And so guided by an Angel from Heaven,
Joseph trusted God
and obeyed…he took action.

Recently, I discovered a fascinating little book called –
“The Dream Manager” by Matthew Kelly.

Kelly’s book tells the story of a company called:
“Admiral Janitorial Services.”

Basically, other companies contracted with them
to provide the staffing to vacuum, scrub floors and clean toilets.
Lots of companies used them.
In fact, they had about 400 employees, and business was good.

But this company had a problem –
they had an annual turnover rate of some 400 percent.

On average, people left the company every 90 days.
Turnover led to inconsistent cleaning and poor morale.

Some of the executives,
who had put a lot of their time and money into this business,
began to think this problem was insurmountable.
They certainly saw these jobs as dead-ends, too.

But what happened next is amazing ---
apparently a middle manager type came to work one day
and told the executives -- an idea had come to him in a dream –
and he now believed there was a way out of all this.

His idea was simply to help other employees build a bridge
between their here and now to a better future.
So they created a position called a -- “Dream Manager.”

The Dream Manager would meet with individual employees,
ask them about their dreams,
and then using a mix of financial planning
and pragmatic counseling,
help them achieve their dreams.

The dreams these employees had were relatively simple,
and with encouragement,
they were achievable.

As employees felt valued and supported,
they began to bring in new business for the company.
And turnover went from 400 percent down to almost zero.

So, what are your dreams?
During this year ahead of us,
how can you and I take on the responsibility of
bridging the here and now to our future?

And maybe along the way ask,
where do we need to feel valued and supported in this?
how will this be achieved and
not just left in a dream…

Actually, what I really want to know is –
where can I find a good “dream manager”?

Joseph, knew where to look, didn’t he?
He recognized God’s messenger in a dream…
and then he Trusted God and acted.

But the trouble is most people are uncomfortable
with living out their dreams,
because we have so many "what ifs" aboard.


And, by the time we throw all those "what ifs" overboard,
what we have left is a well-defined plan
that arcs considerably lower than the dream
we started.

What's missing when we do this is Trust…Faith.
We can lower ourselves into being satisfied with the safer,
smaller arcs, than God or our dreams, intended.

But, when the Christian Church continues to teach –
“just be satisfied and don’t question or doubt”…
take a risk of faith.
When the church becomes self-satisfied with a plan
instead of a dream…

When the church steps away from pushing us
to be more than we currently are,
THEN it truly becomes,
in one thinker's words,
the opiate of the masses.


But, as long as the church –
that is you and me…disciples of Jesus Christ,
remember HOW to dream,
how to stretch and grow,
how to follow whatever dream God sends us,

then, and only then…
can we truly witness to the world
the transforming message
of Jesus’ Love.

May God give us grace to be like Joseph,
who trusted God
and who followed his dreams.
Amen.

The Work of Advent

John said: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths . . . The winding roads shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth." Luke 3:1-6

According to an Associated Press article (Sept 17, 2009), a Muslim congregation in Reston, Virginia had outgrown its facilities and was looking for a place to meet for evening prayers during Islam's holy month of Ramadan. When a Jewish synagogue heard that the Muslim congregation was looking for space, they offered the use of their hall.

The synagogue was not just tolerant but welcoming to its Muslim neighbors. Members of the mosque greeted their Jewish neighbors with the Hebrew greeting Shalom, and the synagogue community responded with its Arabic equivalent Salaam. The rabbi spoke at the Islamic community's Friday afternoon prayers; the imam spoke at Friday evening Shabbat services.

The relationship has grown between the two congregations. The Muslim community has been invited to continue holding their Friday prayers at the synagogue. The rabbi and imam are planning a trip together to the Middle East.

The imam, who grew up in the Sudan, said that he had never met a Jew until he moved to the U.S. in his 20s nor had he ever imagined having a close relationship with a rabbi. His congregation's experience with the synagogue had shattered stereotypes. One member of the Muslim congregation said, "I will not look at the [Jewish people] the same."

The rabbi said the relationship works both ways. "You really only get to know someone when you invite them into your home . . . you learn to recognize their faces. You learn the names of their children."

There are so many wastelands and barren places into which we can bring the life of God, so many crooked roads that we can transform into highways through our charity and forgiveness, our sense of humility and gratitude.

The work of Advent is to bring light to the dark chasms of ignorance, to fill in the valleys of poverty and want, to make low the mountains of injustice, to straighten roads made impassable because of mistrust and hatred.

Patient Trust

Recently, my friend Ian Cron (@icancron, on twitter) discovered the following which seems to speak directly to me these days -- hope it is also helpful to you.

Ian writes -- "On a separate note, I receive a daily devotional from Church of the Savior in Washington, DC. and I particularly enjoyed today’s. It comes from a letter the brilliant (albeit controversial) Jesuit Paleontologist Teillard de Chardin wrote to his young niece. Like my experience with Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, it reads like something that he wrote directly to me."

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually–let them grow,
Let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

The Wedding Photo - Revelation 21:1-6 All Saints Sunday

Wedding Day Photographs…
both modern day and in the past,
have taken on a unique role just in themselves.

We all know the routine…
the service ends,
the man and the woman become husband and wife,
the congregation gets tired of sitting,
grandmother is ready for her first plate of shrimp,
but before all this can happen,
the photographers need their moment of control.

The photographer may be a professional or a family friend,
but I strongly discourage the later…
I have first hand knowledge this can go bad quickly.

In any case, there are photos to be taken
of the bride and groom,
in just about every possible combination.

Mostly these groupings are arranged right here on the steps…

Sometimes the relatives on both sides
gather around the bride and groom.
Little boys and girls full of fun,
sisters and brothers and cousins.

All of them, representing several generations,
gather in their ranks beside the bride and groom,
most of them smile, the camera clicks,
and this group, at this one moment in time,
is preserved in glorious color
through the miracle we call photography.

There is something wonderful about wedding photos:
being in them, watching them being taken,
looking at them long afterward.

Now, what does this have to do with All Saints Sunday?

Well, after reading our first lesson today
it feels to me like we are sitting here
preparing ourselves to open up the old family album.
And take another long look back
at the saints and sinners of times gone by.

But the trouble is the first earth and first heaven,
are slowly passing away,
we are told by Saint John, the Evangelist.

And the feeling is that something new
is about to take place at the next wedding feast.
Maybe the New Jerusalem IS coming down out of heaven?

But what a very odd, mysterious thing to hear read –
and it’s not just the apocalyptic language,
for me, it is something far more –
so, we need to sort this out.

I now realize what John talks about
is a wedding which has not yet happened.
It is sure to happen,
God promises us this is coming,
the Bride Groom is coming soon…
but it is very true we live in “the already, but not yet.”

So, I can understand this is confusing
for those of us who wait and live here
in a post-modern, seemingly post-institutional world.

But, while we wait, let us imagine this picture,
it is a vast photograph, really…
demanding the widest possible lens.
But it is a familiar picture,
populated by some very familiar faces…

people well known to us,
people we've heard about-
as well as others whose names
we do not yet even know.

So, who is at the center of this wedding photo?
Who is THIS bride and groom?

The groom is Christ.
The bride is the Church.

Those who gather beside them for this photograph
are saints from every age and every land.

This photo has not yet been taken,
because the ranks are not quite complete,
but it is easy to imagine this picture:
because it is a vast crowd, spanning the ages
with Christ and his Bride at the center.

Now, my favorite part of this photo is this --

This will NOT be a wedding captured on the TLC channel
where the napkins, cake, and dress
are all perfectly coordinated.
This one will be random…
Martha Stewart is going to have a rude awakening.

The saints here are a rainbow assembly.

Like -- Louis of France, who wore a crown for Christ,
he stands beside Francis, who wore rags for Christ.

Two teenage girls stand with arms around each other:
one is Agnes, martyr in Third Century Rome;
the other is Rachel Scott, a martyr in 1999
at Columbine High School.

Just beyond them is a copper mine worker from the Congo,
a Korean grandmother,
a Baptist from Birmingham,
a Lutheran from Helsinki:
and all of them with a bit of Jesus shinning in their faces.

All of them Saints of God, “and we mean to be one, too!”

Gaze again, and you will recognize faces from YOUR past.
You can name them…

It is a vast host of people gathered
to celebrate this marriage,
which is about to being --
yet here and there you recognize a face
that delights you,
may even surprise you.
“Who invited THEM?”…

But then I realize the invitation list is a long print out –
and I hear it was written in the Bridegroom's own blood.
Each Name.

Grace shows its full colors in the glory of the Saints.
And that same grace is still at work in us,
You and me who in just a few moments
can hold out our hands
and receive yet another invitation
to that very same wedding.

All because,
“Lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!”

The Wrong Question

Text -- Mark 10:35-45 (Preached on Oct 18, 2009 Christ Church Greenwich)

Parts of this Gospel, sound very familiar, doesn’t it? I can only imagine that a lot of this happens every day down at mid-town and lower-Manhattan.

Two up-and-coming team members take their successful Hedge Fund boss aside and ask to be named senior executives, right on the spot - while everyone else looks on.

You can only imagine what that return look is going to be like…

Maybe these disciples thought Jesus wouldn’t see it this way. After all, he had a really “cool job” and clearly it was easy for him to preach, heal, and feed.

People often assume that a genius is someone who does things without much effort. They make everything look so easy.

But, somehow, the disciples forgot the old cliché – the one that says, genius is about “10-percent inspiration, and 90-percent perspiration.”

They all knew that following a person can be exhilarating. The roar of the crowd, preferential treatment, rubs off on those who walk in the shadow of the great.

In fact, our current UN ambassador Susan Rice just recently wrote about this feeling in Newsweek. Nevertheless, this happens and it certainly happens here in the Church. We’ve all met people who get their excitement and sense of empowerment by being on the vestry or some controlling committee. These folks get away with behavior that would not be tolerated in corporate America, or anywhere else, for that matter.

So, Jesus’ answer to these two disciples is ironic, perhaps even a little bit sarcastic.

These Zebedee brothers, nicknamed the “the sons of thunder,” were clearly into power. But the other 10 wanted Jesus to call down God’s anger on a group of seemingly disrespectful people. They wanted a share of the power Jesus seemed to exercise.

Jesus assured them all that they will indeed share his ministry. They will be baptized as he was baptized and drink of the cup from which he will drink.

But, when the other disciples hear of all this, they are annoyed.

This is interesting…because whether their annoyance is at the brothers’ boldness, or whether they had hoped to make the same request, we are not quite sure.

In any event, what happened for them and for us, too is this – Jesus gives power a whole new meaning. And this is exactly where our church words and business vocabulary need to be separated…Because if we get the vocabulary wrong, we often find ourselves asking for the same sort of “justice” James and John sought. We go searching for selfish empowerment. But the trouble is – Jesus tells us that our baptisms have given us power…dynamic power – power enough to lay down our lives.

He says, the cup we drink, the bread we consume, gives us all the strength we need to be servant-leaders.

But surely that’s not the deal, is it? Servant-hood is exactly the deal. Bernie Madoff didn’t have a clue about this deal…many don’t. The deal is this -- To be great in God’s eyes is to be a servant modeled after Jesus’ own life of service.

But it is true, the story of James and John is disconcerting. Because if James and John, who knew Jesus personally, couldn’t get it, how on earth are we to do so?

This story is a reminder to me that, try as I might, all too often my actions reflect more of motivations from the secular world than the divine.

So how do we become better servants?

Here is what has made the difference for me…looking for this in others -- I found it in my long time friend Frank Fallon at Baylor (explain).

Every person he met, he did his best to make them feel special. He modeled servant ministry over and again. When he died his son Steve, spoke at the funeral and said “I never heard my dad say a bad word about anyone.”

Now, maybe for some of us, this is a work in progress. But we can change the way we treat people. and this can transform the world, not from the top down, but from the bottom up.

The ultimate trickle-up effect, as Barbara Brown Taylor likes to say. (Bread of Angels)

The power God has given us is the strongest deal in the world…the power to serve, the power to turn the Zebedee brother’ question upside down.

And say, “Teacher, we want to do for YOU whatever you ask of us.”