the Eclectic Soul

The Soul of a Conversation...

I've spent a good amount of time over the last several years reading about postmodernism and longing for something more when it came to the beloved community that we call the Church.  This longing lead me into the wonderful discovery of the Emergent Conversation: a group of leaders, thinkers, believers, missionaries and activists that were asking some of the same questions I was and whose hearts seemed to long in unison after several common themes.

During this time I've read a good amount on Emergent and the emerging church.  In fact I'm just in the process of rounding out Tim Keel's, Intuitive Leadership [BUY THIS BOOK].  As I was spending some time reading this evening it dawned on me that there are, I believe at least, three stellar books that together serve as a triune primer of the theology, philosophy, and eccelisology of the emerging church movement [and yes they also happen to all have been written by active leaders in the Emergent Conversation]. 

Doug Pagitt's A Christianity Worth Believing, dares to address almost the whole notion of a primary modern western understanding of Christianity in hopes of perhaps rediscovering it's primal roots; to tap into that vast rich history that serves as a spring board for future conversations, not the boundaries to which we must strictly abide by.  Tony Jones' The New Christians, examines the current landscape of the modern church and asks, "could there be more here than simply what we have?  Do the current structures work?  Are they life giving or life taking?" And provides some startling and provoking conversation for how we might journey together into God's dream for humanity.  Keel's, Intuitive Leadership evaluates the cultural and sociological shift that we are in the midst of and grounds it in the question how might we now live out the life of the beloved community together.  Churches are no longer to be understood as program driven and compartmentalized but as holistic life giving communities wherein the participants can do life together as they seek to live out the kingdom of God in the way of Jesus.

Granted these are rather simplistic and all too brief and general summaries of each book; they each warrant their own reading.  But together they, at least to me, seem to serve as a great primer to this emerging conversation about the future life of the beloved community and it's members.

All of these books are well worth their modest price!

Love Wins,

E

Reading Tony Jones...

 Ah, my dear Tony, now you're meddling!

I began my along awaited adventure into Tony Jones' new book, The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier, and I must say I like, REALLY like, what I've read so far.  I spent the evening moving through almost half of it.  So far, I believe that it is the best book on the emerging church in all it's fullness and flavors.

Coming at the heels of the end of my own annual denominational meeting and our denominations Quadrennial meeting, one section [as if I could even pick just one] stood out, and I share it with you:

    "Lillian Daniel is a pastor in the United Church of Christ, a notoriously left leaning denomination founded in 1957....reflecting on the biannual General Synod national meeting, she moaned, 'We used to be a group of revolutionaries.  Now we're a group of resolutionaries.'  Operating by a distinctively non-biblical Robert's Rules of Order, she said the convention has devolved into a gathering of persons who read resolutions that are then voted on and promptly forgotten.  The resolutions range from those for gay marriage to those against gay marriage, from a call to study the imprisonment of native Hawaiians to 'saving Social Security from privatization.' The resolutions pile up; and then they're read, seconded, discussed, voted on, and filed.'  Lillian thought she was joining a movement, but she was joining a bureaucracy.  And that bureaucracy tends to squash the passion of may Christ-centered and enthusiastic persons therein."  p. 9-10

Amen, Lillian!  Amen, Tony!  Oh that we may rediscover our revolutionary hearts and boldly take a step forward towards the "new frontier."

Peace,

E

Church Signs...

So I was doing some blog surfing tonight and came across Doug Pagitt's Flicker photo stream. He had this picture on there so I'll give props to him as I share it.

I must say, I really hate nice quippy sayings on church signs. This one hurst all the more seeing as thought it bears the symbol of my particular tribe the United Methodist Church.

So imagine me smacking my palm to my forehead and letting out a Homerian "Doh!"

Happy Easter everyone,

E

A Community Called Atonement: 1

I've never blogged through a book before but I thought I's share some thoughts on Scot McKnight's "A Community Called Atonement"

Being that its the week before Holy Week, I thought I'd give myself to reading Scot's book on this important subject. So far: I Like!

I need to begin with a confession: I've never been to crazy about modern day atonement theories. It seems to me they straddle somewhere between the "we've got this all figured out" and the "we can't really say much about it" camps.

At it's core I do believe that the atonement is "mystery" but I think there is a great deal we can say about it.

I tend to agree with Joel Green who suggests in his excellent book, "Recovering the Scandal of the Cross" that within the Scriptures there are several models or frameworks for what we have come to call the atonement. And, I must admit all of them resonate with me on some level. I think that we should be comfortable with that. In the western church we have focused on one primarily which I believe is a detriment to the others.

What makes matters worse, at least for me, is that we take this amazing event and reduce it to something that is inherently personal; this whole idea of Jesus and me as my "personal" Lord and Savior. And, then we attempt to live in community as loosely connected automatons.

I, so far have really enjoyed McKnight's approach that the atonement is not individualized but communal in nature. It effects us on the individual level on so that we can live it's reality together in community: With God and neighbor.

So here goes my take on Chapter 1:

He begins with this idea of asking the question whether or not the atonement works in that it creates a change in us so that we might live reconciled lives to God and one another. Of course his answer is yes, it has the potential to, but he echoes the sentiments of my generation [not so much chronologically as theologically and ecclisalogically] when he says:

"This generation is tired of an old-fashioned atonement theology that does not make a difference, of an old-fashioned atonement theology that is for individual spiritual formation but not for ecclesial-reformation, and of an old fashioned atonement theology that does not reconcile humans with humans....If a previous generation was taught that evangelism and social justice were disconnected, even if one could [or even should] flow from the other, the present generation knows of a holistic human being in an interlocking society of connections where any notion of gospel or atonement must be one that is integrated and community-shaped if it is to be called 'good news' at all." p.2

To which I reply a hearty: AMEN!

He goes on to share this beautiful story of a person he knows who embodied this idea of being transformed for the sake of the other and then moves into asking the question: which atonement theory will it be. He suggested that whichever theory a church lands on as it's primary model will shape how the church lives out their understanding in the community and will give shape and form to its preaching.

Then I began to think: If we have been, at least in the western world, peddling a primarily penal substitutionary theory of atonement, which I think many believe, whether they would admit or not, seems to put the "Father" at odds with the son [which I don't believe it does], then what picture of God are we painting and what kind of communities are we creating?

I would argue that with this as our primary understanding we are creating communities of hierarchical authority that has a ticked off God as it's head who can only love the people created in God's image if his son takes the hit. Justice and judgement, at least it seems to me, then become much more retributive and personal than redemptive and communal.

Well, those are my brief thoughts on chapter 1. I'll try to add more as I move through the others. If you've read the book and would care to comment and dialogue I'd welcome it.

Love Wins,

E