Emergent Brethren

As our country gets closer and closer to the November elections and now that we finally have two candidates, things are heating up in the political realm. As a Christ-follower, I know that my hope is not in either political candidate or politicial process or political group. Obama talks alot about change, but real change can only be brought through Jesus and followers of Jesus who live out the kingdom of God in the here and now.

But back to Republicians and Democrats… I was driving somewhere recently and saw a sign that said, “Seeing Red, Vote Blue” and I thought to myself if I’m not red, and I’m not blue, what am I? So I thought I guess I’m white. I’m not fully comfortable with either candidate, as I mentioned in a previous post. So I guess I’m more independent than anything, though I am registered as a republican.

Recently though I heard another way of putting it. Marcia Ford wrote a book entitled “We the purple”. This is what I found on that idea,

“Independent voters like Ford have been dubbed “Purple” voters for their penchant to blend Red- and Blue-State politics (not to mention Green and all manner of politics that have avoided a primary color designation). But far from being indecisive or non-committal, Ford contends that Purple voters are passionate about politics, so much so that they’re unwilling to passively play into the two-party system that stifles real dialogue and effective governance. She writes, “When a candidate is not beholden to a major political party, that candidate is free not only to speak her mind but also to engage in more creative problem-solving.”

Ford also points out that the two-party system has been especially poisonous for faith communities who are often held hostage by religious political rhetoric that tells voters they risk spiritual and/or personal failure by voting the wrong way. Ford, who left a church that became politicized, writes, “While pastors were preaching the Republican line, the spiritual life of their congregations was draining away drop by drop.” And it’s not just a problem in conservative churches: partisan politics plays out in liberal mainline, African-American and other churches. “As paradoxical as the image may seem, if Christians remained morally centered, their votes could swing all along the political spectrum.”

So I guess I am either white or more likely purple….I just don’t fit nicely into either republican or democrat. I have been encouraged, challenged and deepened in my faith and in regards to politics from reading Greg Boyd’s awesome book, “The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the quest of political power is destroying the church” I would encourage everyone, whether red, white, blue or purple to read this awesome and challenging book.

Hey all….sorry it has been so long for me in that I haven’t posted anything in such a very long time.  But I thought with our Annual Conference coming up and our meeting on the 14th I thought I would put a question out there that I am wrestling with currently.

It seems like in discussions around the Emerging Church as well as the Missional Church (sometimes these two expression go hand in hand, and sometimes they don’t….we at Veritas try to describe ourselves as an emerging missional community of faith) everything is about the urban setting.  It’s almost like “if you want to be emerging and missional you must live in an urban context.”  Have any of you run into the same thing?

My question is, is this right or can a community of faith be emerging and missional in the suburbs?  And if so, what does that look like?  This is a very personal issue with me as Kim and I look at what God is calling us to do and be in the very near future (I will share about it at AC).  Do we stay where we are (in the suburbs) or move into Lancaster city?  If we stay what does it look like to be emerging and missional in the burbs.  If we go to the city what does it look like to be emerging and missional in the city. 

Any thoughts, comments, etc.. would be greatly appreciated. 

Just wanted to inform all my emergent friends on emergent brethren that on Sunday night April 29 at 8:50 PM Trinity Jade Braught came into the world. She weighed in at 6 pounds 6 ounces and was 17.5 inches long. Momma and Baby are doing great and are now home. Kaiden (our 3 year old son) who wanted a brother in the worst way is adapting and will I believe grow to love Trinity. The Birth experience was amazing and God was in the midst the entire time (and Kim’s entire pregnancy- she had some trouble the last few months). She’ll be at Annual conference in July…so stop by and say hi if you see us.

God bless,
Ryan

Also attached is a picture of Kaiden and Trinity

As I sit in a friend’s Third Space I am thinking about growth of Veritas. We are very small and have been for a while. We have talked about Organic growth vs. Marketing/Advertising. Obviously, we want to be about organic growth. Growing from relationships,etc… but we still are looking at doing traditional marketing/advertising. I am wondering what types of things have you done to help your ministry/church grow? What have you done as far as organic growth? What have you done in marketing/advertising? What has been the best thing you have done?

Any and all help/comments would be great.

Ryan

I just bought some books today and one of them was “Organic Community” by Joseph Myers (author of The Search to Belong). I have a feeling that this book will help the development of the Veritas community (www.veritaspa.org) as we are striving to be an organic community formed and grown more by relationships than programs and grown by those relationships and not so much by advertising (though we are still doing some of that). The first Foreward is by Randy Frazee and I was struck by two quotes he uses. The first one being, “He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils” (Francis Bacon) and the second is “There is nothing more perilous than change” (Machiavelli). I am struck by these two statements. We in the church seem to be stuck in the middle of these statments. Some don’t want to change but by not changing they bring, what Bacon calls, “new evils” and others want to change but don’t always see the effects of said change. Frazee goes onto say, “Because change is so difficult, we often delay moving in the new direction due to the mistaken notion that while things may not get better, they certainly won’t get any worse. Now, instead of making the necessary changes, we also must deal with the negative effects of postponing that change.”

That I believe in a nutshell is where I am right now. (see my previous post) Somewhere between risk, change, and the status quo.

But aren’t we all?

Ryan