Emergent Brethren

Its late on Thursday night, but I was really inspired and had fun at the opening session of “Off the Map Live” in Seattle. The details of the conference can be found at www.off-the-map.org. I was attracted to the conference for a few reasons: 1) I’m always attracted to an event that has Brian McLaren speaking. 2) Russ Matteson has said great things about Diana Butler-Bass. She’s here too. 3) Jim Henderson (Off the Map founder) has a great sense of humor and a very disarming way of pointing-out some of the things that need changing in the church. 4) Its always fun to come to an Off the Map event. 5) It was cheap– $79 for 2 full days.

Here are a few random quotes from tonight’s opening session that made me want to stop and think while the speaker kept going. . .

From Diana Butler-Bass:
“Every 500 years, there has been a major shift in Western Culture. Starting with the birth of Christ, 500 years later the Roman Empire fell. Afterwards, we entered the dark ages, followed by the Reformation (beginnings of modernity) and now we live in a time when another major shift is going-on.”

“Modernity is a culture of hubris — our ways are the right ways. For Christians, postmodernity opens the door to a spiritual culture of humility instead of hubris.”

From Brian McLaren:
“The Church impacted the Roman Empire into Christianity, but the Roman Empire impacted the church into empire-ism.”

From Richard Twiss (a native American):
“Native Americans are marginalized by the dominant culture church as a perpetual mission field.”

“When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.”

From Todd Hunter:
“Fear is an evil master.”

I’m attaching a Word doc that has more thoughts by Brian and Diana. Brian said he dropped his prepared notes and spoke about 30 minutes off the top of his head. I found the comparison of traditional church to classical music to be very helpful.

More Thoughts by Brian McLaren and Diana Butler-Bass

Blessings,
Jeff Glass

Yesterday, my church had a prayer meeting for the fire situation in California. One news report this morning said that more people have been evacuated in Southern California than those evacuated for Katrina. I don’t know if that is true, but over 500,000 evacuees is the largest number ever in California history. The fires this week have been much worse than those of 4 years ago.

I was asked to create 4 prayer experiences for the prayer service today. It was a short-notice affair. I’m sending them on to you, in case you would like to add your prayers to those of others in the midst of this tragedy.

I created 4 stations: one each for those who have been displaced (victims.doc & fire prayer requests.doc), emergency personnel (firefighters.doc), our own feelings and emotions (our feelings.doc), and an offering table (our response.doc).

After I printed out the prayer requests, I burned the edges of the paper to make it look like the requests came right out of the fire.

I’ve also attached some pictures to give you an idea of my set-up. After I took the picture of the offering station, we added some small material items (bottle of water, tooth brush, tooth paste, kleenex, etc.) to symbolize one way we are giving.

If you use these ideas, or modify them, please let me know!

Blessings to you,
Jeff

Prayer Station Signs

Pictures of the Prayer Stations

Are there any videographers out there? The Congregational Life Team of the Church of the Brethren General Board is sponsoring a video contest for next year’s Annual Conference. The winning video on the 300th anniversary theme will be featured on the floor of Annual Conference either during business or worship.

Each video submitted must be no longer than 3 minutes. More information can be found on the attached entry forms or you may contact me. Submissions are due February 1, 2008 to me. Please send a dvd of your creation to:

Jeff Glass
5460 Gilbert Dr.
San Diego, CA 92115

So, I invite you to be thinking about next year’s theme: Surrendered to God – Transformed in Christ – Empowered by the Spirit; John 12:24-26a and be creative with your talent!

I’m excited about this project to celebrate our church’s anniversary! If you know of anyone who might submit a video, please download the forms and pass them on to your friend.

Blessings to you,
Jeff Glass

300th Video Contest Entry Form

I subscribe to Off-the-Map.org’s ezine. Today, they have an article by Steve Sjogren, former pastor of the Vineyard in Cincinnati. Now, he is lead pastor at Coastline Tampa Church. He’s got an interesting article here that should spark some agreement or disagreement.

“During your weekend services, do a spot check before you speak. Tally up how many vehicles sport some sort of Christian symbol. Usually churches that are seeing many come to Christ and have an internal book shop that sell these things have a high percentage of people who sport these on their vehicles. Enthusiasm to declare Christ is magnificent, but there is no worse way to do this today than by putting a symbol on your vehicle. . . ” To read more of this article, go to:

http://conversationattheedge.com/2007/09/09/its-time-to-remove-christians-symbols-on-cars/

What do you think? In our culture, is it a good idea to have a Christian symbol on your car? Does it help or hurt your witness for Christ? Does it draw others into conversation with you or separate you from others?

Jeff Glass

As I look around the Church of the Brethren, I don’t see many active young adults. Something seems to happen to our youth as they go off to college. What’s your experience? How do you reach out to and attract young adults?

Today, I ran across this article on reasearch that’s been done:

LifeWay Research Uncovers Reasons 18 to 22 Year Olds Drop Out of Church
Written by Staff

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—A new study from LifeWay Research reveals that more than two-thirds of young adults who attend a Protestant church for at least a year in high school will stop attending church regularly for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22.

To read more of the article, please go to: http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0%2C1703%2CA%25253D165949%252526M%25253D200906%2C00.html?

I’d love to hear of your experiences of working with young adults!

Jeff