Emergent Brethren

Recently we shared lunch with some of the new attenders at our church as a way to get to know them and to introduce them to our church. 

 I thought I would share with you the process we use to empower ministries to begin…

Not a lot of hoops here (no permission necessary!), and no water for the fire… just gasoline. You see, I believe that as a pastor, it is my job to empower people to live out of their gifts and callings… we are all ministers when we say yes to Jesus… I am a pastor, but all who have said yes to Jesus are ministers.

At CoJ, to start a ministry a couple of simple things must take place. First, the ministry can’t violate our vision or core-values (see our webpage for those). Second, you must get a couple of other people who will join you in the venture as a team(I can’t think of a leader in the bible that acted on their own… Moses had Aaron, Paul had many co-horts, Jesus sent the disciples out in twos). Third, be able to raise the necessary funds at least of the first year… then we can talk about if it becomes a core ministry, adding it to the budget (however, doing so, deflates commitment to the ministry somewhat at lease further removes it). Fourth, be willing to evaluate the ministry periodically and adjust or let go of it. And you see, it’s just that easy.

Someone asked, “well, doesn’t that create an opportunity for things to run amuck?” I guess it may, but I like the way Gamialiel puts it in Acts… If God is in it, I can’t stop it, and if God is not in it, it will fail. (my translation of his words in Acts 5:38-39).

I am almost done reading Ron Martoia’s book Static: tune out the ‘Christian noise’ and experience the real message of Jesus.  I would highly recommend this book to you and encourage you to read it with an open mind.  It will be challenging to say the least because Ron challenges some of the long held assumptions we make about salvation.

 Some highlights… Ron suggests that when we read the Bible, we often read it through the lense of the people Jesus ministered to… those who received healing, the poor, the lame, the marginalized…. since many of us are not poor, or marginalized, then maybe the better lense to look through is that of the religious leaders.  That really changes how I hear Jesus’ teachings!

He suggests that we often twist, add to, change the biblical texts to fit our preconceived theologies instead of letting the biblical texts form our theologies.  He deals most with the salvation as a way to heaven issue and pushes a deeper understanding of salvation as a restoration of shalom which impacts our life now and in the future.  This is a view I have held for a long time and have wrestled with as well…. If so many of us are “saved” then why aren’t things here on earth different.  Or to put it another way, if so many of us have said yes to Jesus, then why are we still cheating on taxes, ignoring the poor, fighting with our neighbors, and divorcing our spouses?

 The book is done in a mostly narrative style (similar to McLaren’s New Kind of Christian trilogy) but not as masterfully.  It is a fast read until you get to the last few chapters where he really moves beyond the story line with the major part of his thesis. 

 Again, I would highly recommend it and would love to be part of a group that has a converstation around it.  Jeff, wanna set that up too!?

I am a big fan of Rob Bell’s of Mars Hill in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  He has done two sermon series in the last year that I think Cob’s would really find helpful… here is the link to his site http://www.marshill.org/teaching/series.php and the series are God is Green and Calling all Peacemakers.  

 I automatically download his sermons each week to my ipod and listen to them when I walk.  A great way to kill two birds with one stone… get feed spiritually and get exercize… something most pastors need.

 Also, while you are on their site, check out their xyz plan!

Here is a link to an interesting conversation Len Sweet had about emerging church http://www.georgefox.edu/journalonline/archives/fall05/emerging.html

I absolutley love reading Mark Batterson’s blog and highly recommend it to you!  Here is a link to another blog that has a novel idea that I thought would resonate with many Brethren….  http://www.junkycarclub.com/