Emergent Brethren

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

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

At Community of Joy, we really want to be a place where relationships matter…. so when we renovated a church into a ministry center in a great diverse neighborhood, we set out to meet the neighbors.   Yesterday, Sept. 23, we held a Pork Roast after our worship gathering for the neighbors.  We went door to door in a two block radius of our building two weeks ago and handed out or left invitations to the festivities… the invite also included worship.   We also put out a large lighted sign inviting the neighborhood.   Everything was free… we also challenged our folks to invite 3 people to come.  I am happy to say that we doubled our normal worship attendance yesterday and had neighbors coming from all directions…. don’t know how many came… I would venture to say aroudn 150 – 200 in all….check out my blog for more info and pics…. www.martinhutchison.blogspot.com.   There was no agenda other than saying we are happy to be here and we want to be a positive force in the hood.  What are others of you doing to engage your communities?

Yesterday  (April 15) I preached at our morning services with the title “Don’t hold on to me” from  John 20:10-18.  I talked about Jesus wanting Mary not to cling to him so that the Holy Spirit could come and also that she would let him go and share the resurrection story with others.  I talked about Mary being told to let go of the known (the resurrected body of Jesus) and to embrace the unknown.  To let go of the tried, the true, the safe and to set out in faith and in risk.  I used a song before the sermon and a prayer at the end of the sermon.  The song is called “Painting Pictures of Egypt” and the prayer is the Prayer of Saint Brendan.  These 2 things speak to me in profound ways.  I hope they will speak to you as well.

Painting Pictures of Egypt by Sara Groves

I don’t want to leave here
I don’t want to stay
It feels like pinching to me either way
The places I long for the most
Are the places where I’ve been
They are calling after me like a long lost friend

It’s not about losing faith
It’s not about trust
It’s all about comfortable
When you move so much
The place I was wasn’t perfect
But I had found a way to live
It wasn’t milk or honey
But then neither is this

CHORUS:
I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt
Leaving out what it lacked
The future seems so hard
And I want to go back
But the places that used to fit me
Cannot hold the things I”ve learned
And those roads closed off to me
While my back was turned

The past is so tangible
I know it by heart
Familiar things are never easy to discard
I was dying for some freedom
But now I hesitate to go
Caught between the promise
And the things I know

BRIDGE:
If it comes too quick
I may not recognize it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?
If it comes too quick
I may not appreciate it
Is that the reason behind all this time and sand?

Prayer of Saint Brendan

Shall I abandon, O King of mysteries, the soft comforts of home?Shall I turn my back on my native land,and turn my face towards the sea?Shall I put myself wholly at your mercy,

without silver, without a horse,

without fame, without honour?

Shall I throw myself wholly upon You,without sword and shield, without food and drink,without a bed to lie on?Shall I say farewell to my beautiful land, placing myself under Your yoke?Shall I pour out my heart to You, confessing my manifold sins and begging forgiveness,tears streaming down my cheeks?

Shall I leave the prints of my knees on the sandy beach,a record of my final prayer in my native land?Shall I then suffer every kind of wound that the sea can inflict?Shall I take my tiny boat across the wide sparkling ocean?

O King of the Glorious Heaven, shall I go of my own choice upon the sea?

 O Christ, will You help me on the wild waves?If you want to know more about Saint Brendan, let me know or do a google search.

Let’s take risks for the kingdom of God.

Ryan