Emergent Brethren

The other day while at my favorite “book store”..Ollies…you know what they say…”Good stuff cheap”, I picked up several books. One was Death by Suburb and another was called “The Ministry of the Missional Church” by Craig Van Gelder.

As I was reading Gelder’s book I came to a chapter dealing with Spirit-Led Ministry in context and was struck by something he had written. In a section dealing with Relating the work of God’s Spirit in the World to Congregations in Particular contexts, Gelder encourages congregations to ask two questions that he believes need to be regularly asked in relation to the contexts that the congregation find themselves in.

The first question is “What is God doing?” He says, “Discerning this work of God is foundational for effective ministry. The church is called and sent to participate in God’s mission in the world. The responsibility of the church is to discern where and how this mission is unfolding.”

The second question that Gelder encourages congregations to ask is, “What does God want to do?” He says, “God desires to bring all of life into reconciled relationship. The church must seek to understand how the intent of God, as expressed in the gospel, can work itself out in a particular context to contribute to this ministry of reconciliation.”

Those two questions have stuck in my head and I think can give Veritas a framework to move forward in mission and ministry. I will be sharing these questions in the months to come, before the launch, and after the launch as well. So I ask you…what is God doing in your context and what does God want to do?

I have been doing a lot of thinking over the last year regarding Suburbia. Mostly in relation to what does it mean to be missional in the suburbs. My wife and I wrestled with this question and whether we needed to move to a more “urban” area in order to be missional…but I think that is, in one way, a cop out. Being missional is about where you are planted. Yes you can be missional in the urban area…the needs are easier to see. But you can also be missional in suburbia. I got to see a great example of that at a church in Bucks County called the Well. Todd Hiestand is the Pastor and he has written a great deal about being missional in suburbia, which has been tremendously helpful to my journey.

So the other day while in my favorite bookstore, Ollies…(good stuff cheap) I found the above book “Death by Suburb” by David Goetz. So I picked up and began reading. Goetz lays out 8 toxins of Suburbia and 8 Spiritual practices to counteract the toxin.

The 8 toxins are: I am in control of my life, I am what I do and what I own, I want my neighbors life, My life should be easier than this, I need to make a difference with my life, My Church is the problem, What will this relationship do for me, and I need to get more done in less time.

The 8 Spiritual practices that he lays out are: The Prayer of Silence, The journey through the self, Friendship with those who have no immortality symbols, Accepting my cross with grace and patience, Pursuing action, not results, Staying put in your church, Building deep and meaningful relationships, and Falling in love with a day.

Here are some quotes from the book that resonated with me:

“I think my suburb, as safe and religiously coated as it is, keeps me from Jesus. Or at least, my suburb (and the religion of the suburbs) obscures the real Jesus. The living patterns of the good life affect me more than I know. Yet the same environmental factors that numb me to the things of God also hold out great promise. I don’t need to escape the suburbs. I need to find Jesus here.”

“The kingdom of God often appears plain, ordinary, small, in the moment.”

“Even in suburbia all moments are infused with the Sacred. God is really present where I live…”

“The practice of solitude may be the most important spiritual discipline for the suburbs. And it is probably one of the most difficult to practice here.”

“A friend with a special needs child (and five other kids as well) recently said to me that he thought one spiritual issue of our community (which has a median household income of 75,000) is how hard we work at appearing not to have any issues. ‘The sad thing’ he says, ‘is that you wind up with a bunch of folks who appear to have it all, but are miserable. They’re trapped in the attractive veneer of being ‘perfect people.’ That, by its very nature, negates the transparency to form a deeper bond with a human being.”

“The perfect suburban life is bogus.”

“Coveting may be the most toxic indulgence of the suburbs, and the life practice to overcome it requires the discipline to face another kind of person. This person is not like me. This person in not like my neighbor, whose house I covet. This person is invisible to me, because I am facing in the wrong direction- toward those I perceive to have more than I.”

There are a lot more quotes that I could share but I close with this one…

“forget trying to live a safe, gated life.”

Many people are probably aware of the concept of Third Spaces developed by the sociologist Ray Oldenburg in his book “The Great Good Place”. For those who aren’t here is a little run down of what Third Spaces are from Wikipedia.

“The third place is a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace. In his influential book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg (1989, 1991) argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.

Oldenburg calls one’s “first place” the home and those that one lives with. The “second place” is the workplace — where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are “anchors” of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. All societies already have informal meeting places; what is new in modern times is the intentionality of seeking them out as vital to current societal needs. Oldenburg suggests these hallmarks of a true “third place”: free or inexpensive; food and drink, while not essential, are important; highly accessible: proximate for many (walking distance); involve regulars – those who habitually congregate there; welcoming and comfortable; both new friends and old should be found there.”

So your coffeehouses, pubs, bars, etc are Third Spaces.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about Third Spaces and the problem that most Pastors have with them…they are so busy that they can’t be in them. I know that has been true for me in the past and I am seeking to change that.

One thing that I am thinking about is a rental space that is literally next door to my house. I am in the process of thinking through the idea of renting the space next door, creating a third space out of it, use it for all kind of community events, have coffee and bakery items for sale all the time, and then use the space for Sunday Worship gatherings. The one problem as far as Sunday worship gatherings is there is no space for nursery and children ministries in that place..we would have to use my house for those things..which could be doable.

This idea is just in it’s infancy..though I am trying to find out what it would cost to rent it and if I can fix it up (paint it, etc..). I’m interested in your opinions…what do you think? And what kind of community activities/events could we hold there (some ideas are story time for children, after-school tutoring, music nights, movie nights, open mic nights, karaoke night, etc..)?

I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to share a quote from the book “Exiles” by Michael Frost regarding the dreaded word..evangelism. These thoughts came to me on Saturday when I was visited by a Jehovah Witness, who was at my front door. Here is the quote from the book:

“For too long the church has been preaching to a world that will no longer listen. As a result, many exiles are nervous about ‘preaching Christ’. As I mentioned, I acknowledge that they have been turned off by exploitative and manipulative evangelistic methods and repelled by an oversimplification of the gospel to a few short points in a brief tract. They would rather perform acts of service that ‘share the gospel’ with someone, for fear that they might become the very thing they wish to avoid: a narrow-minded, bigoted fundamentalist. This is an overreaction, though I understand where it comes from. But exiles need to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. As we go about our lives, practicing proximity, presence, and powerlessness, there will undoubtedly come a time for proclamation. It probably won’t take the form of an uninterrupted monologue. In all likelihood, it will occur over multiple conversations, over a period of time, with those who we live among. But it will be the kind of private discourse that is intimate, personal, and life-changing, precisely because it has emerged out of a loving, long-term, trusting relationship between equals.”

This paragraph so contradicts, especially the last part, how the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses practice their “evangelism”. There is no dialogue. There is no multiple conversations…just a knock on a door. And there definitely is no relationship. As I said yesterday, and the quote from the book gets at, the best way to share your faith is in the context of a relationship. Which means that not only your words need to point to Christ, but more importantly, your life needs to look like Christ…and that is tough stuff.

So Saturday was a beautiful day to be outside. It felt so good to have the sun shining, the birds singing, and to just spend time outside. We were getting ready for company to come and I was running errands. I had some downtime so I went onto our back patio and sat down to finish reading Rob Bell’s “Sex God”. As I had pulled in a few minutes before from an errand I had noticed guys walking around our neighborhood in suits. I knew they weren’t Mormons because there were more than 2 of them and they weren’t dressed alike. Anyway, I was continuing to read the book when I heard a knock on our front door. It was a guy with a suit on, holding a tract, and a bible. He began to walk through the tract that he had and I just kind of let him for a bit. Then I stopped him, and shared that I was a Pastor and that he could save the tract for someone else. I shared where I was Pastoring and then found out that he was a Jehovah Witness. I didn’t have the desire to get into a theological discussion with him and so he left.

This began me thinking about this type of “outreach”. Does it work? Do people really hear them out and then really show interest. I said to Kim, “It’s like trying to sell me a ‘product’ that I didn’t ask for and I don’t want.” It got me thinking of evangelism and how Christians have done it. Can evangelism be done without the context of a relationship- sure. Can God change a heart through a stranger sharing a message- sure. Does it happen that way most of the time…I don’t believe so. I believe evangelism best happens in the context of a relationship, slowly over time, where the person knows they are loved, no matter what the “end” result. I will be sharing a quote from Exiles tomorrow regarding this very thought. I end with the thought from Saint Francis, “Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words.”