Emergent Brethren

I was at the Dentist this morning and while waiting I happened to see the Newsweek article called “The End of Christian America“. I read it and much of what the article was talking about is things that our team is talking about regarding post-Christian America (the term used in the article and also in the books that I have been reading for some time now). There was a lot in the article that show cause for concern but also cause for hope. This is a time where, if we are adventurous enough and open to taking risks, we can re-imagine church, life, and faith in a new way. One that doesn’t decry the fact that our culture is becoming more and more like the 1st century. Look how the church exploded in the 1st century, without budgets, buildings, or bishops (Had to put all three words that started with B).

One of the quotes that I especially resonated with is:
“And they have learned that politics does not hold all the answers—a lesson that, along with a certain relief from the anxieties of the cultural upheavals of the ’60s and ’70s, has tended to curb religiously inspired political zeal. “The worst fault of evangelicals in terms of politics over the last 30 years has been an incredible naiveté about politics and politicians and parties,” says Mohler. “They invested far too much hope in a political solution to what are transpolitical issues and problems.”

Another two quotes from the article that I really resonated with are below:

The columnist Cal Thomas was an early figure in the Moral Majority who came to see the Christian American movement as fatally flawed in theological terms. “No country can be truly ‘Christian’,” Thomas says. “Only people can. God is above all nations, and, in fact, Isaiah says that ‘All nations are to him a drop in the bucket and less than nothing’.”

Experience shows that religious authorities can themselves be corrupted by proximity to political power. A quarter century ago, three scholars who are also evangelical Christians—Mark A. Noll, Nathan O. Hatch and George M. Marsden—published an important but too-little-known book, “The Search for Christian America.” In it they argued that Christianity’s claims transcend any political order. Christians, they wrote, “should not have illusions about the nature of human governments. Ultimately they belong to what Augustine calls ‘the city of the world,’ in which self-interest rules … all governments can be brutal killers.”

Their view tracks with that of the Psalmist, who said, “Put not thy trust in princes,” and there is much New Testament evidence to support a vision of faith and politics in which the church is truest to its core mission when it is the farthest from the entanglements of power. The Jesus of the Gospels resolutely refuses to use the means of this world—either the clash of arms or the passions of politics—to further his ends. After the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the dazzled throng thought they had found their earthly messiah. “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.” When one of his followers slices off the ear of one of the arresting party in Gethsemane, Jesus says, “Put up thy sword.” Later, before Pilate, he says, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.” The preponderance of lessons from the Gospels and from the rest of the New Testament suggests that earthly power is transitory and corrupting, and that the followers of Jesus should be more attentive to matters spiritual than political.

Take time to read the article yourself. Let’s begin to imagine how church in a post-Christian America can look taking into account the things found in this article.

The End of Christian America

Later today I will blog about some of the quotes that I resonated with in a book entitled “Missional Renaissance” by Reggie McNeal (thanks Martin for sending me the book). In a lot of ways I think some of the possible “answers” to the article lie in the book and becoming truly a missional church. More on that later today.

Last night I decided to pull out a book that I had read a few years back called “The Present Future” by Reggie McNeal. I got through about 2 1/2 chapters. There was alot in it that stood out to me, and reminded me why we are taking this leap of faith by planting Veritas to be a missional community of authentic worshippers. Here are a few of the quotes that stood out to me.

“The North American church is suffering from severe mission amnesia. It has forgotten why it exists. The church was created to be the people of God to join him in his redemptive mission in the world. The church was never intended to exist for itself. It was and is the chosen instrument of God to expand his kingdom.”

“The correct response, then, to the collapse of the church culture is not to try to become better at doing church. This only feeds the problem and hastens the church’s decline through its disconnect from the larger culture. The need is not for a methodological fix. The need is for a missional fix. The appropriate response to the emerging world is a rebooting of the mission, a radical obedience to an ancient command, a loss of self rather than self-preoccupation, concern about service and sacrifice rather than concern about style.”

“This is what it’s going to take to gain a hearing for the gospel in the streets of the twenty-first century- the smell of cleaning solution, dirty faces, obvious acts of servanthood.”

I probably could go on listing a bunch of other quotes, but those three I feel are enough to chew on for quite a while.

Thursday I got to attend a seminar given by Alan Hirsch (co-wrote ReJesus and The Shaping of Things to Come with Michael Frost and wrote The Forgotten Ways) at Valley Forge Christian College. It was an awesome day which again convinced me about God’s call upon our lives, and the kind of church Veritas will become.

Here are some thoughts that he shared that stuck out to me:

1. The problems in the church will not be solved by the same thinking that got the church into the problems in the first place. (I think that is a quote from Albert Einstein with church added in there)

2. Constantine is still exercising our imagination when it comes to the church.

3. Church= lack of imagination. We have lost the sense of imagination.

4. All truth equals subjective change. (Soren Kierkegaard)You are your truth. You must live out your truth.

5. Embodiment is important in the transmission of the gospel. We are the best chance of people seeing Jesus.

6. Discipleship must tackle consumerism.

7. We don’t think our way into a new action, we act our way into new thinking.

8. Action is crucial as part of discipleship.

9. Mission is not something that the church has to dream up. It comes straight from the heart of God. God is a missionary God. God is deeply redemptive. (Missio Dei- the missionary God or the mission of God.)

10. If you are a Christian you are a missionary.

11. Enter into the community. Be a part of the community. Listen to the community. Then we ask two questions: What is Gospel for these people? What is church for these people? Church follows mission.

12. If you can’t imagine it, you can’t do it.

13. What we need are missionally responsive, culturally adaptive, organizationally agile, multiplication movements.

14. Don’t plant churches…plant the gospel.

These thoughts have been running around my head since Thursday. Take time to chew on them. Wrestle with them. I know I am and we at Veritas will be as well.

Here are some ways that our congregation is developing teams to work together to bless our community. See Part 1 for more details.

+ Habitat for Humanity Work Group

+ Working with Homeless Ministries

+ Install a new bathroom floor for Stacy

+ Visit Shut-ins and group homes

+ promote “eco-justice” issues

+ help Stacy with mowing, yard work

+ Parents Night Out

+ The Everybody Playspace Walk, Run, Stroller Strut

Here is a quote from Scot McKnight’s book “Embracing Grace”… “A local church always performs the gospel it proclaims. This may sound odd, so let me emphasize the world “always”. A church always performs the gospel it proclaims because its performance is its proclamation. If you look at a church and what it does and how it operates you will see the gospel of that church. The important point to make here is that the deepest indicator of that church’s gospel cannot be limited to the pastor’s sermons or the Sunday school teacher’s teaching or the doctrinal statement’s affirmations, or the summer camp offerings, of the aesthetic expressions. The sure indicator of the gospel in a local community is how those Christians live.”

Now here is Scot’s definition of gospel… “The gospel is the work of God to restore humans to union with God and communion with others, in the context of a community, for the good of others and the world.”

Interested in knowing what you think!