One Sunday morning an old cowboy entered a church just before services were to begin. Although the old man and his clothes were spotlessly clean, he wore jeans, a denim shirt and boots that were very worn and ragged. In his hand he carried a worn out old hat and an equally worn out Bible.
The church he entered was in a very upscale and exclusive part of the city. It was the largest and most beautiful church the old cowboy had ever seen. The people of the congregation
Continue Reading February 13th, 2007
I am tired. Can you relate?
I am maybe even past tired. I am trying to plant a new church in a community that I had never seen before I moved here a year ago today. To support my “new church habit” I am working a number of other jobs. They all make sense to do - and fortunately they all support each other and overlap quite a bit - but it is hard to keep so many balls in the air all the time.
Continue Reading February 13th, 2007
It is so very important to understand the cultural context where you are doing ministry. Especially when you are planting a new church.
Yesterday I had breakfast with two young men (Eric and Kent) who are volunteering their time and talents with Table of Grace this month. It was their first day in town and we were talking about Elk Grove and the ministry we are doing here.
Elk Grove is the fastest growing community in the country. It is a fairly affluent suburb of Sacramento. It is very racially diverse but there is very little economic diversity. There is construction everywhere. Anything built before 1990 looks old because everything else is just so shiny and new.
Continue Reading February 13th, 2007
At Church Planter training I was taught the following cheer:
“Church planting is like a roller coaster. The highs are really high. The lows are really low. There is a whole lot of screaming going on. And at the end you are just glad you didn’t hurl.”
In the field, I am remembering that on a roller coaster the biggest lows follow the biggest highs.
Continue Reading February 13th, 2007
So Molly, what is the emergent[1] church?
The best I can tell, “emergent church” is a new buzz word used to describe wildly different understandings of what the church may or may not be or becoming in a culture that may or may not be postmodern – although there is little agreement even on what “postmodern” means.
But what is it?
Continue Reading February 13th, 2007
It is tough and confusing and sometimes dangerous to be at the cutting edge of a dramatic cultural shift. We start to imagine that the way life is for us today is just the same as it was for all time. But it is not. Even some of the basic assumptions that define our worldview have changed over the ages.
Continue Reading February 13th, 2007
In 1951 H. Richard Niebuhr published Christ and Culture.[1] In this book, Niebuhr describes five typologies of how people understand Christ in relationship with culture. First, “Christ Against Culture” says that Christ and the church are wholly outside of culture. Culture in this perspective is the profane, that which is sinful and not of God, in contrast to the spiritual which is the Holy. Secondly, “Christ Of Culture” is the polar opposite view. From this perspective, the Holy can only be known through one’s cultural perspective. We encounter God in the things of the world. The last three types recognize a relationship and a tension between Christ and culture. One sees Christ as the means of transforming culture. Another sees “Christ above culture,” that Christ is more important but always in relationship with the realities of every day life. The last type, “Christ and culture in paradox”, is a dualist perspective where an individual can participate in both the secular and the profane with equal validity but recognizing the tension between decisions driven by the culture which are in conflict with religious values.
Continue Reading February 13th, 2007
In the Australian outback, water is scarce[1]. Yet ranchers raise huge herds of cattle on enormous ranches. The challenge for these ranchers is how to keep their cows from getting lost in the outback and dying or ending up the property of another rancher. While the ranches are huge, there are still borders within which the rancher would hope to keep his herd. There are two viable solutions to this problem: walls and wells.
Continue Reading February 13th, 2007
Emergent church is no more about candles and couches than traditional church is about hymns and pews. These things are not what makes church. It is the people, the stories, the sacred space, the traditions, the community that make church. It is God’s presence and our response to God in worship, in study and in caring for God’s people and creation. There is more than one way to authentically do all of these things in glory to God. There are many forms that church may take.
Continue Reading February 13th, 2007
The Biggest Loser is a huge hit on NBC[1]. For those who do not know, this is a reality TV game show where the point is to lose the most weight through diet and exercise. There are physical trainers, nutritionists, dieticians, physicians and others overseeing the healthy progress of the contestants but their goal is to lose as much weight as possible. Every one of the contestants could be considered obese. They literally have hundreds of pounds to lose to reach the medically “ideal” body weight. Week by week the contestants are challenged physically and emotionally to lose weight. Each week one person is voted off the ranch by their friends – sent home to continue their journey alone. The results are phenomenal but lead to questions of long term sustainability. However, the lessons of taking care of oneself through dramatic lifestyle change including diet and exercise is right on.
Continue Reading February 13th, 2007
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