brian mclaren rocks

(and funnily enough, he reminds me of my father in law. Just a little)
And his new book is out today.





If you can't see the embedded videos, the links for them are here and here.

emerging pastor

found this amusing. H/T Out of the Cocoon.

What I learned from church

(that turned out not to be true, and what I'm learning now)


(reposted from justiceandcompassion.com)

Glenn Hager kindly invited me to participate in his synchroblog. Thanks Glen!

So a coupla lists–and a tiny bit of a justice and compassion slant (I’m not making this stuff up)

What I learned in church:

• Sex is mainly for procreation.
• America is the greatest nation on earth.
• Alchohol is evil. period.
• Using contraception is almost always a dumb, and perhaps even bad, idea.
• The U.N. is evil.
• Homosexuality is a far worse sin than gluttony.
• We’re right, and they’re wrong.
• God created the United States.
• Public Education is evil.
• The King James Version is the *only* right translation of the Bible into English.
• The Bible is about principles.
• Most of the stuff that came out of the civil rights movement was bad because it destroyed personal freedom.
• Roman Catholicism is evil.
• You can follow Jesus by going to church once a week and praying a prayer. And you can even pray the prayer in secret
• It’s not hard for the rich to get into the kindom of heaven. It’s easy.
• Forgiveness means you have to forget what the perp did, and pretend it didn’t really hurt you.
• The dichotomy between good and evil is simple and easy to see.
  

And what I’m learning lately–well, I don’t got do church so much anymore. But from lovely Monkfish, and Brian McLaren, and Jim Henderson, and Seattle Mennonite Church, and Dan Allender, and perhaps even Union a bit, I’m learning:

• It’s more important to be kind than right.
• You don’t have to buy into the idea that billions of people are going to burn in hell forever to be a christian.
• God’s not stressed or freaked out by gnarly pagan ideas and rituals.
• God cares more about the poor, the broken, the raped, the starving, the whole hurting world, than I do, and she certainly cares more about these people than she does about … stupid little doctrinal debates between various sects of the church in America.
• God doesn’t need the bible to talk to me.
• Actions are more important than words.
• I can make a difference.
• The Bible is about stories.
• God likes the idea of people giving power away to other people. Prodigiously. And Bit by bit.
• Real christians have to at least take into consideration the idea of war tax protest.
• Jesuits rock.
• Nuclear weapons are evil.
• Following Jesus is hella hard, and involves more than … openly changing your lifestyle.
• It’s okay to hate someone who hurt you.
• Good and evil are nuanced, and as humans we can’t really escape being victims and perps.
  

What about you?

And here's links to some of the other synchroblog posts on the same subject.

Glenn @ Re-dreaming the Dream: Synchroblog (Introduction)

http://www.erinword.com/2007/07/new-synchroblog.html

Alan @ The Assembling of the Church: Here I Am To Worship.

Heather @ A Deconstructed Christian: 15 Things I Learned From and Another 15 I Am Learning Lately

Jim @ Lord, I Believe; Help My Unbelief : Some Ecclesiastical Paradoxes

Lew @ The Pursuit: It’s A Grace vs. Works Thing

Lyn @ Beyond the 4 Walls: Learning To be “Proper”

Paul @ One For The Road : A Gracious Voice

Sonja @ Calacirian: Losing Her Religion and Keeping Her Faith

Benjamin @ Justice and Compassion: Pithy and Provocative

Julie @ Onehandclapping: Faith, Certainty, and Tom Cruise

Aaron @ Regenerate: Hope

Monte @ Monte Asbury’s Blog: Jesus Doesn’t Matter Much

Rachael @ Justice and Compassion Rachael Stanton

Glenn @ Re-dreaming the Dream: Unsaid Communication

Glenn @ Re-dreaming the Dream: Reflections About Refugees (Summary Reflection)

Emergent church

(Oh dear, the funny one is gone--their site seems to be down. Maybe it will come back up later.)

So I consider myself half an insider in the emergent church (sans Mars Hill in Seattle). I found these posters via Julie, who didn't like them much. I found them slightly amusing--mocking, but as with all good mockery, with an element of truth there. I really liked this one, because of the "Down with Metanarratives" sign. I want a sign like that. very kewl. Emergent Grace made some more sincere posters in response, including this one.

what is emergent--a peeve

So Mark Driscoll announced on his blog this week the publcation of a new book by zondervan "Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches" edited by Dr. Robert Webber. It is a "counterpoint book", in which 5 so called emerging church pastors write on the issues of the trinity, the atonement, and the scripture, and then respond to each others' writing. The writers are Doug Pagitt, Karen Ward, Dan Kimball, John Burke, and Mark Driscoll.

So here's my peeve: what [the hell] is emergent about Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill? I mean I know a little about Karen Ward and Doug Pagitt, and they are both definitely emerging. I mean their churches are .. emerging *out of* the boring, painful, etc. mainstream church. It doesn't look to me like Mars Hill is emerging from anything. They are totally typical. In fact they are ... quintessentially typical of the 'church' which I find so painful and can no longer bear. Not that I have anything against them personally. I'm sure they are somewhere in the range upon which typical churches fall--not really *that* far off in toward one extreme or the other. So how come they keep getting called emerging? I mean really, is that like a marketing campaign they did early on, and it stuck, or what? I really don't get it. Is it because they have such a youngish demographic? Is it because they are numerically successful in Seattle? Do people who call them emergent or emerging just mean something very very different from what I mean when I use those terms? If so, what is the meaning that these others are assigning to the term? don't get it don't get it don't get it. It's concerning because I ... sort of think of myself as emergent, or emergent, or at least ... I think of myself as feeling good around and understanding/connecting with emerging/emergent people. But *not* with Mars Hillish places. I feel totally and completely out of place and creeped out at Mars Hill services. So if we are going to wrest the word like that, or push the meaning to be so enormously broad, then perhaps I have to stop using it, or else explain every time, or something.

On the other hand, I think the book should be fascinating because of the authors in it that I do like.

Recommended Event

So if you are planning to be in or around Seattle April 21 this year, May I suggest registering for The Neighborhood Mission Learning Day, an emergent church event: Reimagining Congregational Mission in Today's Culture with Brian McLaren, Karen Ward, Eugene Cho, and Randy Rowland, and MC'd by Dwight Friesen.
For more info or to register follow this link