There has been lots of good discussion on this post and on plenty of other blogs regarding the statement released by the Board of General Superintendents on the Emerging Church. Having had some time to really reflect on the statement and to read so many different comments on it, I have just a couple of more thoughts to share.

First, I am more excited than ever to be a Nazarene pastor. There are so many great things happening among the Nazarenes and there are so many changes taking place. There are strong grass roots changes of ecclesiology, missiology, and even our understanding of the fullness of the Gospel that are going to transform lives and lead people to lives of discipleship.

Second, I am glad that the BOGS are just now making a statement on the Emerging Church. This conversation/movement/whatever has needed time to sort itself out and there are some clear pieces to it now. There is a division that is taking place along theological lines even within the emerging church. It is important to realize that 3-5 well known speakers and writers in no way define the work that has been done in the emerging church, nor do they predict the outcomes for those in the conversation. What we are actually seeing is that those particular writers are not at all defining for the movement itself.That makes sense since the power of what has been taking place has always been very open source and grass roots, it would be completely counter intuitive for it to ever be top down and organized.

Third, even with differences becoming very clear within the emerging church, the way that those within the conversation treat each other and talk about each other around these issues is a great lesson to many within the church. One constant for those who have criticized the emerging church has been anger, divisiveness, and frankly a witch hunt like feeling. I will never understand why it has to be that way, but it consistently is. I had a professor in seminary give us a strong piece of advice as young pastors. He said, “I would always be very hesitant to speak critically about another Christian leader.” That has always stuck with me is a good piece of advice for us all. It is not that we shouldn’t be discerning, or that we should disagree with one another. But Jesus, in his prayer for his disciples in John 17 makes our ultimate calling clear – unity. It is through our unity and love of one another in the church that the world will see clearly the truth of Christ. If we can’t find loving ways to disagree or to grapple with differing view of our faith how will the world ever see the truth of Christ in us?

When reading the Bible gets really hard

This week, for the first time since I started on my 60 day journey to read all of scripture, I hit the proverbial wall. I was just finishing up Psalms and moving to Proverbs and I just couldn’t do it. It was tough. I realized that I still had another 7-8 days of OT reading before I got the NT and I didn’t want to do it anymore. I always reach that point during Lent, but usually it comes earlier. Regardless I pressed on and put my spirit to the task of absorbing the wisdom of the proverbs.

Here are some of my favorites.

Prov. 10:10 – Whoever winks maliciously causes grief, and a chattering fool comes to ruin. (So watch all that winking!)

Prov. 7:22-23 (Words warning against an adulterous woman) All at once he followed her like and ox going to the slaughter like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life.

Prov. 16:19 – Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud

Prov. 22:24-25 – Do not make friends with the hot tempered, do not associate with those who are easily angered or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared.

Prov. 23:4-5  – Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glace at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

In Case You are Trying to Find Me This Weekend

The madness begins on Thursday and I can hardly wait! This should be an interesting tournament. It feels really top heavy to me and I wouldn’t be surprised if 1 seeds and 2 seeds make up the whole final four. Not sure if there are any Cinderellas out there this year. But here are some tips for filling out your bracket.

- This was not a great year for mid-majors. Don’t expect to see Davidson or Gonzaga in the Final Four

- MD will win there first round game (Gary’s teams almost always do), but if they face MSU in the second round they will struggle. MSU is a bad matchup for them.

- Don’t sleep on Baylor they are good

- Don’t overvalue Texas they have been terrible since they were #1 in the country

- Trust teams with veteran backcourts like Villanova.

- Trust talent, no matter how old it is. Kentucky’s freshman are the real deal

- Don’t trust any PAC-10 teams, that league was pathetic this year

- The Big East was tough this year, expect their teams to do well

- My  first round upset picks are UTEP over Butler, Minnesota over Xavier and St. Marys over Richmond

The BGS, through Naznet, has posted a new statement that may well be of interest. Here is the text:

The emergent church – From the General Superintendents

We appreciate your concerns regarding the conversations surrounding “the emergent church.” The issues related to this topic are many. Some are helpful and positive; others are problematic and deeply troubling.

“The emergent church” is really somewhat of a misnomer. While there are many attributions which imply that there is a single focus or movement called “the emergent church,” in reality, the conversations range all over the map. Some people believe that there is a monolithic kind of conspiratorial entity that is seeking to undermine the church with heresy and immoral license.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are people who view the whole concept of an emerging church as a positive and hopeful expression of the church seeking to genuinely come to terms with ministry in a complex and rapidly-changing culture, while seeking to make Biblical truth relevant. These people depend heavily on the authority of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to radically change lives, communities, and nations. They are often radically engaged with the brokenness in society through active, compassionate ministries that work hard to bring renewal and conversion.

Nazarene Theological Seminary (NTS) and some of our universities are engaged in the conversation in order to help correct some of the aberrations that are associated with some of the “emergent” churches.

There are widely-read authors who readily identify themselves as “emergent church leaders.” While some of them are orthodox in their theology and views of Scripture, others embrace positions which we would view as far away from what is orthodox and acceptable. Yet even those authors and pastors who are not orthodox in their views of Scripture and its authority have an awareness of the need to make the church more engaged in society so as to bring about a radical change and improvement.

We do not endorse those “emergent churches” or leaders who are not orthodox in their theology. The involvement of many of our young pastors and students in the conversation is an attempt to embrace the positive dimensions while clearly articulating an orthodox interpretation of Scripture and theology.

By most definitions of what is genuinely meant by “emergent,” John Wesley more than fits the description. He was radically engaged in the social needs around him while clearly calling men and women to a radical commitment to Christ and to the fullness of the Spirit in cleansing and heart purity. That is the objective toward which Nazarenes, engaged in the conversations regarding the emergent church, are committed. It is a vital conversation, but one that also carries with it the risk of being misunderstood or being classified with positions which are not healthy or appropriate.

We hope these thoughts are helpful to you. The issues are complex, and the rhetoric is sometimes shrill and angry. We are hopeful that we can be patient with what is a phase in a conversation that is already beginning to wind down in some areas even while it is just now being engaged in by others. Hopefully, we can move beyond the mischaracterizations and embrace what is legitimate while we readily and without hesitation reject the aberrations.

We pray for you as you work with your people through this issue. We are not at all embracing anything heretical, but we want to engage in conversations with our young Nazarenes who want a vibrant church that is committed to our theology and actively engaged in ministry to the lost and broken people around us.

Jesse C. Middendorf
General Superintendent
Church of the Nazarene

————————————

Received this from the GMC by request of Dr. Porter with the explicit statement: “Feel free to circulate these documents.” I presume this was written in reply to questions and concerns around this topic.

In a later email he wrote: “the BGS endorsed it as a good point of reference regarding this conversation”.

I started blogging on February 14, 2006 and in the almost four years since I have now written 500 blog entries. That equates out to 125 a year or one about every three days. That is more discipline and consistency that my life has usually known, so for that I am celebrating. In honor of this momentous occasion here is a mega post with a massive amount of ramblings to celebrate. If you make it all the way to the end I will be impressed.

When I set out to start writing four years ago my goal was simply to offer thoughts on what it means to serve God and to live a holy life. It has expanded beyond that in humorous and soul stretching ways, but at the core that is still my desire for this blog. I can say that regardless of the impact on anyone else the discipline of writing and the subjects I have worked to write on have certainly taught me about holiness in many ways.

I wonder, however, as to how long this discipline will stay a part of my life. With blogging being such a recent phenomenon I have to stop and think about whether or not I will be doing it five years from now. Who knows, if I am I hope I will still have something to say.

One thing this blog has proven is that the burning questions of people’s lives are, “Who is the greatest lead singer in rock history”, “What is the greatest TV Show ever”, and “What is the greatest rock song ever”. I hope I have helped people find the answers that they are looking for.

LOST Thoughts

After the LOST premier last night I have to say that LOST has almost evened up to The Wire for my vote on the greatest TV show ever.

The smoke monster is that mysterious dude with no name? Jacob is dead? Is Jacob the one who keeps appearing as Christian? Are we onto parallel universes now? Is that what happened? Did any see them adding a whole new layer to the island with another group of mysterious Others? Those dudes are awesome.

The actor who plays Sawyer has really come into his own. The emotional gambit he showed last night was amazing. He is so good, how come I have never seen him in anything else?

They handled Jack so well in that episode. Did you notice how warn down and aged he looked by the end of the show? The time travel, explosions, violence and pressure of their fight for their lives can all be seen as lines in his face.

Did Jacob come back to life as Sayid to battle the smoke monster masquerading as Locke? That would be awesome.

How soon before Sawyer tries to get over Juliet by sleeping with Kate?

These are the questions burning my head now!

Book Recomendations

Here are the books I have read in the last six months I would recommend.

Non-Fiction

Switch by Chip and Dan Heath

The Monkey and the Fish by Dave Gibbons

The New Evangelicalism by Soong-Chan Rah

What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

Deep Church by Tim Belcher

The Teachings of the Twelve by Tony Jones

Novels

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child (Jack Reacher Series)

The Defector by Daniel Silva (Gabriel Allon Series)

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Movie Recommendations

On a five star scale here are some recent views that deserve a consideration

District 9 – 4.5

Avatar – 4

Angels and Demons – 3

Sherlock Holmes – 4

Up in the Air 4.5

Star Trek – 5

Julie and Julia – 3.5

Once – 3.5

Away We Go – 4

For my friends in random countries I have no idea how to find without Google

After blogging for four years I can say that weirdest part is looking at the map of where my site visits come from. In the last six months here are the countries that people have visited me from. So a big shout out to my friend in Djibouti!

How churches answer that question will tell a lot about how they do ministry and where their focus is. In my continuing reflections on The Monkey and the Fish by Dave Gibbons, he lays out what he sees as the shift from typical Western ways of doing church to a Third Culture life. Here is the list he offers.

Western                                                                                                       Third Culture

I found the list helpful in understanding the differences between how he perceives the church and how what he believes the church needs to be. The questions are whether or not he is accurate in his list and whether or not the way he is proposing is better. Any thoughts?

In Dave Gibbons’ The Monkey and the Fish he talks extensively about the idea of us being third culture Christians. I have already posted a couple of reflections on what this means for us in the church here and here.

One of the ways Dave tries to communicate the essence of third culture Christianity is in our incarnational living that makes us adaptable to whatever cultures we are sharing the gospel with. He uses this Bruce Lee idea of becoming liquid as a metaphor for our adaptability. In all it seems a pretty helpful metaphor. The liquid, our message, our God, our faith, doesn’t change, it is our method, form, and shape that adapts to bring our message to the places we go.

It is a metaphor and it brakes down on some level, but it’ll preach. What do you think about the idea of moving towards being liquid as the church?

(These are almost all guaranteed to be wrong, but it is worth a shot. You know how Paul in his letters would sometimes say, now this is a word from me, God didn’t tell me this, well have no doubts that none of these are prophesies, just my own efforts. When I get some prophesies I promise I will tell you up front in that blog post. Is it okay to blog prophesies? Will some of my charismatic friends help me out with this one. I am not sure the proper prophesy vehicles. I am really rambling now..)

DC Sports Predictions

Jim Zorn gets fired. (He was fired early this morning so that one may not count, but I wanted to start off strong)

Mike Shanahan becomes the Redskins new coach.

Jason Campbell gets that same pardon that Zorn got and gets to leave the insanity of Redskins Park. Thanks Jason you and Zorn were two of the classiest people in the organization, not that I am saying much with that.

Mike Shanahan and Colt McCoy (with random serviceable veteran QB  to guide the ship initially, perhaps Collins, maybe random dud Shanny likes) lead the Redskins to an 8-8 record and there is much rejoicing.

Ted Leonsis blows up the Wizards. (Maybe not the best imagery for the team from the OK Corral, but it is accurate) No one will take Arenas so it is going to cost us Antawn for cap space and cutting some guys to begin to get back to respectability.

Random World Predictions

Now that everyone who had any delusions of a messiah is over them, President Obama will settle down and have a much better year. I have no idea how it will be better, but being President is a job that someone as bright at him should certainly get better at as they go. We seldom account for a presidential learning curve in our evaluations. Even Bush started to figure things out eventually.

China is going to move further down the road towards becoming the dominant economic force in the world. Soon our banks will be bailed out by the Chinese government. I am sure China has always wanted to own Ford anyways.

By the end of 2010 we will be x-ray’d, MRI’d and had a holographic 3D rendering of our entire body done, have a blood sample taken and our DNA checked before we can board that flight from Cleveland to Minneapolis. I am ok with this.

Twitter will  be replaced by an even smaller blogging program called ABC where you will sign up for a service where people will simply post a word and then you add the next word and suddenly millions of people are adding the next words in what will become an incredible story of absolutely nothing that any relevance to anyone. People will start looking for the hidden meanings of these poetic narratives and hailing them as a wonderful new entry into the world of art. As a result those under 20 will actually forget how to answer a question that requires more than one word. This phenomenon will change the course of humanity forever……!

A year from now as we watch Tiger and his new girlfriend who is wholesome and saving herself for marriage play with his kids when he has them for the weekend for their People magazine photo shoot we will be amazed at his transformation.

Lebron James, the new king of NY, will eclipse as the world’s richest athlete. Of course the Knicks will have to actually give him the ownership of the franchise for him to come and play with them, but it will be worth it.

A sizable shift in the church (at least the fundamentalist evangelical wing of it) will take place as everyone who has spent copious amounts of time attacking with ferocity the leaders of the emerging church will realize that no one cares and that while they have been picking apart the comments of three or four individuals, all around the world across vastly different cultures God has been birthing a revitalization of his church and somehow they missed it.

Bono will be elected Secretary General of the UN. Immediately all UN representatives will be issued sunglasses that they can wear at all times and have their names shortened to one word.

I will end the year weighing less than I have since I was 19. (This is a statement that will be true, I am working hard)

Holiness Reeducation will be turned into a self published book that my mom and four Latvians will buy numerous copies off.

That is a question I have asked myself for virtually my whole life. Why are there so many white people in my church? Growing up in the DC area we went to a church that was 90% white middle class. The street I lived on was unbelievably diverse. There were Iranians, Irish, Vietnamese, Koreans, Blacks, Whites, and Italians just in our little neighborhood. My high school was ridiculously diverse with something like a 100 different countries represented in the student body. There was a bit of everything.

But I have never been in a church that came close to enjoying a multiracial congregation. In the The Monkey and the Fish by Dave Gibbons, the author tries to offer a mandate for change in church leadership and a manifesto for how to do it. Expressed through the term Third Culture leadership, which Dave defines as the mindset and will to love, learn, and serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort.

To look at areas of our current church leadership that must change, Dave delves into the issue of culture and the homogeneous growth principle. For three decades now most churches who have sought to grow in our country have embraced the reality of this principle. The homogeneous growth principle simply states that people naturally gather together with other people who are like them and encounter faith best in this setting. The results of this principle have been obvious, we have a lot of churches that are almost entirely made up of the same demographic and but making this particular group of people very comfortable we have been able to gather together huge groups of people who look and live the same way.

The question is whether or not we should celebrate this reality? Dave suggests that if this if the focus of our churches we miss out on something uniquely beautiful about what it is to be the church. Reflecting on the parable of the Good Samaritan Dave says, “Anyone can love people who are like themselves. The Father’s love is  best reflected – and is most irresistible and potent – when we love those who are unattractive to us.”

This is the best quote I have found in the book so far. Dave is on to something that has lingered in my spirit for my whole life. We learn to love God and to be the church better when we are intentionally crossing our comfort zones and learning to love people who are different than us. We are simply missing lacking in our understanding of the church, on who God is, and on our own limitations and cultural flaws when we are only ever surrounded by people just like us.

If this is true the questions we must grapple with are these. Can existing homogeneous churches change and become multicultural? Can you have multicultural churches without multicultural leadership? What are our homogeneous churches missing out on? How has our homogeneous history allowed flaws to become embedded in theology?

Thoughts?

The most frequent charge I hear against the emerging church, leveled especially at its most well known leaders, is that their theology has become un-Biblical because of their view of the atonement. Specifically, there is a charge that emergents have rejected or downplayed the significance of the penal substitutionary theory of atonement.

In brief, this theory states that Jesus’ work on the cross was willingly and intentionally Jesus exchanging his life as a payment for our sins. This substitution allows us then to enter into right relationship with God through a payment we could not have made on our own. Jesus suffered and was punished on our behalf, a punishment that was necessary based on our sinfulness.

In Deep Church Belcher delves into his own struggles with the traditional churches handling of the gospel, his struggles with emergent theology of atonement, and tries to find balance between the two. His charge, that many have made of the traditional church over the past hundred years is that salvation has become far too individualized. We talk about Jesus’ death on the cross as if it was simply a way to get us to heaven. We believe, we are saved, and we are saved from hell end of the story. But the primary focus of Jesus’ teaching was on the Kingdom of God and how Jesus came to offer hope for a better life right now. This is a hope that carries us into a glorious future when he returns, but his death on the cross wasn’t to give us fire insurance.

Reacting to this reduction of the gospel, that stripped out much of the theology of the kingdom of God from the traditional church, emergents and plenty of traditionalists alike have worked to bring kingdom theology back into the Gospel. The charge against the emerging church, however, has been that they have gone the way of liberalism and grabbed a social gospel that doesn’t need the cross and abandons Christ’s work on the cross. Is this a fair charge?

Belcher thinks it is an unfair charge that is leveled at emergents especially Brian McLaren. McLaren fully embraces the need for personal salvation through the blood of Jesus. But Belcher believes that some of the theology coming out of the emerging church has lost the importance of substitutionary theories of atonement. He contends that it is in fact Christ’s work to pay for our sin that allows him to usher in the Kingdom of God and to subdue the powers of evil at work in this world. Kingdom theology stresses Christ’s dominion over this world and his work to redeem and subdue evil, but without the justification that comes through his work on the cross this is not possible.

Of all the sections of the book, this is perhaps the most interesting aspect of Belcher’s work. In his search for a third way, a path of unity for emergents and traditionalists, he is working to demonstrate how a life of true kingdom living is most appropriately based in a belief in the substitutionary work of Christ on the cross. He contends that traditionalists have often erred in not realizing that the outcome of satisfied punishment is not just forgiveness but redemption and restoration and that emergents have erred if they have tried to root kingdom living in theology outside of blood of Christ as a substitution for our sins.

I think Belcher is on to something in this section of the book, working to do fair justice to both sides of the aisle, but I am not sure there is a problem with most emergents having lost a belief in substitutionary atonement. But there has been such a strong reaction against the church on this issue as a litmus test of orthodoxy that a group of people who are naturally anti-establishment have fought back in an unnecessary battle.

The atonement is a multifaceted mystery of God’s love for it. I would contend that scripture strongly supports substitutionary atonement, but I would also contend that it supports other theories and aspects of the atonement that are vital to us embracing the fullness of the gospel and to live fruitfully in the kingdom of God. Substitutionary atonement is at the center of our understanding of Christ’s work on the cross but we can understand this part of the atonement and still miss out of the fullness of the gospel. This is an area in which emergents and traditionalists are wise to listen humbly to one another and seek a way forward together.

Ever since Jesus ascended from the earth and promised he would return the church has tried with frequent and miserable failure to walk the line between a proper attitude of expectant preparation and active searching for signs that Christ’s return is imminent. A quick browse through popular Christian bookstores or through the program guide of a Christian broadcast station will reveal that 2000 years later we are still trying, and still failing with frequency, to walk this line.

In the first and second century, apocalyptic literature was very popular. Tony Jones in The Teaching of the Twelve, his look at the ancient Christian document the Didache, points to the expansion of the apocalyptic genre from Daniel through the inter-testimental period, on through the Qumran community and John the Apostle. In the early church this genre was still very popular, especially since the teachings of Jesus himself seemed to indicate he would be right back. You can just imagine the young church sitting around and dreaming up the terror and beauty that would accompany the return of the Lord at any moment. Of course that can also be very distracting to simply living your life.

So it is with such encouragement and blessing that we read the words of instruction given to young Christians in the Didache. This document was most likely written to instruct catechumens in their daily walk. Here in this primitive Christian community that may have existed in this first generation of the church, this tension between waiting and watching was clearly understood. And the instructions given here may be the key to actually walking this line in the way Jesus intended.

At the end of the Didache we have a short but powerful passage about our call to understand the return of Christ in our daily lives. The text reads:

“Watch over your life, that your lamps are never quenched, and that your loins are never unloosed. Be ready, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”

The Didache goes on to further instruct the young Christians to watch out for false teachers, especially the “world deceiver” who will come and do iniquitous things that have not been done since the beginning of the world. The language sounds much like Jesus’ words to his disciples in Matthew 24-25 and Paul’s words to the Thessalonian church. There is evil at work in the world, it will bring with it destruction and suffering for the church, but your job is to be prepared for it and to remain true.

The real gem of beauty in this part of the Didache is the simple instruction to be ready. It is important for these young Christians to understand that indeed Christ will come again and at his coming there will be the resurrection of the dead and the judgment of all people and the praise of Jesus as Lord by all people. So make sure you are ready.

It would serve us well as the church to try and practice these simple words of eschatology more often in our instructions to our churches: be ready. Watch your lives, gird your loins, keep the lamps burning and be ready. There are no words of panic or predictions about how soon this will happen, there is just simple advice of what to watch for as these young Christians go about living out their faith.

At the end of the chapter, where Trucker Franks adds his two cents he says, ““These people weren’t sitting around
waiting for God to rapture them out of there,” Frank says. “They were doing everything they could to live in the faith
and make the world a better place. They weren’t concerned about when Jesus would come back.”

In the majority of books, TV shows, and sermons being offered in our current apocalyptic genre the message is seldom as simple and beautiful as Christ is coming back so be ready. You wonder what we could make room for on our bookshelves if we got rid of all of our apocalyptic writings that are filled with charts and graphs and replaced them with simple reminders to watch and be ready. In this concise and beautiful little instruction book we have indepth instruction about following the way of Christ, living as a sacramental community and worship. But here at the end when it comes to the end times the message is pretty simple and clear. “Be ready, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Amen.

]]> http://holinessreeducation.com/2009/12/06/the-end-is-nigh-the-didache-and-the-apocalypse/feed/ 0 gregarthur http://holinessreeducation.com/2009/11/21/understanding-orthodoxy/ http://holinessreeducation.com/2009/11/21/understanding-orthodoxy/#comments Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:23:27 +0000 Greg http://holinessreeducation.com/?p=929 ]]>

For the past week or two, through out conversation about bridging the gap between emergents and traditionalists there has been a lot of talk of understanding orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is simply right belief. We are orthodox in the church if we believe the right things. The question of course is what are the right things and how do we determine them. Much of our conversation has revealed differing ideas of what is required to be orthodox and how it is determined. Well thankfully I just read one of the best blog posts I have ever encountered over at Parchment and Pent. Here is the link.

The content of the post is on the way orthodoxy develops as our understanding of God’s revelation matures and how we naturally divide ourselves through our different sources of orthodoxy. Very timely post for our conversation.