In Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional, my friend and former co-worker, Jim Belcher, reminds us that the emerging church is a very big tent. That’s probably part of what makes it so difficult to know exactly what the emerging church is; folks who feel they are part of the emerging church often look very different from each other.
Jim cites 3 categories of the emerging church tent described by church planter Ed Stetzer:
Relevants — taking the same, “historic gospel” but contextualizing it to emerging culture
Reconstructionists — taking the same gospel but questioning and revising much of how we think about church
Revisionists — questioning and revising both the gospel and the church
Even folks within the emerging church movement who span these three categories disagree with each other — let alone those outside of the emerging church. It’s so challenging to strongly believe in what we believe and yet not criticize or even judge those who believe differently.
Like Jim, I like a phrase from Leslie Newbigin when he says we need to stand with “proper confidence” — a confidence that is strong and true and yet is chastened by the sense of humility that comes from recognizing that we are sinners saved by grace. All of us.
I’d have to say that my favorite thing about the emerging church movement is that it’s causing many of us to ask good questions about the way we think about God and live as the church. Personally, it’s caused me to try to ask whether parts of me are more influenced by what I’ve accumulated from the middle class American evangelical church or by Jesus Christ.
I’m wondering: what questions are you asking today about the church? If you’re not asking any questions, how do you feel about that?
My friend and former colleague, Jim Belcher, sent me a copy of his new book, Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional. As described in the book, Jim and I, along with Mark Oestreicher (now at Youth Specialties), worked together in late 1990’s to launch the Warehouse Service at Lake Avenue Church. As is often the case when I read books written by my friends, this book feels very much like Jim — very thoughtful, lots of good stories, strong analysis.
The goal of the book is to offer an approach to church and community that avoids the polarities often created by the emerging church and the traditional church. This is a worthy goal, one that resonates with my own experiences with both types of churches. Both types feel on target…and yet missing the mark…at the same time.
I’ll be blogging about Jim’s book for the next few days. Here is a list of “What the Emerging Church is Protesting” according to Jim:
Captivity to Enlightenment Rationalism (too great a focus on reason at the cost of experience and other forms of divine revelation)
A narrow view of salvation (too much focus on justification, not enough focus on sanctification)
Belief before belonging (the sense that a person has to agree with doctrine before becoming part of the faith community)
Uncontextualized worship (simply adopting ancient or “traditional” practices without thinking about current culture)
Ineffective preaching (a focus on head knowledge, generally delivered as “3 points and a poem”)
Weak ecclesiology (overly concerned with the survival of the institutional church at the sacrifice of mission)
Tribalism (a church that separates itself from culture instead of engaging with it)
The way that Jim has phrased these areas of protest, as well as how I’ve paraphrased them, would probably cause even those vehemently opposed to the emergent movement to agree that at least some of these nuances of the traditional church are problematic.
This book was a good reminder of how much I love the church. I’ve been in church leadership for a few decades so I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly — the very ugly — in the church. Yet in the midst of all of our flaws, the church is the body of Christ, sharing Christ’s love and grace with the world.
This past week, one of our church’s high school seniors created a short film clip to tell the story of Hurricane Katrina and share about our high school community’s annual trips to help with the rebuilding effort. What he created is remarkable on many levels; the one I want to highlight is his ownership.
He participated in our most recent trip this past July, and being the artistic guy he is, he took a ton of high-res pictures. He’s pretty busy, so I asked him a couple weeks ago to throw together a 3-4 minute slideshow of trip photos set to music as a way to advertise for next year’s trip — a fairly quick, easy project for a guy like him. What he returned was a moving, beautifully edited short film. With full honesty, I can tell you that I had no idea he would do this, or even had time for something like this.
But maybe I should have expected it.
He’s been pretty active in our justice and service initiatives ever since he was a freshman, and so given the level of meaning and identity he’s found through those things, it is little surprise he would really want to “own” this project. For him, our Katrina Project is not just another trip – it’s a movement of God, and therefore it deserves the best, including his best. For me personally, it’s just another example that justice work, in a special way, makes something come alive in the hearts of students.
To share your Deep Justice Story and be inspired by others’, visit the Deep Justice Stories page!
Last month data from the 2008 American Time Use Survey was creatively put together in an interactive graph. The graph visually displays how folks in different demographic groups tend to spend their time each day, broken down by 20 activity categories (including “I couldn’t remember” for the less self-reflective among us).
It’s not hard science, but it is an intriguing look at what we as a culture do with our time. The ways we spend our time directly reflect our collective cultural values and priorities.
When you browse this, what do you see about “us”?
Would a time graph isolated for Christians look any different from the collective culture?
And as you’re hopefully enjoying a long weekend, may there be a chunk in here for something called Sabbath.
Yesterday was our 1-year anniversary as FYI. Looking back on the past year’s efforts at rebranding, launching an all-new website and blog, increasing our E-Journal releases to monthly offerings, building up our Facebook group (and most recently our new FB Page) and more, we’re excited at all God has continued to do through the work of FYI!
This year we also released the Deep Leadership team training curriculum (which will be re-released in print as Essential Leadership in January) and the Deep Justice Journeys missional living curriculum, two resources we’re really proud of.
I’m struck today with the reminder that none of our work would be possible without the many, many youth workers who regularly contribute to our research and resource development. One of our core values is reciprocal learning between youth workers in the field and researchers in the academy, and we don’t release any book or curriculum without testing it first with many of you. Way before that, most of our resources are born out of the prompting of folks like you who push us to explore deeper into unexplored waters of ministry and culture.
So…. THANK YOU for your part in this journey!
And just for fun today, here are a few TOP FIVE lists from this year:
This past weekend at a birthday party for my daughter, Krista, I had a very interesting conversation with another parent who works at Disney here in Los Angeles. He told me that while Disney feels that they have a strong connection with young girls (princesses and fairies abound), they lack a strong connection with young boys. Boys grow bored of the Disney characters and move on to other places.
On Monday, it was announced that Disney has bought Marvel Comics, a partnership that will now allow them to develop characters like Spiderman and the Transformers. Many have speculated that it was largely motivated by their desire to connect with young boys, a market that has been elusive for them.
In the midst of Disney’s capitalist motives, I’ve got to say this: I admire Disney for being proactive.
Churches often moan over folks they don’t seem to be connecting with and then do little about it. At least Disney was creative and figured out a way to try to connect with more guys.
I can’t play basketball. I really can’t. In fact, I have trouble with all sports requiring hand-eye-ball coordination. It’s embarrassing to show it (especially as a boy from Kentucky), but also embarrassing just to say it.
Why? Basketball is only one sport among many enjoyed by kids and adults everywhere. So why does it matter so much? Because I’m supposed to play it, at least with some kind of proficiency. It’s a guy thing.
I remember starting my first youth ministry summer internship years ago with the intense fear that the guys in the youth group would want to play basketball with me. I just knew that as soon as it was revealed that I couldn’t play, my ministry would be over. No court cred, no relational cred (and this was a mostly white suburban group). Trying to be proactive, I advertised myself as a runner (which was at least true) and started an early morning running group. This gave me slight proof that I was some kind of athlete, but I have to admit I carried that fear of having to prove myself on the basketball court all summer long (and well into my youth ministry career).
As we talk about in this month’s first article on adolescent guys, there’s a subtext in “Guyland” that talking about and participating in sports is simply what it means to be a guy. Sociologist Michael Kimmel concludes after hundreds of interviews with young men, “Guys like sports because it’s the easiest way to choose “guy” over “gay”—and make sure everyone else gets the right idea about them.”1 If you can prove you love (and actually play) sports, you’re a real guy. And if you can’t play, well, you’re out. In many of our youth ministries, that subtext lives loud and strong.
We make some suggestions in the article, but I’m curious what other thoughts you have about how we’ve perpetuated these and other stereotypes in ministry with guys, and what ideas you have for creating an alternative way forward for thinking about and ministering to young men.
And when some guy like me shows up in your youth ministry who can’t play basketball, what happens next?
So I’ve been a multitasker for as long as I can remember. Then this week I saw a recent research release by Stanford University News that challenges the effectiveness of multitasking.
I read the article while I was on hold with the DMV and my kids were playing Lincoln Logs in the room with me. Seriously.
I’m starting to wonder what effect multitasking is having on us. According to this study, we do tasks more poorly when we’re multitasking.
What are we modeling to teenagers when we talk on the cell phone and check e.mail simultaneously, all while listening to our iPod?
And what is happening to students who are engaged in driving, talking, and texting? What does that do to their long-term cognitive function?
What do our own kids learn by our modeling of rushing through life, juggling as much as we can? This latest research from Stanford shows us that these are questions we need to think seriously about and not just blow off because we’re too busy multitasking.
Gotta go. The DMV agent finally picked up the line.
Last night at my church, Lake Avenue Church, we did a commissioning for the middle school and high school small group leaders. It is the first time we as adult volunteers have gathered together at the start of the school year, without students, to pray and worship together. We spent time praying for kids’ families and for kids’ spiritual growth.
As we prayed aloud for kids’ spiritual growth, there were lots of good prayers…for non-believing students to experience something irresistible in our community…for kids who are in crisis to experience love and safety in our ministry…and for churched kids to be able to express and explore their own doubts (that one was mine).
And then one of our middle school volunteers prayed for students who love and serve God faithfully already — that they would continue to do so and experience even more of Jesus.
As he prayed I was struck by how rarely I pray for teenagers who are already passionate for Jesus — that their passion would increase. I pray more for the teens on the margins and the fringes than for those who are centered in Jesus already. Maybe that’s not a terrible thing. Maybe it’s because God has given me a special burden for youth who are drifting.
But I hope someone is praying for the kids who are already rooted in Christ — that they would be even more rooted in Christ and bear much fruit.
As I’m reading Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults, the new book by Dr. Christian Smith and his National Study of Youth and Religion team, I am once again struck by how important parents are in teenagers’ faith. Here’s a quote from Christian on page 284 that is so powerful I’ll just let it stand on its own for my blog post today:
Most adolescents in fact still very badly want the loving input and engagement of their parents — more, in fact, than most parents ever realize. They simply want that input and engagement on renegotiated grounds that take seriously their growing maturity and desired independence. All too often, however, parents misinterpret their teenager’s signals about renegotiated relationships as simple demands to be left alone and, for whatever reasons, they readily comply. So just at a time when teenagers most need engaged parents to help them work out a whole series of big questions about what they believe, think, value, feel, are committed to, and want to be and become, in many cases, their parents are withdrawing from them.
Recently I read Henri Nouwen’s Finding My Way Home: Pathways to Life and the Spirit, a short collection of writings and presentations published after his death. I wasn’t expecting to find a definition of theology in the opening section called…
(San Francisco: Harper, 2008), 128. [
, the new book by Dr. Christian Smith and his National Study of Youth and Religion team, I am once again struck by how important parents are in teenagers’ faith. Here’s a quote from Christian on page 284 that is so powerful I’ll just let it stand on its own for my blog post today:
, a short collection of writings and presentations published after his death. I wasn’t expecting to find a definition of theology in the opening section called…