TheBolgBlog

I'm still here...

Hi -- just a note to say I'm still alive! Spring quarter finished with some great students doing some wonderfully creative church plant projects. Ian Mobsby was his amazing self in his talk at Fuller in June. I taught an 80 hour two-week intensive on cultural analysis in late June for some really engaged D. Miss. students. After all this I crashed!! I've spent some time away with the family in July. Very much needed. I'm returning tomorrow to Fuller to teach a two-week intensive and will slowly be easing my way back into all things school. I haven't taught the class before (don't tell my students!) but inherited it from my respected friend and (former) colleague, Eddie Gibbs.   

I'll try not to be too much of a stranger the rest of the summer...

Ian Mobsby to Speak at Fuller

I'm really excited about this. Ian Mobsby is one of the most intelligent and articulate spokespersons on the Emerging Church. Hailing from London, he has been at the forefront of conversations on liturgy and popular culture, new forms of worship within ancient traditions, and mission in the twenty-first century. In my interviews for "Emerging Churches, Ian served as a great conversation partner; in addition, I found Ian to be a prophetic practitioner of experimental forms of worship.

On Friday, June 15th at 3pm-5pm, in Travis Auditorium at Fuller Seminary, Ian will be speaking on "Church, Mission & Evangelism in a new age of holistic spirituality". It should be great. The event is open, so please consider yourselves invited...

On Robert Webber 1933-2007

Three panel experts, each representing a particular Christian tradition (evangelical, mainline, and liberal), sat on barstools facing the 1000 plus crowd. The interviewer -- Brian McLaren, was poised to ask the evangelical representative the next question.   "What does your tradition do so well that you could lead the rest of us in?"  I winced, as I had been part of some intra-faith dialogues where evangelicals did not fare so well. I prepared for the worst.

"PASSION is what other Christian traditions can learn from us." He went on, but I don't remember the rest -- I didn't need to hear it. I felt great relief -- he nailed it. I needn't have worried. For the evangelical answering the question was none other than Robert Webber.

It made me recall a conversation that I had previous to that Emergent Convention, with a social activist/professor working in downtown LA. Knowing his liberal theological leanings, I asked him how he felt about the evangelical students from Fuller that would come down to work with him. 'I love the evangelicals," he said, "they have passion -- they really think they can change the world." Yes, I think Bob Webber was on to something...

His work on Ancient/Future Worship opened up a new world for the many who wearied of singing endless praise choruses. His encyclopedic knowledge of worship served the church at a time when many began to mine the depths of the past. His work with the Institute of Worship Studies will insure that his contributions will continue to form the worshippers of tomorrow.

I only met Robert Webber once -- we served on a panel on the Emerging Church at Talbot two years ago. During the past year, I also worked with him as one of the writers aka the "Board of Reference" of "A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future". Webber impressed me with his commitment to worship, to theology, to evangelicalism and ecumenism.

Robert Webber served as an ambassador for the Christian faith -- an evangelical truly worthy of the name...

Breaking the Missional Code Part II

Yesterday I posted the first part of a review on Ed Stetzer and David Putman's Breaking the Missional Code. I will briefly wrap up that review today. In yesterday's post, I celebrated the large amount of missiology that found its way into a book on church renewal and church planting. I had a couple of critiques yesterday as well -- the conflation of church marketing with cultural exegesis, and two, the whole church/unchurched typology.

Technorati Tags: book review, Ed Stetzer, missional church, David Putman

Breaking the Missional Code by Ed Stetzer and David Putman

Ed Stetzer and David Putman’s Breaking the Missional Code gives church leaders the tools needed to become a missional presence in their community. In down-to-earth style, the authors take complex missiological concepts and translate them into achievable church practices. The book covers a lot of ground, addressing how to overcome the barriers to mission within existing models of church. I consider Stetzer and Putman’s work to be a valuable conversation partner in all things missional. I couldn’t be more pleased that so much contextualization material made it into a North American church- planting book.

Technorati Tags: book review, church growth, David Putman, Ed Stetzer, missional church

What is the Difference between Missional and Emerging Churches?

Allelon just posted a video where Alan Roxburgh interviews me. In this clip, Alan asks me about the missional church, the emerging church, and about the differences between the two. I describe how I teach missional church material, and I also tell a bit of my story as well -- how I became involved in the missional conversation.

Technorati Tags: Allelon, alternative worship, Emerging_Church, missional church, video

The Congregation Strikes Back?

Bill Kinnon, at Achieveable Ends, wrote a post that captivated the blogosphere. In it, he plays off of Jay Rosen's The People Formerly Known as the Audience. Titled The People Formerly Known as the Congregation, Bill rants against leadership that leads by 3-point sermons, raises money for building programs, and solicits volunteers to run the various ministries. But more than that, Bill rants against what it means to be a member in a congregation today -- he feels 'used' and writes that he is no longer going to be a passive recipient of all things church. The tone is 'don't do it to me, but partner with me, treat me like an adult -- a co-producer of church.'

Bill sparked a number of follow up posts that piggy-backed on his idea, written from the perspective of pastors and others who agree that the system is not really working. Of course, a passive congregation is not particularly the pastor's fault, the congregants' fault, or even the seminaries' fault. Our entire church system is built around a Christendom model of church where we pay a special class of people to do ministry to and for everyone else.

Over the past ten years or so, the missional church conversation centered around the idea of equipping entire congregations to serve as missionaries to their surrounding cultures. They work with churches who embody this Christendom passivity. They look to help them re-imagine what it means to be the people of God.

I believe Bill taps into another dynamic not addressed by the missional church conversation. Bill speaks for those who already left. They couldn't tolerate being treated as children and opted out. Now located outside "church", these active (as opposed to passive) Christians create alternative ways to worship God, encourage one another, and witness to their faith.

Bill's inspired rant describes the depths to which we need to re-think congregational life in a post-Christendom, postmodern context.

Technorati Tags: church, Jay Rosen, Leadership, missional church, Bill Kinnon, seminary

From little c to Big C church...

Yesterday I wrote a review of George Barna's Revolution. Many fear that Barna dismisses the need for local churches. I don't know if Barna goes that far. What Barna dismantles are particular sociological expressions of church -- those of American congregationalism, rather than particular gatherings of believers. “Revolutionaries realize --- sometimes very reluctantly – that the core issue isn’t whether or not one is involved in a local church, but whether or not one is connected to the body of believers in the pursuit of godliness and worship." Barna writes that one needs to be connected to a body of believers in the pursuit of God, he doesn't say where and when, and his readers find that worrisome.

Technorati Tags: church, George Barna, globalization, modernity

Revolution by George Barna

I know this book review is a little late out of the starting gate. Revolution is required reading for my students this quarter, and I thought, if they need to review it, then it is only fair that I review it too! So here goes. I begin with an overview of what I see Barna saying followed by some interaction with his thesis.

Overview of Revolution
George Barna, in Revolution, touts a new form of church that recently developed in the United States. Dissatisfied with local churches, twenty-million “revolutionaries” created forms of spirituality outside organized religion. This spiritual revolution came about because of seven trends in society: the increase of Busters and Mosaics, moral relativism, dismissal of the irrelevant, advent of technology, priority of relationship, participation, desire for meaning.

Technorati Tags: book review, George Barna

Christ is Risen

He is risen indeed!

(Thanks Jonny, from Grace London, for the picture.)