Within the Christendom context the church played the dominant role in shaping the social, political and institutional life of a people.  So much so that political structures, education, and other institutions were seen almost like partners with the church in forming a Christendom vision.   In the Western context which is increasingly post-Christendom, the church is more and more marginalized with respect to public life.  The church no longer sets the agenda for government, education or commerce.  So I find myself wonder, if the church’s responsibility to form people in continuity with the narrative of the God as seen in Jesus Christ and testified to throughout scripture changes in anyway when the many of the partners that the church used to be able to rely on for forming Christian identity no longer look to the church, and in fact appear to be more and more antagonistic to the church.

What might be some of the implications for Christian formation in light of this shift?

BTW – The image of the upside down church is a 1997 sculpture by artist Dennis Oppenheim.  He titled it, “Device to Root out Evil.”  I don’t know if its still there but I first saw the piece installed at Harbour Green Park in Vancouver, BC.

Peace, dwight

In preparation for this summer’s learning journey, I’ve been working on this class with the people behind The Parish Collective; especially Paul Sparks, Tim Sorens and Ben Katt.

Gonna call the course: “Body Of Christ: Rediscovering the Local Parish as Embodied Witness”

It will consider the church’s catholicity through focused attention on particularity.  Given that the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ was a radically particular event with universal reach this course will explore the implications of the church as the Body of Christ; more specifically the course will engage six Seattle-area churches and their missional quests to live in mutually transformative relationships given the particularity of their respective locations.  Leaders from each church will guide us on walking tours of their respective neighborhood, offering us a glimpse into their story of learning to become and experience Good News in their neighborhood.  In some ways this selected reading class will focus on reading our churches and our neighborhoods as much as on reading books.  Here’s are the written texts we’ll be reading:

• Richard Flodia’s, Who’s your City: How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of your Life.
• Timothy Gorringe’s, A Theology of the Built Environment: Justice, Empowerment, Redemption.
• Robert Lupton’s, Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life: Rethinking Ministry to the Poor.
• Charlene Spretnak’s,  The Resurgence of the Real: Body, Nature and Place in a Hypermodern World.
• Parker Palmer’s, A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life.

Peace, dwight

This book was born in the context of an eleven-year life altering experiment in ecclesial life, fleshed out in learning communities with thoughtful women and men who never ceased to ask insightful and revealing questions, and now it is being published by my new friends at Baker Books.

I hope you’ll take a look at it.  I’m very excited to offer my voice and contribute, even a small piece, to the ongoing conversation. . . let me know what you think.

Peace, dwight

It gives me great hope for the unintuitive purposes of God through the church in the world.

While with Christian Churches Together I was able to facilitate a two hour conversation.  The title of the workshop they asked me to facilitate was “The Emerging Church Movement.”

One of the primary misconception I tried to address head on was the mistaken notion of the “Emerging Church.”  As I see it there is no such thing as “the emerging church.”  Of course there are local faith communities, pastors/priests, and community members who are influenced and shaped by the emerging conversation, but the emerging conversation is not a church.  The conversation does not have a theology, it does not have an ecclesial structure, no emerging constitution/by-laws, it has no formal authority/accountability structure, does not maintain offices or ordination, no formal member communities, thus it to call it a church assumes a kind of structure that I think is misleading.  I think it is more helpful to remember that every community or person influenced by the emerging conversation is also linked to a larger historic stream within Christianity. So a person or a local community is Presbyterian, Methodist, Mennonite, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, Coptic, Orthodox, Quaker, Free Church, Assembly of God, Congregational, Baptist, or whatever tradition and shaped by by the emerging conversation.

In fact I have found it fascinating that often as people participate in the emerging conversation they find that their unique narrative shaped by their respective tradition becomes even more important to them.  Often inviting deeper study of their tradition’s history, theology, distinctives, contributions and even their liabilities or short comings.  This is part of the reason why the emerging conversation continues to be thought of a as a missional network.

Peace,

dwight

“MEMPHIS — In the back room of a theater on Beale Street, John Renken, 42, a pastor, recently led a group of young men in prayer.

“Father, we thank you for tonight,” he said. “We pray that we will be a representation of you.”An hour later, a member of his flock who had bowed his head was now unleashing a torrent of blows on an opponent, and Mr. Renken was offering guidance that was not exactly prayerful.

“Hard punches!” he shouted from the sidelines of a martial arts event called Cage Assault. “Finish the fight! To the head! To the head!”

The young man was a member of a fight team at Xtreme Ministries, a small church near Nashville that doubles as a mixed martial arts academy. Mr. Renken, who founded the church and academy, doubles as the team’s coach. The school’s motto is “Where Feet, Fist and Faith Collide.”

Mr. Renken’s ministry is one of a small but growing number of evangelical churches that have embraced mixed martial arts — a sport with a reputation for violence and blood that combines kickboxing, wrestling and other fighting styles — to reach and convert young men, whose church attendance has been persistently low. Mixed martial arts events have drawn millions of television viewers, and one was the top pay-per-view event in 2009.

Recruitment efforts at the churches, which are predominantly white, involve fight night television viewing parties and lecture series that use ultimate fighting to explain how Christ fought for what he believed in. Other ministers go further, hosting or participating in live events.

The goal, these pastors say, is to inject some machismo into their ministries — and into the image of Jesus — in the hope of making Christianity more appealing. “Compassion and love — we agree with all that stuff, too,” said Brandon Beals, 37, the lead pastor at Canyon Creek Church outside of Seattle. “But what led me to find Christ was that Jesus was a fighter.”  [the article continues]

Philip Clayton and Tripp Fuller are putting together what is looking to be a fascinating conversation.

Peace, dwight

Here’s a link to the talks.

Quest Church is hosting Lauren Winner of Duke University on “Faith & Gender” October 10-11.  Lauren has authored numerous books, including: Girl Meets God, Mudhouse Sabbath and Real Sex. Register here.

peace, dwight
]]> http://dwightfriesen.com/2008/09/faith-gender-lauren-winner/feed/ 0 http://dwightfriesen.com/2008/01/emerging-established-churches-together/ http://dwightfriesen.com/2008/01/emerging-established-churches-together/#comments Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:12:18 +0000 Dwight J. Friesen http://www.bestliveshosting.com/dwight/2008/01/emerging-established-churches-together/ I find myself looking for conversation partners.  I’m looking for new paradigm churches (emerging, neo-monastic, simple, avant-churches, etc.), who are intentionally partnering with more established congregations in mission and mutual transformation.  And the reverse as well, for established congregations who have pursued partnership with new paradigm churches. 

I find myself wondering about how both groups are formed and transformed through their ongoing engagement.  I wonder about those things that both have been invited into from the other: new expressions of life, greater sense of rooted-ness into larger ecclesial narrative, and of course the invitation to surrender in the context of relationship. 

Churches are more missiologically informed today than almost anytime in the last 1,500 years of church history, and I’m wondering what impact the growing quest for contextual resonance may be having on the kinds of partnerships that establishes churches missionally form. 

So if you, or someone you know of, is intentionally pursuing a relationship that invites an established and new paradigm church to dance together, please email me or simply reply to this post; I’d sure appreciate it. 

Peace, dwight

peace, dwight

Neighborhood Mission Learning Day:

Reimagining Congregational Mission in Today’s Culture with Brian McLaren, Karen Ward, Eugene Cho, and Randy Rowland.

For more info or to register follow this link.

peace, dwight