Re: Code of Techno-Ethics

I’ve been struggling with whether or not to bring this link to your attention, but I think it is worth reading. Be warned, it shows Christians behaving badly. I bring it to your attention, because it is instructive.

We need to be more techno-ethical. Technology amplifying our capacity for evil. We now have the capacity to tear someone to shreds anonymously in front of potentially thousands of web-surfers. We no longer have to trouble ourselves with talking directly to people. The Body of Christ has a new way to air its conflicts in public.

Try to read it as though you weren’t a Christian. Try to put yourself in the shoes of the people on both sides of the issue. For the love of Jesus, we’ve got to learn to be the Church to one another before we’ll every have a shot at being the Church for the world.

Where’s the Beef?

I just read a posting on Backyard Missionaries about the difference between milk and meat. Often it is assumed that milk is basic doctrine and meat is dealing with issues like predestination (is everthing fore-ordained or do we really have effectual will?) or eschatology (will we be raptured before the shite hits the fan or not?) orepistemology (are you a foundationalist or a postfoundationalist?) A quick reading of Hebrews 5 or 1 Corinthians 3 will show that this isn’t exactly the way to look at milk versus meat.

Hebrews 5 indicates that “meat” is for those who are morally developed enough to distinguish right from wrong. Teaching in this passage seems more about wisdom than about information–wisdom being defined as the way of living rightly in the world.

1 Corinthians 3 also refers to the way of wisdom. Here, the babies are milk dependent because they are quarrelsome and undiscerning. It seems to me that “meat” in this context may involve deeper complexities of faith, but the aim doesn’t seem to be purely doctrinal.

All this comes into play for us at Missio Dei because we aren’t seeker sensitive in our gatherings. Nor do we wish to be erudite; we want our meetings to be accessible enough to the newcomer while being meaty enough for someone older in faith. How do we do that? I don’t think the answer is to have an hour of theological inquirey each week. Scholarly people can be babies too. Meat has more to do with discernment, obedience to Christ, and wisdom than merely theological knowledge. It seems foolish to keep dolling out theologial treatises to a relatively unmobilized, inactive group of people. “Meat” should be reserved for those who are ready to help feed babies–to help them mature in their thinking, feeling, andactions. Those who desire to be more like Jesus.

So, in my mind, “meat” is deeper training–helping people who were babies to become “mommies” through Scriptural training, through deeper responsibilities, through skills training, etc. And the first steps towards meatiness is to begin to serve those who are newbies in Christ or those outside of Christ. That provides the required learning environment for learing the meaty things. Meat should be reserved for student teachers. It is sustenance for on-the-job training.

Sunday, bloody Sunday

Missio Dei is a chimera. We’re stubbornly trying to be mostly a house church movement, but also have a Sunday gathering. This may be foolish, but I belive there are benefits to a large gathering–it brings momentum, creativity, networking, and can be a sort of starting place for many people. The problem is, it takes a good deal of energy to do a big meeting. Energy that could be spent elsewhere. Is it a waste of time and energy to try to have the best of both worlds? Perhaps. Perhaps we’re making a mistake, and we’ll decide in a few months to have a central gathering only once a month (or twice).

It was Xenos that sold me on the idea of having a Central Gathering. It really helps them focus on their vision, give them the shared mass to do things that a regular house group network could never do, and provide a time for a group to hear preaching (you can’t really preach to a small group of people).

So here’s the challenge I’m facing: how do I make the big meeting serve the small ones? How do I decentralize a central meeting? How do I keep it from being a resource mosquito?

Learning from Africa

I just read a great article by Geoff Holsclaw. I get a bit skiddish around “fulfillment” theologies in which Christianity is seen as the fulfillment of the deepest desires of a culture (there is some pitfalls in this thinking that need to be avoided), but Mr. Holsclaw seems to be aware of the pitfalls and is able to offer a well-needed corrective for the emergent church. Here’s a tidbit of the article, I heartily recommend you read the rest:

Unfortunately, while seeking to reform and transform the modern Church, the Emerging Church movement many times continues to fall prey to the tyranny of the new and the drive toward relevance undergirded by a missionary theology of contectualization which in a Western setting ends up creating more and more niche market Christian consumers rather than a subversive unified church.

So, what resources might be available to the emerging church seeking a way beyond modern relevance? As we will see, the ancient church fathers/mothers and current African thinkers were/are not seeking to be relevant to their surrounding culture, but were/are seeking a definition and expression of their own particular Christian identity amid their cultural situation.

If this whets your appetite, read the rest here.

Postmodernism and Being White

My friend Jeff Gauss recently wrote this on his blog:

Isn’t it strange that a worldview that values diversity, tolerance, and relativism would be so short on voices from different cultures?
Is this a form of white power and/or racism and are we in danger of segregating ourselves even more from those we say we value?

I think people in the emergent conversation value the IDEA of diversity more than valuing diversity. I know this is a generalization, and that there are exceptions, but the evidence points to this reality. If I truly value diversity, I will feel uncomfortable in homogeneous environments. I will cultivate and seek out friendships with those different that I am. I will view those who aren’t from my culture more like people to learn from and enter into relationship with–instead of looking at them like they’re projects.

Too many emergent churches have “social justice” or “diversity” as one of their values. Do they assume that if they make it known that they value such things, that people of color will be grateful and show up? Is their value wishful thinking…a statement of intent that they desire to come true? In a way it is wishful thinking that causes Missio Dei to have this in its vision statement:

Missio Dei is eclectic. We are eclectic in that we are a gathering of people who are diverse in their backgrounds. We believe that God is pleased when his Church doesn’t let differences divide us. Instead, we are committed to tackling issues of racism, classism, injustice, and division within the body of Christ.

In all honesty, Missio Dei is still predominantly white. And most of us are in our 20s. There are exceptions. But odds are that when we have our official launch in October, and we invite the neighborhood to visit us, that mostly whites will be attracted to us. We have white leadership, and our sense of style reflects that. If we want to counteract this whitening effect, we need to incorperate diverse styles into our teaching, preaching, and music. If we desire diversity, we have to make friends with different kinds of people and invite them into our community. If we value diversity, we have to humble ourselves before others, and not be a colonial church–a church where the whites in the congregation secretly believe that THEY are more enlightened and that minorities should adopt our sense of style, values, and philosophies.

So, overall, I think the postmodern movement is pretty much a white thing. Postmodernism and the emergent church are in a rut where they look at diversity as a good idea, but not as something that should cause them to reorder their lives.

To Build or not to Build

I ran accross a post by Jordon Cooper concerning the perils inherent in churches moving into permanent facilities. In it, Mr. Cooper writes:

Maybe renting out Sunday morning space and then looking at some small office space is a better long term instead of just short term strategy for a lot of congregations.

I think renting space for gatherings and having an office if needed are great–not just because of the lower costs, but for sake of mission. Few things institutionalize like having a building of your own. It is hard to OUTreach when ministry is centered around a building. At Missio Dei, we’ve decided to rent space unless having a building serves our outreach efforts–not merely because it will serve our gathering times. I know that many people consider their gatherings to be outreach, but that is part of the overall problem, in my estimation. Using a gathering as outreach is ok, but it shouldn’t be your primary form of outreach, in my quasi-humble opinion.

Since Missio Dei emphasizes house gatherings, I think renting space on Sundays can also help make homes more of a unifying building. If people never feel completely at “home” in your Sunday meeting space, but do in house gatherings, it brings added emphasis to house meetings.

Wilderness

Today I’m leaving for an over-night bachelor party. Just a bunch of guys in a rustic cabin in Minnesota. I’ve been promised beer, fire, and shooting stuff. That sounds SOOO good right now.

A number of my fellow church planters tend to think that you have to be uber busy all the time when planting a church. I resisted that impulse until recently. A couple weeks ago, around the time we started our larger Sunday gatherings and at the same time split our group into two house churches, things got stressfully busy for me. I’ve been an ogre to Amy (my wife), I’ve been losing some sleep, and I’ve had headaches.

This isn’t to say: “Look how cool I am. I’m way more stressed than you!” I hate it when people measure their worth by how busy and stressed they are. It is a sick phenomenon.

It is to say: “Put relaxation into your schedule.” Starting a new work can be consuming. Give yourself a REAL day off every week. Go to the wilderness often. Have dates every week with your wife or girlfriend…or if you don’t have either of those in your life, hang out with a buddy.

THX 1138 and the Missional Church

THX 1138 (The George Lucas Director’s Cut) is being released next week at a director’s cut DVD. What is THX 1138. It’s George Lucas’ first film. Before Star Wars was THX 1138–a Sci Fi film with a budget of under $1 million.

George Lucas has come along way. Vision has given way to technology. Guts has yeilded to digital precision. I’m planning on THX 1138 for the same reasons that I prefer the original Nintendo to most recent game releases: creativity and passion with a small budget is better than expensive mediocrity. I also think that creativity under material constraint can be more beautiful that well-funded creativity. From what I’ve heard, THX 1138 is masterful. It is art. A lot of low-budget films are art. If someone has passion enough to have a film made–without certainty of material success…without the benefit of a large studio, then odds are that their creativity–for good or ill–will shine through with little distraction.

The astute reader knows where I’m going with this. Church should be like indy film. Material abundance can as often be a detriment to ecclesial creativity as it is a boon. When you are forced to do much with little, creativity flourishes. Innovation and tenacity merge together to form something new. When you have all the money you “need” there is a tendency to shortcut creativity and buy pre-packaged excellence.

House Church Blog

A great house church blog. I like their “The Basics” section:

http://sojourner.typepad.com/house_church_blog/

Community-Friendly Theology

I stumbled upon a great article by Bob Lupton called “Community-Friendly Theology” This sort of approach to “parish” ministry is excellent. Churches that are geographically based instead of demongraphically based really excite me. Unfortunately they don’t seem to have the same “numbers.”

I’m excited, because Bob Lupton is coming to Minneapolis for a luncheon with local church leaders. Since I got an invite, I’m planning on going. I desperately want Missio Dei to be the sort of community of faith that shows love to South Minneapolis. I am tired of churches that don’t reach out to their neighborhood. I am weary of churches that use most of their resources for attracting people, and precious little on reaching people–there is a HUGE difference in my book. The thought that Missio Dei could end up like makes my stomach get tied up into a knot. But turning back human nature is hard.

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