The Subersive Spirit 4

In my previous posts on “the Subversive Spirit” I VERY briefly delved into the Old Testament, the Gospels and Acts.

I could continue to dig into the biblical texts, but I’m going to stop for now…though I reserve the right to draw upon the epistles from time to time for the practical outworking of pneumatology.  What I’m most interested in is the inter-relatedness between Christ, the Spirit, and the Church.  Let me lay it all out in a very bullet-pointy sorta way.  I want to lay my cards out on the table in this post, so that I can explore an “emerging” pneumatology of sorts in my next post.  Please ask any questions you might have or weigh in on any of the issues I raise–I want to be as collaborative as possible as I move forward.

Pneumatology affects our understanding of Christ.  Is Jesus primarily a moral exemplar?  An ethical genius? If so, then the Spirit can simply be understood as a “life force” or a great love.  In this sense, Gandhi was spirit filled the same way Jesus was.  Is Jesus primarily a miracle-worker?  A wielder of charismatic power? If so, then the Spirit can be understood merely as the “power of God.” The Gospels tie Jesus’ Christ-hood with the Spirit’s anointing.  Folks like Clark Pinnock have put forth a Spirit Christology that deals with this sort of interconnectedness.  Whatever our view of the Spirit is, it helps shape our understanding of Christ.

Pneumatology affects our understanding of the Church. The church is Christ’s embodiment in the world.  One’s understanding of the relationship between the Spirit and the church (and between the Spirit and the world) affects how that embodiment is understood and what it looks like.  Is the Spirit at work in a way that isn’t always radically Christ-centered?  Is the Spirit at work in all religions? In the same way in all religions?  Do we still experience the Spirit the same way today as in the early church?  Is our engagement with the Spirit primarily centered on Scripture?  What are spiritual gifts and how do they work? How do we experience the leading of the Spirit in mission?  Are we to make decisions as a church based upon spiritual discernment or simple wisdom? Or both? How?

Depersonalizing the Spirit takes us off the rails. I’ve already posted a bit on this. But I want to give some concrete examples of how depersonalizing the Spirit plays out.  My primary encounter with a depersonalized Spirit is with some Pentecostals/Charismatics that I know.  These are the very people that are supposed to care MORE about the Spirit.  But they get drunk on the effects and power of the Spirit.  When the Spirit is boiled down to an experience or special abilities, then there is no place for real discernment.  If the Spirit isn’t a One that Requires our Submission, but instead a Force or Power from God for Our Disposal, then the goal isn’t to live in obedience to Christ by the humble submission to the work of the Spirit in our midst.  Instead, the goal becomes more about gaining power, utilizing power, and climbing the ladder of spiritual superiority.  Look at people like Benny Hinn.  He is a perfect outworking of someone addicted to an impersonal Spirit. 

Another example of a depersonalized Spirit is a sort of unreflective version of the work currently being done linking the Spirit and pluralism.  Many see the Spirit as an attitude or posture: the “Spirit” is being loving to others or the “Spirit” is pursuing truth.  In this idea, the Spirit isn’t the One who brings us to Christ, but a personal disposition to truth.  And in this way, there isn’t anything particularly Christian about the Spirit, and there isn’t any particular submission to the Spirit in a relational way.  Instead the submission is akin to the way in which we should all submit to abstract ideas like “tolerance” or “democracy.”

You might ask: Why are you subordinating depersonal or impersonal existence below personal existence?  Because, I’m with John Zizioulas (and others like LeRon Shults) that argue that the category of “existence” or “being” is subordinate to the category of “relationality.” God’s being is grounded in the triune relationality of God.  My existence is contingent upon my relationships–to God and to others.  I am who I am because of my relationships.  All of creation flows out of the inter-relationality of God.  Sure, one can have inter-relationality within God without personhood for the Spirit.  But to do so would be to subordinate the Spirit to the Father and the Son–and do we REALLY want to go there? Basically, I believe that if I am a person, and the Holy Spirit is not, then I really believe that I am more than the Holy Spirit. 

The Spirit needs to be understood eschatologically.  I don’t believe creation is a static event in the past, but an ongoing event that breaks in from the future.  The new heavens and the new earth aren’t a destruction of the old and a rebuilding of the new…but a transformation of the old into the new.  It is the Spirit who deconstructs and re-creates–it is the Spirit who brings the transformation of all creation in Christ. 

The Spirit continually creates the church…and when we use a blueprint-approach to church creation and formation, centered around church leaders, we piss the Spirit off. Here is where I connect pneumatology most practically with ecclesiology.  I fundamentally believe that if we “do” church based upon some sort of success blueprint, then we are in sin.  And, believe it or not, I believe that if we “do” church based only upon what we read about in Scripture, we are also in sin.  You heard me.  If we don’t believe that Christ still leads through his Spirit, and that the Spirit still opens our eyes to see the world as-it-could-be, then we should merely (and dogmatically) cling to Scripture.  But I don’t believe that after the Spirit inspired the authors of Scripture, the Spirit went into early retirement.  This is by no means to say that the Bible isn’t inspired or that it isn’t fruitful for doing ecclesiology.  But to simply say “we’ll do it the way they did it in the book of Acts” is to grossly ignore context and to under-value the role of the Spirit in our lives today. 

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The Subversive Spirit 3

They paint the Holy Spirit descending upon the Apostles’ heads in the form of a dove. For shame! Haven’t they ever felt the Holy Spirit burning them? Where did they find that innocent, edible bird? How can they present that to us as Spirit? No, the Holy Spirit is not a dove, it is a fire, a man eating fire which clamps its talons into the very crown of saints, martyrs, and great strugglers, reducing them to ashes. Abject souls are the ones who take the Holy Spirit for a dove which they imagine they can kill and eat.

(Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco, 508)

When we first encounter the Spirit in the Gospels, we see the Spirit preparing the way for the Messiah. It is the Spirit who impregnates Mary…it is the Spirit who empowers John to be a Great Prophet and it is the Spirit who anoints Jesus at his Baptism.

The Spirit brings forth the Christ. And then leads him into the desert to be confronted by Satan. From there, we see that Jesus’ understanding of his own ministry in Luke 4 is tied up with the Spirit…for it is the Spirit’s anointing that allows Jesus to preach good news to the poor.

And it is the Spirit who, after Jesus ascends to the Father, is unleashed upon the disciples…a terrifying wind that leaves flames dancing upon their heads. By the Spirit’s power, these disciples start to vomit strange words–a terrifying sign of new unity. A great reversal of Babel. Jesus, the Lawgiver, has given his new Law, the Spirit.

The Spirit subverts, but quietly. The Spirit never brings attention to herself, but instead point folks to Jesus. Yet the Spirit is essential–the Spirit and the Son are so wrapped up in one another that they cannot be separated. Jesus never seemed to do anything of his own accord or power. Jesus works by the power of the Spirit, and in obedience to the Father.

If in the Old Testament, we see the Spirit engaged in revealing the world as-it-might-be and then empower God’s people to subvert the world as-it-is, then the Spirit’s “job” doesn’t change in the New Testament. And the following Old Testament cycle doesn’t change in the New Testament either:

The Spirit co-creates. The Spirit inspires. The Spirit reveals. The Spirit re-creates.

In the New Testament we see the Spirit, in a sense, making the Messiah. And it is the Spirit who co-creates the Church with Jesus. The Spirit, we see in the Gospels and Acts, is behind every true word, and behind every true insight. The Spirit speaks into Falsehood. And the Spirit destroys misunderstanding. The Spirit inspires and the Spirit reveals.

The Spirit not only creates, but also destroys. Gone are the old divisions. At Pentecost, the Spirit destroys national distinctions. And at the “Gentile” Pentecost, the Spirit destroys the division between Jews and Gentiles.

And every time we see Jesus or one of his followers do a miraculous deed or utter a bold word, it is the Spirit who enables them to do so. Every missional step forward in the book of Acts is at the Spirit’s urging. There is no “missonal” apart from the Spirit. There is no “incarnational” (or an Incarnation for that matter) apart from the Spirit.

The Spirit isn’t a snake that can be charmed. The Spirit blows where she will. She is never commanded, never used. She is unpredictable. And mysterious. She is a dangerous bird. She subverts. And when she burns in your heart, she destroys you from within, so that a new life will rise from the ashes.

The Spirit has quietly ripped apart the old world and is bringing forth the new, in Christ, for the Father. Amen.

If you meet Christ on the road, kill him!

There is an old Zen saying: If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him! From a Buddhist framework, this means that one shouldn’t have a master outside one’s self–a Buddha outside one’s own self. Practically, this means that the Buddhist shouldn’t believe what someone says simply because they are a holy person.

While I don’t buy into a Buddhist way of seeing the world, I think there is a lot of wisdom here for Christians. Basically, this is a warning that means one shouldn’t worship heroes, one shouldn’t look for a substitute Christ. Simply put: Christians shouldn’t have gurus. When contemporary American Christians have living saints or celebrity gurus, those gurus and saints become like a brand name. People become their fans, but fans rarely imitate the objects of their affection.

In fact, Jesus (while he certainly accepts our worship) seemed WAY more interested in having people follow him than he was in people worshiping him. I don’t think Jesus is pleased with our worship, given the atrocious state of our discipleship. And he certainly doesn’t like it when we elevate people like Shane Claiborne as exemplars, but fail to follow their example. Shane has gotten a lot of attention, and for some good reasons. He is living out a radically Christ-centered life that is worthy of imitation. But he’s gotten WAY more fans than imitators. And the way the “machine” has gotten a hold of him has saddened me, because it is turning him into a saint instead of into an “ordinary radical.” I know so many people who love what he has to say but feel like he’s in a special class of holy person. This has been building and now seems to have hit a new high with the recent broadcast by NPR.

If you meet Christ on the road, kill him.

A lot of friends have given me a hard time about my general grumpiness about the Shane Claiborne phenomenon. And rightly so. I’m sure at least SOME of my grumpiness comes from the fact that I am an unknown neomonastic and Shane is a guru among neomonastics. But my issue isn’t really with him. I wish that millions would look at Shane’s life and imitate it. But from everything I’ve seen, there hasn’t been much of that. Most neomonastics I know (me included) are inspired by what inspires Shane. People need to move from respecting Shane, to honoring Jesus. And from honoring Jesus to following Jesus.

In a way, this post has nothing to do with Shane Claiborne. It has to do with the way in which fickle Christians embrace exemplars. I have no doubt in my mind, whatsoever, that Shane’s goal is to promote Christlikeness–to challenge people into living out the Gospel. But when one becomes an unwitting brand, the figure-head of a trend, then it isn’t discipleship that’s being promoted. Instead, it is hero worship.

What is my point in saying all this? It certainly isn’t to take pot shots at Shane Claiborne. By all accounts, he is an amazing person. I’d love to know him and learn from him. His book challenged me. He’s doing great things. But he has become a guru. And this isn’t good. If you’re one of the many people that are enamored with him, or with any other living saint (take your pick), but your life hasn’t been reformed in response, then kill the Buddha. Instead of being an adorer, become an imitator. Embrace the presence of the Spirit, obey the loving commands of Jesus, and let go of those things that keep you from moving forward. Stop being that guy or gal who thinks that s/he is someone who “gets it” because of the books or sermons with which you agree. Instead, go and do likewise.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that I am doing all the “Jesus stuff” myself. I need people to imitate. I need to learn from others. I am a flawed human being struggling to live it out too. So don’t read my challenge as a “hey, I’m someone who’s really DOING it, and you aren’t. So you suck.” That’s not my intention. Instead, we should all embrace the struggle to live things out. We should all be discontent with simply reading words on pages (or blogs). We should spend less time trying to be inspired by others and more time taking the simple steps of faithfulness. We need to resist abstraction. Ideas are cheap. Behaviors are costly. Let’s work out our salvation with fear and trembling as we do the good works that God has prepare for us.

Lack of Content, the Unleashing of IV West Bank, and the Promise of Things to Come

Haven’t posted much real content in the past week or so.  Sorry about that.  I’ve been a bit distracted with other things, and haven’t been able to focus my cosmic energies into substantial ideas.

One of those “distractions” is my work with InterVarsity.  I need to raise about 2k/month by the end of the summer.  I recently designed a new brochure, and today I created a website to go along with it…hopefully this will all help folks know a bit about what my plans are with InterVarsity and how they’ll take shape.  If you’re interested check it out: ivwestbank.com. It needs a bit more work, but its basically done.

 Stay tuned…I hope to post more about the “Subversive Spirit” this week, and I also want to begin my review of Mark Scandrette’s “Soul Graffiti.”

Just to give you a teaser, here’s the mini-review I gave on Amazon.com:

If one were to take the mind of Dallas Willard, the tongue of a beat poet, and the heart of a Franciscan brother, put them in a blender, and pour them into a book, you might end up with Soul Graffiti. Soul Graffiti is a poetic, prophetic, call to follow the radical Way of Jesus. Mark Scandrette rips off the scab of encrusted, safe, sentimental American Christianity and invites the reader into the provocative, fresh, improvisational riff of discipleship with Christ. The book is a call to imagine the Way of Christ for the Post-Christian West.

Join the Parade!

The Twin Cities parade of Churches is coming on July 23rd to the 27th. I am truly looking forward to playing a part in this. I am not a fan of “conventional” conventions. Churchy conferences are often abstracted dispensers of de-contextualized practices or theology. In less nerdy lingo: church conferences usually tell you how to do ministry or what to think about God without caring about your particular situation. They can leave you frustrated and drained.

My hope (and assumption) is that the Parade of Churches will be different. Why? Because it is ALL ABOUT CONTEXT. And the Parade of Churches isn’t about telling you how to do ministry. Instead it is an invitation to experience ministry in the Twin Cities by Twin Cities ministers. Here’s the 411:

The unique context of Minneapolis and St. Paul have catalyzed innovation in churches and new church communities for the last decade, and the Twin Cities have become a hub of the emerging church movement. Communities of theology and practice have sprung up around the cities, and collegial relationships have developed as well. So, we thought, Why not throw a party together?

In that spirit, we’ve designed a week of learning, conversation, worship, experimentation, and friendship. If you join us, you’ll experience a variety of emerging communities of faith — you’ll be challenged and encouraged; you’ll make friends and share ideas.

Over the course of five days, you’ll get the flavor of five communities, plus input from several more. Further, you’ll have the opportunity to spend the mornings in cohort groups in which you can discuss the implications of your learnings, and your afternoons in intriguing seminars led by theologians and practitioners.

This isn’t a “how to” conference. It isn’t like business professionals going to a large cooperation to learn better business practices. It is more like a group of artists going to an art gallery in order to experience the artistry of others–it is less about educating and more about inspiriting and sharing.

Who is this thing for?

• It is for people all over the country who are a part of the larger emerging church conversation. They can come and see how the Gospel is embodied in various ways in our context so that they can be encouraged and inspired in their attempts to embody the Gospel in theirs.
• It is also for those folks that don’t consider themselves “emerging” but want to know what this emerging church thing is. Maybe you’ve read a McLaren book and some articles from critics. You want to learn from the movement, but aren’t on board. If you are interested in learning more about the movement and how it takes shape so that you can learn about the emerging church straight from practitioners instead of from books and articles, then come check us out.

PRICE: $145 for all five days!

Click HERE to register today!

Facebook!

Disclaimer: Most of this post is about me telling you why you should use Facebook. It may seem out of character for me to talk about technology so much, when this blog is particularly about discipleship, ecclesiology, etc. Have no fear, at the end, I connect the use of this awesome web 2.0 system with ecclesiology.

Facebook is awesome. And it isn’t just for college students (who are still its bread and butter).
Facebook is great because it gives you a constantly updated feed of info on your friends: their status, their events, the new friends they make, their most recently blog posts (if they direct their blog feed into Facebook), etc. This makes it incredibly easy to stay up to date with your friends–and to find long-lost friends. And, unlike Myspace, there isn’t any smut to try to ignore. And you don’t have to listen to stupid music playing every time you visit someone’s site.

If you don’t use Facebook, you should. This isn’t an annoying bit of internet technology that you should ignore. I use it to stay connected to old college friends, old camp pals, current buddies, colleagues, etc. All of this information show up on my home page–allowing me to know when one friend gets engaged or another graduates from college. It lets me know their favorite movies and books.

Facebook lets you create events (like parties or conferences) and let all your friends know about (who can in turn tell their friends about it). For example, I’ve let friends know about Christarchy! and the Twin Cities Parade of Churches.

And you can create groups, which function the way forums function. I just created a group on Alternative Economics–about 20 people have joined the group and can post comments based upon that theme.

And if you don’t already have a blog, you can start writing posts on Facebook too (or you can have your current blog feed into Facebook). Some have suggested that Facebook will kill off blogging. Not so. Never in a thousand years. But I guarantee that blogging platforms like Wordpress will begin to integrate Facebook or Facebook-like features into their architecture.

And I am willing to bet that at some point Facebook will beef up their blogging architecture. You won’t simply be able to post thoughts or pull a feed from another blog. Eventually, they’ll probably allow you to customize the look of your profile, provide an integrated RSS reader, and develop more plug-ins. And so, I predict that Wordpress (and its competitors) will integrate Facebook features into their architecture and Facebook will integrate Wordpress feature into their architecture (they’ve already got some nifty plugins). In the best scenario, Facebook and Wordpress would be owned by the same company–and a new uber-platform will be unleashed upon the world.

And already Facebook is trying to get in on the Craigslist market by creating a classified marketplace.

***

What does this have to do with ecclesiology? A lot, actually. Facebook has allowed me, as a thinker and leader, to decentralize my influence while, at the same time, focusing more completely on Missio Dei’s mission on the West Bank.

Let me explain. I get friends and acquaintances expressing interest in our approach to missional living all the time. Some have asked to be a part of Missio Dei because they find our approach compelling. But it wouldn’t be a good fit for them. Why? Because many of these folks are committed to different places in the metro area–or outside the metro area. For me to say “come and see” would be to woo them out of their God-given context.

By using decentralized, organic, communications systems like Facebook, I can create events, invite friends to events, and follow up on those events. Facebook allows me to more effectively foster something like Christarchy!–which is a decentralized gathering of likeminded folks. At Christarchy, I can help people learn and grow without ripping them out of their context. Instead, I can catalyze people to follow Jesus in their own context while remaining faithful to my own context. I can influence and be influenced by a network of likeminded people without requiring them to come be a part of my particular community.

And while the Twin Cities Emergent Cohort still maintains a website, I have no doubt that most communication will begin to take place over at Facebook.  Sure, blogging allowed for some of that. But now, with Facebook, sharing information and coordinating events is SUPER easy. And effective. Facebook facilitates real-life networking (unlike Myspace) that can translate into on-the-ground grassroots movements.  Facebook is perfect for mobilizing and energizing a grassroots movement.

Why I’m an Anarchist…

Today I read definitive proof that the government is the pawn of Satan!

Now I have more to go on than contoversial political readings of the New Testament! Go HERE for the brilliant expose.

Join me in subverting the Empire! Down with Satan and his governmental minions!

Twin Cities Emergent Cohort :: May 17 :: Noon :: Acadia Cafe :: Special Guest –> Dr. Chris Armstrong :: Topic –> Tradition in the Emerging Church

The Twin Cities Emergent Cohort is coming up this week (noon at the Acadia). We’ll be joined by Dr. Chris Armstrong, professor of church history at Bethel Seminary. Chris will lead us in a discussion of the role of Tradition in the Emerging Church.

Formerly the editor of Christian History magazine, a publication of Christianity Today International, he is a member of several professional associations related to church history. He has a PhD from Duke University Divinity School. Chris is currently working on a book titled “Patron Saints for Postmoderns.”

Be there, or be square.

Dan’s Thoughts: Christianity and Capitalism

Dan Oudshoorn is quickly becoming one of my favorite bloggers. He’s one of those guys who is not only a deep thinker, but he’s doing the STUFF. I love that. It is what I myself strive to be.

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