Emerging Spiritual Practices

Colleagues,

We've noted here at least four streams that seem to provide life and energy to what we call "the emerging missional church"-- missiology (Newbigin, Boff and issues of indigineity), theology (McLaren, Pagitt, Tickle and others at the convergence of post-conservative and post-liberal Protestant theologies), worship (as influenced by both post-modern and ancient/future impulses), and spiritual formation (Dianne Butler Bass, Dallas Willard, and others refocusing us on personal devotional practices).

As I review our postings over the last year or so, we've done a bit of sharing here in three of these streams, but not much in the fourth.

Consider this an invitation to start that conversation-- and sharing of resources.

And I'll share a couple podcasts I've found as well.

The Daily Office Podcast-- from the Order of Saint Luke, just began last week, and seems to have some really interesting possibilities. Available at the link listed (on the Order of Saint Luke website, for RSS subscription), as a download (instructions available) and from iTunes (look up Daily Office in the online store). Updated weekly. Music varies week to week, and is from the Podsafe Music Network. Scripture is based on the Psalm and one of the readings from the previous Sunday.

Morning Prayer from the Episcopal Church in Garrett County, MD is an iTunes podcast, updated daily. Noon Prayer and Compline are also available, along with morning prayer, as mp3 downloads here.

I'd imagine y'all are aware of a lot more of this kind of thing than I am. Let's share what we've found!

Peace in Christ,

Taylor Burton-Edwards

Making Disciples

This year I have a goal of "Making Disciples" in my congregation. This should not come as any real surprise to any who are in ministry. I suppose it is kinda like a cook saying, "I think this year I am gonna fix me some food."

The United Methodist mission statement is, "To Make Disciples of Jesus Christ."

I feel like I have spent the first two years either putting out fires, addressing issues related to church structure, purposes (including my own), trying to determine the interests and focus of the congregation, or other such vareities of ministerial experience.

The challenge is to listen. In order to determine how to make disciples I am going to have to make a concerted effort to listen; to hear the voice of God for the community; to hear the passions of individuals in the church; to teach others to listen to each other so they can hear confirmation of their call to ministry; and to listen to the complaints about how I do pastoral ministry.

All of this with the understanding that this is what God wants from each of us: to serve the glory of the Kingdom with our gifts and talents as the Holy Spirit has enabled us.


Now, for the additional hard work. While listening I need to be able to address each individual as exactly that, a person who is deserving of his or her own plan for using their talents. There is no "formula" for making disciples, no matter what the church grand poobahs may say. There are some ways to help people discern their passion and how God is calling them, and we may need to find some ways to create that learning environment.

Once a person understands his or her calling we are going to have to work at helping them find their partner in ministry (recognizing first and foremost that the pastor is not the default partner for each person in ministry).

This then makes the need for each person to engage in ministry palpable as they have developed "a prayer, a passion, and a partner". The prayer is first the discernment of God's will. The passion is then tapping into their skills and talents for ministry. The partner is to ensure accountability and success, as the disciples were sent out in twos, just as the disciples of today ought to be sent in pairs.

Peace,
David

Toward a Christian Understanding of Life after Death

I was recently asked to assist in a funeral at a church outside my own tradition. It was an interesting experience. Many things that were said and done gave me pause to think, but nothing caught my attention so much as the bold proclamation of the confident pastor: “The body in that box is not real. It’s just a shell. His spirit, his soul, that’s what’s real. That’s the real ‘him.’ That is what is forever, eternal, and it’s in heaven with God right now.”
I find this image of life after death, an image of disembodied spirits dwelling with God in heaven, to be a very popular understanding among many Christians, both in the pews and the pulpit. There’s one big problem, though: It isn’t biblical Christianity (despite its extreme popularity in circles who often make the loudest claims to be “biblical Christians”).
The image of life after death presented in the bible is clearly one of physical bodies resurrected from the dead to inhabit a renewed creation, a new heaven and a new earth. Far from this biblical image, what is touted by so many under the guise of Christianity is nothing more than a thinly veiled form of Gnosticism (N.T. Writght is very convincing on this issue). This gives rise to two questions on my part:
My first question: How did this happen? For centuries the Church fought Gnosticism at every turn, often forming clearer pictures of exactly what orthodox Christianity is by differentiating it from Gnostic distortions. Somewhere along the way Gnosticism seems to have abandoned frontal assaults for an apparently highly successful back door tactic. Where and when did this subversive tactic begin, and how has it been so effective as to practically dominate popular “Christian” thinking about life after death in our own day and time?
My second question: What can be done about it? I guess this question all boils down to how much are we willing to put up with a lie for the sake of the comfort it brings. Let’s face it: for many people it’s much more comforting to be told that Aunt Bettie’s spirit is in heaven making a big batch of her famous chocolate chip cookies, than to be told that Aunt Bettie is “asleep in Christ” for now, but that she will rise again at the resurrection when the fullness of the Kingdom comes. Does it really matter how much comfort something brings if it is a lie? Furthermore, are we willing to be branded heretics? For surely the Gnostic image of life after death is so thoroughly accepted by so many as genuinely “Christian” that any challenge to it will be met with furious resistance. Should it matter how much resistance we may face if we’re standing on the side of truth?
I don’t pretend to know the answers. I’m not so sure I’m the boat-rocking type. I do not relish upsetting Aunt Bettie’s loved ones, or incurring the wrath of the “righteous.” Besides, just who do I think I am anyway? All I know is that it’s gotten under my skin lately, and I’m a little concerned about what that might mean and where it might lead me.
Anybody out there have any thoughts?

MISSIONAL MINDED MOMENT

(reposted from The Phaith of St. Phransus)
To realize that faith is personal is to realize that it is both individual and social. Christians are called to witness, with Christ, to God's love and power. And they are called to witness through the church, the mediating community that practices its storied faith in worship. The faith's aim is to make Christians radically different persons - persons who no longer live for self, but for God and others - and they will not be different persons merely as "isolated" individuals. They can become different only in a community that is different. - Rodney Clapp, in People of the Truth: The Power of the Worshiping Community in Modern World (San Francisco: Harper & Row) 1988.

shalom,
jonathon