Lighten Up

Just reading over my own posts and wow... I didn't mean for this site to be so heavy and full of impending doom for the church. The church has a glorious future. One in which she is a bride without spot or wrinkle. Lighten up already dude.


Anyone heard the new Aqueduct album, I Sold Gold? It's awesome. You should.

It's a run don't walk for sure.

a.

posted by Renovo Creative @ 9:28 PM 0 comments

The Crux of the Emerging Church

The challenges for the Church at such a time are profound. A generation that finds itself in the crux of such a change has a significant responsibility for shaping the new ways of thinking that will define its own age but also that of the coming era. When Christians get it right at such times, adapting themselves to the changing culture and finding new language for timeless truths, the Gospel spreads more easily for years to come because it makes sense to people. However, when the church gets it wrong by resisting change and enshrining nostalgia, we risk apparent irrelevance and an upward struggle. (Red Moon Rising, Peter Greig and Dave Roberts, 2003)

Things are getting tense in Christendom. We are perched precariously in the balance of two periods, one waning, the other waxing. Every 200 years or so, periods change. The Age of Discovery gave way to The Renaissance which paved the way for The Reformation. The Age of Reason took the baton then passed it to Enlightenment which was followed by Romantic, then Victorian.

We are coming out of the Modern period and coming into the Postmodern period. Which, as far as names go, bothers me. Could we not have been named something more original? How very postmodern of me to even ask the question.

Postmodernism is marked by a new way of thinking, a new culture, new struggles and battles. They very way we view knowledge is different from ages past, our art is different, our very thought processes are different. Even the way we do church is different.

Before really studying the postmodern period, I thought it more a movement or a philosophy, not realizing how much I am a product of a postmodern age. But the deeper I looked, the more I realized it was me, us, we. Many of the struggles youth today face are waves in the ocean of change. The church is going to feel the turbulence of the change as well and we need to understand it in order to survive it.

The term coined to describe the church in a postmodern age, or rather, the church that fits in a postmodern age is the Emerging Church. Wikipedia defines it as such:

Though expressions of the emerging church vary according to cultural context, tradition and school of thought, they share some distinguishing characteristics including a common and unique language of discourse; encouragement of creative expression; holistic forms of worship; fluency in new media; sensitivity to postmodernity; organizational simplicity; a missional approach; an ecumenical commitment; and placing value on social justice.

The emerging church originated in reaction to many perceived problems of the late 20th century Church: declining attendance of Protestant churches, particularly amongst Generation X, concern over how the Church would adapt to postmodernity, and increasing suspicion of the missiology of the market-driven mega-church and institutionalized Christianity.

The struggle is going to be against a spirit of rebellion. I feel the much of the emerging church rhetoric is very devisive, an us against them mentality. Some of it is necessary to be able to make the shift but I belive there is a way to do it successfully. We need to convince both the existing chuch of the need for change and the emerging church of the need for accountability.

God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the God of three generations. We are in danger of forsaking Abraham and Jacob and starting an Isaac church. But many questions arise. What happends when Isaac has a Jacob and, eventually becomes an Abraham?

The brilliance in God's plan is that it allows for change and growth. It allows for the church to weather a serious storm and come through stronger. Abraham has seen the storms and is walking by the true light on the broad highway of truth. It is Abraham that can keep Isaac from falling into the ditch on either side of truth. It is Abraham who can keep Isaac from teaching Jacob the culture instead of the Word that defies it.

I always go too long on these posts but the question I have today is this. How does Abraham let Isaac change the church to meet the needs of Jacob when Abraham's thinking is of a different sort? And how does Isaac listen to the wisdom of Abraham but still adapt to the change in culture that Abraham doesn't understand?

This is going to be the stuggle the church faces in its pursuit of postmodern relevance. I keep coming back to this, if we are just real, if we can REAL-ly CONNECT with people, then it doesn't matter how relevant we are. Our success will be based on how well we do this (and again I guote Peter Greig and Red Moon Rising):

...disciple them in their own context and release them in ministry without requiring that they commit cultural suicide along the way.

The church is in anoallasso and I am right there with it. The upward change. Individually changing into the likeness of Christ so that we can touch others who will also journey with us and touch others like them.

Real.ly connecting in anoallsso.

a.

posted by Renovo Creative @ 8:28 PM 1 comments

Connecting in Context

rel-e-vant
Pronunciation: 're-l&-v&nt
Function: adjective
Etymology: Medieval Latin relevant-, relevans, from Latin, present participle of relevare to raise up -- more at RELIEVE
1 a : having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand b : affording evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion c : having social relevance

rel-e-vance
Pronunciation: 're-l&-v&n(t)s
Function: noun
1 a : relation to the matter at hand b : practical and especially social applicability : PERTINENCE
2 : the ability to retrieve material that satisfies the needs of the user

What do we mean when we say we are relevant? Does it mean that we have social relevance? Social practicality and social applicability?

I would love to think that when the church is trying to be relevant, we are using the second definition of relevance. We are trying to retrieve material from a culture so that we can satisfy the needs of that culture. Understanding the post-modern culture around us so that we can effectively speak to that culture, and satisfy their basic needs.

The gospel is always relevant but the gospel will not be made relevant. It always has social practicality and applicability but it won't be made to fit into existing culture. It's goal is to change culture. It was, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks, foolishness. I quote 1 Corintians 1:17-31 beacuse it is so...well, relevant to the discussion.

1 Corinthians 1:17-31 (The Message)
God didn't send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him. And he didn't send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful action at the center - Christ on the Cross - be trivialized into mere words.

The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out.

It's written, I'll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I'll expose so-called experts as crackpots.

So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn't God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense?

Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb - preaching, of all things! - to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.

While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom,, we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle - and Greeks pass it off as absurd.

But to us who are personally called by God himself - both Jews and Greeks - Christ is God's ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one.

Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can't begin to compete with God's "weakness."

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families.

Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses,, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"?

That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God.

Everything that we have - right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start - comes from God by way of Jesus Christ.

That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God."

We can’t make the gospel relevant to culture because it's counter-culture. The culture in Jesus’ day didn’t get it; they killed the messenger. The culture in Paul’s day didn’t get it; they killed the messenger. The gospel will not change, it will not move, it is truth that cannot be altered. There are movements today trying to make the gospel and the Bible relevant to culture and it's landing us in a moral morass. They are changing the gospel, changing the message, making it more palatable to a culture at large, more...relevant.

I suppose, if we don't alter the message, we can make the delivery relevant to the culture, we can speak their language.

But how to speak in such a broad language? How do I speak to punk rockers, goths, and college Republicans in the same language?

If I were the bandwagon type, I would look at the white spot on my otherwise tan arm and remember the day I removed the WWJD bracelet in favor of a live4EVER bracelet. But I’m not so I just seriously ask, what would Jesus do?

I don’t think He had such a diverse culture to speak to, but regardless, His core message was the same to Nicodemus, Zaccheus, Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan woman, the Roman centurion, and the thief on the cross. There is a heart longing for a relationship with God that only He can fulfill.

The question becomes, how does the goth express the gaping hole in their soul differently than the punk. And how do I connect with them? Rather, how do I open a door for the Spirit within me to speak to the hole inside them?

Connecting. Really connecting. Or REAL-ly connecting. In their context, not ours. And I think that they can be in our context when God speaks to them in theirs. We dont have to emmulate their context to speak in their context. Connect in context. I like that. This is starting to resonate. If we connect with them in their context, then we can send them back into their context to make more connections.

Is the answer relevance? I don’t know. I don't think it is in it's current form. I feel that relevance is walking a relative fence. I know that I don’t want to be a part of another “movement” that will be passe tomorrow. I want to change daily. Upwardly. Permanently. I don’t have the answers. All I have is questions. And lots of them.

But I’m, starting to think, that just possibly, the answer is prayer.

Fervent prayer.

Not evangelical whispers or charismatic shouts but genuine conversation with God that asks him to spare those that we can’t understand. Not everyday prayers, but all-day prayers. 24-7 prayer.

If we will, they will.

posted by Renovo Creative @ 4:08 PM 1 comments

Blue Like Jazz

If you've not read this, do. Of course, we all like books that say things that we want to say or say things that we are saying. This is one of those. It goes a bit further tho in that it convicts as well.

Am I allowing myself to be sharpened by the iron of community? Not really. Is there room enough in my view of Jesus to allow that he might not be Republican? Am I embracing the social justice aspects that Jesus would have embraced?

I was recently in India-no-place. I really like the town, especially when I am not paying for things myself. They have some great steak places. Actually, a really high concentration of good food in such a compacted area. At any rate, I was hanging out with some work friends in a bar. I had a beer, as in single, just one, uno.

I've often said that I think Jesus would hang out in a bar every so often. That he gravitated towards the hurting, the poor, those seeking Him in everyplace that He's not. But that night, as I was leaving, I realized that I was falling prey to a dangerous rationalization. In fact, the fact that I rationalized it is what makes it dangerous. If I am in a bar to have a beer, like I would be in a Baskin Robins having an ice cream (mint chip with carmel, fudge, butterscotch, whip cream, cherry), that should be the end of it. No big deal, its just enjoying life. But I wasn't. I was trying to Christianize the experience.

And as I walked back to the hotel, I realized that Jesus WOULD go to the bar. But He'd stand in the center and call out:

HEY! Everyone! Listen! If you are trying to hide from something, trying to bury something, cover it up, if you are thirsty and this isnt cutting it, I've got something for you! Come to me and I will give you something that won't leave you in pain tomorrow morning!

And of course, he'd get bounced. But half the bar would empty and the other half would party like it's AD 99.

Bottom line -- I'll still have a beer. But not under the auspices of being spiritual. Under the auspices of enjoying life, no problem.

Bottom bottom line -- Read the book. Check out the website. The website is one of the finest in execution, navigation, and content I've ever seen. Brilliant.

posted by Renovo Creative @ 9:26 PM 0 comments

Shores of Eden (part 1)

“This isn’t what I expected,” she said calmly, scanning the horizon for a glimpse of the promised glow. Seven years of preparation wasted, she thought, disappointment etched on her face. She searched the eyes of her guide, expecting answers but finding only experience beyond his years, a resolve that claimed nothing is impossible, and the glint of love that captivated her on their first meeting.

“Did you expect to see it your first day?” he countered, staring at the same horizon but apparently seeing something entirely different. “Have faith. The same faith that called you here will reveal your desire. It is late and you must rest.”

Angowai gestured back to their gear, and silently walked away. She watched him disappear into the jungle at the abrupt edge of the beach. Angie reflected on her journey thus far, on Angowai, and on this seemingly average white sand beach with seemingly normal waves lapping at her tired feet.

“Angowai,” she called, suddenly remembering that she needed his help to set up their camp for the night. No response came from the slightly ruffled vegetation, the only indication that someone had recently passed through to the jungle that lay beyond.

“Why am I here?!” she cried aloud, feeling abandoned, tired, and overwhelmed by feeling underwhelmed.

-Do you think I’ve left you?-

The familiar voice of reason spoke loudly, commanding, yet loving and soft. “The voice of reason”, she mused, recalling the beginning of her adventure, seven years ago tonight. The same voice only less pronounced and more like a gentle thought had put it in her head that paradise was an actual place. The Garden of Eden was real. She devoted the next years pouring over myths, legends, and every traveler’s tale of parasidic visions. The voice of reason grew stronger and louder, taking on a personality of its own as she drew near the expedition.

-Did I bring you here to mock you?-

Angie had to admit that the voice of reason was no longer some personification of her own longing for adventure and was in fact a source outside herself, communicating, guiding, revealing pieces of itself.

-Do you think you can fully experience all that I have to show you in this state? Rest Angie. For tomorrow… -

-This is your last day as the Angie you know.-

Angie tensed, momentarily frozen by the weight of Reason’s declaration.

-This is your last day as the Angie you know.-

posted by Renovo Creative @ 4:08 PM 1 comments