is blogging communication or rumination?

After not posting for a year, I have been wondering whether to close this blog, or revive it.

Without posting for a year, I don't think anyone is reading it, so I don't expect this entry to elicit any answers.

But, a church leader asked me yesterday if Iwas still blogging. And I know that I have been disappointed when blogs I have enjoyed have come to an end.

Perhaps the issue is one of purpose. Facebook and Twitter are places where daily snippets can be shared. This blog was started to try to articulate what the Emerging Church conversation would mean for me. I'm not sure if it is the place to continue that reflection. But I won't shut the blog down just yet.

Meanwhile, I think Doug Gay's Remixing the Church (2011) is the most thoughtful book I've read on the subject recently.

the long, slow journey across the desert

I just want to pop this up here so I don't forget it. It's one of those anonymous pieces that speaks to our restless times.

"If, as Herod, we fill our lives with things, and again with things: if we consider ourselves so unimportant that we must fill every moment of our lives with action, when will we have the time to make the long, slow journey across the desert as did the Magi? Or sit and watch the stars as did the shepherds? Or ponder over the coming of the Child as did Mary? For each one of us, there is a desert to travel. A star to discover. And a being within ourselves to bring to life." (Anon).

a manifesto from 1997 for 2011

It's Christmas Eve, but I find my mind looking forward to 2011.

Reading about mission and the majority world church today, I came across this manifesto statement composed by Jim McClendon with five other ministers in 1997 ("Reenvisioning Baptist Identity: A Manifesto for Baptist Communities in North America," Baptists Today, 26 June 1997, pp8-10).

I'm not quite sure what a theory of 'soul competency' is, but apart from that, it's a vision worth sharing and putting into practice:

1. We affirm Bible Study in reading communities, rather than relying on private interpretation or supposed 'scientific' objectivity.
2. We affirm following Jesus as a call to shared discipleship rather than invoking a theory of soul competency.
3. We affirm a free common life in Christ in gathered, reforming communities rather than withdrawn, self-chosen, or authoritarian ones.
4. We affirm baptism, preaching and the Lord's table as powerful signs that seal God's faithfulness in Christ and express our response of awed gratitude rather than as mechanical rituals or mere symbols.
5. We affirm freedom and renounce coercion as a distinct people under God rather than relying on political theories, powers or authorities.

doing it, not talking about it

There are seasons in the human spirit. Learning is both about seeking and finding. Finding requires new kinds of doing--or what is the purpose of seeking?

This is a way of trying to explain to myself (and millions of other bloggers), why I have not posted on this emerging church blog for about nine months and also done little published hifi reviewing.

In both cases, the reason is that I have been doing it, rather than talking about it: teaching on Fresh Expressions and Emerging Church, talking, reading and writing about ecclesiology with friends, preparing new teaching materials on church and mission, participating in church life.

There was even a pleasant day this summer when a friend introduced me to Karen Ward, abbess of the Church of the Apostles, Seattle.

This is not really a hifi blog, but it is worth recording that I have been doing the same with hifi: listening, fixing, restoring, exploring. I have worked with others on new hybrids of SME 3012 tonearms, repaired a contemporary valve amplifier, puzzled over two early classics by Avantic/Beam Echo from the late 1950s (both working but work in progress), restored a huge Japanese Trio W-38 receiver and even dabbled in vintage solid state (early 70s Kenwood amplifiers), with some success.

I have learned that there is a big difference between doing hifi journalism and practising vintage electronics: electronics repair takes time and mental energy. Getting something broken to work properly again requires opening up the messy underside. There is a lot of looking and detective work involved. Sometimes you have to undo the mistakes of others. Sometimes you add your own mistakes....

So, seeking involves a lot of doing. But maybe I'll stop by here more often to reflect on it too.

curvature and contact

The icy coating of the world for the last few weeks has warned me that I take my connection with the world for granted.

Now I see that the ground is not flat. Even the tamest pavement has a camber, a slope, an acute angle. Nothing is level out there. How did I not notice this before?

Without the natural gift of friction every curve is dangerous. Every footing fallible.

Winter ice offers a precious inversion of reality, showing that even walking is an unearned grace.

Tread carefully, for you tread on the changing world.

Unexpected visitors on Christmas Eve

Here's hoping you were also able to welcome some unexpected visitors this Christmas. CAM's Bill Frog to the Rescue still evokes happy memories for people of my generation because he and old George Mouse set aside their own comfort to work things out for others one cold Christmas eve.

how long do we have to keep longing?

I don't usually cross-post information from other blogs, at least not without digesting them first. But, researching ecclesiology this morning, I came across a 2005 post from the site Subversive Influence. There Brother Maynard described his longing for a different kind of church from the ones he had been in before. The website is still going strong, so he was not just having a bad day.

I resonate with so much of what he longs for, that I offer his list here as a starting point for you and I to articulate our own desires. The original post called "To clarify this journey," and his further reflections which fill out this summary can be found here: http://subversiveinfluence.com/2005/02/to-clarify-this-journey/

He writes:

I long for a church that is low-key. I’m tired of hype, I’m tired of noise, and I’m tired of intensity. I used to like all those things, but I no longer equate these with “signs of life.” I long for something more contemplative, a place that can acknowledge worship as being intellectual as well as emotional.

I long for a church with deep interpersonal relationships. I was attracted to a place that talked about relationships and tried to build relationally, but with growth, time, and change, what started as relational has become merely functional. Faith walks need camaradarie, lives shared one with another

I long for the attainable challenge of Jesus. Put the other way, I’m tired of being challenged, by which I refer not to the challenge of the gospel or the challenge of Jesus, but to the challenge of leaders who seem to continually push for greater levels of sanctification. Ever unattainable, this leaves one straining for an unreachable goal and feeling cast down for falling short. To elaborate, this causes a situation in which a believer perpetually feels or is actually considered “not quite good enough” to engage in ministry. I long for the challenges which God give the grace to attain, rather than the challenges of men which one strives fruitlessly to attain.

I long for a decentralized structure and I long for servant leadership among peers. Power corrupts, which is a danger in the church as anywhere else . . . and a heirarchical structure is the breeding-ground for the corruption of church leaders. Jesus talked about this, about what can happen to church leaders who start well but end up enamoured with their positions. Practically speaking, this drives the necessity for decentralization so that the structures can be interrelated but independently manageable in smaller sizes.

I long for a culturally relevant church. I don’t understand why cross-cultural missionaries attempt to understand culture to present the gospel within it, while churches in the developed world tend to simply withdraw from their own culture, often condemning its evils. Unfortunately for them, our culture is filled with people who need to see real Christianity in action — they’ve seen enough caricatures of Christianity already. Being culturally relevant in the early 21st century means understanding -gasp!- postmodernism.

I long for a church that can be outwardly-focused without constantly pushing evangelism on the congregation. [I also long] for a church that does not relate evangelism with church growth as an end.

I long for a church that recognizes the value of ancient traditions. I’ve long been saddened by the iconophobia in many evangelical circles, discomfort with symbolism, suspicion toward any type of mysticism, and the ignoring of rich faith traditions from Advent to Passover.

I long for a church that is not uncomfortable with mystery or with the sacraments. The evangelical understanding I’ve been taught on the Eucharist is anemic, and the standard baptism explanation of “an outward symbol of an inward faith” misses the spiritual act, which still has an element of mystery in it.

I long for a church that recognizes the value of story. Scripture is story, and so are the lives it touches. One cannot presume to talk about relationship without recognizing the importance of personal stories.

So this is the path I’m on. I am seeking a place that is in pursuit of the things I long for. If I can’t find a place like that, I’ll find some people who are in pursuit of the things I long for, and together we’ll create such a place. The path I’m on is the pursuit of these things I long for in the church.

... Now, I’m not dismissing the church or writing it off. On the contrary, I consider it a part of my heritage; for many years it was a rich part, and something for which I’m deeply thankful. On the other hand, I’ve reached the point where I long for different things than the things I longed for when I first signed on.

So the basic thing about this journey is the same as about any journey, it’s not about the place we’re leaving, it’s about the place we’re going. Even if we don’t know where we’re going; it wouldn’t be the first such journey instigated by God.