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Emergent Church – Getting My Fanatic On?
I notice that I feel a powerful attraction to the Emergent Church Movement (ECM) because of its ability to speak to the frustration born from my interpretation of the current state of affairs with Church in community. Is what I feel the appeal that it can offer something that hasn’t been provided to date? I notice how enticing this is to me. I think its the culture conversation in me that listens for and deeply values “progress.” In the context, “progress,” the offer more, better or different fans frustration.
The idea that I may not have a future worth having, exacerbates my frustration. When frustration reaches a certain level it culminates in action. This particular strategy is one way to produce change. I notice that I make radical personal changes when I really can’t stand the way things are.
Edward A. Ross, in his book The Changing Chinese, points out that mass movements attempt to intoxicate their followers with hope of a future while cheating them of the enjoyment of the present. When frustrated, the moment is irreparably spoiled. Comforts and pleasures cannot make it whole. No real content can ever arise in our minds but from hope of something other than what we have.
I noticed that when I heard about Brian McClaren’s tour I got excited and immediately subscribed to the newsletter, studied the locations and dates and began to make plans to attend. And then I stopped and asked myself, why must everything change for me? Do I feel this way because I experience this moment as “irreparably spoiled?” When it comes to the church, do I feel all I have that remains is a hope for future change that must take place? Is my faith and sense of community in that condition?
Without diminishing the need for change, what are my motives in joining the change? Is it possible that my faith in the cause is a substitute for my loss of faith in God? I wonder if despair has a part in fanatical behavior? And, if it does, what is its relationship to fanatical behavior?
Hi Dan. I like that you’re blogging about this. I wonder sometimes if people in the older generation are faking satisfaction and don’t have questions like yours, or if they are truly happy and faith-filled. Which then leads me to question my questioning, and wonder if it is me that is filled with doubt, despair, and cynicism.
The one thing I thought of, and this is just at the top of my head, is that it seems that the ECM doesn’t require much of me, or require it in an obvious way like the church of our fathers. Back then, we had to read the Bible a specific amount, not wear too short of a skirt, and listen to Christian music. Maybe close to what God wants, maybe not, but wholly too easy to regulate.
I started to cry this weekend because I was around someone that spoke with hope about being passionate (like I once was, especially in jr. high/hs). Passion for Jesus is a funny thing. Sometimes I want it, sometimes I do not. Passion is attractive and filled with purpose.
When it comes to thinking about the Church, I confess I have stopped thinking about it as much. Mostly from dissatisfaction, frustration, and shouldering an unnecessary burden, I think.
I have many thoughts…I hear what you’re saying about questioning your motives for joining the change (I’m sure that would show you some of what you really want).
Hope you blog more about this.
Thought of this quote:
“Like all dreamers I confuse disenchantment with truth.”
-Jean-Paul Sartre
We are all geared for the “new”, the “exciting”, the “different”, the “revolutionary”: all of these spell progress.
I looked up progress in the dictionary:
“prog·ress /n. ˈprɒgrɛs, -rəs or, especially Brit., ˈproʊgrɛs; v. prəˈgrɛs/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[n. prog-res, -ruhs or, especially Brit., proh-gres; v. pruh-gres] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun 1. a movement toward a goal or to a further or higher stage: the progress of a student toward a degree.
2. developmental activity in science, technology, etc., esp. with reference to the commercial opportunities created thereby or to the promotion of the material well-being of the public through the goods, techniques, or facilities created.
3. advancement in general.
4. growth or development; continuous improvement: He shows progress in his muscular coordination.
5. the development of an individual or society in a direction considered more beneficial than and superior to the previous level.
6. Biology. increasing differentiation and perfection in the course of ontogeny or phylogeny.
7. forward or onward movement: the progress of the planets.
8. the forward course of action, events, time, etc.
9. an official journey or tour, as by a sovereign or dignitary.
–verb (used without object) progress 10. to go forward or onward in space or time: The wagon train progressed through the valley. As the play progressed, the leading man grew more inaudible.
11. to grow or develop, as in complexity, scope, or severity; advance: Are you progressing in your piano studies? The disease progressed slowly.
—Idiom12. in progress, going on; under way; being done; happening: The meeting was already in progress.
——————————————————————————–
[Origin: 1400–50; late ME progresse (n.) < L prōgressus a going forward, equiv. to prōgred-, s. of prōgredī to advance (prō- pro-1 + -gredī, comb. form of gradī to step; see grade) + -tus suffix of v. action]”
I find it interesting that “progress” as we know it wasn’t an emerging part of being that required a definition until 1400-50.
So, being alive, being human, being christian, being converted, being a fanatic, being passionate, recovering our passion, and our urge to jump on the latest band wagon – how we frame it all up within the context of progress seems to be a very new concept. It’s only six hundred years old.
Hmmm, feels and sounds and smells pretty Western to me. That’s not a bad thing; we might just be putting limitations on ourselves that keeps us from seeing a bigger picture.
Let’s say we enlarge our worldview – our minds, our beliefs, and our conversations – outside of our very young, 600 year-old framework of progress.
My guess is that there is much to discover about Western Civilization (ourselves) if our conversation is both inside and outside of “progress”.
For example:
God is not an American. Neither is he a Jew, a greek, an African, an Arab, a Russian, Chinese, and neither is he of Asian descent, and he’s not from down under and he’s not from the polar caps. Did I cover all the hemispheres?
Q. 1. Well, if he is none of the above, who is he, she, or it? Where did he come from, and how come he has so much clout over us?
Q. 2. In answer to question one, we all have our own take based on religion, real world experience, education, and ethnic background, just to name a few conditions. Each of us will weigh in with our version of the “truth.”
Part 1: what is “truth” anyways, and how did it ever get so much clout over us?
Part 2: Is it possible that truth is not a “something” to be ascertained?
Is it possible that each of have a little bit of the truth in us from birth?
Part 3: Is it possible that it’s not a matter that each of contain a bit of truth, but rather, that each of us is truth?
Or, at the least, our individual being is a reflection of truth?
Just asking!!!
My motivation for change is the realization that my needs for authenticity, integrity, meaning, and connection are not being met to my satisfaction by the institutional church. Given that I see these needs (and others not listed) as designed into my heart by God, I am finding that I am having to be an agent in facilitating and creating a community which is aware of these desires of the heart, and is willing to have honest conversations about our lives, as they are unfolding. To actually live the ‘love one another’ that Christ lived, not just study it or talk about it second hand. I am feeling grateful for what I have seen in this blog so far, as my needs for authenticity and meaning are being met.
James
I was just rereading your blog and all of a sudden the word “motivation” jumped out at me. So I gave it the ole dictionay.com acid test look-up:
mo·ti·va·tion /ˌmoʊtəˈveɪʃən/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[moh-tuh-vey-shuhn] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun 1. the act or an instance of motivating.
2. the state or condition of being motivated.
3. something that motivates; inducement; incentive.
——————————————————————————–
[Origin: 1870–75; motive + -ation]
—Related forms
mo·ti·va·tion·al, adjective
mo·ti·va·tive, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Motivation is a very new word: 1870-75.
It makes me wonder if somehow being christian and what we deem being motivated have nothing to do with each other.
Can I just be, and be christian, and be loved, and be in love, and not have a bone of motivation in my body AND this arrangement be perfectly pleasing to God?
Contentment comes up for me.
Just blogging.
Hanto,
I stopped a bit and thought about your question. Yes, you can just “be” all those things that you mentioned, and be pleasing to God depending on what God is calling you to be, and perhaps do or not do. If he isn’t calling you to do anything, then by all means you will naturally feel content and at peace as you are doing the will of God.
For me, on the other hand, I hear God very clearly calling me to contribute to the world that I live in — to help shape it into the world I want to live in — i.e. the Kingdom. So, for me, it goes beyond just being, as God has given me this wonderful need for contribution which I find great joy in fulfilling. The joy that I feel in following his calling, along with my understanding of the gospel, and the fact that other people express gratitude for what I offer them (e.g. service, friendship), give me confirmation that I am indeed following the will of God for me.
As far as “motivation” being a relatively new word, I don’t get hung up on that. Words are really pointers to a concept, they are not the concept themselves. And the concepts have been around as long as humanity has been aware and awake. It goes along with the saying “don’t confuse the map with the territory”. Certainly, that concept existed in the time in which the bible was written.
I’m enjoying this dialog (or diablog?). Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
Just thought I would offer another view. What if being and doing weren’t a dialectic but a unity, like being expresses itself in how it does. You know a “be” attitude.
“be-attitude”; I like that alot!! It nails it for me. Thanks Dan. A dialectic it is! Does that come in pill form by any chance?
James, a ton of thoughts come up for me as I contemplate what you wrote. Good stuff!! Thanks. I’ll be in touch. I’ve got to scoot!
It is about time that we return to “relationship” as a first order category of “being.”
That is what the earliest Church Fathers saw it as. Not until Augstine tried to synthesis Greek philosopy with theology did theologians begin to think of God as a static collection of attributes.
So the Triune God, revealed in Christ, can legitimately be understood by his acts. God is what God does and God does what God is.
As I understand the early Church’s conception, God the Father, Son and Spirit is known by their personal relationship with each other. In other words, God is a tri-personal, being-in-relationship.
Similarly, as made in God’s image, humans are not identified through the Greek categories of substance and essence (autonomous selves) but by the quality of their relationships with other humans. The higher quality of our relationships, the more human we are “being.”
Brian,
I pulled this out of your blog:
“Similarly, as made in God’s image, humans are not identified through the Greek categories of substance and essence (autonomous selves) but by the quality of their relationships with other humans. The higher quality of our relationships, the more human we are “being.””
That rocks, man. Where did you get this from? What a visual!! For me it casts a vision of hope and gives me a great morsel to chew on. Thanks
James
I’ve been chewing over what you blogged back to me about words. I quote you:
“As far as “motivation” being a relatively new word, I don’t get hung up on that. Words are really pointers to a concept, they are not the concept themselves. And the concepts have been around as long as humanity has been aware and awake.”
Back in the 50′s and 60′s grass was something you put chairs on to sit in, in the summertime, and of course you had to keep the grass cut.
In the 70′s, in the midwest, grass was something you smoked and got high on.
Abort was something new in the 60′s popularized by NASA when they were getting ready to launch and conditions weren’t right. History in the making.
Abort-ion, also popularized in the 60′s, and we as a nation have managed over 40 million of them in 40 years. History in the making.
Cell(s) in biology and health class were what plants, animals, people, and things were made up of. Phones were these black things sitting on a desk, in a cradel, connected to the wall by a 10 foot cord, that you picked up and rotary dialed to make a local call 30 miles away or so. Long distance was too pricey.
Cell phones are little devices we carry around which we can use, while sitting in the backyard, on the grass, talking with someone half way around the world for the price of a local call, having a discussion about abortion, or the illegal use of grass (it’s already legally medicinal)all the while watching NASA on the TV abort another mission.
Fascism in the 1930′s is Hitler, Nazism, Germany, connected with the 1940′s: WWII and widespread death, destruction, and attrocities.
Islam: for hundreds of years just another religion out there in the world. No big deal.
Islamo-fascism: March 15, 2008: HEADS UP AND TAKE A LONG, HARD LOOK AROUND YOU!
James, words are powerful indicators that often end up being deadly accurate, especially since we’ve never been taught to pay much attention to them.
Cheers (a salutation meaning “have a good day” or lifting a drink; I’ll let you decide what I mean by it
)
Hanto,
I hear that you are wanting to clearly express that the power of words be fully appreciated, and that you would like to be understood. Perhaps my word choices did not convey that I appreciate the value in knowing when words came into usage, and what meaning they were intended to convey.
However, I am feeling bummed as I am also wanting to be clear with my words and to be understood.
I believe that the examples that you listed imply the point that I was trying to make, which is that the “word” refers to a concept that precedes the creation of the word.
The need or concept of the word came before the word itself. In some cases, there could be thousands of years before a word is invented and used after the concept came to be.
In the example that you mentioned relating to “grass” as being two different things in different times and contexts. In the software world, this is called “overloading” – the word is being overloaded with two different meanings/concepts. The concept of the little green lifeforms that grow in the dirt in my backyard is different from the leaf that is rolled up in paper to be set on fire and inhaled — but they both use the same word “grass”.
* The mold precedes the making of a candle.
* In software coding, the “class” is created before the “object” instance.
* The “Logos” came to be in the beginning, and Jesus was an instance of that “Logos”. “Logos” existed before its human form.
I am enjoying this thread, but would like to hear you comment on the meaning behind the words that I originally posted here.
James
This is becoming a two-way conversation. Let’s get community back into this.
Can you choose a word that you want commented on, as you wrote in the last line of your blog above, so others can wade in?
Thanks