Knowtown...

the ramblings of an ecclesial dreamer

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"We must not be afraid to dream the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality."
Vaclav Havel

Ecclesial Dreamer

My name is James Mills.

I am married to Janell and
we have three kids--Jarod, Matthew and Teryn. We live in Parker, Colorado.
In addition to this blog you can find out more about my ecclesial dream at Knowtown or Missio Dei.

If you would like to add your thoughts to a rambling,
click the "Talk Back" link at the end of each post.
If you would like to talk IM (MSN) me or send me an email at: jmills@knowtown.com

..::Favorite BLOGS::..
Andrew Hamilton
Andrew Jones
Doug Pagitt
Dry Bones Dance
Emergent Group Blog *NEW*
Dwight Scull
Fluid Faith
Jason Clark
Jason Smith
Karen Ward
Katy Raymond
Maggi Dawn
Michelle Bainbridge
Rudy Carrasco
Scott Holden
Scott Raymond
Tony Rodasta

..::LINKS::..
My Personal World Clock
Ekklesia Project
Emergent
The Holy Observer
The New Pantagruel
The Vine
Reconstruction
Observing Differently
Open Source Theology

..::Previous Ramblings::..

Can Church education be theological education? Returning to Edward Farley's book, The Fragility of Knowledge has been helping me return to the land of the living much more than my earlier Dr. appointment, which was a complete waste of time. Re-reading this book has been outstanding and has me thinking some old thoughts in a fresh way. So far in this book he has challenged the structures of the education systems in and outside the church. He has argued that the failed Enlightenment project has resulted in a loss of needed criticisms from necessary correctives and as a result our "knowledge", fragile already, has become corrupted. He hopes for a return to a search for knowledge that allows the correctives to be heard. In chapter 5, he begins a new section looking at theological study and asks, "Can church education be theological education?" There are too many good quotes in this chapter to list them all in their proper contexts. Here are just a few: "How is it that the Christian faith, committed as it is to relating faith to reality, world, knowledge, and learning, continues to restrict this effort to its ordained leadership and to withhold it from the laity? ...In teh face of the modern democratization of education and learning, how is it that the church continues to settle for the premodern pattern of educated clergy and uneducated laity and for the almost uncrossable gulf between theological (clergy) education and church education? The persistence of this pattern is an anomoly in a religious tradition that repudiates obscurantist modes of faith and prizes learning. ...If we take this to be a historical question, we will be asking how something born in the migrations of an ancient, nomadic and tribal people, and at the bloddy scene of a crucified Jew and the fiery tongues of Pentecost, ends up with classrooms, degrees, libraries, universities, Sunday Schools, and teaching elders?" Farley suggests that we may be too quick to blame the Greek influence of education on the early church. To do so would be to ignore the centuries of ordered learning that took place in the Hebrew tradition. It is in this context of special people (rabbis) teaching in a special place (synagogue) that the church has its educational roots. But to adequately understand how our current view of (fragile) knowledge finds its home in a classroom we have to understand the faith in a more Hebraic way. "Is there something about the very nature of faith, as existing in the world before God, which founds in the community of faith an inclination and seriousness about ordered learning? Two issues call for exploration at this point: the relationship between faith and reality (truth), and the relationship between faith and theology (wisdom). We are familiar with criticisms of religion as such, and of Christian faith, that argue that faith turns the human being away from reality--that faith is an opiate, a soporific. And there is plenty of documentation throughout the history of Christianity to support such an arguement. Yet one of the recurring notions in the writings of Israel is the warning against deceit. 'Deceit' does not name simply occasional and specific acts of trickery or of telling lies, although these things are not excluded. The word describes, rather, a posture of the heart, something virtually synonomous with sin itself. In deceit, human beings are not just telling lies but are themselves a kind of lie, a living deception. Neither does 'truth' name something trivial or occasional, whose opposite is a simple error or mistake. Truth too is a posture of the heart. It is something that comes from God, who corrects deceit and redeems the heart. ...'Wisdom', a term capturing the central theme of Proverbs, likewise refers to a matter of the heart. the very center and depth of the human being... Israel's understanding of deceit, truth and wisdom attests to something very central to faith as a mode of existence before God. The fundamental brokenness and alienation of the human being is a darkened posture of the heart and mind which orients the human being toward everything in the mode of deception and self-deception... Since these evils attest the absence of god and the absence of the grace of God, truth and wisdom are matters of redemption. With redemption comes a new posture of the heart, a wisdom founded in God, directed toward everything: to the other human being, nature, the self, the world in its perils and in its beauty. This is why faith's dynamics are the opposite of an opiate's." I like these words from Farley. He is showing me another facet of the good news and it is indeed good. But he has me rethinking some things as it realtes to the community of faith and how we are to fill the role of ambassadors of reconciliation. I'm still kind of foggy so I am going to sit on some of my questions for a while and post them later if they still make sense. In any case there will be more later from this great book. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/31/2003 03:43:00 PM	Wednesday, December 31, 2003
head fog... I am at work today but I am no where near 100%. I feel like I was run over by a truck. I am not sleeping well at all and when I do finally get to sleep I have strange dreams. I feel really fuzzy. I am trying to get in to my Doctor today. It seems like I have not been actively involved in the land of the living since Christmas, though there is ample evidence that I have been non-productive for much longer than that. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/30/2003 09:14:00 AM	Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Under the weather... I have been feeling very ill over the past few days. I spent all of Christmas day in bed with a bad fever and aches. Felt a little better on Friday but it hit me again on Saturday. I have been living on Motrin. In the midst of it all we are trying to tile our kitchen and dining room. Thank God for Curtis and Carl who have done about 99.9% of the work so far. I feel completely worthless. Today I will make an attempt to get the grout done with Curtis who should be showing up here any moment. Once this project is done I can put the house back together and we can actually live in it again. I may need to call in sick on Monday just to to catch up a little. Hope every one else is having a better holiday. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/28/2003 08:18:00 AM	Sunday, December 28, 2003
¿que pasa? Apparently, "all welcome" does not mean what it used to ;-) I hope no Spanish speakers show up and ruin the 10:00 service at the Mount Carmel SDA church. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/24/2003 01:39:00 PM	Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Merry Christmas... I am listening to my favorite Christmas CD, Christmas is Coming - Rob Mathes and very special friends. I wish I could give this to everyone for Christmas. There is a great song called "William The Angel" that is very powerful. Below, is the chorus of another great song, "Waiting For Love To Be Born": "This is the season This is the time I see the face of a child and that face, it is mine I'm looking for starlight I'm listnening for angels And the house is asleep On this Christmas morn But I'm awake I'm waiting here for love again to be born" posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/24/2003 10:26:00 AM
A look inside the un-churches (of Denver)... This article made the front page of our local paper, The Denver Post. It is about some of the "emerging" churches in the area. I like that some of these churches are getting some front page press because they are doing some good things. In my opinion, many of these churches are approaching things "methodologically" rather than theologically. As the article points out, many are typical Baptist church plants with younger (still male) pastors, edgier music and 400 year old evangelical theology. Missio Dei hopes to follow some of the more theologically emerging churches like Solomon's Porch pastored by Doug Pagitt. ABC recently ran a TV show along the same lines of this article in which Solomon's Porch was featured. Pagit does a great job of explaining theological differences between their community of faith and other "emerging" churches. At any rate here is a quote from todays newspaper article: "As long as we live in a country where bigger is better and large size equals success, the megachurch approach to religion is still going to be what most people think of as successful" posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/21/2003 04:23:00 PM	Sunday, December 21, 2003
How my mind has changed... I am beginning to notice this subtle shift in thinking that is affecting every aspect of my ecclesial dream. This shift is difficult to articulate in a meaningful way because it is vague and ambiguous. It is also counter-intuitive and that tempts me to try to explain it apologetically. For most of my life I have defined my spirituality through my community of faith. What I mean by that is that to explain the intangible things of my spirituality I would use the tangible things of commitments to the institutional body of believers I was attached to. I could point to the roles I filled as a church-planter, co-pastor, small group leader, executive council elder or worship team member. These things were clearly defined and easy to point to as evidence of a hidden, inner (hoped for) reality. Ironically, defining my spirituality through the lens of the community of faith I was attached to did not mean that I held a high view of that community. In fact, quite the opposite was true. This way of defining spirituality leads to a very low view of the church community. People are depersonalized and seen as cogs in a machine. There is no venue created for them to be real people that you relate to in real ways. The institution is compartmentalized to functional units and people are categorized into what area they fit. We have attendees, paid staff, volunteers, visitors, and of course leaders. If you don't fit into one of the pre-assigned roles then you don't fit at all. But that's ok because no one really wants to know you anyway. They simply want you to fill your role. This way of doing things doesn't work for me anymore. Actually it hasn't for a very long time but it took time outside of the institution to see it clearly. So here is the shift I am beginning to see in my thinking: I now see my community of faith defined through my spirituality. What I mean by that is that my theology is beginning to affect every relationship I have and allowing me to define people, where ever they are on my relational horizon, as members of my community of faith. There are no predefined roles for people to fill, no building or program to direct people into. In a strange way the invisible, inner things have become more tangible to me and the external visible things created by the structure have been exposed as illusionary. Again, ironically, this has elevated my view of the community of faith as well. I have said before, and will say again, that I now see the community of faith as sacramental in a way that I have not before. When I defined my spirituality through the community, the community became propaganda and now that I define the community through my theology I need the community. My theology doesn't make sense without it. I am realizing that every person I meet is a person who needs to have Christ brought before them. But here's the rub. The sacramental community of faith is not something you find or even create. It is something you embody. It is a way of living life that is faithful to the deep meanings of the great commission that says you will be my witness. This imperative covers every square inch of our lives. As followers of God in the way of Jesus, we are a witness, all the time. I find it interesting how quick we are to localize certain things to make them tangible instead of living out of our faith and letting the lives we live as ambassadors of reconciliation be our witness. We are so quick to make it about structures and institutions. In one of the earliest recorded promises from God to Abraham, the land was promised and included as far as Abraham could see and as broad as he was willing to walk (Genesis 13:14-17). But we have localized that promise to a small country on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. How sad. The whole of God's creation is groaning for the redemption of all things and we are content to sanitize a certain corner, invite a few people and think our job is done. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/21/2003 07:51:00 AM
Its about time... My fellow ecclesial dreamer Scott Holden is finally blogging. Why not stop by and check in on the Anapapist every now and then! posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/20/2003 10:34:00 PM	Saturday, December 20, 2003
Epic storytelling... Last night I went to see Return of the King. I loved it. The whole Lord Of The Rings trilogy was an incredible film experience for me. Each movie was outstanding but individually there is something lacking. It is not until the Return of the King that the story is resolved in any meaningful way. But at the same time, Return Of The King does not really stand on its own either. If we don't start with small creatures with large, hairy feet we lose our place in the epic story. I couldn't help but think about Daniel Knauf's (creater of Carnivale) comments about LOTR and how it relates to Epic storytelling. Knauf talks about how it is impossible to pitch the story... DANIEL KNAUF: I've always been a big fan of epic storytelling, and the whole idea of mythologizing something. This is a young country, so about the only thing we've mythologized is the West, and the idea of digging into our history for another era and using that as a template to do some epic storytelling, seemed like a good idea. HBO: You talk about epics-what are some of the stories or myths that have influenced you? DANIEL KNAUF: I'm a big fan of Tolkien, I'm a big fan of Dickens, and anybody who tells a big story. I always wanted to work on a big canvas like this. HBO: Is it difficult when you have a new show - especially when it's a very different kind of program-to communicate what you have in mind? DANIEL KNAUF: Well, it was un-pitchable. You can't pitch this show. It's sort of a joke, when people would come up to you and say well, well what are you working on? How do you describe this show? I guess the flip answer is, it's the Grapes of Wrath meets meets David Lynch. Rather than pitching it, I created a book, a twenty- or thirty-page document. It wasn't really a show Bible, it was put together as if a professor had researched all these articles and interviews, police reports, documentation. I put together this thing that treated all of our characters as if this was a documentary. As if this was a real carnival. And, in a way, the show's so much about tone, and it's so much about the time, that I felt I had to do that in order to get across what we were going to be doing. And, HBO, thank goodness, they got it. It's been a massive leap of faith, because this is not a high-concept story. But then, you look at any of these epics, I mean, how do you pitch 'The Lord of the Rings'? HBO: Right. DANIEL KNAUF: "All right, well, there're these people with fur on their toes, and they go out and they throw this ring into this big volcano." Epic storytelling just doesn't lend itself to a pitch. At some point the only way to present an Epic story is to simply tell it. You start at a good place and you follow the plotlines until the story is done. I thought the Return Of The King ended the story well. But this post is really not about LOTR. It is about the Epic story of redemption. I think too often we buy into the idea that we can "pitch" the redemption story. Instead of an epic story we end up with bullet statements of theology. 1. you're a sinner. 2. God cannot look at sin so we are separated from God by this impassable chasm... You get the idea. BUt in reality God's redemptive purpose is the most epic story of all time. It begins in a garden and ends in a celestial city of God. There are numerous convoluted plot twists and powerful characters interwoven into it. Focusing on only a handful of the subplots would be an injustice to the epic storyline. The Bible records much of this story for us. The interesting thing about the Bible is that it discusses many ancient and historical things but it also alludes to things that are yet to happen. What that means is that we are characters in the epic story. The story is not only for us, it is about us. There is an old hymn that says, "I love to tell the story..." Perhaps the best way for us to tell a story this epic is to begin living our part in it faithfully. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/19/2003 08:35:00 AM	Friday, December 19, 2003
Fragility quotes (chapter two and three)... More from Farley. Chapter two is titled The Corruption and Redemption of Knowledge and Chapter three is titled Specialty Fields and The University: "The whole restless, seeking life of the human being is driven by the insistence that the intolerable tragic dimension disappear and that there be protections that really and fully and absolutley protect. All good and functioning things become potential removers of the tragic. So we human beings seek out and attach ourselves to the perfect mate, the perfect educational institution, national heritage, political party, composer, school of thought, cognitive method. And this sort of attachment has a radically corrupting effect on the human being. The reason is that it corrupts the desires themselves." page 20 "We are well aware that the Christian religion itself is a prime example of cognitive idolatries, of the erection of a house of absolute knowledge and a denial of the historical character of wisdom." page 21 "...this critical posture is not a matter of just the human individual's life. Knowledge itself may be an act of the individual, but that act occurs in conjunction with historical accomplishments, institutions, and corporate undertakings. Therefore, the corruption and abandonment of knowledge are a matter not simply of human individuals but of epochs, cultures, institutions, and schools. Accordingly, the theological critical posture needs embodiment not just in the intentional life of individuals but in communities of knowledge." page 24 "Chapters 1 and 2 set the problematic character of the university against a historical background and argued that the suppression of important correctives in the Enlightenment tradition has resulted in paradigms of knowledge, understanding, and inquiry that are too narrow." page 29 "The prospect is dim that the present state of affairs in teh university will change in the near future. In the nature of case, the specialty fields are insulated from teh only resource that might correct their selected abstractions and complement their favored methoods. The Specialty fields are in this way deprived of any external horizon of development. They become enclaves nicely protected from criticism beyond themselves. Furthermore, both the external support systems created by their professionalization and the reward system of the university help to hold them in place. ...Ironically, the more determined a university is to improve its reputation and its contributions to scholarship and teaching, the more warmly hospitibale it is to the professionalized specialty fields. Once again the 'best and the brightest' may be the makers and shapers of the worst." page 50 In the next several chapters he will discuss how this corruption of knowledge is perpetuated in theological education. Stay tuned... posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/16/2003 09:39:00 PM	Tuesday, December 16, 2003
THO... Thanks to my fellow Ecclesial Dreamer, Jason Smith, for turning me onto The Holy Observer". I have been a fan of the Onion for a long time but I had never heard of THO before. The article he sent me was pretty funny but there was a lot more once I went the the site. My favorite was the Top ten Christ Religious Christmas Gifts: posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/16/2003 05:55:00 PM
More Fragility... The second through fourth chapters of this book are setting up the historical background for the current situation that makes Theological education in our churches and university problematic. I will not do it justice her but I will try to present the rough overview. The Enlightenment project, fails to recognize the correctives that are necessary to keep Knowledge grounded in the "real" and pushes knowledge into the "abstract". This focusing is good in that it leads to substantial progress but it is dangerous in that it excludes the correctives mentioned before, thus knowledge becomes corrupted. Additionally, the university system (especially in the USA) is designed to continue pushing Knowledge farther towards abstraction. Farley explains the differences between "sciences", "disciplines" and the "specialty fields" that make up higher education and shows that everything is geared toward supporting, protecting and advancing the "specialty fields". So the education system not only contributes to the "professionalization" of our culture it is also affected by it. Since teaching is increasingly geared towards these "specialty fields" the content of what is taught is corrupted knowledge--Knowledge that is no longer attached to the multidimensionality of the "real" and not open to the proper criticisms. (Sorry I can't explain it better than that) With this background Farley is prepairing to show how "theology" as a subject of serious study has been seperated from the academic fields of "religious studies". So it is OK to teach about various religions in an abstract way but it is not OK to really study the truth claims made by the religions being studied. This leads to all kinds of problems but I am getting ahead of myself. I will try to post some good quotes from the last few chapters later. We are just getting to the good stuff. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/16/2003 04:21:00 PM
Go fish... Was a great day! Two of the kids were home ill so I stayed home with them. Palyed numerous games of Go Fish, Old Maid and Uno. LAter I made a mediocre dinner for and got the dishes done. I actually felt like a good Dad and Husband today. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/15/2003 04:20:00 PM	Monday, December 15, 2003
Fragility quotes (chapter one)... Here are some more quotes from chapter one of Fragility of Knowledge: Theological Education in the Church and the University: concerning the Enlightenment ideal... "...knowledge is culturally embodied. It is shaped by the world views and social agendas of the society in which it occurs. It is carried by words and writtings that are laden with ambiguity, interpretation, and errancy. The words that knowledge employs are never mere obedient emissaries of reality. The result is that human knowledge is never an absolutely settled accomplishment. As historical it is always a candidate for further inquiry, renewed clarification, new discursive forms. In other words, the accomplishment of knowledge always occurs as criticism. Present knowledge occurs in continued and relentless criticism of past knowledge, a pressing for the establishment of the basis, evidence, and assumptions of any claim." page 4 concerning our present situation... "...Knowledge has a hermeneutic character: to grasp reality in its complexity involves interpretive activities. Of course, knowledge has also to do with reason, explanation, and therefore, attention to evidence and argument. But these always occur in connection with ways of construing what we are trying to know, ways of meaning it, of setting it against its context, of grasping its dimensional complexity. Anything that is actual has different dimensionsthat call for different kinds of interpretive responses. The various correctives in the Enlightenment tradition are, at the same time, different interpretive perspectives. Accordingly, when knowledge is deprived of any one of them, the very complexity and dimensionality of reality are obscured. What happens to knowledge and to scientific and scholarly undertakings when these interpretive perspectives are lost?" page 12-13 "Why is it that one can investigate and teach what is the case about amino acids and not about the Buddhist theme of suffering? The question conducts us back to the assumption that historical tradition cannot be truth bearing. This is why it is thought that tradition can be studied descriptively but not normatively--and therfore not at the point at which it might evoke a serious response, the point where it exerts a claim." page 14 one more... "American church historians are surprised to discover that the standard church histories virtually omit black religion and the black church. That exclusion attests not simply to a failure to treat certain subjects such as women and minorities but to a way of construing the subject matter itself, church history. In short, the praxis hermeneutic focuses on and uncovers a certain dimension of reality that, when considered, modifies the understanding of all the other dimensions. For this reason the praxis hermeneutic cannot be dismissed as false advocacy and ideological endangerment to objective scholarship. As a corrective, it exposes the ideological character already inherent in so-called objective scholarship." page 15 posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/14/2003 12:01:00 AM	Sunday, December 14, 2003
Perfect face for a radio ministry... I have posted a picture of myself with my shaved head. I am still getting used to this. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/13/2003 04:28:00 PM	Saturday, December 13, 2003
The Fragility of Knowledge... With all of my thoughts gravitating to ecclesial leadership lately I thought I would re-read some stuff I have not read in a while. I started with a great book by Edward Farley (click on his name for a great interview) titled, Fragility of Knowledge: Theological Education in the Church and the University. This book is amazing! Even more so when you realize that it was published in 1988 when the author was 59 years young. I remember the first time I read it several years ago wondering how he could see the crisis in our theological higher education so well but no one seemed to be listening. Re-reading it now I am seeing some things I did not see the first time. The first thing I noticed is it appears that Farleys thoughts are heavily influenced by Alasdair MacIntyre and Michael Polanyi. I did not catch this before because I was only recently introduced to some of MacIntyre's thoughts by my fellow ecclesial dreamer, Scott Holden, and only read some Polanyi earlier this year. Farley begins the book by presenting the (failed) Enlightenment Tradition (MacIntyre?) and he has many things that seem to point towards Polanyi's idea of "tacit knowledge". This book is out of print now but used copies are available on Amazon.com. But for those who don't want to track it down I am going to post a few quotes from time to time. The first chapter is titled, The Fragility Of Knowledge: Hermeneutic paradigms in the Enlightenment Tradition. Early in the chapter he argues that... "...knowledge, like all human acts and achievements, is part of the flow of history, nature and the experiencing itself. It is not, then, the stamp of timeless content on the mind but an ongoing individual and social struggle that occurs within agreed-upon paradigms, weighted perspectives, institutional agendas, and heavily nuanced and even infected discourses. Knowledge, therefore, is fragile, since it is more a response activity than a precious possesion, a 'touch of smoky pine that lights the pathway but one step across a void of mystery,' to quote Santayana. Fragile knowledge is also corruptible. Its wares are available to the children of darkness." He goes on to argue that indeed, knowledge, as it is taught in churches and universities, has been corrupted by following the failed Enlightenment tradition and not allowing for necessary corrections ("intuitive imagination", "tradition" and "praxis") of the critical methods. In his words, "The correctives of the Enlightenment are present in the modern world as dispersed movements that, relative to the reigning paradigm, are not corrective, supplemental, and central but competitive, polemical, and marginal. They are marginal because they have very little social and institutional support." Doesn't that sound familiar? For me it has been helpful to not so much see the current ecclesial struggles as "modern vs. postmodern" as it has been to realize that the current church has fully bought into the failed Enlightenment tradition and so those "emerging" ecclesial dreamers who try to bring a corrective that is supplemental and central instead are marginalized and seen as competitive and polemical. I am begining to agree with Farley that the fragile knowledge of the church has been corrupted. We are now going to have to take MacIntyre's advice and get very familiar with our history if we want to embody something new and redeem it. It will lead through deep valleys of conflict because the church will be a witness to the Triune God, even if it is through being judged for unfaithfulness. There is sooooo much more in just the first chapter than this but I will write more later. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/13/2003 12:42:00 PM
Matchmaker... I just found out that someone did a Yahoo search for "finding a nice woman" and was directed to my blog. That creeps me out. Hopefully whoever it was found what they were looking for. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/13/2003 11:41:00 AM
The Man Comes Around... OK, I’ll admit it. I am not a life long fan of Johnny Cash. I was one of those who jumped on the fan bandwagon after hearing his cover of the song “Hurt”. I always knew he was a dominant force in the music scene but I did not follow that style of music so I was not aware of just how powerful a force he was. After hearing “Hurt” and listening to other musicians talk about him on the MTV awards show I wanted to find out a little more. I was fortunate to find Relevant Books’ The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash by Dave Urbanski. I was hoping to find a book that would reveal the man behind the music but this book digs deeper than that. This book uncovers the unseen forces at work behind the man himself. When Johnny Cash sings “Hurt” there is a lifetime of intense personal, physical, spiritual and even chemical baggage packed into each note. Reading about the trials and tribulations that Cash overcame makes me wish I had been a lifelong fan. While I was fascinated with the interviews and historical material I felt like I was missing out on some of the conversation when the talk turned to his music. I think a more honest fan would get even more out of this book than I did. But there is plenty here for a casual or new fan as well. Cash’s life reads like a redemptive Greek tragedy. Because he faces such a wide range of obstacles there is something in his story that will connect with all readers, even if they are not familiar with his music. And because he stands victorious after most of them his life offers an authoritative illustration of hope. Like the other offerings from Relevant Books, this is not the typical plastic hope you find in some evangelical books. There is no attempt to sugar coat the reality that the brokenness of Cash’s life was one of the key ingredients to the powerful faith that sustained him. I appreciate that Relevant allows Urbanski to let us see the good, bad and ugly in order to show the genuine depths of this man’s spiritual journey. If you are looking for a story of what a human with authentic faith can accomplish in spite of all odds look no further than The Man Comes Around. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/12/2003 07:20:00 PM	Friday, December 12, 2003
B-E-A-utiful... A gracious response from Brian McLaren to the previously mentioned Chuck Colson article. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/11/2003 01:36:00 PM	Thursday, December 11, 2003
Third day... By the way, if anyone is interested, the third day on the treadmill was much better. I may survive this after all. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/11/2003 12:07:00 PM
Great day for blogs... This has been a great day for reading some great stuff on blogs/bulletin boards. there is a good discusion taking place at the Emergent Village about Chuck Colson's recent Christianity Today article on Postmodernism. There are at least three great posts on Andrew Jones blog related to this discussion including this creative peice of writing. I wish I could write like that. Some people have the gift and others (like me) are destined to the wannabe tribe. Some interesting things coming from the pen of one of my favorite authors, Gordon MacDonald as well. I don't agree with all he says but I loved the first part of the article about Christians talking too much. Perhaps I have already said too much. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/11/2003 12:06:00 PM
Doing something... Trying to figure out just how to be faithful to the mission of God is a difficult process for me. On the one hand there is the understanding that I have come to accept that the current way of doing church is not working like it used to. This is not a gripe against the current model, just something I believe to be true. So I agree with many other ecclesial dreamers who are suggesting it is time to do something different. Some folks I know seem to think that it is a methodological thing that needs to be tweaked. As if better music, more multimedia and more candles will create a better church. Others have equated this to changing a frame on a picture. It may look more appropriate but really the frame is not the problem. These dreamers think it is time to get out the paints and begin painting new pictures. I tend to agree with this. But it creates a growing tension that I have felt for about about 3 years. The tension comes from the desire to do something. I am beginning to think that there is more to this tension than I previously thought. As I continue my detoxification from my addiction to the many things that make up the church subculture I find this desire to do something is the hardest monkey to shake. I find it interesting that there are only a few things that qualify as doing something: meeting together, singing songs, small groups, etc. If you are not doing some form of "gathering" you are not really doing something. So as an ecclesial dreamer/church planter I am accused of being too theoretical, or just "talking". If I am not leading/facilitating/hosting some form of gathering it is time for me to do something. I don't like this narrowly defined list of "somethings". But on the other hand I really do understand the issue Jason Clark brings up that so many emerging ecclesial dreamers have made these "somethings" axiomatic to modernity and have chucked the whole bathtub--baby, water and all. I agree with some of Jason's thoughts that I have read on this topic but I still think there is something deeper going on. All of this leads me back to my stance on revisionist ecclesial dreaming. This allows me to include a lot more things in the doing something list. I don't want to throw out gatherings but I don't want to start there either. Maybe its just me but I have a hard time believing that the disciples spent a lot of time planning worship services or coordinating small groups. Rather I think they began living faithfully as husbands, fathers, sons, friends, laborers and neighbors. Did they gather together? certainly! But the gatherings seem to be the natural result and byproduct of their spiritual lives not the foundation for it. They gathered because their lives naturally drew them together. This leads me to one more observation about shared contexts. The disciples shared several contexts. They lived in close proximity. They shared a belief that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. They shared a Jewish culture. That's at least three. How many contexts do we share with others we gather with and are there more than one way to look at this? Most of our churches are made up of people who work, live and play in various different contexts. The only context that is shared is a building for a few hours on Sunday. The rest of the week they are on their own. I think that the shared context is essential if anything productive to take shape. My problem is that the easiest thing to do is to assume that creating a gathering location is the only way to create that shared context. We can't all live together, move to new neighborhoods or change vocation at the drop of a hat. So everything starts to revolve around this new shared context and we begin to fragment. Our spiritual center becomes increasingly seperate from all the other areas of our lives. Then our attempts at "evangelism" seem to be all about getting people out of the normal contexts they are in and into this artificial context that has no relationship to any other area of their lives. But I think it is possible to create a shared context of callings/mission/visions. This would mean that followers of Jesus would attempt to live faithfully in whatever context we find ourselves in. We begin to see our roles as spouses, parents, children, friends, neighbors and laborers as opportunities to live faithfully. We order all of our lives towards the end of following Jesus Christ. When we find others who have also ordered their lives towards this end we celebrate with them. When we find ourselves among people who have not ordered their lives in this way we treat them the way Christ would with acceptance, love, forgiveness. We leave the job of convicting to the Holy Spirit. We entrust the act of salvation to the triune God. We realize that our role is simply one of ambassador. Will this lead to some form of gathering? I hope so. After all, I am an ecclesial dreamer. But even more than that I hope it allows us to see that when I go about the normal business of my life I am *doing something*. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/11/2003 11:48:00 AM
Treadmill, part 2... Day two. I hope whoever said, "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" knew what he was talking about. I am in bad shape. After shoveling snow and running on the treadmill a may prefer death to being stronger. I think it helps that my wife and kids are making a little family competition out of the whole thing so I have some pressure to push through. On a related note, Jason Smith is one of the guys sharing my missional treadmill. He is helping me keep pace. He just got back froma good weekend of ecclesial dreaming and I like some of the things he is sharing about it. Read about it here. Good things are coming. Right around the corner. I am still anxiously waiting... posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/08/2003 09:47:00 PM	Monday, December 08, 2003
Perception and reality... I have several friends who tell me perception IS reality and there is no way around that. I understand this to a point but I have issues with it as well. Just one example... I think most people have this self perception that allows us to see ourselves the way we want to be seen. So when we look in the mirror we see the person we want to see. (In my case this me when I was 19 and I was healthy, strong and thought I knew everything.) Sometimes, to the horror of my wife, I can even believe that I look good enough in the outfit I have chosen to be seen in public. Occasionally I will come across a picture of myself when I was 19 and when I realize the guy in the picture doesn’t look anything like the guy in the mirror the "perception is reality" idea begins to crack. Over the weekend I removed all doubt by getting on a treadmill. The reality of the treadmill was more convincing than any perception I have. I am seriously out of shape. So, maybe perception plus experience equals reality. We need to create experiences to test our perceptions if we want to have any hope in reality. All of the talk in the world about what church is or isn't will not mean anything until we start living it out with others on the treadmill of a shared life. My experience with the treadmill is showing me very clearly that I am no longer 19, healthy and strong. But as you can tell, I still think I know everything... posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/08/2003 11:34:00 AM
Wish list... Like it or not, the consumeristic side of the holiday season is upon us. Janell and I are busy making homemade gifts for friends and family. We have finished most of the shopping for our kids who will not get everything they want but should like the things they get. There are a lot of problems with the commercialization of this holiday but I like that everyone thinks of others at least to some degree. My kids are just as excited to get stuff for others as they are to get things for themselves. They seem to become more generous with things this time of year. We are protected from getting too caught up in it simply because we don't make enough money to splurge. But I think Wish lists can be a good way to share a little about who someone is so I thought I would share mine. There are a lot of things I would love to have. I am pretty good at finding justification for everything on my list, too, which I think may be one of my spiritual gifts. It would be really cool and so convenient to have a Laptop computer. Of course I would love to have a MAC to join all my emergent friends but I would settle for a PC, especially if it was a Twinhead laptop. I would also like to get an effects pedal for my bass guitar. A customized Avalanche sweater or Bronco jersey would be good. I would be thrilled to get the new Dave Matthews CD or any of the books from our Amazon wish list as well. But as far as books go the one I really want right now is The Shaping of Things to Come : Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church. When you get right down to it all I really should get is a lump of coal in my stocking. I will be content to sleep in, have a nice cup of coffee on Christmas morning, listen to some Christmas music with the family and play with some of my kids new games and toys. If we can work it out we will go see Lord of the Rings if we haven't seen it before then. Having a four day weekend will be nice as well, even though it will mean a day off work without pay due to the ongoing budget crisis in Denver County. When you are an ecclesial dreamer, things on Christmas lists don't really amount to much. I have a feeling the things I want the most will all come after the first of the new year. The things I really want can't be purchased with money. And unlike the things on my list above I am looking forward to enjoying the results of my ecclesial dream for the rest of my life. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/08/2003 10:46:00 AM
Battle of the sexes... It's time to realize not much will change with gender roles in our churches until we learn how to behave ourselves wherever we are. Christy articulates this much better than I ever could. Check out "to men yelling at me from their car windows" Part one and Part two. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/05/2003 09:53:00 PM	Friday, December 05, 2003
How should we then lead? I am a little disappointed that I missed out on the international chat. I was looking forward to it simply because I am really interested on people's thoughts on leadership in a church context. My friend Dwight made some interesting comments from a perspective that he brings from a Quaker context. I like this openness that everyone in the meeting has the responsibility to listen to God and that anyone has the ability to speak. I think that most evangelicals need to move rapidly in this type of direction to bring a needed corrective to the "senior pastor", talking-head model. Now, I don't want to go off on a rant here, but I wonder if the structures we create will allow us to do this. No doubt, the majority of evangelical pastors understand it is their job to equip the saints and then the saints do the works of ministry. I have read enough philosophy of ministry statements from pastors in the recent pastor search committee I was involved with to know that this is common pastor-speak. But practically speaking what does this mean? Certainly we are not equipping people to do the pastor's work of ministry. After all, one would need to go to seminary (and in some churches, be the right gender) to do that. Besides, the pastor is actually paid to do his part and we can't go around paying everybody. So the pastor equips people to do what exactly? Lead small group Bible studies? Teach Sunday school classes? Volunteer with para-church ministries? Am I the only one troubled by this? We are creating a system that turns pastors into project managers. Or as Spenser Burke says it, we turn ministers into "add-ministers". Real ministry gets run over by the well oiled church machine. I have another friend who is a seminary student and trying to find an opportunity to do real ministry in his church. He is gifted, willing and able to lead. Unfortunately it will take him 3 weeks to get an appointment with the senior pastor. My guess is that they will make every attempt to find a place in the machine to use his services but they will not listen to his heart and empower and equip him to lead. They already have a "leader" and apparently he is very busy add-ministering all of the various things that pastors do. I am convinced that we have to move away from the structured foundation of leadership where titles are doled out to those based on what position they fill and the function they contribute to the machine. I believe we need to become much more organic in the way we view leadership. I think it is time we stop buying into the artificial divisions imposed on the body of Christ by the fact that we have churches on every corner. We need to stop teaching people that there highest spiritual aspirations are to volunteer to teach an occasional Sunday school class and tithe enough to have an opportunity to listen to the gifted teaching pastor for 40 minutes each week. In a more organic way, we should all begin living as faithful followers of Christ where we find ourselves. We will seek to use our gifts in the contexts God has placed us in. We will understand that husbands need more than Promise Keepers and moms need more than MOPS. Children and youth need more than Sunday schools and youth groups. What we need is a community of faithful people committed to passionately pursue their callings to follow God in the way of Jesus. As we do this I am convinced that a new type of leader is going to emerge. One that chooses service over self-interest, stewardship over ownership, and theology over methodology. Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/05/2003 12:28:00 PM
Waiting…. Being a good non-denominational guy I have never followed a liturgical calendar but I have wanted to for a while. There is something deeply spiritual about allowing the rhythms of the year to connect to transcendent spiritual themes. I picked up a great book last year at the library about following a liturgical year and it reinforced this desire for me. So this year, as Advent arrives upon us I am more aware of spiritual things around me than I have been in the past. One theme that I feel emerging for me is this shared sense of waiting. The gospels begin with a certain anxious expectation—a looking forward to the coming of a savior. This year, I am waiting with great expectation for something huge and wonderful—for something divine to penetrate into the mundane surface things of life. I am anticipating the Christmas season in a new way this year. I fully intend to celebrate the miracle of the incarnation but this year my mind is also aware of another miraculous birth. John’s gospel begins by telling the Christmas story and, like Matthew and Luke, he tells us about a wonderful birth. He talks of the eternal Word becoming flesh and living among us, but that is not the birth I am referring to. John talks of the birth of those who have come to follow the Word made flesh. Followers of Jesus born of God. "The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.." –John 1:9-13 Traditionally, Christmas is a Sunday where people make the effort to go to church even though they do not participate in a community of faith the rest of the year. Churches gear up for the larger crowds and prepare great cantatas or special services. But it seems to me that Christmas is more about God coming to meet us where we are than it is about us attracting a crowd. I wonder why more churches don’t shut down on that Sunday and instead send all their members into the communities in which they live to share the good news that God dwells among us? Maybe instead of celebrating a birth 2000 years ago we can initiate the birth that John tells us about by being Christ to people who are waiting. Waiting for someone to realize that they are broken people in a broken world with broken dreams. People who are hoping against hope for someone to tell them the good news that there is one who can redeem them in all of their brokenness. Looking for a community of faith who will love them, lead them and dwell among them on their journey towards faith. Christ can be born today, tomorrow or any day in the hearts of those who believe in Him and are given the right to be called children of God. This Advent season I find myself in a small community of faithful people who are encouraging and empowering me to see the mission of God in a new way. So while many are caught up in the hustle and bustle of this season, you will find me waiting with great expectation. Something wonderful is about to be born. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/03/2003 11:50:00 AM	Wednesday, December 03, 2003
International chat... Some great folks from down under will be hosting a chat session covering many issues including the role of leadership. For times in your local area go here. for more information about who is hosting and to find out how to join in go to Signposts and check out the side bar on the left. If I am free I just may eavesdrop on this one... posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/01/2003 07:47:00 PM	Monday, December 01, 2003
Rethinking leadership... Michelle posted the following link in a comment on the Backyard Missionary blog entry about leadership. This is a topic I really struggle with. I know that there is a need for people to "lead" in communities of faith. I know that there are some called to be pastors. But I am not convinced that we in the church really understand how Christ-followers are supposed to lead. The article Michelle links to was written by Wayne Jacobsen and articulates many things I wrestle with as an ecclesial dreamer. There are parts in this article that I agree with and others that I question. There is so much I want to say about this article that it would take all day. So I will just share some excerpts and encourage everyone to interact with the article yourselves... "If you can, set aside all your preconceived notions of human leadership and read the New Testament again with a fresh eye. The leadership of Father’s family is clearly placed in the hands of Jesus as its Head, and the Spirit as the one who joins us together and sets us in the body as he desires. Human leadership is not the main focus of Christ’s body. Jesus hardly mentions it and most of the letters don’t reference it at all. But there were leaders in the early church, people protest, and I wholeheartedly agree. The important question is, just what kind of leaders were they?" Good question! here's more... "Those who have been shaped by Christ’s life know there is an inherent conflict between spiritual authority and institutional power. Unfortunately, most people in the institution don't understand this truth, and they continue to be hurt by those who act as leaders and fail to recognize true leadership God has so generously scattered throughout his body. Perhaps we need to think differently." Easier said than done. One more... "Virtually everyone today gives lip service to the biblical ideal of servant leadership, but most don’t realize that as long as you try to get people to do what you think is best for them you act as their master, not their servant. You are not serving them; they are serving you." OUCH! This stirs up a lot in me that I need to work through. Thanks for the link, Michelle! Read the whole article here. posted by Ecclesial Dreamer @ 12/01/2003 10:54:00 AM