Am I emergent enough?

I definitely think of myself as an emergent Christian somewhere along the lines of the "new Christians" or "missional Christians" that Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle, Tony Jones, et al. are talking about.  I'm all about new ways of framing and asking old questions about the Christian faith.  (N.B., I happen to think that many of the "old" answers still apply.  The Gospel is still the Gospel after all.  Yet, it is incarnate in a new world, a new culture, a new framework.)

I might even prefer to talk about myself as an "emerging Christian" along the lines of the way philosophers of mind talk about consciousness as an emerging quality.  Unconscious cells--or whatever--interacting in a particular way give rise to consciousness.  Consciousness, some of them argue, is an emerging quality.  Non-living things--chemicals, DNA, whatever--interacting in a particular way give rise to life.  Life, is an emerging quality.


I am an individual human being whose thoughts, experiences, good intentions, sins, brokenness, faults, good deeds, misunderstandings, ignorance--and the like--interact in a particular way and--through the love of God, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit--give rise a Christian.  Thus, as a Christian, I am an emerging Christian.  My faith, my commitment to God's Kingdom, is an emerging quality.  On my best days, a Christian--a follower of Christ--emerges out of this hot mess....

Okay, that's the serious reflection.  But Christian Piatt (one of my favorite bloggers), compiled a checklist of "you might be emergent if..." questions.  Here's my shot.


1.  The list of Christian bloggers you follow has more than five women with three names.
I don't follower too many bloggers.  But of the two women bloggers I follow, both of them have three names.


2.  The words “substitutionary atonement” cause reflexive sighs or eye rolls for you.
Yes.


3.  You find you always use your fingers to make little air quotes when you use words like ‘salvation’ or ‘sin.’
Sort of.  I'll take a half-point on that one.


4.  Wild Goose is your new annual pilgrimage destination.
No, but I am intrigued.  Alas, my "pilgrimage" site is usually just a bar.


5.  You identify yourself as some hybrid of multiple denominational names, perhaps with a “-mergent” thrown on the end for good measure.
I am a member of Anglimergent, so....


6.  You commonly use phrases like “some of my best friends are atheists,” or “that reminds me of what Zizek said about…”
I don't know about "commonly", but I have quoted Zizek 4 or 5 times in the last year, and I lots of friends who are atheists.


7.  You know what “The Event” is.
Is that the show on NBC?


8.  You can’t read an article by or about Mark Driscoll or John Piper without wanting to hurl your fair-trade soy latte at your MacBook.
I don't drink soy latte's or have a Macbook (yet), but yes....


9.  You consider the fact that you’re a Christian to be more than a bit ironic.
Very yes.


10.  You find yourself quoting Derrida in regular conversation.
No, not so much.  But I think I play with his ideas more often than not.


11.  You can fill in these names: ______ Pagitt;    Nadia Bolz ______;    _____ Caputo;   _____ Rollins (no, not the guy from Black Flag).
Doug
Weber
John
Peter (although Henry's cool, too)

This is NOT a recent photo.

12.  You have a bald head, facial hair and hipster glasses.
Uh....  And I wear black t-shirts so often that when I wore a red t-shirt recently (on the 4th of July), my kids asked me about it.


13.  You prefer “faith community” over “congregation,” “gathering” instead of “worship” and you always hesitate self-consciously before using the word “church.”
No.  Definitely no.  I'm big on capital-"C" Church.  The Church is Christ's hand and heart in the world.  I spend a lot of time deconstructing (Derrida!?!) the word Church and trying to move away from Church-as-institution.  So in some ways, I think this is an unfair question.


14.  You cringe when God language (or any language about pretty much anything) is not gender-inclusive or gender-neutral.
A little.  I have served traditional, Anglican/Episcopalian congregations (whoops), so this is usually a ditch to die in.  I do use gender-neutral language, but not very often.


15.  You use the words “authentic,” “context,” “ecclesial” or “metaphoric” more than two dozen times in an average day.
Probably.

16.  You say things like “I don’t really preach any more…”
No, but I'm working on that....


17.  You consider calling someone a “post-” something or “post-post-” something is a compliment.
Yeah, probably.


18.  You answer every question with either another set of questions or a series of deep, reflective sighs.
Definitely.  


19.  Something just doesn't feel right unless you’re boycotting something.
I'm not a big boycott kinda guy.  I don't even drink fair-trade coffee usually.  I figure I should.  Maybe the question should be amended to, "I feel guilty about not boycotting, etc."  Then, yes.


20.  You have any idea what “postcolonial hermeneutics” means.
Yep.  I not because I have a Ph.D. in philosophy.  Never heard of that kind of stuff until seminary.  So there. 


(From http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christianpiatt/2012/03/you-might-be-an-emergent-christian-if/)
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I think I scored pretty high.  

GOAL!!!!!

So I bought Judah a soccer ball and a goal.  I'm teaching him to play (even though I have never played a match in my life).  But one thing I do know, how to celebrate a goal.  And I've passed that on to my boy....

Harpoon Summer Ale

I discovered Harpoon's Summer Ale last year and continue enjoying it.  Harpoon's website says that the Summer Ale is 

Kolsch style ale....  [I]t is straw gold in color and light bodied. The flavor is mild.  The hopping levels provide a crisp, dry finish that make this beer particularly refreshing. 

The best thing about Harpoon?  Their slogan...


Love Life.  Love Beer.  Harpoon.


I have been enjoying several "summer" beers this year.  I am still most find of Breckenridge Brewery's Summer Ale (an American style wheat ale, it's not as fruity or 'wheaty' as the Belgian stuff).  Apparently, "refreshing" and "crisp" are the words I'm looking for while I'm grilling out or teaching my youngest to play soccer.  GOAL!!!

'Slow, agonizing death' Or 'Is anyone doing anything?'

Another interesting post from the Crusty Old Dean, this time he's having a go at the Episcopal Church's next budget: It's All Over But the Shouting: Annotated Budget.  


Noting the "the pain, distress, confusion, and lack of trust in our governance that this process has created", Dean Ferguson says that he is

past asking for any semblance of accountability for mistakes made, or for putting any kind of procedures in place to make sure past errors can be corrected.  As predicted in a previous post, there will be absolutely no accountability of any kind for anything that has happened thus far.  

I confess that I haven't thought much about TEC's governance or about the national church's budget in my brief time as a priest.  I am way too worried about my local ministry to be bothered.  Hell, I find worrying about the structures and processes in my local congregation so "painful, distressing, confusing, and distrustful" (to paraphrase the Dean), that I don't feel like looking for more trouble.  But I am becoming more and more convinced that the Church as I know it is working solely in survival mode and/or is in some kind of a death spiral.  When we focus on administration, buildings, and maintaining programs that merely keep those of us already here around (otherwise, they would have been reaching out to people all along, right?), what else is happening?


I am frustrated....  I desperately want to focus on being a missionary priest in a culture that no longer takes Christianity seriously.  Sad thing is, I need that paycheck and a pension (oh, and the health insurance, can't forget the health insurance).  And I really don't know if the Presiding Bishop (who I met and liked immensely) or any of the others in charge at 815 (that is, the Episcopal Church Center at 815 Second Ave., New York) are doing well by the Episcopal Church or not.  Unfortunately, the slow, agonizing death of the United Methodist Church sounds all too familiar (and my friends in the ELCA, the PCUSA, and elsewhere report the same story).  What is 815 or General Convention doing to empower the local dioceses and congregations to live out our mission?  Anything?  Anything at all?

And some numbers....

While there's a good deal of analysis to be done with all of this, here are some numbers from a fellow TEC clergy person: "A Time to be Pruned."

The problems in TEC (and most likely in your Church, too)

The Crusty Old Dean (the Very Rev. Dr. Tom Ferguson, Dean of Bexley Hall, Columbus, OH or COD) says it better than I can.  


We are the less than 1%
-In this post, Dean Ferguson explains briefly why TEC is shedding members and sketches his "Marshall Plan for rebuilding the church".


Guns, Germs, and The Episcopal Church: Manifesto for Radical Change
-In this post, Dean Ferguson describes what may be the most fundamental problem for TEC.  Based on the work of Jared Diamond, Ferguson points out that:

So one problem is taking the blips, the anomalies, to be normative.  COD is convinced that the Episcopal Church has, in a way, done something similar.  We have taken the period from 1950-1990 (give or take a few years) as somehow a normative and determinative time period -- what it means to be the Episcopal Church is what occurred during this period -- when, in fact, it was a blip, an anomaly.  

But it may be too late.  And even worse, we realize that all teh folks and all the structures who need to get it together are a part of "blip-think":

COD finds himself thinking that restructuring is so 2011.  The past few months have convinced him that one the one hand the scope of change we are looking at in the next 50 years is so profound, and, on the other hand, how utterly incapable governing structures currently are at shaping a discussion about what is needed....
Collapse, my friends.  That's what's coming. 

The worst part, and the part that makes those of us at God and a Beer take long looks in the mirror, the COD suggests that TEC:

End parishes as clubs for members with a chaplain to minister to them, set up as Ponzi schemes for committees, which sees recruitment as getting people to serve on committees.  Would many of the towns where our Episcopal churches are located even notice, or care, if they were to close?  How many of our parishes function solely as clubs for the gathered?  How many dioceses have 10%, 15%, 20%, of their parishes on diocesan support?  How many dioceses are struggling to function?  We have to change not only the diocesan structure, but fundamentally reshape what it means to be a parish and a diocese.

[Sigh]


How do we really become a missional church?


This is why it's "God and a Beer".  After reading this stuff, we need both God and a beer.

"Bring your own beverage, just make sure it's cold."

"Stick it in the fridge, stick in the fridge stick it in the fridge."