emerging mosaic

Here’s a debate asking and interesting question Is it possible to have personal liberty without collective equality?

slavoj zizek | cornel west | alain badiou @ princeton university

I think this is a core question for the emerging church. Some seem to think that as long as there is personal freedom from the distortions of the modern church then all is well. I wish I could have been present to hear Cornel West’s perspective.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Technorati Tags: cornel_west, diversity, equality, princeton_university

Scott McKnight has a great conversation on atonement going on over at the Jesus Creed blog. The question is what do you do with the current theories of atonement when you live in a culture that doesn’t get sin? McKnight shares some excerpts from Alan Mann’s book, Atonement for a ‘Sinless’ Society.

“atonement is ultimately about the restoration of human/divine relations via the re-storying of the storied self                    

McKnight reports Mann’s book is broken into three sections concern (1) Sin as shame, (2) atonement as story, and (3) the use of Mark’s passion narrative as a story for converting to the atonement story of Jesus. another clip of McKnight’s quotes from the book

Mann contends that the operative word for the postmodernist is not “sin” but “shame,” and he defines shame as an “absence of mutual, intimate, undistorted relating that ultimately leads the postmodern self into a lack of ontological (or narrative) coherence” (19). Lots of verbage here, but the sense is this: postmoderns are not guilty of law because they don’t tell that “story” of sin; instead, there is an overwhelming sense that the “ideal” self and the “real” self are so far out of whack that they are “shamed” and afraid to disclose who and what they really are. A lack of inner coherence is what this shame is all about; the lack of a meaningful story or narrative that tells “my story” truly

I find this train of thought fascinating just this past week I was talking with a colleague and member of the Mosaic Life community about my take on the role of shame and guilt in relation to sin.

My take: shame is an internal marker of our sin (brokenness and disconnect from God) in response to grace that is activated by the Holy Spirit as the image of God in us comes to conscious awareness of our need to be more like Jesus. Guilt is the external measure of behavior in response to the expectations of others and motivated by adherence to the law. 

Then this past Sunday I tried to communicate atonement from a post Christian perspective in my message at Mosaic Life.

At-one-ment is God’s love motivated action to bring us to wholeness and holiness (something we cannot do ourselves because we’re broken) in our relationship with God by Jesus sacrifice. Jesus sacrifice expresses God deep and profound love for humanity and desire to be in relationship. Ephesians 2:1-16Ephesians 2:1-16
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
From Death to Life ^{2 1} . In the past you were dead because you sinned and fought against God. ² You followed the ways of this world and obeyed the devil. He rules the world, and his spirit has power over everyone who doesn't obey God. ³ Once we were also ruled by the selfish desires of our bodies and minds. We had made God angry, and we were going to be punished like everyone else. ⁴-⁵ But God was merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much that he made us alive with Christ, and God's wonderful kindness is what saves you. ⁶ God raised us from death to life with Christ Jesus, and he has given us a place beside Christ in heaven. ⁷ God did this so that in the future world he could show how truly good and kind he is to us because of what Christ Jesus has done. ⁸ You were saved by faith in God, who treats us much better than we deserve. e treats us much better than we deserve: The Greek word charis, traditionally rendered “grace,” is translated here and other places in the CEV to express the overwhelming kindness of God. This is God's gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own. ⁹ It isn't something you have earned, so there is nothing you can brag about. ¹⁰ God planned for us to do good things and to live as he has always wanted us to live. That's why he sent Christ to make us what we are. United by Christ ¹¹ Don't forget that you are Gentiles. In fact, you used to be called “uncircumcised” by those who take pride in being circumcised. ¹² At that time you did not know about Christ. You were foreigners to the people of Israel, and you had no part in the promises that God had made to them. You were living in this world without hope and without God, ¹³ and you were far from God. But Christ offered his life's blood as a sacrifice and brought you near God. ¹⁴ Christ has made peace between Jews and Gentiles, and he has united us by breaking down the wall of hatred that separated us. Christ gave his own body ¹⁵ . to destroy the Law of Moses with all its rules and commands. He even brought Jews and Gentiles together as though we were only one person, when he united us in peace. ¹⁶ . On the cross Christ did away with our hatred for each other. He also made peace f He also made peace: Or “The cross also made peace.” between us and God by uniting Jews and Gentiles in one body.

Head over to Jesus Creed and check out the conversation is something worth thinking and talking about

Popularity: 9% [?]

Technorati Tags: apologetics, atonement, christian_perspective, emerging church, faith, faith & culture, meaningful_story, passion_narrative, reformed, shame, spiritual-practice, theology

Jamaica where I was born and grew up entered a new era with the swearing in of its first female prime minister Madam Prime Minister - Portia sworn in as Jamaica’s first female head of Government I’m proud of her and the country and I hope she is successful. Here a clip from the local paper

PORTIA SIMPSON Miller yesterday wrote a page in Jamaica’s history by becoming the nation’s first female Prime Minister, pledging to stamp out corruption, extortion and break the power of criminals.

But yesterday she said everyone was equal and should be treated as such.

"Each individual is sacred. None is more important than the other. Money should not make one person more important than the other, learning should not make one person more important … nor should class, colour or gender. We are all equal …" the new Prime Minister said to tumultuous applause.

In the colourful ceremony held on the lawns of King’s House, St. Andrew, and watched by an estimated 10,000 guests and thousands more at home and abroad, Mrs. Simpson Miller also pledged to foster and facilitate conditions for employment and wealth creation. She succeeds P.J. Patterson who stepped into retirement yesterday as the nation’s longest-serving Prime Minister.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Technorati Tags: Jamaica, my life, prime_minister

Have you noticed that every time something get particularly popular in the culture Christians feel compelled to create a Christian version of it. I’ve been regularly doing yoga for a about year now the practice of yoga has been growing in popularity in recent years. Doing yoga has done wonders for my lower back and I’ve even lost some weight. So recently I came across "The Christian alternative to yoga" on the web.

Andrew Jones points to New Blogging Tool For Christians Only "not  myspace but his space" Now I’m no fan of myspace and thing parents should be very wary of how their kids my be prayed on in some of the popular social networking sites. But to we have to create a Christian alternative for everything cool. Do we need to create a Christian ghetto in cyberspace and physical fitness?

Popularity: 6% [?]

Technorati Tags: andrew_jones, faith & culture, myspace, social_networking, yoga

Mark Driscoll has issued a public apology for the pretty ugly comments he made about Brian Mclaren and Doug Pagitt on leadership journal blog. Here’s a clip of the apology

I have come to see that my comments were sinful and in poor taste. Therefore, I am publicly asking for forgiveness from both Brian and Doug because I was wrong for attacking them personally and I was wrong for the way in which I confronted positions with which I still disagree. I also ask forgiveness from those who were justifiably offended at the way I chose to address the disagreement. I pray that you will accept this posting as a genuine act of repentance for my sin.

On the one hand this is very courageous of him. ON the other hand he seems to have done it in response to some self interest. (He does have a new book coming out)

He kindly said that my reputation was growing as a guy with good theology, a bad temper, and a foul mouth. This is not what I want to be known for. And after listening to the concerns of the board members of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network

Read the rant, then head over to his blog and read the apology then decide for yourself.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Technorati Tags: Brian_McLaren, emerging church, emerging_church, leadership_journal, mark_driscoll, missional_church

One of my favorite writers speakers and evangelicals Tony Campolo has a great article on beliefnet.com calling for a new approach to Christian participation in the political arena. He wants to

jump-start a religious movement that will transcend partisan politics. Believing that Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, we want to unite Christians who are concerned about what is happening in America.

Having recently met with some political types in our state I was amazed to find out how few political folks thought realized that not all people of faith subscribed to the Pat Robertson view of the world. It seems that conventional wisdom was the Christian faith community all looked at the world the same way had constituency had already been wrapped up by one side of the political debate.

Being a person who doesn’t buy into either of the extremes I’m excited to here someone like Campolo calling for Christian engagement that moves beyond partisan politics. God is not a Republican or Democrat. God is God and to tie God to one political arm or the other seems like political expedience that borders on blasphemy to me. I think Christians that engage in the public square in a way that glorifies God when we take the whole counsel of scripture to heart and we don’t cherry pick one or two issues.

That is what I think Bono (among other unorthodox Christ followers) is doing

Popularity: 9% [?]

Technorati Tags: bono, christianity, conventional_wisdom, evangelicals, faith & culture, partisan_politics, religious_movement, tony_campolo

Maurice Broaddus has this to say in an article Black People in the Conversation over at emergent diversity

In a lot of ways, the emergent church struck me as, well, the Christian equivalent of the grunge movement. A little subversive, a little edgy, and whole lot of white, middle class evangelicals trying to make Christianity look cool. In other words, originally I saw a lot of style over substance. However, once I dug a little deeper, read some of the foundational works, a lot of the substance of postmodernism resonated. I was left wondering how this would translate to black churches, wondering what an emergent African American church would look like or what a multi-cultural emergent church would look like. Better put, what would a multi-cultural church look like that drew on all worship traditions? Because, let me tell you, I ain’t feeling guitars, candles, and labyrinths. I love organs, drums, and gospel choirs way too much to give them up. Of course, part of this stems from the fact that we could all stand with a bigger definition of worship.

Mauice raises some important point about how worship can be a point of disconnect for black folks in the emerging church conversation. I’ve run into this at my faith. Some heavily Anglo emerging church times might not want up front preaching (ala Doug Pagitt’s  reimaging preaching) most black folks expect that. So it has been important to search for common ground.

HarvestBoston asks can (or should) emergent be a prophetic national voice? he has this statement attributed to Brian McLaren

But this approach fails to realize how compromised those supposedly Christian roots are—by slavery and racism, for example. What Native American would like to go back to the nineteenth century? What African American would like to go back to the 1950’s? Dr. King used to say that the church must be neither the master of the state nor its servant, but rather its conscience.

If we seek to reinvigorate our churches but fail to be a prophetic voice in our nation, we miss an important opportunity. Or, put another way, if in ten years more of our churches are thriving and growing—but racism is intact and no less entrenched, will we be satisfied?

This is the kind of imperative I hear from some in the emergent conversation that give some hope and why I think practicing reconciliation matters. I wish others would pick on the truth that race matters.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Technorati Tags: african_american_church, black_churches, black_people, diversity, emerging church, evangelicals, multi_cultural_church

Apparently some "learned evangelicals" have decided that gravity isn’t gravity. Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity It’s God shoving us down. This is the kind of slippery slope that these folks go down when they push veiled efforts to promote creationism as intelligent design. I happen to believe that intelligent design makes sense. Science is showing that there is greater order to the universe and all things created than was previously thought.

But that is not incompatible with evolution. Why do some of us followers of Jesus seem so obsessed with fitting God’s power, work and creation into our narrow understanding and worldview.

What ever became of  “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.” Job 40:4-5Job 40:4-5
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
4 Who am I to answer you? ⁵ I did speak once or twice, but never again.

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Technorati Tags: evangelical, faith & culture, gravity, intelligent_design, scientists

America’s favorite author of vampire tales is now writing about blood of a different sort. Check out this article.

Anne Rice from vampires to Jesus — Beliefnet.com

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Technorati Tags: anne_rice, books, christianity, faith, faith & culture, in the news, jesus_christ

In an article on On Evangelicals and Interfaith Cooperation, an interview with Tony Campolo makes this statement that I think is relevant to the spiritual practice of (racial) reconciliation I suggested in my post emergent thread.

TC: Rather than making theological statements, we need to tell each other our stories. Jesus would tell stories and then say, "what do you make of this story?" One more story.

I believe the being of reconciliation of any kind (but especially racial reconciliation) is when we  can safely tell our story.

What’s your story?

Popularity: 13% [?]

Technorati Tags: diversity, emergent, emerging church, evangelicals, Jesus, racial_reconciliation, spiritual-practice, tony_campolo