Check out Common as he flows 16 bars… one of the finest emcees and Hip Hop prophets out there today.
Now how can we begin to break away from classical theology and do freestyle theology? What I mean is how can we break from merely memorizing and studying other people’s theology from Europe in the 1500′s and do some theology and studying of our own for our time and our context. Join the cypha…
I don’t think that civil conversation is possible in the American arena and context. So much hatred, bigotry, and ignorance has overwhelmed all chances of truly human interaction. There are some deep ideological differences in our country, and they will never be bridged with the atmosphere of racism and apathy that currently exist.
When I heard what happened to civil rights leader John Lewis I wasn’t even surprised… and that is what scares me. It’s like the last year has pushed us backwards in racial progress, rather than forward as many people expected (I actually didn’t).
I must be the only one sick of all this, I just might have to move to the West Indies…
I had a great conversation with some friends and our discussion found its way to the discussion of church. I know, me talking about the nature of the Church, surprise surprise!!! Anyways, one friend knowing my long term goal to do a church plant, asked how I would ensure that I did not fall into the routine of what most churches fall into, and how I would ensure I would be different.
I am satisfied with the answer I gave, I basically said that my goal is not to be different. My main critique of some of the emerging dialogue going on is not with approach or style, but with the goals it has. This is not the first person to articulate a desire to be different. And I know beneath that there are stronger convictions that recognize that the church indeed has not always been faithful nor relevant to God and the communities it serves. However, it still seems to be a reaction centered type of thinking to me.
I too am very frustrated with the Western Church as a whole and especially American churches. However, my main focus is not on how to be different than them, it is more on how to be faithful to God. For me I must ask the question, “What does a faithful Church look like in the 21st Century?” And after continually going back to God’s Word, praying, and being shaped by other believers in Christ who are asking the same question, a Kingdom imagination breaks forth, from which the Spirit gives discernment on what that might look like. And then I repeat the process again.
For me I want to make sure that I am lined up with what God is doing, and do not become just another approach that happens to be very different. I desire that God direct me on how I and my ministry can align with what God is doing. Everything centers around what God is doing first, and then me being a faithful participant in God’s doings.
I know I have thrown out the term Missional at various times on this site, with out spending the time to define what it is. While I have critiqued aspects of it as a movement, and how it has been lived out, I tend to agree with the overall theological foundations and assumptions.
A friend had this video on there blog, and it seems helpful in getting at the heart and core of what a missional church is all about, at least in theory. Freestyle with me, what do you think?
For the last few days, I away at Ecclesia’s National Gathering. Ecclesia is a missional network that specializes in coming around church planters and church leaders to relevantly minister to a rapidly changing culture.
I had some great dialogue with many people while I was there and definitely left with a lot to think about and chew on because the teaching was so rich. However, like my stereotype suspected (yes, I admit I prejudged them before I knew them… guilty!) it was an overwhelming white constituency. In fact, while I have been to many mostly white christian events, I actually think it was the whitest event I have ever been to. If you throw Blacks and Asians, (sorry, there were no latinos present) into one group it would total to about 1% of the group.
This reality is sad and unfortunate given that this new group of “missional” christians tend to see themselves as Evangelicals 2.0, who are supposedly more open minded and value diversity more than evangelicals do. While that might be in the teaching and vision, in reality, most evangelical events I have been to are closer to 5-10% minorities. I am not making that sound like that is a good number, but it is way better than 1%.
Despite everyone’s agreement through many conversations about the elephant in the room (lack of pigmentation), it didn’t seem hopefull that anything was really going to change.
What is going on?
“In the beginning God created…”
How often do you think about God as creative? Creativity is one of the very first things that are revealed about God in the Bible. What does it mean to be created in the likeness of a creative God? Freestyle with me…
Prominent African American theologian James Cone has made the connection between crucifixions in the first century under the Roman Empire and lynchings in post Civil War America. Both of these rugged trees were used to maintain control over a people group. Criminals, revolutionaries, and innocent men were hung up on these trees to not only kill the individual, but to also put fear in the eyes of those who saw these dead bodies hanging. Around 70 A.D. over 6,000 Jews were crucified during the Jewish war. And there were over 5,000 blacks lynched after the civil war.
It is on the cross that Jesus, a Jew under Roman rule was crucified upon as well. The cross has become the primary symbol for the Christian faith. However, its historical significance has been lost in current American culture. As we proudly sport crosses around our necks and on top of our buildings, we also have lost the symbolic, cultural, and social weight of the cross from a 1st century Palestine perspective. The cross of Jesus must be understood in light of the Roman empire and the rulers that harshly ruled over the Jews. In fact, for us to understand the cross we must step up to the foot of the lynching tree. For it is there, in the harsh, ugly history of lynchings that we get a glimpse of the Cross. And it is there on the Cross that Jesus defeats the dominant rulers and authorities of the world, while also defeating death itself.
“Colossians 2:15 Disarming the rulers and authorities, he (Jesus) has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Sometimes in order to move forward, you have to look back. I am really excited after finding an old copy of Tom Skinner’s book “If Christ is the Answer, What are the Questions?” on Amazon. Skinner has always been a hero of mine, and was also a family friend. While he is no longer with us, the insight and truth he spoke when it was not popular still has relevance today. In fact as I looked over the table of contents of his book (which was written in 1974) I noticed how many topics are still not easily discussed even now in our time. It is upon the shoulder’s of people like Tom Skinner that I stand. It is crazy to think that much of what I say now has been said before. It is important to take note of those who have come before us.
Are you familiar with Tom Skinner?
I must be honest, I have an ever growing itch to live truly shaped by the life of Christ and within His Kingdom. I know some think of me as radically living out my faith, and probably because of american christian complacency it may sometimes appear that way. However, when I step into reality and allow the Word of God to search me and measure me up to what we as a church have been called to, I am deeply humbled. I guess we all get to that place where we see that God is desiring much more from us in our lives. I know I am there, and have an ever growing itch that I have been ignoring for a while now. However, there are real choices to be made. Faithfulness to me, requires that I choose between the things of this world and God. Everyone is always quick to say that they have chosen God over this world, but we nonetheless make all our decisions based on consumerism, comfort, and security. Those things have enculturated our thinking so much, that we do not always recognize how impacted we are by main stream thought and culture. We are like a fish in water, that is all we know.
I have this itch… but I have been scared to scratch it. It means a complete letting go of the things I have been taught to trust. It is literally putting on a funeral for an empty system and recognizing that it is truly dead, letting it go. I think that at the point that you let go, you find a whole new freedom never experienced before. The whole system and the world and all its promises needs to be let go of. Deep down in my core I have an itch to let go completely.
I want to be able to be like the apostle Paul who said “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
I don’t know about you, but comfortable Christianity is just not cutting it for me. It promises a lot, but in the end seems empty and watered down. I have this itch, and like any other itch, as I/you try to ignore it, it only grows in intensity. I have this itch and I believe that the time to scratch it has always been now.
Recent freestyles from you...