More Local Kiosk than Starbucks:

1. More Local Kiosk than Starbucks: • Life at the Intersection of New Wilderness Roads • A question with which many people have been living… • The Emerging Church: postmodern worshipping communities or… • An emerging ecclesiology? • www.emergentvillage.com • www.emergingleadersnetwork.org

5. The Emerging Church • Language that is becoming increasingly common currency • Descriptive (not prescriptive) language • Particular subsets of Christians exercising theological imagination—not so much rethinking as re-living–Christianity against the backdrop of (for lack of a better phrase) postmodernism

6. We’re not going there (“P” word) • No doubt you’ve had enough and heard enough about postmodernity, postmodernism and postwhateverism • Many people use pomo language to describe social location and define our current cultural contexts • Global postmodernity as the emerging context for this conversation

7. That which shall not be named • Perhaps more than anything else, pomo language points to a concept of flux • We need to name this time as a time of transition • Between what was (the Industrial age) what is (the Infomedia age) and what is coming (the Biotechnology age) • And in the process we are amateur cartographers, trying to map and navigate the landscape of this emerging world • In a time if transition we need, not more rules, but more stories

8. Transition…Major Shifts • In the last 10 to 30 years major shifts in virtually every sphere of life have fundamentally changed the world • In South Africa/Namibia it is before and after Apartheid • In Germany and Eastern Europe before and after “the wall” • In the U.S. defined by Vietnam and Watergate and Columbine and 9/11 • In China by Tianamen Square • And everywhere by PC’s, the Internet and virtual technology

9. Peter Drucker (1910—2005) “Every few hundred years in Western history,” he writes, “there occurs a sharp transformation…within a few short decades, a society rearranges itself—its worldview; its basic values; its social and political structure; its arts; its key institutions…Fifty years later, there is a new world and the people born then cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born. We are currently living through just such a transformation.”

10. The Cultural Shift • Those born after 1940 experienced the first winds of the coming change • Those born after 1960 braved the waves of change and are presently building the first huts on the beach of the future • But it will be those born after 1980 who will be the first to move inland and construct a more lasting homestead in the new world • Emerging church communities reflect “the church” under construction

11. William Easum “The world of today is caught in the crack between what was and what is emerging. This crack began opening in 1960 and will close sometime around the year 2014. Trusted values held for centuries are falling into this crack, never to be seen again. Ideas and methodologies that once worked no longer achieve the desired results. This crack in our history is so enormous that it is causing a metamorphosis in every area of life…. Today, the fastest way to fail is to improve on yesterday’s successes.”

12. The story we find ourselves in • We have been, are in the midst of a ‘cultural sea change” (Graham Ward) • Massive shifting of the tectonic plates, culturally speaking • In a time of transition, can the churches live in a tension: moored to our collective past, tethered to the Story of the living God in Christ yet/and free to step out and experiment, take risks

13. The Emerging Church is NOT… • The mega-church “model” • The church growth approach • Contemporary worship • Generational worship (whatever that is) • It is not prescriptive—not a mold, model, formulae

16. The Emerging Church IS… • Cultivating communities of faithful innovation that seek to navigate this emerging global postmodern cultural landscape closely tethered to God’s Story • Seeking to live an operative question: What does it mean to be WHO we are WHERE we are? • Whatever their origins, common principles and practices are noticeable in many emerging church communities

17. Worship=team design • Worship is planned and led by a team • This is not a group of people (e.g., worship committee) that fills in the blanks (e.g., picking hymns) for worship • People with various gifts and expertise—music, the arts, poetry, graphic design, audio/video technology—engage in design and implementation • Ordained persons may or may not be on the team

18. Feedback loops • Continuous feedback loops critique and inform planning for each worship experience • Elements may be used repeatedly—in other words, there may be, and most often is, a kind of embeddedOrdoLatin for "order." The term is used to refer to an order of service. • At the extreme, the worship experience is new each week; at the least, the worship experience is, to some degree, unique each week.

19. A return to art • After a long hiatus from (particularly Protestant) worship, the arts are back • The arts—often generated locally—are used extensively: painting, sculpture, graphics, poetry, drama, dance, and ritual movement http://www.next-wave.org/apr00/musings_on_art.htm • The arts provide non-discursive, non-linear expressions of thoughts and feelings • discursive \dis-KUR-siv\, adjective:2. Utilizing, marked by, or based on analytical reasoning -- contrasted with intuitive.

20. Language matters • Language is a key issue • Narrative is primary, with an emphasis on “real” experiences and words • Rote, wooden, “churchy” language seldom employed • If used, it often evokes immediate suspicion and is generally ignored

21. Room for spontaneity • Worship is not over-defined nor over-prescribed • Making or leaving space for spontaneity is important • Spontaneity is the domain of the Holy Spirit, and thus generally makes Lutherans, among others, nervous • Multiple interpretations are expected and sought—this is the world “in front of the text” • Meanings are found that were not anticipated by the designers and planners

22. Music • Though most emerging church experiments thus far use a “rock” idiom… • Other musical genres—Celtic, Taize,Gregorian chant or a techno club-vibe are also used • What is most significant is that many emerging church communities risk creating new musical styles that serve old texts, and employing old musical styles that serve new texts • Music has, and creates affect; it is deeply soulful and connects with people emotionally without lapsing into emotionalism

23. Worship space & time • Both worship space and time are typically not “traditional” in the sense of conventional • Part of the worship experience includes creating a sacred time and space that fits into the natural rhythm of the community’s life • Often the community gathers for corporate worship in an intentionally “profane” setting 1: not concerned with religion or religious purposes

24. Humor is… • Expected • Natural and… • Naturally used • Have you seen Keeping the Faith (2000)? • This is intended at best as analogy, not comparison nor example http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171433/

25. Keeping the Faith (2000) • Father Brian Kilkenney Finn: The seven deadly sins. Who can name the seven deadly sins? People! It was a very popular film with Brad Pitt, you have the ultimate cliff note. • Rabbi Jacob "Jake" Schram: What's the story of Sodom and Gomorrah really about? Anyone? Steve Posner. Steve Posner: Sexual perversion. Rabbi Jacob "Jake" Schram: Sexual perversion. Steve Posner's watching too much Spice Channel!

26. Attention to “text(s)” • There is a rich and ample understanding of “text” that includes a “full range of referentiality” • Thus “text” means both sacred text and cultural text • Extensive use of a variety of “texts” from pop culture, including allusions to television, film, music, video

27. Suffering is… • Personal, social, environmental • Acknowledged as a critical part of reality • Suffering is viewed as something to be joined and befriended rather than conquered or fixed

28. Experimentation, or… • The practice of faithful innovation • Self-conscious awareness that new forms of worship are needed to function during epochal change • In a time of transition we need, not more rules, but more stories • Christians talk of a “second reformation” • Jews seek an expression that is more than survival

29. Statement of faith • Statement of faith (in other circles, a mission or vision statement) is usually prominent and figural in the life of the community • Increasingly it is one of the ancient creeds from the Great Tradition of the Church (Apostles, Nicene) • Creedal statement serves as lodestar rather than litmus test • lodestar, guiding star; something that serves as a model or guide

30. Genuine appreciation of diversity • Diversity of age, gender, race, economic status, religious background…or lack thereof, etc. • All human experience is valid • Diversity is not forced onto or into a community (for the sake of being diverse) • Be open and reach out to the diversity that IS present in your context

31. Categories?…no thanks • Categories like “liberal’ and “conservative” are regarded as wooden and useless… • Often stifling… • Sometimes destructive… • Almost always ignored

32. Worship and/in community • Worship grows out of and creates community • There is a reciprocal relationship between these two realities • Community is “macro” (corporate expression, worship gathering) and “micro’ (the rise of and return to the house church model) • “The congregation is a community that lives in a community and is called to generate a sense of community.” (Loren Mead)

33. Robust doctrine of God • God is experienced as radical transcendence and radical immanence • Trinitarian understanding of God serves as the basis for the valuing of relationship and community • All three members of the Trinity are given equal importance in worship

34. Ancient-future orthodoxy • Preaching, teaching, and texts of songs, hymns, and rituals are classically orthodox in substance • An ancient-future connection between premodern and postmodern traditions may be sense and explored • “Ancient-Future worship is rooted in Scripture, draws from the great traditions of historic worship, and seeks to be authentic in a post-Christian culture.” (Robert Webber) www.ancientfutureworship.com

35. Dialogue is valued • Thus a key Gadamerian premise: genuine understanding proceeds through dialogue or conversation (Hand Georg-Gadamer, Truth and Method) • There is no felt need to judge or condemn other faith or religious expressions • Rather, engage and be engaged by the “other,” and become more fully and truly who you are in the process • Listen to what my friend Ed Chinn observes…

36. Experience & ritual moments • Deeply participatory environment that fosters full, active and conscious participation in communal life • Real, actual experience—of the individual or the group—is always paramount • Corporate worship often includes “ritual moments,” opportunities for personal, spiritual connection in the midst of community • Mediums for such ritual moments include silence, silent and guided meditation, various expressions of prayer, use of the arts, music, etc.

37. Honoring the questions • Power of the question is valued • Questions make leadership neither reactive nor defensive • Community is open to, appreciates, invites genuine inquiry • In order to effectively communicate with others, one must know what the questions are

38. Being in the neighorhood • Church communities are one neighbor among many in a local setting • Cultivate relationships, develop partnerships with other “neighbors” for the sake of the well-being of the entire neighborhood • Practice of “neighbor love” and neighbor-as-servant” disposition is the leading edge of community involvement

39. Radically indigenous • Emerging church is not to be confused with popular modernist “models” (e.g., church growth approach, mega-church model) • Emerging church is the coming-of-age of Gen X and Gen Y sensibilities • The figural question: “What does it mean to be who we are where we are?” • A rich, organic theology of context is operative—not a “theology as projectile” understanding of context but rather context as a generative locus of theology