Brian talks about the trap many worship leaders find themselves in, trying to serve the needs of sophisticated consumers of worship products and prefabricated worship experiences.
He concludes that there’s a difference between propaganda and art. Art can be about telling the truth - even if it’s not pretty. Being honest about the ugliness of life can be a beautiful thing. But trying to make everything look pretty makes it look cheap.
I agree. But the most difficult art is supporting people in the transition from the safety of the ‘worship industry’ culture to the sometimes threatening environment of honest worship.
Today I caught the last day of Brian McLaren’s appearances in Melbourne.
This morning and this afternoon were at Tabor College. Brian started the day by giving us a basic introduction to the three worlds we find co-existing and struggling with one another: premodernism, modernism and post modernism. It was helpful to reflect on the challenge the conservative Islamic nations and religious institutions see in the dominant modernist culture as seen in the United States. After lunch we explored the implications of moving into a post-colonial paradigm. He explored with us stories of Christian collusion in colonialism in Rwanda and in the United States. Our challenge is not to lay blame with previous generations, but to learn from their experience so that we can honestly and courageously work differently now.
This evening was hosted by Forge Missional Training Network at Retro Cafe in Brunswick St. Brian talked about the challenge of rethinking the heart of the gospel around the life and teaching of Jesus. What would happen if we stopped interpreting the ‘kingdom of God’ solely in terms of life after death and began to cooperate with God’s dream or economy right here on Earth?
It was good to see Forge mending the bridges that were damaged last year during the release of Don Carson’s book, “Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church’. Brian’s returning next year to speak at one of the Forge summits. It would be good to see if we can arrange a gathering in Queensland.
Zadok Perspectives is the quarterly journal of the Zadok Institute of Christianity and Society, based in Sydney. The most recent issue, Summer 2005, features articles on the Emerging Church, from an Australian perspective.
Stephen Said provides an overview of the ‘emerging church’ concept. In his article, “What’s in a name”, he suggests a few emphases associated with ‘emerging church’:
1. Attractional verus incarnational
2. Unleashing Christ from modern culture
3. The Kingdom of God
4. Sacred and secular
5. Alternative worship
6. Social justice
Barb Daws, SU Victoria’s Children and Families Mission Coordinator and part of the Solace Community, writes on “Children and the emerging church”. She remarks on the resonance between emerging church values and the vision painted in John Westerhoff’s 1980 book, “Will Our Children Have Faith?”.
Adriahna Jensen, 16 year old poet and missionary in Melbourne, writes on her experience of participation in an experimental church in Pomona.
Matthew Stone, missionary-apologist in Sydney, tells a ‘fish out of water’ story in his article, “Don’t Circumcise the Gentiles”. He writes about his own experience of developing Christian faith as a seeker out of the New Age Movement. He gives examples of modern-day circumcision of the Post-modern Gentiles - communication gaps over the use of religious language, focus on clothing style, neglect of the needs of vegetarians, demonising anything associated with the New Age. Matthew holds together a warning against cultural imperialism and a plea for Christian unity.
Mick Pope, review editor of Zadok, talks with Brian McLaren, in “Dialogue with the Jesus Movement”. Brian has some interesting things to say about an emerging global postcolonial theology.
Dan McCredden, lawyer and congregational leader with Northern Community Church of Christ in Melbourne, asks, “Can an existing denominational church be emerging?”
John Jensen, missional church planter in Melbourne, tells the story of “The Kids of the Black Hole”. At the age of 20 he invited his brothers’ punk friends to move into their apartment.
Anne Wilkinson-Hayes, regional minister with the Baptist Union of Victoria, reflects on the place of the small missional church in the Baptist context. She asks if if ‘new missional churches’ are provieding a more authentic, gospel-centred approach to living our the faith in our society today. She highlights, from her experience in the UK, the small fragile groups that are not trendy, not led by people who publish every waking thought on the internet. They’re largely led by women. She says that if groups can move from the rhetoric and become truly engaged in their communities, then the “Emperor is fully dressed.” If groups settle for more interesting worship in a less formal setting, then the Emperor of Emerging Church is prancing around in embarssing nakedness.
Book reviews in this issue of Zadok include Rhys Bezzant, church historian at Ridley College, on The Da Vinci Code, Dan McCredden on Steve Taylor’s “The Out of Bounds Church”, Doug Hynd, lecturer at St Mark’s Institute of Theology in Canberra, reviewing Stuart Murray’s “Post Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World”, and Darren Cronshaw on “Bridging Divided Worlds: Generational Cultures in Congregations“, by Jackson Carroll & Wade Clark Roof.
Darren Cronshaw, adjunct lecturer at Bible College of Victoria and Whitley College, has written an introductory reading guide to the emerging church phenomenon, covering 50 books, a number of internet links and blogs.
