Seven Questions, pt 1

I've been sitting on John O'Keefe's Seven Questions for weeks now, waiting for some time to open up to take a crack at them. Today's as good a day as any. I'll be working on these and will post 'em throughout the week. I'll send in the completed doc to John and it should show up sometime at Ginkworld.

1) Planting a church in an emerging/postmodern culture, what do you think are the key elements of a community of faith in an emerging/postmodern culture?

Good question. I think that in this issue, as in most, there’s a ditch on either side of the road. The ditch on one side is to see the early church as a model, disconnected from the culture in which they existed, and attempt to craft a “1st century church.” I think what God wants is a Church that, like the Old Testament sons of Issachar, understands the times and knows what to do because of their present context.
Of course, the ditch on the other side of the road is becoming so relevant that we forget to be counter cultural.

At its heart, the Gospel is a message with something to offend everyone. For the postmoderns, the Gospel proclaims an authority and a truth- a King. For the moderns, the Gospel proclaims a God who can be experienced, not just theorized about propositionally- a Friend. For the liberals, the Gospel and God’s Kingdom give us a system of morality that will undoubtedly seem “regressive.” For the conservatives, the place of the poor in the Kingdom and in God’s heart is a huge challenge.

It seems to me that a key to planting a church in this postmodern context is not only navigating but using the tension… embracing it. Know to whom you are speaking, connect them with the parts of the Gospel they will resonate with and challenge them with the parts of the Gospel they would rather forget.

Unfortunately, that takes a skill that they don’t teach you in seminary: Listening before speaking. This is something I'm still struggling to learn.

Comments

[Brian G]

Trust. Trust that we will find balance without having to run all over the teeter-totter trying to creating balance at each moment.

[bob hyatt]

Oh, I do Brian.. but it's a three-legged stool, you know?
Trust in the Holy Spirit to guide and teach us, trust in the community to listen to the Holy Spirit, and exercising my role as shepherd, our role as elders. It seems like if you kick out any of these three, you end up in trouble.
I can trust, but also act...

The trust keeps me from freaking out.

i hope. :)

Well said.

[starla]

Three legged stool? So, you think that the leadership is a different post than the community post? Somehow separate and distinct? Oh, dear God, no. Bob, you are part of the community and do not exist apart from it. And do you share the same weight as the Holy Spirit? Dear Blessed Lord! This analogy disturbs me so.

Having greater weight or responsibility is one thing, but you're own separate post!?! Simply having greater responsibility has been misused and overused so many times...by so many leaders...there must be a better way. Surely, there is, at the very least, a better analogy.

[bob hyatt]

Well, I'll think more about it... but some thoughts:

It's an us/we (leadership) not a "me" and that's pretty important.

There are commands in Scripture directed specifically at teachers/pastors/leaders...

It seems as though God, in the context of community, calls some to higher responsibility...

We can flatten it as much as is humanly possible, but there will always be a role for leaders, right?

I separate it in my comment, because there may be a time when leadership needs to call the community to listen to the Holy Spirit more carefully (and vice versa!), right?

[bob hyatt]

No wait... the more I think about this, the more I think it's an appropriate analogy. Let's change gears and see if it still works...

Take the issue of kid's ministry, right? We've been saying it's an everybody/all community thing... but some are stepping up and taking more responsibility in bringing structure to what we do with kids... so what's wrong with saying that kid's ministry rest on the legs of the community as a whole, and parents and those who have stepped up to facilitate? There's definitely overlap there, but also some areas where there's no overlap... each deserves to be singled out.

Or doing the Bridge feast? Clearly, the multnomah group depends on the community as a whole to do it and help make it happen, but they take the lead... feeding the Bridge kids rests on the legs of the community as a whole and the Multnomah Village Home Group...

So yeah, in the context of keeping the community on track, we depend on the Holy Spirit, on the community as a whole, and the leadership as a subset of the community.

yeah :)

[starla]

I agree, Leaders, I believe, will be judged at a higher standard based on my reading of scripture. Am I judged by the correctness of my position? My ability to create consensus? The patience I show others? The gentleness of correction? I already am not perfect, nor can I be. I cannot have perfect theology or a perfect faith. So, how will I be judged?

Does that greater responsibility translate into a change in behavior? Maek me more conservative? Less likely to take risks? Does that mean a lay person does not share the burden of training others? Making others accountable? Operating under conviction?

It starts to look a great deal like the conversation we had about marriage...

(BTW-by "you" I meant leadership--it is no less strange for me to think of you, rich, chris, chip and stephen having your own 'leg'.)