Questions for Brian

When I first started exploring what the Emerging Church really was all about, one of the first figures I came across was Brian McLaren. He appeared as a much debated, controversial and rather enigmatic figure that I found difficult to draw any hard conclusions about.

Most of the stuff I read on the net about Brian was polarised. People seemed to love him and lift him up in an apostolic manner, or hate him; demonising him and branding him a heretic.

Since I first raised my questions on this blog about Brian almost 2 years ago to the day, I have had the opportunity to read several of his books and the privilege of meeting him and hearing him speak on several occasions. I even spent 3 days sitting next to him at a conference in Uganda last year.

Between the polemics offered by those who adore and those who demonise, I have found a man who is inspiring, unassuming and deeply committed to drawing others into a life centred on and lived out of the way of Jesus Christ.

Brian's two most recent books - Secret Message of Jesus and Everything Must Change have probably had the greatest influence on me, inspiring me to take seriously the way I live my life as a follower of Christ.

In an article published on the Christianity Today website back in September, Scott McKnight looks at some of the central themes of McLaren's work and the way in which they've influenced the emerging/emergent movement and challenged the standard, two dimensional evangelical understanding of the gospel and in particular Jesus' own emphasis on the kingdom of God.

McLaren tells us that he could only see this kingdom vision of Jesus when he came to a "place of cynically doubting much of what I had been told about Jesus." To use the words of fellow emergent thinker Peter Rollins, the Northern Irish philosopher at Ikon community, McLaren experienced the "fidelity of betrayal." He had to betray the Jesus and the gospel and the church that nurtured him to become faithful to the Jesus of this kingdom vision.

But rather than simply critique the positive aspects of McLaren's influence, he goes further and poses, what he says, are some necessary questions.

McLaren grew up among evangelicals; we'd like him to show the generosity he is known for to those who ask theological questions of him. The spirit of conversation that drives much of his own pastoral work urges each of us to answer the questions we are asked, and the Bible encourages those who ask those questions to listen patiently and to respond graciously. The lack of the latter has so far inhibited the former. This can be taken as a plea on behalf of all concerned to enter into a more robust, honest conversation.

McKnights questions for McLaren centre on his (McLaren's) theology of the cross - which, according to McKnight, is nowhere near broad enough; And the relationship between the kingdom and the church - while McLaren has dealt extensively with the kingdom, he has not gone far enough, says McKnight, in thoroughly defining the kingdom and in describing or developing an appropriate ecclesiology.

The whole things is well worth a read - McKnight gives a good overview of both the books in question as well as providing something for the fans, and detractors, of McLaren to think about. Hopefully, if he hasn't already, Brian will also respond.

TV and Happiness

Livescience.com have reported the findings of a recent study into happiness and have found that unhappy people watch more tv, on average, than happy people.

While happy people reported watching an average of 19 hours of television per week, unhappy people reported 25 hours a week. The results held even after taking into account education, income, age and marital status.

In addition, happy individuals were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read a newspaper more often than their less-chipper counterparts.

The researchers aren't sure though which comes first, the unhappiness or the TV watching.

Justice and "Justice"

Over the last 20 years I've spent a lot of times in courthouses.

The first few times I went to court because of things I had done. More recently I have been there in support of others. In between I spent time at court as a journalist and a news cameraman. I was even once assaulted at court, resulting in a fractured knee cap.

I have a pretty good understanding of the mechanics of court. I know when to bow. I know not to leave my sunglasses on my head, and to turn my mobile phone off. I once saw a lawyer throw his pager across the court room when he forgot to turn it off and some one paged him. The judge had already cautioned him once about leaving it on. His response seemed a little extreme, but the judge saw the funny side of it.

I have been asked to advocate for clients before the court and even mediated a few disputes at the request of the court.

I have come to see that justice, real justice, the kind of justice that leaves you feeling like a wrong has been properly put right, is often missing from the justice system.

A parent looses access to their children because their former spouse is prepared to lie and they are not.

A homeless man is sent to prison because he spent a few nights in an unoccupied house, trying to get out of the cold and the rain.

A child abuser is set free because the person he abused is unable to face him in court and because his family, out of misplaced loyalty, are prepared to lie for him.

A 14 year old boy, charged with a minor stealing offence, is sent to prison because his family refuses to cover his bail and he ends up getting gang raped while inside.

Yesterday I attended court again with a dear friend who is trying to do something I too often take for granted; have a relationship with his children.

He can't afford a lawyer and so represents himself. His former partner has a lawyer who is prepared to sprout his clients lies as if they are facts. To denigrate a man who has spent the last 10 years just trying to be the best dad he can be.

As I listen, everything in me wants to scream out "this is not justice!". When I hear the lies - blatant lies that fly in the face of things that I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears - I want to grab the lawyer and shake him and ask him "what are you doing? Why do you so want to damage this man? What has he ever done to you?"

As we leave the courtroom, I wait by the door for the lawyer to exit. There are so many things I want to say to him.

Maybe it's not as clear cut as it seems right at this moment, maybe he's just doing his job.

As he emerges I call across the room to him, "My friend ..." He looks up at me with a smile, "You make a mockery of the notion of justice!" His smile rapidly vanishes and the colour drains from his face. He turns quickly on his heal and walks away from me.

He's just a man after all. I find myself feeling a little sorry for him. I think I scared him. I wonder what lurks in his past. What pain he has suffered, what kind of relationship he had with his father. Whether he has ever experienced true justice. Where a wrong has been made right.

I wonder if true justice can only ever come about through omnipotence. Maybe this is why God reminds us that, at the end of the day, vengeance is his domain while loving our enemies is ours.

In the big smoke

Well my incredibly slow GPRS internet connection (courtesy of my mobile phone) has allowed me to connect to Blogger tonight so I can post! How did I ever use the net before high speed broadband!

I've been in Perth with the kids since Sunday arvo. We went and saw Wall-E at the cinema on Monday. It's a good show with a very current, "save the planet" message. It's a good way to get the kids thinking about God's world and looking after it, and what happens when we don't. It brings home some of the stuff going on in our own back yard in Binningup, such as the possible development of a nasty desalination plant less than a kilometer from our house.

Yesterday we went to the Perth Royal Show. This was an incredibly expensive exercise, but we did our bit and caught trains pretty much the whole way. The kids had a great time. Sam and Luke tried out the bumper-cars and then we all went on the chairlift. This scared Ashleigh silly for about 5 minutes and then she seemed to settle into it.

I bit the bullet and went on the "megadrop" and got my own mini-adrenaline rush.

Tomorrow it's back home to our Thursday night Alternate[Or] get-together followed by a Water Corporation Community Reference Group meeting in Binningup.

Rose coloured formaldehyde

Over 20 or more years hanging around the edges of church and the last 10 or so years playing an active role as part of it, I've heard many stories of the "old saints". People who's lives exemplified Christian living. People who we should strive to be like.

The interesting thing about many of these stories of men (I can't think of any women among them) who rose at 4am every morning to read the Bible in the original Greek, and who prayed on their knees for 2 hours each day and who never swore, or complained, or farted (ok, I added that), is the way they imply perfection.

I have often wondered if the reality about these guys lives, paraded like protestant versions of All Saints Day icons, is really as impressive as the legends would have us believe. I have also often wondered if these stories have really served to spur on those who hear them to better things, or, as in my case, they simply served to further instil a sense of alienation in people who where already struggling with their own inadequacies, weaknesses and failings.

Personally, I think the only perfect example we need is that of Christ. That's not to say we shouldn't look to the examples set by godly men and women through the ages, but we should do so in the recognition that they are not the icons of perfections some in the past have made them out to be. Perhaps we need to throw out the rose coloured formaldehyde so widely used in the preservation of the lives of the "old saints" over the last 100 years or so and get back to being real about the struggles, joys and difficulties of life lived as a disciple of Jesus Christ - the one, true icon of perfection.

McLaren and The "Framing Story" of Evolution

I've been devouring Brian McLaren's latest book, Everything Must Change with much fervour over the last week or so. I've just finished reading the section on "framing stories" (part 3 of the book) and suggest this is perhaps key to the "emerging" understanding of Jesus and his mission. It's also probably key to understanding why the modern church must change the way it approaches the gospel and the world in which it exists.

But, I also think the framing story's concept has something to say about one of the most influential framing stories of the last 150 years, a framing story Brian often directly and sometimes indirectly deals with in many of his books. That is the framing story of evolutionary theory.

I am a creationist. Once upon a time I would have prefixed this title with "young earth" or "biblical". More recently my understanding of the source of my identity has changed and I don't feel the need to "identify" myself in this way any more. Yet, "creationist" still describes how I understand God and his work as the cause of the universe.

A framing story exists in this view of God. In the past my understanding of this framing story was hard, dogmatic and disconnected from the gospel. Now I feel I can freely admit some of my struggle with certain aspects of the Genesis creation account, aspects that cause a few problems if viewed as historical events. I have to confess I find it more difficult to accept the talking serpent of Eden than I do Balaams talking ass (i.e. donkey not backside). However, I still struggle greatly with the concept of theistic evolution which steps well outside the conceptual order present in the creation story of Genesis 1 and 2. It talks about a God who is in control, and who presents his creation in a finished form. It gives us a picture of the "re-created" earth, so popular (and rightly so) in emerging theology.

It stands over and against the framing story of evolution.

Yet evolution is as significant a framing story in our day and age as the divinity of the Caesars was in their day. While Brian is quick to point out the way Christ's message opposed the framing story of the Roman Empire he is just as quick to accept the framing story presented by evolution.

While I have moved away from trying to build a definitive counter-theory I can say with confidence that I understand the science on both sides of the fence. Thanks to a freedom of post modernism, a freedom to question, I feel I can say the holes on the scientific creationists side of the fence are no less significant than those on the evolutionists and, at the end of the day, the difference of opinion comes down to the very framing story's employed by the debaters and discoverers themselves. At either end of the scale are extremists (maybe Dawkins and Ham?)

Yet there appears to be very little middle ground in these arguments, at a least not any middle grown that doesn't require compromise, the kind of compromise represented in Everything Must Change by the example of the Herodians and the Saducees, willing to accept aspects of the Roman Empire in order to build security for themselves. According to Brian though, Christ's way opposed this.

The framing story of evolution proclaims "survival of the fittest" yet Christ proclaims "love your neighbour as you love yourself". The framing story of evolution proclaims "blind processes and chance" while John proclaims Christ as the "creator of the world".

I began distancing myself from the creationist movement a few years ago because I started to see shortcomings in the approach and practice of those involved in it and the contrast it created with the life of Christ in the gospels - the same as the shortcomings and the contrast created by much of the modern evangelical church. However, while the details may be hotly contested and debated (but this is healthy, right?) and the science tested, the theory of evolution stands out as an inferior framing story when compared to that given to us by God in Christ. And just as Christ stands over and against the framing stories of the Middle East of the Roman period he also stands over and against the modernistic, scientific framing stories of the late 20th and early 21st century.

I think the concept of framing stories is so incredibly important in understanding and contextualising Jesus' ministry in the first century but also in contextualising and understanding his ministry in the world of the 21st century. I think, as this seems to be one of the central points of Everything Must Change, Brian would agree. Yet I think it is also something Brian may have overlooked in his acceptance of the "facts" of evolution and its place in our understanding (framing story) of the modern world - influencing everything from archeology to psychology.

Exilio

I've started going through the Exilio program with our small group. Exilio has grown out of Mike Frost's book Exiles (incidentally, a great and in some ways challenging read) and uses an action and reflection approach to learning - so along with some hefty reading exercises, and Bible study, there's also some practical home work which Mike refers to as "missional experiements" (this has most of the group cringing).

One of the exercises given in the "Bible study" part of the course is to begin reading through the Book of Acts - in a public place. Some of the group first thought this was a missional exercise in itself. Thankfully it isn't - not that I have any problem with people reading their Bibles in public, rather says Mike, the public reading is about bringing the text of Acts to life:

When we read Acts in public spaces our imagination cannot help but ask the question, "What would it look like if the Book of Acts happened today in this cafe. park, train station, shopping mall?". We find reading the Bible surrounded by people who are yet to discover God's love deeply affects our understanding of the reading. (Ignition, p.7)

I put this to the test today. I was supporting a young member of our Bunbury community (Alternate[Or]) during a court appearance and had plenty of time up my sleeve while waiting for his case to be called. So I read the first 2 chapters of Acts in the courthouse. At first I thought the whole "public reading" thing sounded a bit wussy, but, in reflection, I think it did, to some degree at least, affect how I viewed the text. Particularly the section describing Peter's address to the Jews and Jewish converts at Pentecost. The bit that really jumped out and grabbed me was the following:

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself."

And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. (ESV)

Particularly given my location at the time I was hit (again) by the important place repentance holds in the ordo salutis (order of salvation). It made me think about the young bloke I was with and his genuine interest in Christ and his life and what it would mean for him to become a disciple. It also made me think about the sheer lack of anything even resembling repentance I have seen in my many visits to the courthouse over the last 10 years or so (not to mention my own appearances before the Magistrate when I was a younger man!).

Thankfully today's result was a good one for my young friend. A reprieve that will hopefully help the process of repentance and forgiveness along.

As for the practical side of Exilio I think I have plenty of things to choose from without having to dream up a whole new missional experiment.

New Day 4 Videos - Rwanda

I've started editing together the brief promotional videos I shot while in Rwanda a few weeks ago. These two show are new intro and a promotional video of one of our finished projects - Mountain Rain. Mountain rain was completed in 2007 and represents our first finished sustainable community development project. It's one we are very proud of because of the effects it has had on the community.

The music is from Rwandan music star (and follower of Jesus) Jean Paul Samputu.

There are several more videos on the go and I'll stick them up as they become available.

I welcome any comments about the videos.

3 is enough

"3 is enough" groups are an initiative of Todd Hunter. They remind me a little of something called "prayer triplets" which have come in and out of vogue here in Oz (and I guess elsewhere around the world) from time to time. However 3ie groups have some distinct differences.

Here's what Todd has to say about them:

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Three is Enough Groups are a simple way to practice following God in the way of Jesus. They are not an end in themselves. Their focus is on God and others and the spiritual transformation such a focus brings.

As an important byproduct, they are an antidote to the massive image problem currently ascribed to Christians and Christianity. This unfortunate viewpoint keeps many people from entering life in the Kingdom as a follower of Jesus. Spiritual transformation into Christlikeness has always been the true goal of Christian faith—now it is utterly strategic.

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Everything you need to know about the concept and about getting a group of your own started is on Todd's blog.

Ups and Downs

The last few months have been pretty horrible in terms of ups and downs. I feel like things are starting to level out again now, which is good.

• Work has been difficult - new management etc. etc. There's a lot I could say but won't. Thankfully, due mainly to the insight of senior management at a State level, things now look like they will be settling down.

• New friends moving off - My off-sider on Kick Start, Tim, recently resigned and had his last day at work on Thursday. Tim joined us from Kununurra on October last year when our previous trainer left us. Tim has has been an asset to the program and has become a great friend. He joined us in our missional venture early on and has been a big part of what we have been doing, both through Kick Start and also in our community. He's heading back to Kununurra where his family is and a new job working in the local District High School. I am going to miss Tim and wish him all the best "up-north".
  
  
  Tim (on right) with Shane (middle) and me (left) at Tim's fairwell on Thursday
  
  
• Trainer wanted - With Tim leaving we are now chasing a new trainer. The suitable applicant will have a trade background and experience in working with "at risk" youth. Our program is a drug and alcohol diversionary and intervention program, so an understanding (i.e. non-judgemental) and empathetic attitude is essential. If you think this is you, let me know!

• Rwanda - Alyssa and I am off to Kigali in 2 weeks. I am finding that I don't have the usual pre-trip dread this year round. I think it is because I am taking Alyssa with me and not leaving her behind this year. I am going to miss the kids like crazy - I always end up leaving in tears, big sook that I am, but at least Lyss will be with me. I am really looking forward to showing her around and introducing her to my Rwandan family.

• Amahoro Gathering 08 - While we are in Rwanda we will be attending Amahoro 2008 which is (very conveniently) taking place in Kigali this year. I attended the inaugeral gathering last year in Mukono, Uganda where the focus was on the gospel of transformation (as opposed to the gospel of evacuation). I am looking forward to catching up with Claude Nikondeha - the man behind the gathering and Edward Simiyu - an amazing leader from Kenya and also Brian McLaren and the other "emerging/emergent" guys from the states who will be there.
  
  The focus of this years gathering is the gospel of reconcilliation and I don't think there is a better place in Africa than Rwanda to be holding such a conversation. Rwanda is a model of reconcilliation for the rest of the world.
  
  I want to try and blog the conference here but, it sometimes takes a while for the message to sink in and for me to more fully understand what it is I am hearing. So we'll see how that comes together!

• Guitar at Sunday gathering - for the first time ever I am on guitar duty at our Sunday morning gathering. We don't have a big band of musicians - really just one dedicated lady who plays guitar for us most Sundays. But she's away tomorrow and I was asked to fill in.
  
  I used to play guitar in a pub band - but that was when I was a drinker, and I don't think I played a single concert sober, so tomorrow should be interesting.