Church Surf 6

Well it's been a while since I've posted about a church surf but I have been surfing. Most recently a few times at an Anglican Church. I'm enjoying it not because it's where I'm at but a where I feel I've come from and for that reason it feels like an solid island I can come back to whilst I am off swimming in the great ocean of church expression.

Christians don't have fun

So, I'm at a wedding where I don't know anyone apart from my wife, but it becomes obvious that the reception is divided into two halfs Christians and non-Christians. The Xns looked like they were attending a funeral, the non Xns (whom I got to sit with :) ) looked like they were attending a celebration. What is worse is that everyone who I sat with knew that the people who weren't smiling and happy were all Xn.

My Conjecture: Xns have lost the art of having fun.

I know I'm guilty of this... Resolution to do at least one really fun thing every day.

Me and God - like a Jazz Band

My relationship with God is like the relationship in a Jazz band where, I am the improvising soloist and God is the rhythm section. If I, the soloist, ignore what the God, rhythm section, is doing I am not going to sound good. By the same token the rhythm section does not dictate what my solo will sound like either. No matter how badly I play there is nothing the rhythm section can do to fix it. If I play exactly what the rhythm section is playing it will sound bland at best. What will sound best is when I am in tune to what the rhythm section is doing and I am able to freely and creatively expressing myself. As a soloist in a Jazz band there is no requirement of obedience, and there is more than just the freedom of playing alone. There is more than freedom there is harmony. The freedom of synergistically creating a sound with the rest of the band that is more beautiful than the individuals by themselves. So too I think is our relationship with God. The usual power paradigm of obedience or freedom, need to be replaced with paradigm of disunity or harmony.

What Wouldn't Jesus do?

How's this for a funky t-shirt?

from Busted Tees

The Da Vinci Code...

Radio Nationals the spirit of things had an excellent radio program on the Da Vinci Code. Which you can read or listen to. A really good scholarly analysis of what's fact and what's fiction if you or a friend aren't sure.

Leaves you thinking maybe Dan Brown isn't a "Harvard Scholar" maybe he's just a "pop-schlockmeister looking for a quick buck" (page 224 of the Davinci code)

Emerging Missional Church... Does it really mean anything?

Emerging Missional Church (EMC) is a title that gets banded about a lot at the moment but what does EMC actually mean?

1) Emerging just describes the current state of the movement in five years time it could be the emerged MC or perhaps the shrinking MC. So really the term emerging does not really tell us anything about how a EMC type Xn is different form any other Xn.
2) Church is just a collection of Xns and most and again does not really tell us anything about how a EMC type Xn is different form any other Xn.
3) Missional, now missional really depends on what a particular Xn believes is the mission of the church or of Xns.

Now that there is talk that the EMC is about to emerge I can see a bumpy ride ahead and we can learn a lot from the early church who many EMC type people take as the ultimate model for doing church. The EMC covers a huge range of different Christians doing very different things with very different beliefs. I have met hundreds of people that would either put themselves or be put by others into the EMC category, all of whom are very different and half of whom would meet together to do "church".

My guess is the thing that happens if and when the EMC emerges is that it will split.