(All of my posts from Renov8 can be found here)
Stuart Murray & Julie Kilpin again. This session actually redeemed a lot of yesterday’s session.
***I missed a bit of this session since I was talking to a new friend, who is a very engaging fellow-writer***
When I arrive, Julie is being critical of people who can’t handle “alternative expressions of church.” I wish she had a more positive expression for her cynicism. She’s cynical, bordering on depressive. Anyway…
Some denomination had a training module called “Making Mission Safe” and this is what she’s riffing on. God is safe in that he has the world in his hands, but in his mission to bring creation back to him, how safe is he really? Good point. She paints a picture of a wild Jesus… “Making mission safe? Where the heck do we get that idea from?!”
We have permission to pursue creative, adventurous approaches to mission. How does our understanding of God’s mission impact our vision of the church?
Stuart takes the stage. He is calm, pastoral, optimistic…
Planting used to be about replicating the same thing in different places. We can no longer take for granted that we know what church is. It is now about reproducing rather than replicating. This gives us hope of connecting with the diversity of our nhoods. I like the distinction he makes between replicating and reproducing.
God is Creator of all things… he is a diverse creator (300+ different kinds of beetles), so why can’t we be more creative in terms of church life?
What do we mean by church?
Four concerns:
1. We cannot create designer or boutique churches that are cool for us and our friends but no one else.
2. We must have missiology before ecclesiology
3. The danger of paying too little issue to contextual issues
4. The questions, “What is mission? What is church?” will affect how we answer “What is the Gospel today, the good news, in our community?”
Three things planters bring:
1. Convictions
We bring passionate convictions
We come with things that are non-negotiable, but hopefully we bring things that are negotiable
2. Context
Importance of place
If the church is for/with/within the nhood, we may end up planting a church we don’t like very much but is appropriate for the community
3. Constraints
We don’t have endless resources. Sometimes we plan something that we can’t actually pull off.
Regarding contextualization: “Some emerging churches are completely disappearing into their culture, becoming so much like their culture they lose the ability to influence.” In the past we were too quick to see the negative in the community. Now the pendulum has swung and we ignore the negative things.
What kind of church would you plant in Sodom? Relational fidelity
In an affluent culture? Simplicity?
Etc.
Don’t ask “How do we fit?” but “How do we work towards transformation?”
What is the gospel/good news? What ways can we use to tell the Jesus story? Find the scriptural imagery that makes the most sense in that community. Scripture is rich with a variety of metaphors, some of which that have become dominant, almost canonical. “Born Again”, for example is a biblical metaphor that has become the litmus phrase for many people.
The expression of the good news (not the good news itself) is different in different cultures. See above. Find out what the starting point is. It will be different for a guilt-based culture than it will be for a fear-based culture. But being gospel-counter-culture is always the answer. Find out what the expression of the good news in your nhood?
Jesus is the answer, but what are the questions to which he is the answer? Stuart mentioned sin as something that needs to be maintained as a focus, but there are different ways to get there. Thank-you Stuart. This addresses my concerns from yesterday’s session.
The great creeds of the church has bracketed out the life of Jesus. Jesus was 1. born, 2. suffered… the rest of the life of Jesus is reduced to a comma. Good point.
What does it mean to be disciples today?
Societal values are drip-fed into us everyday; what kind of church do we need to resist the secular values of the current empire? What kind of catechesis do we need that will detox people from empire?
Good session. Stuart is a winsome and articulate. I want to hear more.
More From The Ascent to Truth
- What is the “Emerging Church”? – Talking about music is like dancing about architecture…
- What is the Emerging Church? – Talking about music is like dancing about architecture…
- Stuart Murray & Julie Kilpin – “The Mission of Transforming Our Neighborhoods” (Renov8 #rv8) – Talking about music is like dancing about architecture…
