The Emerging Church: A Few Questions
June 9, 2007
Not sure where or how I want to start this post to our group but having been on the east coast for a couple years now, being originally from California and having lived in London, my experiences of churches in these places has been really… eye opening…
I never realized till I left California (2 years ago) how different the traditional church there, is to my experience of church in other parts. A traditional church in California tends to have a group of people coming together in a strip mall shopping center where the church is renting some office space / store and has a number of chairs lined up side by side to look like pews. The people show up in anything from the really casual attire such as jeans and a t-shirt to slightly more dressy attire such as “business casual”. Or I think you call it “smart casual” if my memory serves. The traditional church in this part of the world tends to sing songs to a “rock band” in some form of contemporary worship and then the pastor will speak. This is such a contrast to “traditional” church in NY and England where there are pews and big gothic looking churches which remind you in their splendor how big God is in comparision with us. This form of traditional church has an actual priest in most cases who dresses in the traditional robes and communion is taken with real wine instead of grape juice. Having grown up in the first and not in the later, my concept of church tends to be more modern and contemporary in comparision with my later counterparts. In a church much like the second type that I speak of, I tend to get very uncomfortable and uneasy. It is hard for me to relate to and understand the ritual and liturgy of that style. I try to connect with it but I don’t know how. The thing for me here is that this style is not something I am accustomed to so I don’t understand why we need to go through each step of the liturgy to reach out and touch God because to me God is reachable whether or not we make those steps. If I want to speak to God right here and now I do not need to walk through each of those steps, I just simply call out. If I want to understand God’s thoughts and mind, I read the word. I don’t need an experience of God or have a ritual to tell me God is here with me, right here, right now.
Ok God, I’m listening…
March 2, 2007
Today has been a day of reflection. Looking back and exploring my life and God’s role in it, I have started to realise that all along through paths unbeknownst to me God’s been there. Not like I didn’t know that on some level within my spirit, but ultimately I can see how God called out to me. I can see how even a childhood song like “Father Abraham” has entered my head in God’s more desperate moments of calling out to me, when I have been sitting on the edge, attempting to touch the flame, and then hearing God, and turning back and finding my way back.
I have been through both good and bad times and even in all those moments when I have questioned God’s role in my life, I can see God standing there, holding my hand, carrying me, guiding me slowly… step by step back.
I was discussing my experiences abroad and experiences of pure terror with a roommate tonight. Like my experience in Montreal, when I ended up homeless from poor planning on my part and ended up having my stuff thrown out (put in the basement) and a landlord after me for money I never owed (don’t know where he got the idea I owed him anything). The police ended up on the scene (I can’t remember how) and escorted me from the place to a “safe house” (read Salvation Army). I remember feeling so devastated from that experience. I remember crying for 2 hours straight because I was scared and alone. I had no one to run to, no one to trust, no where to go, but there…
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I Want to be a Clone
January 30, 2007
When I was in my late teens, I was introduced to alternative Christian music, which began my “descent” into what I would call the alternative church.
Different than Isaac’s definition of the Emerging Church, this type of church may have had an authority figure at the top, but from where it stood it was changing the notions of convention. It wasn’t the dress-up-and-look-your-best-shop-talk type of church. Rather, to give an example, it was about 6-7 people dressed in all black, makeup covering their faces, looking edgy, some might say gothic, in a dark basement lit by candlelight, singing gothic worship songs (to this day I am not even sure I can describe that!), and talking about a particular passage in the bible. It was a place where people like this could feel safe and could meet God where they were in their lives without the criticisms of those whom were more “conservative” in style. This church and it’s corresponding music reached out to a generation of young people whom weren’t being touch by “conventional wisdom”.
The musicians - bands like Delieverance, Vengence Rising, Tourniquet, the Violet Burning, Echoing Green, and others - were ridiculed and called demon worshipers dressed in sheeps’ clothing. Yet I couldn’t tell you the number of people they reached. It has always stuck out in my mind. They stood out because they were different and in some form were an image of Christ on this earth. They were the outcasts who were reaching out to other outcasts and providing a spiritual form of healing through music.
One song in particular, which had a great influence on my life, was Steve Taylor’s “I Want to be a Clone”. Steve Taylor’s comments and criticism about the estabilished church reach out to the disillusioned and challenge those who “clothe themselves in righteousness” but forget the very foundations of Christ - His love. Thus, without further ado, the lyrics:
I’d gone through so much other stuff
that walking down the aisle was tough
but now I know it’s not enough
I want to be a clone
I asked the Lord into my heart
they said that was the way to start
but now you’ve got to play the part
I want to be a clone
chorus:
Be a clone and kiss conviction goodnight
cloneliness is next to Godliness, right?
I’m grateful that they show the way
’cause I could never know the way
to serve him on my own
I want to be a clone
Hebrews 11 - People of Faith
January 24, 2007
I was just reading this chapter at Bible Gateway and just thought it was simply awesome! Those who went before us did some awesome things in the name of God and all of it in faith and obedience. Some excerpts if you will:
11:5 - By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death…
11:7 - By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.
11:8 - By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
Great stuff!
Missing Him
December 19, 2006
I have a “rock n’ roll” version of this Vineyard praise song that just came up on my iTunes. It reminded me of Him and just how much I miss His presence in my life. Too buried in finals and my thesis project, I forget that’s He’s just one word (or in this case one song) away and all I have to do is call out and He’s with me. I miss Him and thank Him for always being there even when I am not paying attention.
“More love, more power
More of You in my life
More love, more power
More of You in my life.
I will worship You with all of my heart
And I will worship You with all of my mind
And I will worship You with all of my strength
For you are my Lord
You are my Lord.
The Relationship between God and People
October 22, 2006
Thought this was cute commentary from another online community:
Q:”What is it like to have God as a friend? Do you go
ice skating together and stuff?”
A:No way man, God prefers 10-pin bowling then,a drink in 12-Bar then to
wonkies for Chinese!
————————————
I think this illustrates the differences between Catholic/Anglican/Episcopalian traditions verses the Non-Denominational traditions… The vision of how we see God… Is God “buddy jesus”? Or like Eddie Izzard, “Look, I went down there and told them to be groovy and then they split into different groups…!”, or as others have said of Jesus, as a “free love hippie” before his time?
We are all different and need to find our own personal vision of who God is. Isn’t it interesting to see how different we can be from each other? Yet, through that how deep God truly is to be able to create and socialize with us each.
What do you think?
Psalms 39:1-13 - Meditation
October 18, 2006
A fellow Christian from my old church in California forwarded me this write up about meditation. Being one who tends to think way too much in that my brain rarely shuts off, I have been contemplating learning to meditate. The only concern is that half of the time I end up falling asleep rather than focusing on our Creator! So I thought I would forward this in case anyone else is desiring to learn about it.
The Eucharist (as seen by a Baptist)
October 15, 2006
The Host by Meg Hamely (article in Relevant Magazine)
As someone coming from the nondenominational side of things, I can understand where the author is coming from.
The last time I remember doing liturgy of any form was in a Presbytarian church when I was 6. That was before my mom was diagnosed with cancer and we moved to a nondenominational church with a passionate pastor who had a thing for money. It was remarked of him that he was more business man than pastor but that’s another story for another time.
Episcopalians like most in churchdome have their own language and it’s one I have been slowly getting to know. I still have so many questions and concerns! Thus seeing an article writen by one about her own experiences “crossing over” makes me feel far less alone in this adventure.
Oh and don’t worry, my mom is alive and well to talk about it (feisty one that she is). Thank God.
Special Prayer Request
October 14, 2006
This is coming from a gal I know from the metal/goth/punk church I use to attend in London called Asylum. If you could keep her in your prayers, it would be greatly appreciated:
Dear all in my beloved fellowship,
Once again my life has taken another dramatic turn. This one the biggest yet. My sister Devonnie is dying. She is in the hospital
right now in a coma and the Doctors say there is no hope. She overdosed on heroin and was without oxygen to her brain for several
hours. My father found her gasping for air in the morning. I will know the outcome later today but she is most likely going to be a
vegetable and my parents will have to make the heart wrenching decision of pulling the plug. This will be especially hard for my
mother who lost her own brother to heroin when she was about my age. I am in shock. I will have to go back to America sometime in the
next few days probably for two months or so, I guess I will come back to the UK in January. Hopefully my visa will come through all
right. I desperately need your prayers. I hope everyone can come this Sunday for the prayer meeting because I will need it. Please
pray all day today for a miracle!!! Only God doing a miracle will save her. Medically speaking she has no hope. She is only 17!!!
Thanks for loving and caring for me all these years, you guys are my family… I love you more than words could ever express.
Please Pray:
For a miracle to save Devonnie’s life and that she won’t have brain damage. For the pain of my family, they are unstable and could turn suicidal themselves For strength for me going back home, this terrifies me. For my Visa to come through OK.