Last Class Lecture

I have to admit one of my favorite lectures was actually the last one. I have been a part of the pentecostal and charismatic faith background for about 6 years now, but I was raised in the Presbyterian background. When I first started to go to a charismatic university and made my way into pentecostal circles and churches I jumped right in and never really heard very much background history about how the roots of Pentecostalism. So I really enjoyed hearing all about William Seymour and others in the Pentecostal movement in this last lecture!

Emerging Churches Book Review

Emerging Churches

Chapter 1:

In their book Emerging Churches, Bolger and Gibbs emphasize the need for a change in what church looks like, that they need to be culturally relevant in order for them to be fulfilling their purpose. They show that the younger generations are no longer following the religious traditions of their parents and that’s mostly because it doesn’t draw them in and isn’t relevant to them the way it is to their parents. Bolger and Gibbs also reveal the cultural similarities and differences between the US and the UK and what churches in these countries are facing given their current cultural state where very few people are going to church anymore.

Chapter 2:

In this chapter the authors define emerging churches as “missional communities arising from within postmodern culture and consisting of followers of Jesus who are seeking to be faithful in their place and time” (pg. 28). They emphasize in this chapter that the church the way it is currently (in Western cultures anyway) is relevant to the modern time period, whereas, our societies are moving head on into the post-modern time period and as a result the churches are losing the post-modern generation of believers. They discuss whether or not it is possible to have a church that will draw in both generations and time periods of believers.

Chapter 3:

Here the authors talk about how the nature of the church is shifting from having some type of methodology, with the expectation that it look a certain way, and how instead, the church must come back to being about living like Jesus and giving glory to him while being a sign of the Kingdom to all those around them. As a result, emerging churches, by definition, “embrace the Gospel of the kingdom as revealed in Mark 1:15-16” (pg. 54). Also, the authors contend that emerging church communities are rooted to “follow the pattern set by Jesus” and thus heavily emphasize servanthood and forgiveness (pg. 59, 61).

Chapter 4:

The Modernist churches that currently exist foster division, as they are doing nothing to challenge the many evident dualisms. Meanwhile, emerging churches hold fast to the idea that all of life and everything a person does should be sacred and that people/the church need to move out of the compartmentalized mindset that some things are “secular” and other things are “sacred.” I really appreciate this aspect of the emerging churches - I have found that the church tradition I come from is really embracing this as well and I am in agreement with it. The authors also talk about the shift in worship between churches that are attempting to modernly appropriate by making a contemporary and traditional service, and instead replacing that with doing worship that is indigenous of the culture that is in the church’s immediate surroundings (pg. 77).

Chapter 5:

Emerging churches highly emphasize community in their definition of being a church. This type of “community” is said to be “centered around principles drawn from the story of Jesus” and thus strives to be about love, recreation, connectedness, etc. Further, the goal is that the church would be defined as a family unit comprised of relationships as opposed to an institution where people go to meetings and events. In order to get to this point, a big shift must take place, and the deeply rooted notion that a service or a building must be involved in order for something to be considered church needs to be addressed! Emerging churches has embraced small groups, or a network of small groups in order to cultivate this family life and connectedness.

Chapter 6:

Emerging churches are largely focused around the concept of inclusion of outsiders which is directly based on the practices of Jesus in this manner. In doing this, emerging churches see that outsiders and those who are different both clarify and define the boundaries of their faith (119). Church then should be a place where others feel safe to be around and to be a part of (to dwell) in what is going on despite being an “outsider.” Another emphasis of the emerging church is their focus on apologetics being on just straight living the lifestyle of and embodying the “Truth” rather than talking about the truth and confronting people with it verbally.

Chapter 7:

This chapter talks about the hospitality embraced by emerging churches in serving the stranger – those outside of their community along with serving those in their community. This style of living is rooted in Jesus and the kingdom which means living lives of “justice” while also not “preferring one over another” (136). Those in the emerging church look to “serve others as a part of a holistic way of life” and as a result they do not engage in social programs or activities but instead live a life of hospitality – a socially engaged way of life (144).

Chapter 8:

The worship of emerging churches is vastly different from modernist churches mainly because those who attend are not passive recipients of the worship, but instead are participants/contributors. The goal then in these churches is that there not be focus primarily up in front, but would be a place where people feel at home. This is different from my church tradition as what is going on in front is where much of the focus is as they are leading the group in worship. However, there is the emphasis that each person freely worship God having personal communion with him – taking personal responsibility for their worship which is an aspect of the emergent church (pg. 160).

Chapter 9:

The emerging church tradition holds to the creativity that each person possess, emphasizing that people should cultivate and use this part of them as it is a way of worshipping God! This creativity can be expressed in a number of different ways whether through giving a gift, painting or creating art, etc. By drawing out this aspect of themselves and embracing this, it gives “worshippers the opportunity to embrace aspects of God’s character they normally would not acknowledge” (178). Not only that, but they are also able to express God’s creativity as all are made in His image.

11/30/09 Class

In class on Monday we talked about the Christian Reformed church, touching a bit more on Calvin which was apparently a continuation from the last class period. The we went on to learn about the role the Puritans played in the progression of the church - what their mentality was in thinking that they must do certain things in order to win back the favor of God. We also talked about the Anabaptists, a special sect that was separate from the Protestants and the Catholics and whom both of those other sets of Christians actually persecuted. They emphasized that baptism should be coupled with a public confession of faith, so there should be no infant or child baptisms. Lastly we touched on the myths related to America and American's being "a chosen people" who had a covenant with God that is comparable to the covenant God had with Israel. Very interesting comparisons were presented Monday regarding this issue!

Class on 11/18/09

In class on Wednesday we talked a little bit more about Catholocism and then moved right into the New Monasticism movement. Watching the documentary on Shane Claiborne and "The Simple Way" ministry was really interesting. I had heard a little bit about it, but to hear him talk about the lifestyle of community he and his friends are trying to cultivate is really unique and something I wish we saw more of within the Christian culture. I agree with much of the way they are choosing to live, but I have to admit that it would be difficult to "unlearn" the way of independent life we have been taught as American's and to do everything out of community, including having a community purse. Wow! But this does seem to look very much like what I imagine the early church would have been like. We also talked about the rise of Lutheranism, the life of Martin Luther and how "Protestants" percolated. As silly as this sounds, and considering how long I have been a Christian this really is ridiculous, but I finally had the epiphany about the fact that we are called protestants because it started out of protest of the Roman Catholic church!

Class on 11/16/09

In class on Monday we discussed about the rise of Catholicism around the world. Honestly I was really hoping we would talk more about what Catholics believe and how that compares to Protestants, etc. But it was still really interesting to hear about the different continents, like Africa, Asia and South America and how Catholicism made its way to those parts and how it grew. I thought it was particularly interesting to hear that 50% of the world's population of Catholics are in South America alone. That just shows that almost the entire continent's population must be Catholic. I can attest to the fact of the high prominence of Catholicism in South America first hand - I used to be a missionary in Paraguay, central South America and found this fact to be true. There was quite a bit more idolatry involved with it even than there seems to be in the United States. I wonder how it differs even in Africa and Asia...

The Mestizo/a Community of the Spirit: A Postmodern Latino/a Ecclesiology

The Mestizo/a Community of the Spirit: A Postmodern Latino/a Ecclesiology

Chapter 1:

In the first chapter Garcia-Johnson discusses the differences between practical theology and traditional theology. He contends that practical theology is more ecclesial, action driven and contextually based and that there needs to be a linking together of faith with action especially among the Latin American poor communities who desperately need to know God’s love. He suggests that there needs to be a paradigm shift when people theologize by making coupling the Gospel with action, and action which is contextually relevant to the culture it is in – which in many Latin American cultures this is manifest in the effort of giving “voice to the voiceless” (pg.17) and creating an introduction of a new type of lifestyle for the poor.

Chapter 2:

Garcia-Johnson begins chapter two by explaining further how since the method of Latino methodology is practically based, the theology also is practical based looking at religious practices of the people. He details the history behind Latino theology, how it has its roots in liberation theology and then goes into the different people who played a pivotal role in thrusting the socio-theological development including the founders, builders and shapers. He also stands along with Robert Schreiter’s point of view saying that Latino theology has “Been developing out of a modern perception of culture” (pg. 48). Ultimately, he emphasizes how diverse the Latino culture really is and as a result there needs to be a shift to a postmodern cultural Latino theology that addresses the fact that the Latino culture is very relational in nature to get past the diversity issue. The goal is that Latino theology would be transformational so that it is culturally relevant in witnessing about Jesus while by also including the Spirit of Jesus.

Chapter 3:

In chapter three Garcia-Johnson addresses Pentecost and the cross. He begins by talking about the role Pentecost played in shaping Christian experience and thought, about how it points to “cultural creation” because that is when multiracial communities were developed (81). He then moves on to cruciformity which he basically argues is the practical part of Pentecost or in other words, living out the Pentecost experience by conforming to Jesus crucified. Garcia-Johnson argues the importance of the cross in shaping Christian communities that they would be incarnational and revolutionary. He later goes on to argue that these two concepts of Pentecost and Cruciformity should go hand in hand as “cruciformity is living life subversively and domestically in culture” (95).

Chapter 4:

Garcia-Johnson arranges the last chapter of his book around a post-modern approach to Latino community in the future. He divides this concept into three theological and cultural categories: 1) Mestizaje – the point of intersection that deals with the identity of the Latino/a Christian community. 2)accompaniment – this element highly emphasizes the role of relationships among those in Latino communities, specifically in regards to identity and 3) manana eschatology – this element encompasses the Latino Christian community that is focused on what the Word says about the future of God while making it applicable to modern day context. It should be noted that this element is driven by the role of the Holy Spirit. The end resulting combination of these three categories which according to Garcia-Johnson is the goal, results in “the Latino ecclesiological version of Christian communities of the Spirit” (98).

Bishop Graham Cray

I found the lecture by Bishop Graham Cray to be really interesting. He touched on various different ways the church can be reshaped in order to be culturally relevant to the society it is in. He emphatically argued that the old way of doing church will no longer work as 97% of the population (in the UK) are not attending or having anything to do with church! In response, he suggests that the church take on new forms, creative - fresh expressions - that will reach people where they are since calling people to "come back to church" is no longer doable as the current generations don't even have a grid or any knowledge for what "church" even is. It is like the body of Christ is going to a people group in some far away jungle who have never  heard the name of Jesus or anything to do with Christianity and will have to hear everything about the Gospel in a new and unique way - starting from the very beginning. In some ways I think this is a really cool and unique opportunity that the church faces!