The ‘ands’

posted on April 16, 2012 by Musings

In a recent post for the On Faith Guest Voices Blog on The Washington Post website, the author Diana Butler Bass reframes the discussion about spirituality and religion.  The article is entitled  ”Is Religion Dying –or Reinventing?”.  An excerpt of the post is below and the full post can be found here: http://wapo.st/y0lba3

For decades, Americans have been turning toward spirituality as a protest vote against conventional religion… The bored and wounded have fled religion seeking new spiritual connections. Some 30 percent of Americans now identify as “spiritual but not religious,” around 9 percent are atheists and post-theists. But the growth of these two groups is not news. Their numbers have been rising for thirty years.

What is new? In my research, it’s the “ands.” Those who say they are “spiritual and religious.” In 1999, 54 percent of Americans said they were “religious but not spiritual,” while six percent said “spiritual and religious.” By 2009, the percentages had reversed: “religious but not spiritual” fell from 54 percent to nine percent as the “spiritual and religious” rose from a mere six percent of the population to nearly half, an astonishing 42 point change.

“Ands” want religion revolutionized by spirituality; they want spirituality grounded upon (but not guarded by) ancient wisdom, theologies, and practices. They demand more authenticity, meaning, justice, and community from religious institutions, not less. In these longings, the “ands” voice an older way of understanding religion, where faith should and must be an experience of God that transforms one’s life for the sake of the world. If the “ands” are the vanguard of change, then the great religious recession is about to give way to a great spiritual awakening. Is this the end of religion or only the beginning of a new, and better, form of faith?

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Filed under: Community, Emerging Church, Faith

Faith Online – Darkwood Brew

posted on August 15, 2011 by Musings

From Omaha NE comes an interesting model of how to merge a small group gathering with a virtual worship service and community.  It’s known as Darkwood Brew. You can access the website here:  Darkwood Brew

Below are some descriptions… Check it out for yourself! Their motto is “You might not like it. But, then again, you might.”

“DWB is a renegade exploration of Christian faith for the modern world. This weekly program blends ancient contemplative practices developed by Benedictine monks with cutting-edge media technology. We add a whole bunch of caffeine just to keep things moving. The setting is our amazing coffee house. It’s exhilarating, experiential and groundbreaking.”

Lead by Rev. Eric Elnes, Ph.D., Darkwood Brew is a groundbreaking experimental web television program and Christian worship service.

Based on the structure of the Lectio Divina, an ancient spiritual practice developed by Benedictine monks in the 5th Century, and using cutting edge technology; Darkwood Brew explores The Unexpected Love of God in relevant, challenging and surprising ways.

Featuring world-class jazz musicians, live interviews with international guests, and a variety of interactive media that allow you to participate in real-time, Darkwood Brew is webcast weekly on Sundays at 5pm CST.

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Filed under: Bible, Emerging Church

Being the Church

posted on May 10, 2011 by ppeery

Early this evening in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Twin Cities Presbytery became the 87th presbytery to vote in favor of “Amendment 10-A” which means that our denomination’s ordination standards will change.  Last summer, the General Assembly of our church voted to replace language in our constitution that prohibits non-celibate gays and lesbians from being ordained with language that gives local congregations and local presbyteries the responsibility to examine candidates for ordination who will “submit joyfully to the lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life.”  General Assembly actions take the support of 50% plus one of the 173 presbyteries to change the constitution.  Tonight, that threshold was crossed.  No doubt this change will mean that some churches and some presbyteries will choose to ordain gays and lesbians who the church/presbytery believes to meet this new standard.  And, no doubt, some churches and presbyteries will choose to continue to uphold the former standard and not ordain gays or lesbians.

To read more about what these changes mean (and do not mean), I recommend reading a letter from one of our sister presbyteries in Florida: http://fpcshreveportblogs.org/what-does-amendment-10-a-really-change/

The PC(USA) report on tonight’s vote and a letter from our Stated Clerk, Moderator, and Vice Moderator can be found here: http://www.pcusa.org/news/2011/5/10/presbyterian-church-us-approves-change-ordination/

Tonight, across our denomination, there are many Presbyterians who rejoice.  This debate has roiled the church for the last 32 years.  For some, tonight’s historic vote was a relief.  I read a tweet from someone who said “Rejoice!  I can now be ordained in the denomination that baptized me!”

Tonight, too, across our denomination, there are many Presbyterians who despair.  Some will feel betrayed, believing that the freedom for churches and presbyteries to ordain gays and lesbians is a departure from scripture and our tradition.

In the days ahead, there will be much of both in the PC(USA) world: rejoicing and despairing.  I dare say that our congregation at First Presbyterian represents the “broad middle” that is the majority of our denomination – we are a community of faith made up of people on both sides of this long-standing debate.

And yet…

I can’t help but to think of the words that God speaks at every crossroads of the church’s life that is filled with anxiety – be it the empty tomb, the wind-whipped disciples at Pentecost, or the churches struggling with the inclusion of the earliest gentile converts.  Those words are “do not be afraid!”

None of us know what the future holds.  No one can anticipate what the reaction will be to this news.  But what I am sure about is that Jesus Christ is still the head of the church and no matter who is ordained, that will not change. “Do not be afraid!”

I strongly believe that the antidote to our anxiety about the church’s future is found in being the church.  Next week, I am sitting down with some local clergy to talk about ways our congregation might address the problem of absentee landlords who take advantage of low-income renters in our neighborhood.  Plans are underway for a terrific Vacation Bible School week this summer, where our children will join with other Presbyterians to learn the stories of scripture and live out their faith by working with the Fuller Center for Housing.  Our youth are getting ready to head to Mo-Ranch for two different Spirit-filled weeks.  We are sending four members of the congregation to walk beside our missionaries Les and Cindy Morgan in Bangladesh this June. “Do not be afraid!”

We need not diminish the importance of tonight’s vote.  It is significant and is cause for strong reaction on each side of the 30+ year debate.  But this “issue” does not define the church.  God still calls us to the life-giving work of being Christ’s hands in the world.  And so we walk forward in faith…

Pen Peery, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport

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Filed under: Community, Emerging Church, Faith, Presbyterian Church

A New Kind of Christianity

posted on November 28, 2010 by Musings

Author, speaker, and pastor Brian McLaren is a leader of the emerging church movement that considers new ways to express our Christian faith in a post-modern era. http://www.brianmclaren.net/

A review by Anthony Robinson of the recent McLaren book “A New  Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith” highlights some of the issues for us to consider.

The central thesis, to which McLaren returns frequently to indicate its wide implications, is that Christian faith was terminally skewed when it was distilled through the Greco-Roman (imperial) worldview. This worldview resulted in a version of Christianity that was at once triumphalistic and reductive—a Christianity that was mainly about what happens after death. McLaren argues that the central message of Jesus, the kingdom of God and the life it entails, was lost or overlooked. There is important truth in this argument, perhaps especially for the world of American evangelicals, among whom it does sometimes seem that a version of Paul has eclipsed Jesus. I am less sure that it is helpful for the Protestant mainline and liberal Christianity.

The result may be yet another movement that promises that if only we jettison old ways of thinking and believing, which are the source of all our problems, we shall enter into a new time of liberation and meaning. I tend to think that the challenge is not so much to distance ourselves from the past as it is to discover what in our past and inheritance remains of enduring value and has the capacity to transform and renew the church for the world in our time. Yes, we do desperately need to find new ways of being and doing church, ways that are less about church as an institution existing for its own sake and more about church as community, relationship, spiritual practice and service. This may entail less emphasis on our quest and more on God’s quest for us.

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Filed under: Emerging Church, Faith