Emerging Rural

Wood. Matches. Fire. People. Conversation. More people. Transparency. S’mores. All of these ingredients have recently been the ‘formula for success’ for a ‘rural emerging’ youth gathering. The moral of today’s lesson: don’t overlook the power of the campfire!

At times, based on reading through some splendid books by various emerging authors, I find myself asking questions that no one seems to be answering for us in our rural communities. For instance, I understand that Christianity has an image problem (cf. Kinnaman’s unChristian & Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus But Not the Church). Even in rural communities, Christianity does not hold the same ‘weight’ that it once did. In fact, people often seem even more frustrated with the various problems with how Christianity has been lived out because these issues are magnified due to our closeness and how quickly issues spread (e.g. general hypocrisy, leadership morality issues, etc.). What is the remedy within our rural communities?

I also understand that post-modernism has set in. We may be a little behind in terms of fashion, but our philosophy and ideals are molded by the same media outlets that have influenced city-centers for years. Andrew Jones, Mark Driscoll, Tony Jones, Brian McLaren, and Scot McKnight have been pointing this out for a number of years, and our rural communities are really no different. So what’s the catch? It’s that we’re post-modern and we don’t even know it. Afterall, when I present some of these concepts around our community, the two most consistently asked questions are: (1) what is the emerging church (this question is obvious) and (2) what is post-modernism (this question is hard to answer in less than one minute). So, how do we interact with a rural post-modern community and still ‘keep the faith’?

Furthermore, I understand that our praxis needs an update, though it’s more of a step backwards; you know, a step backwards in order to embrace the community aspect of the Jewish New Testament. Rather than having ‘one-man-shows,’ let’s include everyone in the Body of Christ! Everyone can participate! Plural leadership teams sound awesome! But how do we move towards these models in communities that are steeped in the tradition of having a pastor who ‘runs the show’?

Finally, I’m aware that social issues are on God’s heart and that feeding the poor and reaching those in the margins is our mandate, especially in light of our ”ministry of reconciliation” (1 Cor. 5:18). I recognize that the church has not always been strong at addressing and impacting these social issues. But what issues surround us in our rural communities that we’ve been overlooking?

Those of us in rural communities have, in my opinion, been guilty of overlooking or ignoring practices or methods that, on the surface, do not appear to be “emerging” because they aren’t the practices or methods of emerging churches in L.A. or Minneapolis. So, when we ask these questions, we need to be open to answers that may appear to be ‘foolish’ to someone living in a city-center, though the answer is extremely effective in a rural setting.

Thus, this week I’ve continually been prompted with this thought: don’t overlook the power of the campfire. Sure, it sounds simple enough and perhaps you are even asking, “What do campfires and the emerging church have in common?” Let me share with you two reasons why I have found campfires to be about as “emerging” as they come!

(1) Campfires are fun! Yes, it is okay to have fun. I like people (most of the time) and campfires are all about people and good times. One of the ‘freedoms’ that we have within the emerging church movement is that we don’t buy into the theory that ‘church’ has to be (a) boring, (b) rigid and formal, and (c) without laughter and smiles. In fact, every emerging voice that I listen to seems to have picked upon this necessary component.

For example, the first time I listened to Tony Jones was from a podcast offered at Emergent Village, and let me just tell you that I had trouble steering my car while listening to it. Tony Jones has a way of ‘opening’ people up through his humor and this, I believe, is extremely important if we’re going to get through to people with our message. I can’t think of anyone who is a voice within our little movement who would disagree with this, though there are certainly some who have spoken against us that probably don’t like having fun!

(2) Campfires disarm people. I don’t know what it is about them, but the dancing flames melts people’s masks and breaks down barriers. I’ve seen it time and time again. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got three people or twenty people. The flames start dancing and people’s hearts open and life stories get shared. It happenes every single time.  

Through each of our campfire experiences, I’ve found that people become very transparent around a fire. Maybe it’s the naturalistic setting or the rustline of the wind. Perhaps there is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon. I do’nt know, but I tend to think it’s because deep down in the heart of everyone, people want to be known. They want to be understood. They want to share. They want to be a part of the ‘big story’ of life. There’s something authentic about sitting around a fire that lets people know that they can ask questions about things that they may not ask anywhere else. It’s people being people. Maybe it goes back to our “caveman” days or something. I don’t know. I just know it works.

So, basically, the campfire is one of those places that our minds have been seemingly brain-washed into thinking that it’s okay to share.

For example, this past weekend, our little youth group camping gathering was incredible. We have a lot of fun swimming, canoeing, playing volleyball and eating. But the best part was the campfire. Listening to one young man who just came to the Lord share about his journey and the process that he want through to get there was great. Hearing him describe how he wants to restore his relationship with his parents was a testimony to the working of the Holy Spirit. Another young man who was not living as a part of the Kingdom, later in the night, gave his life to the Lord. All this happened because everyone participated and shared and asked questions and gave answers and asked more questions and prayed for each other and… roasted marshmallows around an open campfire.

I’ve come to understand and view my campfire life as ‘missional living.’ Jesus used a campfire in order to restore the apostle Peter in John 21:9-19 and I’ve noticed that we can also use campfires to prompt people to consider where their journey of loving God is at. Seriously, don’t overlook the power of the campfire!

What has become your “campfire” power? How did you discover it? Who is it most effective at reaching? Why do you think its effective? Would you agree or disagree with the power of the campfire?

In my spare time, which amounts to very little, I often will sit on Wikipedia and just read articles on people, places, or things that I’ve always been just a little curious about. Obvioulsy Wikipedia has the potential to have some serious flaws based on who contributes, but generally I really enjoy reading articles on it.

Thus, I was a bit interested to read what they had to say about the emerging church movement. I actually enjoyed the article, for the most part. Read Wikipedia’s article on the Emerging Church here.

The section on Trinitarian based values was extremely interesting. I was not so interested in the section on Propositionless evangelism because it does not reflect a vast number of “emergers.” It seems to imply that all folks within our little movement are not concerned with personal relationships with Jesus (i.e. being “born again”) when in fact, many of us are!

What do you think?

Hello folks. Hope you are doing well. I am doing well, if you were wondering… though I do not presume to know if you were wondering Here are some tidbits for you to ponder, read, discuss, and spend all of your free time thinking about:

1. Next Friday evening I am sharing on the emerging church at the Northwoods YWAM base. Could you please keep it in your prayers? I’m not sure exactly what avenue to discuss or travel down, so my question for you to attempt to answer is: “If you were speaking on the emerging church to a group of people who more than likely had a lot of negative opinions of it, where would you start?”
2. Dr. Wallace, the infamous Greek scholar of DTS fame, posted a letter from his mom regarding politics and conservatives and a lot of the assumptions made about Christians (read the letter here). I must say that I was very impressed with the logic and convictions that it displayed.
3. Seriously… Dinosaurs and Jesus. How come no one else loved this?!?!?!
4. Grand Ole Party’s song “Look Out Young Son” is awesome and makes me throw things out my windows. Did I mention that I love it?
5. Emergent Village pointed us to Mike Schellman’s blog/poll asking, “Do you feel that the Emerging Church is more effective in communicating the Gospel than traditional churches?”
6. John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, wisely answers the question, “Should we try to legislate the Bible in today’s society?” Did I mention how much I love Piper lately?
7. Settler’s of Catan is still the greatest game ever, thus solidifying my nerdness in the minds of everyone.
8. If you haven’t had a chance to pick up Dave Schmelzer’s new book, Not the Religious Type: Confessions of a Turncoat Atheist, check out the Not The Religious Type blog. Great discussions going on. Dave is the senior pastor of the Greater Boston Vineyard, an excellent speaker, and brilliant thinker.
9. Yes, only a few more months until the ESV Study Bible is released. I’m excited.
10. No, I do not like the Cotton Patch Version of the NT, though I love what Clarence Jordon, the author, stood for (check the link to read a short bio). I’m not against this type of translation (dynamic), it’s more that I do not personally understand all that southern talk!

Well, be blessed and let me know about your thoughts for my talk this coming Friday night!

Tags: emergent village, emerging church, tidbits

Hi Luke and everyone – sorry I have been absent for so long.  With the adoption we have been very busy and just last week we moved to a new house!    Needless to say, things are crazy around here.  I wanted to post this here for input from any and all: 

Being Fourth of July weekend I thought this would be an appropriate topic to discuss.   The following post was something I wrote this morning on my personal blog but because it is something that I think touches the heart of perhaps every rural church in America I would love to hear thoughts from other rural church leaders and lay members.   

My friend Tom and his wife were over for dinner yesterday and being the 4th conversations veered toward the flag.  A blog by a friend and ThD student at Duke that Tom was reading (which can be read HERE) highlighted this debate, bringing up some pretty good reasons why the flag should not be in the sanctuary. 

The church I pastor is a rural church in NC that presently has both the American and Christian flags on either side of the hanging cross behind the pulpit.   I admit, I have never been comfortable with them being there (in fact, when we stripped the altar for our Good Friday service I purposefully did not bring the flags out that next Sunday.  Alas, someone noticed and 3 Sundays later I saw the flags back where they “belong”). 

I wonder what others think about this issue.    My friend Tom makes a great point which I would echo:  The flag, by its very nature, is a symbol that divides.  It states that I am this and you are that.   To use his analogy, if I carry a Steeler flag into a football game I am declaring to any that would look that I am for this team and not that team.  Around the flag we begin to mobilize.   The cross, however, while being a symbol it is a symbol that stands for something entirely different.  The cross demolished the boundaries and walls that would divide us.   The cross puts all of us on equal ground, regardless of nationality.   There is now neither male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile.  When we worship corporately with a cross next to a flag I think it sends mixed messages.  On one hand we announce the Good News that Christ has set us free and tears down walls that divides while on the other hand we announce our allegiance to something different - to a country that insists on being “other” and different from any other.

Tags: church, Flags, Fourth of July, Nationalism, Patriotism

Dan Kimball has a very interesting article on his blog - Jesus and Dinosaurs.

Did Jesus ride dinosaurs? You have to look at the pictures. They are hilarious!

Alan Hirsch has written a very interesting article in the latest issue of the Leadership Journal, Three Over-looked Leadership Roles.

Hirsch addresses the role of Apostle, Prophet, and Evangelist and states that over the ages these “leadership functions were marginalized from the church’s leadership structure.”

Interestingly, Hirsch also states that “missional churches require all five aspects of ministry Leadership on the team.”

My question to spark some discussion is simple - Do you feel that these roles are neglected or promoted in your tradition? Do you believe they have a role within the Emerging Church? How might our “traditional” concepts of these roles be challenged?

Feel free to share any other thoughts or considerations…

Tags: Apostles, emerging church, Evangelists, Prophets

One of the last commenters, rheyduck, reminded me of the need to balance the need to point people to Jesus Christ while at the same time getting our hands dirty in the world that is groaning for redemption.   The following is an essay I wrote that was published in my Alma mater’s School of Religion magazine about being the Church in the 21st century.

One of the first impressions I had of the church growing up as a pastor’s kid was that this “holy huddle” possessed the whole Truth.  I was convinced that my parents, rightly concerned for my salvation as well as their own, had with great diligence placed us in our particular denomination because it had done the best job at mining the Truth out of the Book (indeed, the only book), that contained truth.  Everyone else, those other churches, were out in left field.  Ironically, I realize some twenty years later that it was not those other churches that were lost and clueless, but it was me.  I was wrong about what the Church is and what it does.

I took years for me to realize this, but when I did, I became excited about pursuing the call to ministry.  Prior to this I ran like Jonah, joining the Navy and snubbing the Church and what she stood for.  What I didn’t realize then is that the Church I was forsaking was not hte Church as it ought to be; rather, it was the attempt by imperfect people tyring to be faithful to a perfect God.  No matter how well we think we are doing, we are still “looking through the glass darkly” on this side of the Kingdom.  Sadly, my church then and many churches now are not humble enough to admit that they do not in fact see very well.  Either they emphasize personal piety and a personal relationship with God to the exclusion of anything else the gospel might address or they go to the other extreme and focus their efforts on being an institution among many trying to make the world a better place.  And far too often this “institution” is considered able to run without the aid of the Triune God, nor demand personal conversion and holiness.  With such a dichotomy in place, one might wonder why I got off the ship and wandered back into this foray.  The answer is simple:  I believe tha just as in ages past, God is doing a new thing (Isaiah 43:19) and a Church is emerging (some will say this is “new,” but in truth I believe it is ancient), being raised up from the ashes of arrogant individualism and spiritual passivity.  With this “emerging church,” new leaders will be needed to speak God’s redeeming Word into this world dawning before us.

I owe a great deal to professors I have had in the past, both at Lee and now at Duke Divinity, for challenging my childhood assumptions and taking the lid off the box my faith had grown comfortable (and lazy) residing within.  I am forever grateful to them for acknowledging that though we see through tinted glass, we must never grow weary of cleaning our lenses.  We need leaders in every generation who refuse to see the world as it was “back in the day” or see the world as it presently is, but instead proclaim our citizenship to a different world, a new colony, and help us see where our daily prayer of thy kingdom come is being answered or needs fulfilled. 

Today, the world no longer sees in black and white - it is no longer the world of my parents or their parents - where truth is gleaned from those who speak loudest or wear the suits and ties.  No, this world embraces mystery, sees grey in almost everything, questions everyone and yet is profoundly spiritual and hungry for something greater than themselves.  The Church must step forward and refuse to be a mere distillery, but rather be the beacon on the hill, a colony of resident aliens, that humbly declares with open arms befitting the Servant we serve that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

The world needs a Church that is transformative, powerful, and different from the culture that promises the “American Dream” yet leaves us famished.  We don’t want to walk into a church whose entire focus is on the self and whose only concern is getting ourselves out of hell.  Nor do we want a Church that looks more like the United Way, yet less successful.  We don’t need more churches that cater to members like a country club or a church that tickles the ears of seekers looking for one more social activity to fill their week.  We don’t need a church that is trendy or that apologizes for practicing spiritual disciplines.  What we need is a Church that reaffirms its ancient roots; a church proud of its establishment 2000 years ago by a resurrected Lord rather than a building committee.  A church that speaks from the pulpit and from City Hall about what is unjust in our world, demands personal holiness alongside social holiness, and becomes passionate about making disciples, not converts.  In short, our task is no different from the days of Eden when God said to mulitiply and subdue the earth. The Church must be intent on making disciples while at the same time easing the groaning that all of God’s creation has felt since the fall. 

I am grateful for the various tapestries of faith (as well as periods of denial and un-faith) that helped mold me as a youth and on into my adult years.  Without such a foundation I might be hesitant to look ahead at what God is doing today.  I am grateful to those professors who helped me readjust my focus, without whom I would still be stuck in a box of my own making.  But most of all I am grateful to a God who is still in the business of bringing people like me out of Egypt, while faithfully leading (even pulling) us, the church, to that which He has called us.  By his grace may we have the courage mixed with the humility necessary to proclaim as a Church, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Tags: church, Emergent, Individualism, Social Gospel

What has been your experience? Have your new things (be they plants or changes of course in the life of an existing church) been the result of one persons hard work or has your experience matched ours? Is shared ministry an Essential in the Boondocks?

Tags: emerging church, essentials for the boondocks, shared ministries

The following essay was written for a Theology of the Land course I took at Duke Divinity.   I have revised it to some extent so that it makes sense standing alone.  Initially I was going to include a sermon that I would preach at my local rural church but as you will see, I determined that the sermon must follow some very practical measures before it could ever take root in the heart. 

Grace and peace,
Chad

The Garden Becomes A Church

          If you drive thirty miles north on interstate 85 out of Durham you will come to a small, quaint town known as Oxford.  “Small and quaint” is synonymous with the town’s distinction of not having a Super Wal-Mart but humbly displaying the older, smaller version.  Leaving Oxford on highway 15 heading north you will pass many farms, mostly tobacco, with cozy little townships who’s only boast is a gas station with the best short order cooks in the county that will make you a mean cheeseburger while you fill your tank or buy a fishing license.  If you keep heading north until you would bet your life you are either in Virginia or at the very least mapping  new frontier you will find a cozy, white, country church that would make Norman Rockwell sigh.  The church is called Marrow’s Chapel United Methodist Church and I am her pastor. 

         If you were to visit Marrow’s Chapel on a Sunday morning there are two things that might immediately stand out to you.  First, you might be surprised by the number of people who gather in the middle of nowhere to worship God.   On any given Sunday there may be as few as 80 and as many as 120 packed into this little country church.   Furthermore, you would see that a large number of them are young families with children, causing us to revamp our nursery and children’s areas to make enough room for everyone.  The second thing that might stand out to you is that 100% of the families you see are white.  This may not be so surprising given the area in which we live.  Four miles down the road is the black church – same denomination, same white, cozy, country exterior – and every bit as segregated as ours. 

            I would wager that this problem is not isolated to my neck of the woods but is endemic in just about every rural church in America.  When I hear the word “emerging” one of the predominant images that comes to mind is inclusiveness.  As such, I have to wonder to what extent any of our rural parishes can be considered “emerging” if those of us who pastor such churches are consistently preaching to a crowd of sameness.  Since I have begun serving here at Marrow’s Chapel I have slowly, subversively if you will, been trying to help the good people here cast a new vision for themselves as a church, one that more accurately captures the rich tapestry that is the Kingdom of God.  In short, I envision a church where “all nations” come together to worship the one true God who is still in the business of reconciling and restoring his children.   In this way we can truly be “emerging” as we break from long held cultural strongholds and begin to live into the vision God has for God’s people. 

           How might this be accomplished?  This past semester at Duke Divinity I got to take a class with Dr. Ellen Davis where we read the Old Testament through agrarian eyes.  Through this course I met a farmer/theologian (perhaps an up-and-coming Wendell Barry) who manages a community garden called Anatoth outside a Methodist church in Durham.  This garden was begun to teach ecological values to the people of the church as well as the community while simultaneously offering healthy food to people in need.  The garden is a phenomenal success and churches are beginning to model their efforts.   Seeing this, I began to envision an equally if not greater benefit to beginning a similar garden, one that I pray will turn Marrow’s Chapel into a truly emerging, inclusive church where all nations gather to worship God.  This vision will require some hard work and some sweat but by getting back to some long forgotten or ignored basics I think we will see healing not only in our relationships but in the land this rural church calls home.  Is it possible that from a garden can spring a church? 

             To get back to the beginning I look to the biblical account of our origins where we first get a glimpse into our purpose on God’s good earth.  Genesis 2:15 sees man’s God- given duty and essential task to be in the garden to “till and keep” the land.  Both Norman Wirzba and Ellen Davis note how the verbs to “till” and “keep” are best rendered as “serving” and “preserving” and “observing.”  This is significant if for no other reason than to remind us that the land is not ours to “till” for mere gain but we are to work it out of service to the land, not for ourselves.  Noticing that it is not good for the man to be alone in his service to the land, God fashions another for him, a woman.   There is much said today about how woman was formed from man and similarities between the two are often emphasized, and for good reasons.  However, it should not be missed that while the fellow care-taker of the land is similar to Adam the new member of the garden is not the same as Adam.  Why didn’t God just duplicate what God had already done and make another Adam?  Would that not have provided some companionship as well as adequate help in the preserving of the land?  It would if the God we serve is primarily utilitarian in nature.  However, if we learn nothing else from this story it may be simply stated that in the garden we have been placed to serve, God likes variety.  

            Sitting in a restaurant with a group of church members just the other day I shared with them that in order for Marrow’s Chapel to become the church everyone hopes it to become (i.e. a growing, vibrant church and a full-time charge) it will need to be open to every and all persons within our community.  One parishioner asked, innocently and honestly, where all the different races of people came from if all of us came from the same parents, Adam and Eve?  Deciding that Chick-Fil-A was not the place to launch into a discussion on human origins and the mythic quality of Genesis, I offered to her the above truth that God is a lover of variety.  When God made trees why didn’t he make just one kind?  Why not fill the world with only daffodils?  Why must there be so many types of fish?[1]  The answer proved helpful and even excited this small group to consider that the variety which God loves is sorely lacking in the pews of our church. 

            This love of variety is not limited to Genesis but found throughout scripture.  One reading I found helpful in formulating this line of thought was William Brown’s The Ethos of the Cosmos.[2] Brown draws some wonderful insights from Isaiah 41:17-20 pertaining to the taxonomy of community or the way in which God will revive and restore the land and people.  God will do this by putting in the wilderness the “cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive” and setting in the desert the “cypress, the plane and the pine together” (Isa. 41:19).   Brown observes that these 7 species of trees from different parts of the world with various climate needs brings forth a “forest of remarkable biodiversity.  Yahweh intends to plant seven distinguishable varieties of trees, all coexisting in the transformed wasteland.”[3]  The diversity of trees, however, are but a prelude to what God desires to do amongst his people.  The compiler of third Isaiah picks up on this vision in 56:1-8 and expresses Yahweh’s intended goal.  The foreigner and eunuch will not be allowed to say, “I am just a dry tree” (Isa. 56:3) but they shall all be joined to the Lord and to the Lord’s peoples and the house of the Lord shall be called a “house of prayer for all peoples” (56:7) for it is the Lord who gathers not only the outcasts of Israel but “will gather others to them besides those already gathered” (56:8).  It is this reconstitution, this diversity among the peoples, which will “make them joyful in my house of prayer” (56:7).   Brown concludes, “The biodiversity of the garden reflects the ethnic diversity of the community.”[4]

            Initially I intended to write a sermon as part of this essay, one that would capture what I have learned and how I wish to convey it to my congregation.  However, I find (and I doubt I am alone on this) that sermons without some robust biblical theology and practical relevance backing them are impotent.  Thus, demonstrating the theology and the practicality from where the sermon will spring I believe is far more instructive.  Having shown the biblical foundation for my sermon above, I will now briefly detail the practical dimension. 

            As already mentioned, I was very inspired hearing the story of Anatoth Community Garden.  What I saw as I watched this church begin to take seriously their service to the land and how they can teach people to be connected to creation in ways they had not considered before was inspiring.  I saw people of all races coming together to sweat side by side, working for a common goal and being reminded that all of this is God’s, and therefore so are each of them.  I began to imagine what such a garden in my own community might look like and how it might bring people together who otherwise do not inter-mingle and how it could begin to sow seeds of reconciliation and eventually bring the reconstitution of God’s people in the church.  In other words, I began to wonder if a Garden might sprout a Church. 

            It was a Garden in Genesis that was the seed bed for God’s people, the beginning of what would become a church.  It was Isaiah who linked together the diversity of the garden, particularly trees, and wished to reconstitute community in the same way.   And not insignificant, it was in a garden that the resurrected Christ was first seen (John 19:41). 

            Since hearing the story of Anatoth Community Garden I have begun planning a similar endeavor for us at Marrow’s Chapel.  I am convinced that in order for Marrow’s Chapel to become the vibrant, growing church it desires to be and in order for it to properly reflect the Kingdom of God through a diversity of people living in community it will have its genesis in a garden. 

            The sermon I wish to preach cannot yet be written because we have not yet begun the work of tilling and keeping the land.  It is not until the good people of this community can sweat together side by side;  seeing with their own eyes that the work of their hands produced such a variety of life in one field – it is then that a sermon exhorting God’s people to reconstitute itself based on the same diversity will find its mark.  It is my prayer that out of a garden will spring a church, a house of prayer for all peoples.    

Tags: church, Ecology, Emerging, Garden, Race, Segregation

Session 2: Jim Henderson and Matt Casper - Is This What Jesus Told You Guys To Do?
I was really looking forward to hearing Jim and Matt discuss a bit with the audience both their journey of writing Jim and Casper Go to Church and how things have progressed since the book was released. For those of you who have been sleeping under a rock (most of you?), this book was written by a Christian, Jim Henderson, who formerly served as a pastor and now serves as the Director of Off The Map and by an Atheist, Matt Casper, who is hilarious and very fun to listen to.

The two began the session by introducing themselves and discussing why they felt their conversation, which was released in the book, was important for both Christians and those who did not align with Christianity. Matt made an interesting comment about how, as an Atheist, he doesn’t really have any sort of a ’support group,’ because it is difficult to get people to rally behind unbelief: “Hey everyone, let’s rally around what we don’t believe in.” The comment sparked a large amount of laughter by the group. I think Matt’s point was that this may be why some well known Atheists spend more time being anti-Theistic rather than focusing on being Pro-Atheistic. It was an interesting comment.
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Tags: conversational evangelism conference, emerging church, Jim and Casper go to Church, Jim Henderson, Matt Casper