(e)mergent Voyageurs

A recent comment on my post revealed an assumption held by many emerging church critics that I had thought was beginning to fade (and I still hope is). That is that Brian McLaren (and ones stance on him) is a litmus test for all things emerging/emergent. Not only are his writings used as the measure of what every emerging Christian believes, but his name is raised with an inquisitional intent when people are trying to determine someones flawed (and often heretical) beliefs.

I have read much of what McLaren has written, both in his books and online articles. I have also had the opportunity to correspond with him a few times via email. I have learned a great deal from him, challenged by his ideas, touched by his pastoral heart. Do I agree with everything he teaches? Of course not. I say this, not to distance myself to him, but rather to acknowledge that simple fact, a fact that is true of most other people.

I cannot help but ask myself what it must be like to be Brian McLaren. While he certainly choose to put himself and his ideas out there through publishing and public speaking, he never signed up to be the figurehead of a movement. I have no doubt he has great joy for his part in what is becoming an increasingly wide spread conversation (aka movement), but few are as aware as him as to the personal cost it has exacted of him. I do not envy him the experience of reading and hearing the harsh judgments and unequivical condemnation that are so often leveled against him.

The fact is that Brian is man of God, called and gifted by God in his own unique ways. He is a pastor, a leader, a writer, a husband, a father, a friend- he is human. He makes mistakes like the rest of us. One could argue that a higher standard is held to him for his rule as pastor and public figure. Fair enough. I have little doubt that McLaren is painfully aware of this himself, bringing him to time of deep prayer and reflection.

So why am I writing this post? First, it is simply that, upon recently having the above stated assumptions brought up here on this blog, I found myself considering what it must be like to be in his shoes. And while I am sure his life is filled with joy and fulfilment, I could not help but consider the potential pain, frustration and alienation he must feel.

Second, I want to clarify my “position” on Brian McLaren (as ridiculous as that is) so that we are clear. Brian McLaren does not speak for all of the emerging/emergent/missional movement. His writings cannot and should not be taken as the measure of our theology, ecclesiology, eschatology, etc. He is NOT the figurehead of all things emerging. That being said, he IS a pastor of great compassion and gifting. He IS a teacher respected a loved. He IS one or many important voices, even leaders, to many in the emerging-missional conversation. Above all, without a second of hesitation, I believe he IS a brother in Christ.

If you are a critic who sees McLaren as a heretic or believe he has nothing to offer the church, you are entitled to your opinion, but I will not debate that point with you here. I seek to make this blog a welcome place for all perspectives, so if you are genuinely open to explore some ideas, let’s talk. However, if you want simply to denounce McLaren (or me for my support of him), then this won’t be the place.

The final reason this is important to me to write is that I owe a great deal to McLaren for the development of my own journey. He was used by God to open my heart and mind and choices to a faith that is richer and fuller. Even in wrestling through issues and ideas that I would later disagree with him on, I benefited from the engagement. So ultimately, it is out of gratitude to this brother that I write this post.

Thanks Brian.

UPDATE: I just spoke to an immigration agent and the card has been resent without any cost!  Thanks for the prayer.  However, keep praying, as it still needs to arrive safely, no small feat for Canada Post.

As many of you know, my wife Kim is an Aussie who has been a missionary to Canada for many years now. Over the last year or so we have been working to get her Permanent Resident card here in Canada, a long, expensive and tortuous process. We were quite pleased when she was finally approved, her card in the mail. We were over the moon!

Then the card did not show up. Upon contacting Canada Immigration, we were informed that the card was sent back because it had the wrong postal code, a mistake, it seems, that came as a result of THEIR computer error. However, they won’t say one way or the other that it was their fault (all other mail from them arrived to the correct address, so clearly they had the right code) and if they don’t intercept the returned card, it will be destroyed and we will have to pay another $1000+ to have it replaced.

Not only is this unjust and potentially expensive, the timing could mean that our trip to visit Kim’s family over Christmas might be threatened. It has been many years since Kim has been home and her family has had a lot on their plate, making this visit very important. Please pray with us that this will be resolved quickly and favourably.

Further, pray for us in respect to our financial status. As missionaries with YWAM, all our finances (for both living and ministry) comes through the donations of family, friends, churches, etc. However, with immigration, increased ministry expenses and our failing attempt to start a family, we are feeling stretched. God always provides, so we appreciate you standing with us in prayer.

Thanks all!

Previous Post – Exploring Egalitarianism

 

“When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth.’ The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’” -Luke 11: 43,44 (NASB)

This past week, as I was speaking at our Mission Adventures summer program, I found myself exploring the story of Lazarus more closely than I had before (given that “Lazarus, Rise up Deadman” was the theme). Clearly this account of Jesus raising to life this friend of His is a powerful demonstration of God’s triumph over death, foreshadowing the resurrection of Christ and the promise of resurrection for God’s people. Beyond that, I had not looked closely at the details of the story.

As I considered it more closely, however, I began to see a powerful and exciting truth emerge from the words. Moments before, Martha hesitated to follow Jesus command to remove the stone. With hindsight we may shake our heads at her lack of faith, but as she stated, Lazarus had been dead for four days and would surely have begun to rot. As though the thought of seeing a decomposed love one was not legitimate enough of a reason to hesitate, the body would be ritually unclean. To their credit, at Jesus’ encouragement they stirred up their faith and opened the tomb.

After a prayerof thanks to God, Jesus calls out to Lazarus to come out. With a thrill and awe we could never comprehend lest we experience it ourselves, the people watched as Lazarus stepped from the tomb, bound tightly in his grave clothes. Jesus quickly commands them to help him out of the rags of death, to free him from them.

I cannot help but wonder if they experienced, even for a moment, a hesitation at touching the unclean fragments of cloth. Did they feel the tension between the thrill of the resurrection and the lifetime of disciplined purity? Whatever the case, Lazarus was not going to enjoy his new life unless someone helepd him out. And so they did.

Why did this need to happen? Was Christ’s power insufficient? Did Jesus lack some power to fully restore Lazarus to both life and freedom (and a clean set of clothing)? Of course not. Then why did He allow this man to emerge from the tomb in such a manner?

Within this simple act, Jesus sets before us a pattern. Lazarus was already alive and resurrected, yet despite the work of Christ, the vestiges of death still kept him in bondage. Jesus called to friends and family- the community- to go to where Lazarus was and help him be rid of the death shroud. The community could not have raised him, but they could stand with him and serve him as he emerged into his new life.

In the same way, as Christ brings new life into the hearts of people, they too will find themselves caught up in the fragments of their old life. Their life has been redeemed, their sins forgiven, but the struggles and bondages of sin do not simply vanish. And in the same way that Jesus commanded Lazarus’ friends to go to him and free him, so to does He command us, His Church, to go to those who are emerging into new life and lovingly strip away those things that still limit their ability to embrace the fullness of this new life.

While the Jews of Jesus’ day obeyed His commands to free Lazarus, no doubt some wondered about the consequences of touching the unclean grave clothes. Surely there were those who would have looked upon this act with grave disapproval, demanding the rituals of purification inspite of the miracle performed that day. After all, the law was clear, was it not?

And in the same way, the reality of standing with others as they struggle out of the bondages of their old life is that we will have to get our hands dirty. Not in that we are called to participate in sinful behaviour, but rather that to love and support each other, we cannot be consumed with protecting ourselves to the sinfulness of others. How often do we Christians cut ourselves off from being missional engaged in our communities by restricting our lives in avoidance of swearing, drinking, sexuality? To put oneself in a position where your presence at a specific place or with certain people might even be interpretted wrongly by others has been enough to close those doors.

And yet, here we see Jesus commanding the community of faith to free Lazarus from the bondage. More than that He commands them to go to Lazarus. How often do we wait for the wounded of the world to stumble into our doors before we will love them? Jesus commands us, His Church, to go into the world, a world in which He is active and calling forth the new life of resurrection. So many are waiting for the Body to race to them and lovingly liberate them from their grave clothes and celebrate their new life.

Every day I see people whose lives are being touched by the work of Christ through the Holy Spirit, often independant of any Christians or church or ministry. Jesus is calling out to the world “Come forth!” and commanding us to “Unbind them and let them go!”

Are we ready to get out there and get our hands dirty?

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
Because the LORD has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners

Isaiah 61:1 (NASB)

I recently came acrossing David Fitch’s post called “Why I am Not an Egalitarian: Postmodernity Did it To Me” (a shorter version of his article at church and pomo blog) and was immediately drawn in.  As someone who has identified as an egalitarian for many years, and respecting David as I do, I was eager to read what he had to say.  I felt that David was very gracious and careful in his explanation of why he feels he cannot embrace the term.

One of the core reasons is that the word has become so deeply connected to assumptions of Western liberal politics that he is no longer helpful.  He also believes that Egalistarianism does not serve to unite the genders, despites its good intentions towards equality.  Finally, he finds that the ideals fail to inform genders on what it means to be a man/woman.  Each of these points deserve consideration.

Makeesha Fisher, who I have gained equal respect for, responded to David (and Bob) with this excellent post.  Makeesha argues convincingly for why she holds to the term and the ideals, as well as explaining what egalitarianism is not.  Take the time and read her post.

While I believe that David & Bob raise important questions for consideration, I have to say that I stand with Makeesha on this one.  Not that I define my relationship and gender identity primarily through the grid of egalitarianism, but rather that is serves to best define how I believe and seek to practice my faith in relationship to these dynamics.

Regardless of what you believe on the topic, what we all need to acknowledge is that there needs to be far more discussion and change occurring around the gender equality issues, both in the church and in larger society.  We have come so very far, but we cannot let this distract us from the need to pursue this Kingdom transformation even further.

What say you?

Previous Post – A Week Off… Blogging

I know I said I wasn’t going to be writing this week, but since that officially doesn’t start until tomorrow, I thought I could get away with sneaking this one in here.  This morning, while reading through my daily blogs, I discovered that my good e-friend, the Naked Pastor, has come under fire from a certain watchdog website (who I will neither name nor link).  One of the main topic that emerged in the comment section was his use of and defense of nude art on his blog (and in general).

Before I go on, I want to say that I think he was treated terribly by the blog and judged unfairly.  His blog is one of my daily favourites (especially the cartoons) and easily gets my recommendation.  This post is not about him or his blog, but was simply inspired by the events he mentioned recently.

It brought to mind my Friday Art Reflection from last November “Nudity In Art”.  Before you click there, I warn you that the top image is of Michelangelo’s David statue.  I have no issue with posting this image, but if there are some of you who feel differently, I do not want to upset you.  Fair warning given.  The discussion on that post was quite engaging, though I promised to return to it and promptly forgot.  So, here goes.

In my previous post on this topic, I closed by saying that I was not opposed to nudity in art.  By that I meant, like with the example of the David statue, there are times where it is appropriate and beautiful.  However, that does not mean I believe that all nudity in art is.  Frankly, I do not want the job of decide what is in and what is out, but I also see that I could use that as a cop out for not dealing with the issue at all.  So where do I stand?

First, here in North America especially, we live in a hyper-sexualized world.  As I stated in my previous post, part of this is a result of the Church being overly critical of sexuality.  Be that as it may, it is a reality that requires us to be cautious and careful in our own use of such art.  Pornography has never been so freely available than it is today.  While pornography and nude art are different, they are somewhat related on a level that we cannot ignore.

Second, right or wrong, a large segment of Christian culture in the West clearly opposes nudity in art, calling it no different than pornography.  Again, I disagree with this critique on many levels, but this does not mean we can ignore it.  Like it or not, we are one Body, one Church.  While we shouldn’t just submit to their stance, neither should our default response be to throw it in their faces (NOTE: I am not saying that Naked Pastor has done this.  I am making general observations).  We must find a way to move forward with our convictions while honouring those who we call brother and sister (even if they deny our own salvation- in fact, all the more reason).

Third, in the pervasive and completely open medium of the internet, we have to consider that our words and images are crossing beyond the confines of our own context and culture into the whole world.  The impact of our expressions here have direct impact on the missional callings of other believers in contexts that might not understand or be ready for such freedom.  Again, this does not mean we should abstain completely for fear of what others might do with it in their unique context, but rather that we must be hyper-aware of the potential as we go forward.

I have chosen on my own blog to avoid certain expressions that I would otherwise feel free to use in my own life.  While I have no issue with the statue of David, I did, in fact, wrestle with whether I should have posted it when I did.  This is a topic that deserves exploration and dialogue in the Church.  The watch dog site in question does not, in my opinion, offer much to that conversation.  The comments at the site even less so.  This topic connects to broader issues, such as art or sexuality, that we must engage in.

What do you think?

Previous Post – Spirituality

I will be teaching this week for our Mission Adventures summer program, so I won’t be writing at all this week.  When I return, I hope to bring you up to date about The Dusty Cover (we are on the verge of unveiling our new logo) and some other important info.  Have a gret week and please keep me in your prayers. 

Previous Post – The Passion – A Monologue

I was chatting today with a very good friend about our lives and spiritual journeys.  He has felt, of late, distant from his more typical draw towards things of the spiritual.  Something has gone missing that keeps him from pursuing it like he used to.  At one stage he said:

“I think I often confuse transcendent emotionalism for spirituality”

I found myself agreeing with this sentiment.  Too often, as I seek to discover something of the divine, I look to emotionally intense experiences.  It is too easy to try and create the atmosphere in which we feel the divine.  By remembering the hurts and failures of our life, we seek the very real experience of catharsis, equating it with an experience with God.

And often it is.  I do not want to minimize the importance of experiential spirituality.  Nor do I want to come against emotionalism by rejecting all emotions.  I greatly value these experiences as powerful gifts that must not be taken lightly and must be handled with great respect and responsibility.

However, when we place excessive or primary importance on these experiences we undermine the experience of the divine in the so-called “mundane” realities of our lives.  The very nature of being- our exsistence as being created as eikons of God- is saturated with the divine. Perhaps we are so accustomed to it- so immersed in it- that we fail to see it for what it is.

How do we, then, rediscover the divine in everyday life?  How do we discover and practice the presence of God in all we do?  (yes, this is a reference to the must-read “Practice of the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence)  How do we respond to the sense of distance that too often makes us feel as though we are apart and alone from God?

While there are many answers to these questions (and I hope you will share some of them in the comment section), one truth keeps coming to mind for me: in the light of the suffering of Christ and what it accomplished, we can look on our own suffering in a new light.  Where it once wounded and alienated us, it can now serve as a comfort, binding us to the experience and person of Christ in a very real way.

What are your thoughts?