(e)mergent Voyageurs

(What Is The Gospel? – Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4)

It has been quite some time since my last installment, so I wanted to continue with my series on “What Is The Gospel?” (Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4). While I would encourage you to read the former posts, let me give a brief summary to catch you up:

In Part 1, inspired by scot McKnight’s excellent book “Embracing Grace”, I proposed a very general understanding of the Gospel – “The Gospel is the glory of the Triune God made manifest in His work to reconcile every person to union with Himself, communion with others, to fullness of life, and to harmony with Creation, in the context of community for the good of all.” (I have since altered that definition slightly to “Gospel is the work of the Trinitarian God to reconcile every person to union with God, to communion with others, to fullness with self, and to harmony with Creation, in the context of community for the glory of God and the good of all”).

Part 2 explores the meaning of being created in God image, which is primarily Trinitarian. The perichoretic unity of the Godhead should be reflected in the restored and celebrated relationship of man with God, self, others and Creation. The work of Christ seeks to invite us, through the cross, to find restoration to His intentions for us by resurrecting as His Body.

Exploring the example of Saint Patrick, Part 3 looks to the pattern God calls us through- moving out of our “hidden nakedness” the masks and barriers that deny our brokenness and need for God, through the chaos and suffering of dying to self on the Cross; through the emptiness and release of the tomb; into the new life of the Resurrection into the share reality of His Body; filled and empower together by the Spirit to bring the message, promise and experience of restoration and transformation to a world in need of it.

In Part 4 we see how rooted our place in Creation is, as intended by God. Our commitment to Creation is not a mere stewardly environmentalism, but rather a sacramental ecology where we Creation as the medium in which our own relationship must take place. Further, rather than allowing our worldviews to be shaped by the mechanistic patterns of our “creations”, we see God’s intentional truth invested into the fabric of His Creation.

With that foundation set, I want to explore the statement “fullness with self” (earlier called “fullness of life”). It is here that I want to affirm the place and importance of the individual in this picture. In a world of rampant individualism in desperate need of true community, we can be at risk of over-reacting in the opposite extreme. One of the most fundamental contribution that the Judeo-Christian tradition brings to world is the value of the individual. When God covenanted with Abraham, for example, it was done in a time where human life had value in the eyes of god-kings and their ruthless armies. It was a monumental shift (see “The Gifts Of The Jews” by Thomas Cahill for an excellent development of these ideas).

Rick Warren said, “Spiritual maturity is becoming like Jesus in the way we think, feel and act.” In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is guided to the Emerald City by three companions- the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Cowardly Lion. It was only in the last few years that I began to see the significance of each character, as they represented defining aspects of Dorothy’s own identity. The Scarecrow needed a brain- mind; the Tinman needed a heart- emotions; and the Lion lacked the courage to act- will. Though somewhat simplistic, the mind, will and the emotions can be seen as what are core to our souls. Based on this, I would define fullness with self (not to be mistaken with “full of yourself”) to be a God-centered harmony of the soul- that is the mind, will and emotions.

Gil Bailie once said, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” While obviously needing qualification and balance, I believe it holds a core truth. Dying to self does not mean a denial of individuality or personal identity, but to the disintegrative nature of selfishness, etc. Fullness of life comes, in part, through that God-centered unity of the soul.

The following exercise is quite involved, but can help serve as a discipline of the imagination in exploring that fullness of life. I would encourage you to spend some time over the next week(s) to give it a shot. I call it a “Soul Audit”- a tool to help you engage with who you are, who you hope to be and imagining the possibilities of what could be. The follow is a list of very personal and specific questions that will serve as a reflective tool in your life and faith. Starting with the foundational question “If I were living my life to its greatest potential, what would it look like?”, the follow-up questions draw into greater detail.

You can do this exercise in many ways. You could answer the foundational question in the time frame of next year, 5 years or 10 years from now. You might even want to do this more than one time frame (which I think is helpful). The level of time, thought and energy you put into the answer will determine how much you get out of it. Be realistic with your answers, but also be hopeful and visionary. If you do the exercise, I’d love to hear what you thought of the results.

“If I were living my life to its greatest potential, what would it look like?”

Hands (Your Will)
-”What would I be doing? Where? With whom?”
-”How would others perceive me? How would they describe my life?”
-”How would what I’d be going be most different from now?

Heart (Your Emotions)
-”How would I feel about myself? How would I feel differently than now?”
-”How would I feel about the what, where and who in my life then?”
-”What would I be most passionate about?”

Head (Your Mind)
-”How would my think about myself be different?”
-”What lies or fears would not longer be keeping me back?

Hands/Heart/Head
-”What negative or unhealthy actions, feelings & thoughts would be gone that are here now?”
-”What positive and healthy actions, feelings & thoughts would be here that aren’t here now?”

-What would your family say the driving force of your life is?
-Your friends? Your pastor or spiritual leaders say?
-What would you say it is? What would you WANT it to be?

Emerging Church, Missional, Self

Previous Post – “The Real Mary” by Scot McKnight

Discipleship Training School

January 8th – May 25th 2007
(also see exciting DTS & College opportunity)

Social Justice

Our Discipleship Training School (DTS) is a five month intensive in spiritual and missional formation. The first three months concentrates on engaging students in a holitistic discipleship experience that challenges the mind, heart and body in a praxis oriented program. Offered in the heart of Winnipeg’s West End, students will integrate in one of the city’s most culturally diverse, inner city neighbourhoods. Our emphasis on urban missions means that as part of the community, students will engage the realities of poverty, injustice, racism and much more, all the while have the opportunity to respond in exciting new ways.

Missional Community

The next two months are spent on an international, cross-cultural missions service outreach, where students will begin to explore the implication of what they have learned beyond simple application. Again with an urban emphasis, students will participate in “preaching” the Gospel with their whole selves- in word and deed. Our last school served in restoring the tsunami devastated community of the famous Phi Phi Island in southern Thailand, while this school is planning on working with IDP camps and other opportunities of northern Uganda.

Spiritual Formation

The cost of the Lecture Phase for a single person in $3500 Canadian Dollars, plus a $50, non-refundable registration fee. The cost of the Outreach Phase will be an additional $2500 – $4000 Canadian Dollars, depending on location. This will cover airfare, applicable taxes, cancellation insurance, ground transporation, living expenses, etc. Personal expenses (i.e. laundry, visa costs, etc.) are the applicants responsibility. We encourage applicants to work with their church community in fundraising prior and during DTS, believing that God will provide for you to meet these financial requirements.

Lecture Phase = $3500 CDN
Outreach Phase = $2500-$4000 CDN
TOTAL COST = $6000-$7500 CDN
*Please note the $50 CDN registration fee is not listed

Please feel free to contact us for more information.

Emerging Church

Over the last year I have been following the horrific evil that is going on in northern Uganda and the Sudan, what the UN calls “one of the worst human-rights crises of the past century.” Children are being forced to murder and rape in the name of supposed freedom, forced by a megamonical leader with a messiah complex. So little is being done. Those who are acting are doing so with little support and at great risk. We dropped the ball with Rwanda, to our own shame. Let’s not repeat the same mistake.

PLEASE READ the following article for a good overview:

If you would like more information about how you can get involved, please do not hesitate to contact me. I have already begun dialogue with several agencies about organizing some serious action. I’ll be making a call for your help soon. Also, please see the following links for more information.

This is not something that we can ignore:

If there is any concensus in the emergent church, it is that the gospel preached in North America is not the Gospel. Closely related, many of us believe that what we call “church” is not the church. The church exists as a quality of relationship and the transcendent intersection of Spirit and flesh in faithful communities that serve to make Christ known. It is dynamic and powerful and bears only a passing relationship to the institutions built by humankind.

A discussion on RESONATE got me thinking about the relationship of the Gospel and its expression in faithful communities. The relationship is much like that of root and fruit.

At the risk of offense, here are some thoughts. If what we see around us is congregations rather than communities.. if we see organizations which mostly limit the earthly expression of the movement Jesus died to birth… if, in other words, we see many gatherings not much “church”.. then we are witnessing the natural outcome of a gospel that is not the Gospel.

My thesis is this: the true Gospel produces what God intended – authentic and faithful communities of Jesus apprentices who are impacting their world. If what we see around us is not that.. then it is an expression of a gospel that is not the Gospel. The fruit is wrong.. therefore the root is wrong.

Within emergent circles there is concensus on few things.. but one of those few things is that we have mostly lost the real Gospel.. we have exchanged it for slick packaged, self-oriented, pottage.. we have a gospel of sin management, fire insurance, that is informational but does not transform.. it has little reference to the Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus preached.

And therefore it shouldn’t surprise us if the product is McChurch rather than ekklesia.

Several years ago, my wife & I were traveling. As missionaries, we spend a good deal of time meeting with people, from dear friends to perfect strangers. On one such occasion, we had scheduled to meet with a friend of ours. However, when we got there, we were surprised to find that he was not alone, but with a young man we did not know. We thought nothing of it at first.

It soon became clear to us that this new individual was a Muslim man. Moments later, I found myself face down, with both men standing over me, their hands on my shoulders. While I could not see her, I knew my wife was near by. The men laughed as one man sliced my back with a blade, while the other stabbed me with another.

To this day, I have the scars to remind me of this incident.

With the political and social state of the world as it is, such a story is likely to stir great emotion. What did you feel as you read this story? Anger? Shock? Sympathy? Undoubtedly, each of you reading this has a clear mental image of these events, almost as though you had watched them yourself.

I have a confession to make…

The fact is, the friend I was meeting was my family doctor in my old home town. The young Muslim man was a medical student, shadowing the doctor as part of his education. Truthfully, moments after meeting them, they had me laying on a gurney, where they proceeded to removed two moles from my back. One was uncommonly deep, requiring my doc to stab under it more than was typical. The men were laughing (as were we) over a joke the student had made.

Before you collective plan my demise for misleading you, there is a point. While I gave you the facts of the story, I did not tell you the truth. While the rich history of modernism in Christianity leaves us a great deal to be grateful for, its tendency to reduce the Gospel to the bare doctrines, dogmas and facts- through systematic theologies and however many spiritual laws- has often torn the soul from the incarnational message of hope. Can the Gospel be represented on the basis of “just the facts” and still be the Gospel? Or have we ended up with a misleading alternative that could lead to theological and political colonialism?

As our understanding of the Gospel- of Truth- expands to encompass the fullness of the message of Jesus, we will inevitably come to a demanding reality. The declaration of the Gospel, through the spoken and write word, only finds its authority to the degree that the Truth of the Gospel in embodied in the lives of the Church- not merely in the context of individual “righteousness” and morality, but in the transformational fullness of the Kingdom of God.

-Jamie Arpin-Ricci

[emerging church]