This week, I’m at Columbia Theological Seminary (PC(USA)), at a continuing education event called, Emergence NOW. Yesterday, Phyllis Tickle gave an updated version of her Great Emergence talk. And I presented a funny little talk, 10 Myths about Emergence. Today, Philip Clayton is speaking (as I type) about how emergence is, in his words, “God’s way of creation.” And later this morning, Bruce Reyes-Chow will address the future of denominationalism.
It’s that last question, and the future of the mainline church in general, that gets asked a lot in gatherings like this. I’ve got some thoughts on this, as some readers will know. And I’m cooking up a couple more posts on this, but in the meantime I want to point you to a couple interesting resources.
First, Chad Holtz and Jeff Straka have been having an interesting conversation along these lines on an earlier post of mine. Jeff takes the same position that I will, and Chad is a worthy adversary.
Second, check out the new and ongoing series on the future of the mainline being curated at Faith & Leadership, featuring posts so far by Brian McLaren and others. My posts will be a response to some of these.
Finally, if you’re so inclined to follow the tweets coming out of Emergence NOW, here’s the feed:
#enow
as you know this is an area that hits close to home for me. i posted thoughts on this last year based on some research you have probably seen: http://notes-from-offcenter.com/2009/03/16/the-mainline-churches-are-not-the-field-of-dreams/
a radical adaptation needs to happen or the trend will continue leaving only a batch of tall steeples left. the money and members are just not there…
I don’t know if this goes for the church like it does for investing (my world) but the time to get in is when everyone else is running the other way. If everyone out there says the denominations are dead and no one wants to bet the bank on them, then that is where I want to be. Just how my reasoning is wired.
Tony, I hope you (and Jeff) will not see me as an “adversary” but a friend (after all, we are friends on FB which makes us closer than family, right??
)
I’d love to hear some of your thoughts on what has been discussed thus far when you get a chance.
Would you be willing to back off your statement this summer that denominations are “sinful” and revise that to denominations sometimes act in sinful ways? I think that would be a good place to start if we can find some common ground there.
your friend in Christ,
Chad
Philip Clayton wrote a great article on The Ooze about Theology after Google. I have tried to leave a few comments there but none show up. I’ve written a response to that article here: http://chadholtz.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/theology-beyond-google-part-i/
would love anyone’s feedback. peace.
Random thoughts
1. Sheesh! Of course, “main line” churches are sinful! C’mon, man, what do you expect? Nevertheless, God works through “main line” churches!
2. Reading Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, I wonder, “What else is new?”
3. I appreciate “emergers” and I know that they will be “sinful” and “God will work through them”. If you think you can avoid structural sin and injustice, then I can tell you I am not optimistic. Sin boldly, do what you think is best, try to do what matters to God, but then trust in grace more boldly still. You are going to need it.
4. I don’t care what kind of Christian you are. God is on the loose in the world. We can stay inside our church boxes or we get out there and join in what God is up to. Whether we live or die, who cares! Are we joining with God out there blessing others with grace?
5. Did I say I appreciate “emergers”? I consider myself one. I am a Lutheran. We invented ambiguity
Welcome to our world!
6. God’s bottom line is grace. Period.
7. The task of the church is to join in what God is doing in the world. Grace people.
8. God has blessed the world through the “main line” church.
9. Did you know that our “sinful, unjust denominational structure” is on the ground and running in Haiti through Lutheran World Relief? Our interconnected structure is a blessing right now.
9.5 Did you know that the liberal ELCA and the conservative Lutheran Church Missouri Synod work together through LWR? How wild is that!
Tim,
Word.
As a Methodist I am ever grateful for our world-wide connectional system and our ability to organize and respond with massive aid in time of crisis. UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) is consistently one of the biggest and best crisis responder. UMCOR was already in Haiti when the earthquake hit offering needed care – their executive director was even killed in the quake.
The novelist Walker Percy used to tell the same story over and over again about how whenever he would speak in a place like Atlanta or Birmingham some Baptist lady would come up after he finished and say, “I enjoyed what you had to say, but why are you a Catholic?” Percy would always respond, “What else is there?” As a mainliner for pretty much all of my life [with the exception of a few low low low church years (read energetic non-denominational) during college], I find myself having the same sentiments as Percy. Where are we to go? Are we to depart because the Word and the bread and the cup and the baptismal font have been packed up? Last time I checked they were still there. Has God left us? Not to my knowledge.
Perhaps one can say that the mainline church has been a little too chummy with the culture at large for too long a period of time and still longs for the affections of when we were best buds with that culture. Such idolatry needs to be repented of for sure. But it is entirely another matter to suggest that the denominational structures are beyond the repair and correction and renewal that Word and Sacrament offer. My own experience tells a totally different story.
Amen, Alan.
‘The church in the West isn’t dying, God is killing it.’ Stanley Hauerwas
Check out this blog post:
http://www.gladysganiel.com/social-justice/dave-tomlinson-book-review-re-enchanting-christianity-the-re-emergence-conference-belfast/
“Thanks!†to Peter Rollins for the link!
And Chad – I am blessed to have you as a friend!
I am not sure what a mainline denomination is in a European context. I am part of the church I am part of because of its continuity with the ancient church. I don’t consider it a denomination. It has the markers of the historic church in terms of episcopal oversight and Eucharistic theology. Denominationalism strikes me as a ‘Reformed’ problem even a denomination of one pope in a pulpit.