![\"\"](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Arschbombe-Unterwasser.jpg\" "\\"Unterwasser\\"")
<\/a><\/h6>\n[ On July 5-7, The Ekklesia Project will hold its annual gathering in Chicago, which will be on the theme of Slow Church.\u00a0 Between now and July, we will be running a series of lguest reflections here by folks connected with the E.P. We\u2019ve asked guest posters to reflect on the meaning of Slow Church from their own local contexts.<\/em> More info on the E.P. gathering<\/a>.\u00a0 ]<\/h6>\nToday\u2019s reflection, the first in the series, is by Lee Wyatt.<\/strong><\/p>\nThough we live (or have lived) in the age of the Emerging\/Emergent Church, I have a different proposal for a new vision of church. I call it the Submerging Church! Am I serious, you ask? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe both. Read on and see what you think.<\/p>\n
The Submerging Church, as I see it,<\/strong> is radically subversive, relentlessly incarnational, and ruthlessly hospitable. It dives deeply into everyday life, sharing it with others, while at the same time questioning and critiquing the conditions of that life we share. Since this community lives from its center, the risen Jesus Christ, its boundaries are porous and permeable with arms outstretched to everyone who encounters it.<\/p>\nCharacteristic of the Submerging Church are these:<\/p>\n
-first, it is hard to find because it is everywhere;<\/p>\n
-second, it is difficult to join because \u201cmembership\u201d is relational and based on a shared journey towards the center;<\/p>\n
-thirdly, it is culturally atheistic, that is, not committed to a cultural Christ or his civil religion;<\/p>\n
-fourth, it is more like yeast, which though small permeates the whole, than a beast (a mega-church prominent in the community);<\/p>\n
-fifth, it finds its \u201cniche\u201d with those at the margins rather than the center and their experiences and perspectives gained with them generates the \u201clens\u201d through which it views and responds to the world; and<\/p>\n
-finally, it focuses on \u201cinner-tainment\u201d (life with God) rather than entertainment.<\/p>\n
Core content of the Submerging Church comes from:<\/p>\n
-first, being a Kingdom Outpost rather than a religious institution;<\/p>\n
-second, following a Cross-eyed Jesus rather a Cultural Christ;<\/p>\n
-third, living by a Holy Script (Bible) rather than a cultural script;<\/p>\n
-fourth, being centered on a bath and a meal rather programs;<\/p>\n
-fifth, seeking justice for all (especially the poor) instead of good for \u201cjust us\u201d; and \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0-sixth, sharing \u201ccommunitas\u201d rather than fellowship (google it!).<\/p>\n
Well, there are the outlines of my vision for the Submerging Church. Do you think I\u2019m serious or just funnin\u2019 with you?<\/p>\n
Submerging Church Spirituality<\/strong><\/p>\nIf becoming a Christian is at heart becoming human, and surely it is, then living Christianly must be living humanly, in a human style and at a human pace. \u00a0What we call \u201cspirituality,\u201d then, is nothing more or less than a human way of life.<\/p>\n
Living a Christian life, or even explaining it to others, as we must, does not require specifically Christian acts or words.\u00a0 Since it is living humanly, these everyday ways, can be explained in everyday non-religious language.<\/p>\n
The lexicon of faith, the language of \u201cCanaan,\u201d is our \u201carcane discipline,\u201d of worship and devotion (Bonhoeffer), the depth that undergirds our non-religious life and language. The Jesus we worship and adore, the \u201cman for others,\u201d (Bonhoeffer) is the content and goal of human beings we are becoming.<\/p>\n
What might such \u201cnon-religious\u201d language and living look like?\u00a0 How might we describe it?\u00a0 Perhaps the following will help us make a start. Human, that is, Christian, living is shaped by actions such as the following:<\/p>\n
Slow Down<\/strong> (Sabbath from Speed)<\/p>\nThree-miles-an-hour is the speed at which humans normally walk. It is the \u201chuman\u201d speed. \u00a0\u00a0But, as Brooks, a character in The Shawshank Redemption<\/em> said upon release from prison after fifty years, \u201cThe world\u2019s gone and gotten itself in a big damn hurry.\u201d\u00a0 By becoming human, Jesus brought \u201cGod\u201d to us at a \u201cspeed\u201d we could understand and relate to.\u00a0 If Jesus is the definitive revelation of God, and if I constantly move at faster and faster speeds, if I am perpetually \u201ctoo busy,\u201d I will discover myself more and more out of touch with a Three Mile-an-hour God<\/em> (Kosuke Koyama)<\/p>\nSign Out <\/strong>(Sabbath from Cyber-Space)<\/p>\nIf cyber-space becomes our primary connection to life, it has become a surrogate reality.\u00a0 In spite of, or perhaps because of, its gifts, we need regular breaks from cyber-space, periods when I sign out in order to reach out and lay hold of the life-in-relationships that alone sustain me.<\/p>\n
Stay Put <\/strong>(Sabbath from Mobility)<\/p>\nSubmerging spirituality recognizes the importance of \u201clocation, location, location.\u201d\u00a0 My ability to get up and go whenever I please often inhibits God\u2019s call for me stay and grow where God pleases.\u00a0 (See The Wisdom of Stability<\/em> by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove)<\/em><\/p>\nShut Up<\/strong> (Sabbath from Words)<\/p>\nJust listen!<\/p>\n
Stoop Down <\/strong>(Sabbath from Controlling)<\/p>\nHumility, the grace to confess that I am a creature (who is not in control) and not God (who is), is best made palpable to me by re-connecting with the humus<\/em>, the dirt from which God made me.\u00a0 I daily eat a \u201csacramental\u201d pinch of dirt to help this grace hit home for me.\u00a0 We are a part<\/span> of God\u2019s creation, and by grace his partner<\/span> in reclaiming and restoring it.\u00a0 We best play our role by remembering who we are and the grace by which we live.<\/p>\nStare <\/strong>(Sabbath from Distraction)<\/p>\nDistraction and diversion are in my experience the heart of the enemy\u2019s strategy to disable our living humanly.\u00a0 It short circuits my capacity to be present to my life.\u00a0 I suffer from \u201cSpiritual Attention Deficit Disorder\u201d.\u00a0 Wholeness in living comes for me when I rediscover the truth Kierkegaard captures in the title of his book Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing. <\/em><\/p>\nSing <\/strong>(Sabbath from Memos)<\/p>\nDiscursive, linear, pragmatic thought rules most of the time.\u00a0 I heard Walter Brueggemann call this kind of thought \u201cmemos.\u201d\u00a0 He said that such memos will kill you, but poetry (he was talking about the Psalms) gives life.\u00a0 I encounter poetry mostly in song.\u00a0 So I need to sing (even though I can\u2019t carry a tune).\u00a0 I think it was Augustine who said that the one who sings, prays twice.<\/p>\n
Share <\/strong>(Sabbath from \u201cMe\u201d)<\/p>\nMy life is my relationships, and relationships mean sharing.\u00a0 I must learn to share my necessities of life (food, communitas, faith) and joys and burdens with others while receiving their gifts and sharing their burdens as well.\u00a0 This, as I said, is my life.<\/p>\n
Simplify <\/strong>(Sabbath from Clutter)<\/p>\nI need to pursue the path of downward nobility rather than upward mobility, divest, and de-clutter. I want what I have and know and do to serve life rather than me serving them.\u00a0 To know the difference between want and need is a great gift.<\/p>\n
Sleep <\/strong>(Sabbath from Self)<\/p>\nSleep, enough sleep is a basic form of selflessness and trust.\u00a0 To give ourselves unreservedly to God in the needs of our creatureliness is to affirm our Creator\u2019s wisdom and the goodness of what he has made.\u00a0 Sufficient rest is a primal act of faith and powerful witness in beleaguered, fatigued, workaholic world.<\/p>\n
Lee Wyatt<\/strong> is a PC(USA) Pastor who lives in Wylie, Texas.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[ On July 5-7, The Ekklesia Project will hold its annual gathering in Chicago, which will be on the theme of Slow Church.\u00a0 Between now and July, we will be running a series of lguest reflections here by folks connected with the E.P. We\u2019ve asked guest posters to reflect on the meaning of Slow Church […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[193,12,4],"tags":[11,25972,7,198],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conferences","category-meditations","category-what-is-slow-church","tag-church","tag-sabbath","tag-slow","tag-submerging"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Though we live (or have lived) in the age of the Emerging\/Emergent Church, I have a different proposal for a new vision of church. I call it the Submerging Church! Am I serious, you ask? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe both. Read on and see what you think.<\/p>\n
The Submerging Church, as I see it,<\/strong> is radically subversive, relentlessly incarnational, and ruthlessly hospitable. It dives deeply into everyday life, sharing it with others, while at the same time questioning and critiquing the conditions of that life we share. Since this community lives from its center, the risen Jesus Christ, its boundaries are porous and permeable with arms outstretched to everyone who encounters it.<\/p>\n Characteristic of the Submerging Church are these:<\/p>\n -first, it is hard to find because it is everywhere;<\/p>\n -second, it is difficult to join because \u201cmembership\u201d is relational and based on a shared journey towards the center;<\/p>\n -thirdly, it is culturally atheistic, that is, not committed to a cultural Christ or his civil religion;<\/p>\n -fourth, it is more like yeast, which though small permeates the whole, than a beast (a mega-church prominent in the community);<\/p>\n -fifth, it finds its \u201cniche\u201d with those at the margins rather than the center and their experiences and perspectives gained with them generates the \u201clens\u201d through which it views and responds to the world; and<\/p>\n -finally, it focuses on \u201cinner-tainment\u201d (life with God) rather than entertainment.<\/p>\n Core content of the Submerging Church comes from:<\/p>\n -first, being a Kingdom Outpost rather than a religious institution;<\/p>\n -second, following a Cross-eyed Jesus rather a Cultural Christ;<\/p>\n -third, living by a Holy Script (Bible) rather than a cultural script;<\/p>\n -fourth, being centered on a bath and a meal rather programs;<\/p>\n -fifth, seeking justice for all (especially the poor) instead of good for \u201cjust us\u201d; and \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0-sixth, sharing \u201ccommunitas\u201d rather than fellowship (google it!).<\/p>\n Well, there are the outlines of my vision for the Submerging Church. Do you think I\u2019m serious or just funnin\u2019 with you?<\/p>\n Submerging Church Spirituality<\/strong><\/p>\n If becoming a Christian is at heart becoming human, and surely it is, then living Christianly must be living humanly, in a human style and at a human pace. \u00a0What we call \u201cspirituality,\u201d then, is nothing more or less than a human way of life.<\/p>\n Living a Christian life, or even explaining it to others, as we must, does not require specifically Christian acts or words.\u00a0 Since it is living humanly, these everyday ways, can be explained in everyday non-religious language.<\/p>\n The lexicon of faith, the language of \u201cCanaan,\u201d is our \u201carcane discipline,\u201d of worship and devotion (Bonhoeffer), the depth that undergirds our non-religious life and language. The Jesus we worship and adore, the \u201cman for others,\u201d (Bonhoeffer) is the content and goal of human beings we are becoming.<\/p>\n What might such \u201cnon-religious\u201d language and living look like?\u00a0 How might we describe it?\u00a0 Perhaps the following will help us make a start. Human, that is, Christian, living is shaped by actions such as the following:<\/p>\n Slow Down<\/strong> (Sabbath from Speed)<\/p>\n Three-miles-an-hour is the speed at which humans normally walk. It is the \u201chuman\u201d speed. \u00a0\u00a0But, as Brooks, a character in The Shawshank Redemption<\/em> said upon release from prison after fifty years, \u201cThe world\u2019s gone and gotten itself in a big damn hurry.\u201d\u00a0 By becoming human, Jesus brought \u201cGod\u201d to us at a \u201cspeed\u201d we could understand and relate to.\u00a0 If Jesus is the definitive revelation of God, and if I constantly move at faster and faster speeds, if I am perpetually \u201ctoo busy,\u201d I will discover myself more and more out of touch with a Three Mile-an-hour God<\/em> (Kosuke Koyama)<\/p>\n Sign Out <\/strong>(Sabbath from Cyber-Space)<\/p>\n If cyber-space becomes our primary connection to life, it has become a surrogate reality.\u00a0 In spite of, or perhaps because of, its gifts, we need regular breaks from cyber-space, periods when I sign out in order to reach out and lay hold of the life-in-relationships that alone sustain me.<\/p>\n Stay Put <\/strong>(Sabbath from Mobility)<\/p>\n Submerging spirituality recognizes the importance of \u201clocation, location, location.\u201d\u00a0 My ability to get up and go whenever I please often inhibits God\u2019s call for me stay and grow where God pleases.\u00a0 (See The Wisdom of Stability<\/em> by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove)<\/em><\/p>\n Shut Up<\/strong> (Sabbath from Words)<\/p>\n Just listen!<\/p>\n Stoop Down <\/strong>(Sabbath from Controlling)<\/p>\n Humility, the grace to confess that I am a creature (who is not in control) and not God (who is), is best made palpable to me by re-connecting with the humus<\/em>, the dirt from which God made me.\u00a0 I daily eat a \u201csacramental\u201d pinch of dirt to help this grace hit home for me.\u00a0 We are a part<\/span> of God\u2019s creation, and by grace his partner<\/span> in reclaiming and restoring it.\u00a0 We best play our role by remembering who we are and the grace by which we live.<\/p>\n Stare <\/strong>(Sabbath from Distraction)<\/p>\n Distraction and diversion are in my experience the heart of the enemy\u2019s strategy to disable our living humanly.\u00a0 It short circuits my capacity to be present to my life.\u00a0 I suffer from \u201cSpiritual Attention Deficit Disorder\u201d.\u00a0 Wholeness in living comes for me when I rediscover the truth Kierkegaard captures in the title of his book Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing. <\/em><\/p>\n Sing <\/strong>(Sabbath from Memos)<\/p>\n Discursive, linear, pragmatic thought rules most of the time.\u00a0 I heard Walter Brueggemann call this kind of thought \u201cmemos.\u201d\u00a0 He said that such memos will kill you, but poetry (he was talking about the Psalms) gives life.\u00a0 I encounter poetry mostly in song.\u00a0 So I need to sing (even though I can\u2019t carry a tune).\u00a0 I think it was Augustine who said that the one who sings, prays twice.<\/p>\n Share <\/strong>(Sabbath from \u201cMe\u201d)<\/p>\n My life is my relationships, and relationships mean sharing.\u00a0 I must learn to share my necessities of life (food, communitas, faith) and joys and burdens with others while receiving their gifts and sharing their burdens as well.\u00a0 This, as I said, is my life.<\/p>\n Simplify <\/strong>(Sabbath from Clutter)<\/p>\n I need to pursue the path of downward nobility rather than upward mobility, divest, and de-clutter. I want what I have and know and do to serve life rather than me serving them.\u00a0 To know the difference between want and need is a great gift.<\/p>\n Sleep <\/strong>(Sabbath from Self)<\/p>\n Sleep, enough sleep is a basic form of selflessness and trust.\u00a0 To give ourselves unreservedly to God in the needs of our creatureliness is to affirm our Creator\u2019s wisdom and the goodness of what he has made.\u00a0 Sufficient rest is a primal act of faith and powerful witness in beleaguered, fatigued, workaholic world.<\/p>\n Lee Wyatt<\/strong> is a PC(USA) Pastor who lives in Wylie, Texas.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ On July 5-7, The Ekklesia Project will hold its annual gathering in Chicago, which will be on the theme of Slow Church.\u00a0 Between now and July, we will be running a series of lguest reflections here by folks connected with the E.P. We\u2019ve asked guest posters to reflect on the meaning of Slow Church […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[193,12,4],"tags":[11,25972,7,198],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conferences","category-meditations","category-what-is-slow-church","tag-church","tag-sabbath","tag-slow","tag-submerging"],"yoast_head":"\n