Book Reviews
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"What Does Church Look Like Without All The Religion" .... |
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Written by Editor
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Friday, 27 November 2009 12:31 |
Simple Church:
The Latest Application of “Emerging”
Coming to a home....restaurant....or pub near you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_church
…“Sociologically speaking, Simple Church could be seen as a subset of Emerging Church… a phenomenon rising from the conversation between Christianity and the culture and worldview of postmodernism Many in the emerging church movement would consider simple church to be represented in expressions such as house church and unique gatherings like Church in a Pub”…
Simple church is a controversial Evangelical Christian movement that seeks to redefine the nature and practice of church. The movement believes that church should be "a Christ-centered community established primarily on relationship both to God and to the other members of the group." In doing so it discards many aspects of conventional expressions of church, which is considered beneficial by some, and problematic by others. This gives those in the movement the opportunity to focus on what it considers to be the core practices of Christian spirituality.
Simple
A simple church may meet anywhere; with or without trained leaders, formal liturgy, programmes or structures. To facilitate relationship, discipleship (spiritual formation), multiplication, mobility, and member ownership, a simple church is usually a small group of no more than 20-25 persons. Church "programs" are virtually nonexistent and small group participation is essential. The process of moving from worship to small group, small group to mission work, and mission work to worship is a primary focus. Authors Tony and Felicity Dale, founders of House2House Ministries, have promoted the term "simple church" in their book "Simply Church" (ISBN 0-9718040-1-X).
The term simple church is often used interchangeably with other terms like organic church, essential church, primitive church, bodylife, relational church, and micro-churchSome groups use other names for their groups, although they would consider themselves part of or related to the simple church phenomenon. A good example of this is Emerging Church Network's "authentic faith communities" or "emerging indigenous faith communities". Perhaps the most common synonym is house church, which has much more popular usage and predates the term simple church significantly.
Like the variations in 17th Century Swiss/German Mennonite immigrants to America, there are several branches based primarily, like the Mennonites, on who is speaking. Each speaker has developed his own following which, as successful, has grown and, as not, has died out. Each variation claims a greater truth and accuracy with the Biblical standard, in some cases resorting to name calling of other variational groups. The name simple church is defined by some as an opposite of institutional church. This definition looks at institutional church, makes changes, and names its variation based on the changes. The name simple church is defined by some as being based on the activities that they focus on, such as worship, group, mission, and back to worship, as in a cycle. The name simple church is defined by others as being based on where they meet. To illustrate, the scriptural admonition not to "forsake the assemble of yourselves…." can be translated differently leading to different results. For example, Biblical examples of an "assembly" could also be understood to be "hosting", as there were households that hosted visitors who gathered as followers of Jesus. This variation would require "hosting" as a social practice. The scripture would be better understood as not to "forsake the hosting of yourselves…." Hosting was illustrated by hosts who invited visitors to their house at which fellowship, meals, discussions, and "hanging out" occurred. No leadership mechanism, rites or rituals other than fellowship, meals, discussions, and hanging out are described. Hosting has the social effect of leveling the variations in social standing, spiritual development, and social standing. What a person was to be host varies from everyone being a host on a rotating basis (Amish for example meet every other week and rotate to a different member's home) on a rotating basis through the entire community (membership) list, to one or only a few people being hosts based on their social, economic, spiritual, or intellectual standing in their community. This pre-and post-modern variation of host variation holds that hosting develops maturity, decreases exploitation by power usurping leaders, and maximizes the development of "disciples" rather than "attendees". This variation is host dominated, visitor submissive. Defining "assembly" as a large group in a public place all facing a public speaker was the Apostle Paul's favorite style of social interaction. Those seeking to emulate Paul apply "assembly" in a way similar to "performances", so that the admonition encourages a few people to lead and a large people to follow the leader in the performance. The modern church's performance show oriented variation holds this view, as do simple churches who have leaders who want to follow this variation. This variation is leader dominated/follower submissive. The development of variations was facilitated by the various spokesmen promoting their preferred variation rather than an intellectual progression of thought from a group of intellectuals. As a result, there is no intellectually oriented definition but a social-structure oriented definition with variations based on leadership/followership models.
Origins and influences
Sociologically speaking, simple church could be seen as a subset of Emerging church (although many in the simple church movement would not see themselves as part of emerging church), a phenomenon rising from the conversation between Christianity and the culture and worldview of postmodernism. Many in the emerging church movement would consider simple church to be represented in expressions such as house church and unique gatherings like Church in a pub.
The Ohio "Spin"
http://www.simplechurchathome.com/PDF&PowerPoint/VisitorNovember2009.pdf
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Last Updated on Monday, 21 December 2009 09:58 |
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Can We Learn From Other Christians? |
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Written by Editor
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Thursday, 19 November 2009 11:56 |
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Can We Learn from Other Christians?
by Loren Seibold
Ohio's Conference on Innovation exposes pastors and church leaders to creative ideas from the wider Christian and business world—which has been troubling to some church members
A couple of weeks ago I attended the fifth annual Innovation Conference (IC5), in Columbus, OH. I've been to four of the five conferences, and to my mind, this one was the best. Suzy Welch, wife of GE's Neutron Jack, was the main event, but I especially appreciated Michael Lindsay presentation about the faith of people in the halls of power, and Samir Selmanovic, who has a knack for refreshing familiar faith concepts by turning them upside down and inside out.
I always go away from the 1C realizing how confined the scope of my thinking. The church (this4s probably true of any group of which one is long and deeply a part) encloses us in itself such that we have a hard time seeing anything except through its portholes. The Innovation Conference jars me out of that. It is analogous to the effect that foreign travel has on one's cultural biases.
The innovator behind the 1C is Raj Attiken. president of the Ohio Conference. If you ask Raj why he's doing this, he'll point to the stagnating North American church, to the thousands of smug little congregations marinating in the certainty of their truth—even as their children leave, the patriarchs and matriarchs die off, and the communities around them (if they know Adventists exist at all) think of them as a benign little cult.
The critics' complaint seems to be that Raj has invited speakers who aren't Seventh-day Adventists, some of whose opinions and ideas may be quite different from, and in some particulars in opposition to, ours. (Because Raj anticipated that the 1C could be seen by some as threatening, he has been careful to find independent funding so no one can say he's used tithes and offerings for something they may not approve of.)
Some did make it their mission to stir up a controversy. Vance Ferrell seems always to show up in these kinds of discussions, and Pastor J. Alien Fine agitates from Looneyville, WV. Although the Ohio Conference generally seems to like its conference president, a local anti-IC (and anti-Raj) website popped up called Truth-Watch, though it doesn't name most of its contributors.
These Adventist critics get some of their ammunition against 1C speakers like Leonard Sweet and Doug Pagitt from other Christian websites, especially LighthouseTrails Research Project, (which draws a bead on Leonard Sweet and Rick Warren, especially) and Christian Research Project.
We Adventists have some profound truths as a movement and some lovely qualities as a people. At our best, we are kind and gracious people, with strong ties and sincere hearts. The dark side of our collective personality, though, is a tendency toward paranoia. We not only fear conspiracies against our Adventist truths, we expect them, and search for them, especially among ourselves. And what we search for, we inevitably find. How often I've been reminded by a critical member that the brightest lights will go out, and that in the end, "Men of talent and pleasing address, who once rejoiced in the truth, employ their powers to deceive and mislead souls."
The critics found a big target in Leland Kaiser and his team, who keynoted IC1 and IC2. The Kaisers are Seventh-day Adventists, and cutting edge consultants to the hospital industry. "Cutting edge" is key here, because people like the Kaisers are intellectually adventurous, spewing out new ideas and metaphors without a lot of thought for where they'll land. Both the Kaisers and Leonard Sweet are at once exciting and bewildering to listen to, because they think and speak so quickly, and their thoughts range widely. One sometimes suspects that they're speaking experimentally, trying out ideas on you, suggesting things they know will make the audience uncomfortable. And they succeed.
I have this much sympathy for the critics: it is true they can find phrases in the flow of talk from people like the Kaisers and Leonard Sweet that, especially if divorced from the context, confirm the fears they were already nursing. The Kaisers will occasionally refer to some of the new-agey-sounding management ideas popular in business, leading people like Ferrell to refer to them, ludicrously, as "Adventist Spiritualists". I would be, and am, more cautious than the Kaisers are—but I'm an Adventist pastor, not a change consultant. It isn't the nature of creative, cutting edge people to be cautious, and that's why we want to hear them. They think of things we haven't—and sometimes that can get a little edgy.
Still, the critics have not been entirely honest. You'd never know from what they write that most of the 1C presenters have been solid Christians (including some Seventh-day Adventist teachers and clergy) who are simply telling us how growing churches are growing, and what the demographic trends are. You'll only hear about the most criticizable presenters, and most of their quotes are so abstracted from context as to be misleading. Much of the criticism has nothing to do with what they said at the Innovation Conference at all, but are highly questionable speculations about the speakers' other associations, based on books or articles cursorily scanned for points that can be twisted into something damning.
The assumption seems to be that because we've invited these speakers we therefore accept and endorse everything they say. That's nonsense. I've found some fantastic stuff at every 1C, some that doesn't do much for me, and some outright baloney, I've no trouble sorting it out. And in the end I get more benefit from the barrage of creativity than I am bothered by what I disagree with.
How much dare we interact with the world "out there"? In the Old Testament, God warns
about blending with the natives of the land and adopting their ways. The central figures of
the New Testament, Jesus and Paul, seem to take a more offensive stance: go out and
meet others, get in their faces, be kind to them, live with them, talk with them, and
convert them. Paul doesn't ask us to bury our heads in the sand, but to test all things and
keep what is good, and he draws kindly but somewhat condescending comparisons
between weak Christians, who can't tolerate seeing anything with which they disagree,
|and strong Christians, who can.
And what about cooperation in Christian ministry with other Christians? Jesus once told his disciples that some local competitors—complete strangers—casting out demons in His name were not enemies but allies.
In the end, though, this is probably not a disagreement we'll resolve by argument. It goes
much deeper. Some Adventists feel very vulnerable to possible error, and are deeply,
sincerely frightened by the danger it presents to them and their church. It would be nice,
!'though, if they could disagree without so much bile—it is this, not the content of their
complaints, that enervates the church even while it seems to energize them.
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Truth-Watch Purpose Statement |
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Written by Editor
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Thursday, 19 November 2009 11:21 |
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Reposted: A Letter to the Reader:
The purpose statement of Truth-Watch is being reposted in light of recent comments:
…”Although the Ohio Conference seems to like its conference president, a local anti-IC, anti-Raj website popped up, which conceals the identity of many of its contributors.” [http://www.spectrummagazine.org/node/1923]
We are asking YOU, brothers and sisters, to research for yourself to determine what change is taking place within the Seventh-day-Adventist Church and not to take our word for it. We would entreat you to be good Bereans and examine the scriptures everyday to determine if what your pastors are promoting is in harmony with Biblical truth (Acts 17:11). If they speak not according to this word, there is no light in them. John 11:10
The coming of the Lord is closer than soon, and we are very concerned that His bride will be ready to meet Him. 2 Thessalonians 2: 8-10 tells us that Satan will work with power, signs, and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. . . As watchmen on the wall (Ezekiel 33:1-11), we are compelled to warn you of non-Biblical ideas and methods that have captured the attention of much of the Christian church at large and now have active proponents within the Seventh-day Adventist Church too. These ideas and methods include (among others) the Emerging Church Movement, Pantheism, Mysticism, and grace without accountability. The National Conference on Innovation sponsored by the Ohio Conference has since 2005 featured a variety of speakers who, through the context of “innovation” support New Age Mysticism and Inter Faith Spirituality.
The hour is very late; there is no time to waste. Satan will slowly and imperceptibly deceive us if we are not praying and staying in our Bibles regularly. He is our enemy, not our brothers and sisters. Please intercede for our churches and our leaders and ask the Lord to give you discernment. Pray earnestly for a love of the truth to be joined with love for each other. The time has come to heed the call to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”
Jude 4
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Last Updated on Saturday, 12 December 2009 06:52 |
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More on Samir's Liberal Theology |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 08 September 2009 17:49 |
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Emergent Old Fashioned Liberalism
By Bob Dewaay
A just published book entitled An Emergent Manifesto of Hope edited by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones contains 25 essays written by various leaders in the Emergent “conversation.” Pagitt and Jones provide introductions to the various sections of the book. As difficult as it has been to pin down this movement theologically, this book erases any doubts about the key unifying theological perspective of the movement—theological liberalism. It also makes clear thow they see largely as the enemy—evangelicals who consider the Bible ineerrant and who preach from it authoritatively. ”
…One of the most egregious examples of theological liberalism found in the book (An Emergent Manifesto of Hope) is in an essay entitled “The Sweet Problem of Inclusiveness – Finding our God in the Other” by Samir Selmanovic. His inclusive view was made famous by Roman Catholic theologian Karl Rahner. * It is called “anonymous Christianity” and is footnoted by Selmanovic. To illustrate his belief, Selmanovic tells of a tribal chief, Chomina, who refused to convert to Christianity as he was dying because he thought doing so would separate him from his people. Here is how this decision was interpreted by Selmanovic. “Moved by the Holy Spirit, people like Chomina reject the idea of allegiance to the name of Christ and, instead, want to be like him and thus accept him at a deeper level. He claims, “But Christianity’s idea that other religions cannot be God’s carrier of grace and truth casts a large shadow over our Christian experience.” The Holy Spirit, according to the Bible, testifies of Christ (John 16:26). The Spirit doesn’t lead people to reject the person and work of Christ as defined in the Bible so that people can somehow ontologically meet “Christ” through other religions, as the inclusivists like Rahner and Selmanovic claim. States Selmanovic, “The godliness of non-Christians is not an anomaly in our theology.” Our response to this is simple: The Bible warns about those having a form of godliness but denying its power (2 Timothy 3:5)
For more:
http://cicministry.org/commentary/worldview0022.pdf |
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A Post Christian Treatise? |
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Written by Editor
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Saturday, 22 August 2009 22:21 |
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In anticipation of Samir Selmanovic's return to the 2009 National Innovation Conference, we re-visit his theology and philosophy as presented to the”Conference” in 2006. From his not so subtle disdain for the Christian religion ..to his foray into the occult; From his native attraction to the “gods” of all religions (inclusive of atheism) and his desire for the Kingdom of God to be built upon the foundation of Inter Faith Spirituality…please consider prayerfully.
Thought Questions:
How many straw men do you identify in this presentation?
What is the predominant view that is offered? Pro-Christian, Post Christian, or Anti-Christian?
For more on Semir's “Innovation” (or should we say, reckless and radical experimentation) visit:
http://samirselmanovic.typepad.com/
Devotional: Semir Selmanovic
Presented at National Innovation Conference, 2006
(Emphasis added)
Hello friends, I was thinking today to share something from Paul; … I know that many of you don’t have your Bibles here, but it’s a familiar text. You’ve probably heard it many times. This is Paul when he is in Athens and is addressing the philosophers…
“For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; "for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: "God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. "Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, "so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; "for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.' Acts 17:21-28;
This is God’s Word. Well I was gonna bring a topic today and I hope you are all feeling refreshed, and have (had) your second breakfast. Have you had your second breakfast? Like hobbits who come and go there for (a) second time?
I would like to pose a question that has been on their minds the, and is on our minds today. In the first century church people were saying we are part of (a) Jewish subculture and we don’t know how to talk about Christ and or how to experience with “non-Jews”. They were puzzled; They were saying, we are part of this Jewish “thing”; And now we need to bring that Jewish “thing” out and we don’t know how to talk to people about God or experience God with people who are not Jews.
Today, (the) problem of (the) 21st century church is we are part of (a) Christian subculture and we don’t know how to talk about Christ or how to experience God with non-Christians. We are part of this “Christian thing” and there is a gap between us and the world; And how are we going to talk to people about Christ and how are we going to experience God with people who are non-Christians?
It’s a big dilemma; We are…we have two worlds; We have a world within a world. It’s a whole subculture which is Christian; And perhaps within that subculture there is Adventist subculture. And within that Adventist subculture there is a liberal Adventist subculture and a conservative subculture so we don’t know how to bridge those worlds.
When I became a Christian; When I decided to follow Christ. It was a big family tragedy. My father comes from Muslim background and my mom (was) from (a) Catholic (tradition); And we grew up in a Socialist country where we were atheists; And we didn’t believe any of it; And we believed every (all?) of it; And we ate pig for Christmas and for Ramidan we would eat lamb without ever fasting for a day…you know…we did whatever we want. We only felt we needed (a) Jewish family to add some zestfulness to our life…so we can dance together (laughter)…and when I became a Christian the roof of the house caved in. It was a tragedy, and so they shuffled fifty relatives through my home, trying to convince me to leave this thing of faith; And they brought me to (a) famous European Psychiatrist, you know…I spent some time with him and it didn’t help…and then (laughter) I want(ed) to baptize him (laughter)...I opened Daniel…to him and showed him what he needs to know…(laughter)… my mom was on medication because of her stress and two months of agony for all.
This was really painful time for our family. And as a last resort, they turned to a religious person; They invited Imam, Mohammed to talk to me; Perhaps to steer me to the better of two evils…to Islam instead of Christianity. …He was a wise and kind man…he was a vegetarian like me… he would walk…he wouldn’t use transportation because he was environmentally aware…and he would walk and be a vegetarian….quite an interesting person. So he came to our home and… I was exhausted you know….when Mohammed entered I felt scared…what is gonna happen with this? (He was) there… from morning 8 o’clock til 11 o clock in evening; There (were) talks….almost like brain washing going on and I stood my ground…and when he came I felt safe in his presence. He came in and he kindly asked my parents to leave …then he set down and he allowed me time to rest from (these) conversations. Then he came to me…walked with his hand in mine…and sat next to me …and told me, “I am so glad you are a believer…and that was it. There was unmistakable gladness in his voice. You know, we stood up and we embraced each other and then he invited my parents, he called them the “red ones”…the socialists I mean…(laughter) you know he got em in…and when he left, I told them what had happened and then from then on, they called him “crazy Mohammed”…(laughter) you know…like he sacrificed his standing in the community for me. You know, wise men called crazy….betrayed him but you know…in order to support me. And that’s how Mohammed blessed me. And I don’t know if I would be a Christian today if Mohammed didn’t bless me?
In our Re-Church conference in New York we had an event, we called it “Testimonies of Failure” where we brought people… 6 pastors who would …tell how they failed the ministry. They would stand up, they say how they failed...but then God delivered a miracle?…but then I was blessed anyway?…..No! Just stand up and say how miserable we are and sit down (laughter) OK? No excuses here. Things don’t work all ways…you know? And so we had that event and I wanted somebody to really bless this group of people…these “losers”.., ahh to bless them..(laughter). And so eight months before … it was Christmas time and I was preaching a sermon “The Magic of Christianity” and there was a women, her name is Sue and she was a member of a Wiccan religion…she was a witch…and she was cold outside and the doors of the church were open so she came in to warm up and to see “Magic in Christianity” in one word was irresistible to her. So she came in and we became friends and we saw “Lord Of The Rings” movie and we talked about gods and elves and angels…and so I decided, I’m gonna invite Sue to bless these “loosers”...(laughter) you know? So I asked her, why don’t you come; We have this big event on Saturday morning and you come and bless them.. (She said) “yes if I can pray to God as a mother”. I said, Sue, I know that’s an issue…masculinity and Christianity be(ing) obsessed with masculine…you know. But it’s not the time to do that…it’s the time to encourage people; (She said) Well, I’ll do it if pray to God as “holy spirit”. I said “wonderful”…”deal”. So she came and with kindness in her eyes and boldness in her voice she approached the pulpit and said. “Dear holy spirit, I’m not a Christian, but I and my little son are cared for in this church. One day I might become a believer...these pastors are worn out in their service …and they’re doing good for people…what would the world be without them? Please make them see how important their work is. May they walk on so that people like me can find their way too.”
Now if you have never been blessed by a witch, you have missed a lot…(laughter)…”THANK YOU JESUS!! There are moments in our life when the holy spirit re-starts our hearts; And, for me this was one of those moments. A hush fell over the crowd and her words lingered in the air like wonderful “eden scent”. We were hoping if we just stayed quiet there would be more words like that. We were basking in the faith, hope, and love of this pagan woman. Interceding to our God on our behalf. Do you have experiences like this? (Laughter) do you ever discover “our God” in the “other”?
You see, every generation of Christians has a problem with the Christianity of the day. Because, God places holy discontent in every generation. And for our postmodern and post colonial generation the holy discontent is not the flaws of Christian leaders or the dysfunction of Christian institutions, as flawed and as dysfunctional as they may be. (Because) we have realized they are broken; But we are broken too. So we’ll be broken and glorious together. And as we have compassion for the organizations and leaders; we have compassion for ourselves. And so we realize that. Our discontent is with Christianity itself. Christianity has become a “Christ management system”…managing God. People like Sue and Mohammed leave us wondering whether Christ can be more than Christianity. Something that Christianity has to submit to and serve; Something that supersedes Christianity in scope and depth and expression.
Let me put some questions out;
Does grace permeate all of reality or is it something that is alive only for those who possess the New Testament in the Christian tradition?
Is Christ an expression of what is everywhere, at all times, or has the “Christ event” emptied most of the world and time of saving grace and deposited it into our religion?
Our question is, how can we have a genuine conversation about Christ with non Christians if we believe that they can not know anything about Christ apart from us. How can we have a conversation if we are always teachers and they are always learners? There is no genuine conversation that way. How can we experience God with non Christians if we believe that God withholds genuine experience of himself form everyone else but Christians? There must be a way that people know about Christ and know about God the way we don’t.
And therefore, we have a two way relationship with them; A sacred relationship with people; And without believing they have something to offer to us, there is no relationship like that. Questions that seek to differentiate between Christ and Christianity seem less and less absurd than they used to. And the more you read the Bible the more these questions become relevant. New Testament talks about Kingdom of God 250 times. Jesus never proclaimed “Christianity is arriving, join it”. He said, Kingdom of God is here, enter it. And there is a big difference between the two. The ultimate invitation we have is for people to enter, not our denomination or our religion, but to enter the kingdom of God. (amen)
Can Christianity be an idol? Well the bible says that anything that is not God is a “non-god” and every “non-god” can be an idol. Idols were items, forces or concepts with one common characteristic. They could be manipulated by humans. And idols were mechanisms of managing God. And the reason why God opposed idols was that God did not want to be manipulated or managed; Because he was sovereign. So can Christian religion itself become an idol? An exercise in “god-management” and therefore of “god-avoidance”? I suppose we can say “no”. Christianity, true Christianity cannot be an idol…true Christianity. But there is no such a thing and there will never be pure, true Christianity…some platonic ideal of religion.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 September 2009 18:15 |
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