Church Basement Roadshow

The Church Basement Roadshow is coming to Tulsa this Tuesday (July 15) at Braden Baptist Church at 7:00 pm.

The Roadshow appears to be a cross between a book tour and period theater for the three 'players' - Pagitt, Jones and Scandrette.

Everyone is welcome to join us to experience, share and connect. There's a $10 suggested donation.

Full Plate

Things that I need to give attention to this week:
- Riddle Group (working with 4 different churches this week)
- New Church (impossibly long list of things to do)
- Writing - (Editing the second book is underway)
- Emergent Cohort (organization of)
-Family Stuff
What am I forgetting?

how I measure up to emerging stereotypes

Tony Jones writes

"Every Monday, the right page of the USA Today OpEd page is on religion, and I’ve been wondering when they would publishing something about the emergent movement. Well, yesterday, they finally did. (HT Steve Knight on the EV Blog) It’s a good, hopeful article with lots of quotes from Rick McKinley, the pastor of Imago Dei in Portland (whom I admire).

But what really caught my eye was this paragraph:

Writer Scot McKnight, a supporter of the movement, says emergents are seen as “a latte-drinking, backpack-lugging, Birkenstock-wearing group of 21st-century, left-wing, hippie wannabes. Put directly, they are Democrats.”"

So I thought I'd see how I measure up.

Mark Riddle's Emerging Stereotype ScoreCard:

Latte Drinking - I don't drink lattes. I'm drinking more and more tea though.

Backpack lugging - Guilty. I carry a 5 year old backpack, but only because I can't afford another means to get my laptop around. I'd love a Timbuck2 messenger bag, but they are $150.

Birkenstock - Never owned a par of Birks.

Left Wing - uh.. no.

hippie wanna-be - uh no. I live in the suburbs for goodness sake.

Democrat - I've always been registered republican and have only voted democrat three times in my adult life.

Conclusion: I must not be an emergent according to this stereotype.

Wink

Insight from outside

I though this post from Don Johnson was excellent.

I've seen this kind of emerging snootiness before.
If you are a part of an emerging church and someone shows up in a suit, it's an opportunity to welcome them and show them grace. Otherwise you are living the exact opposite of what you've expereince when you show up at the church across the street in shorts.

Oh and by the way... if emerging church is about dressing cool then you are missing the point people.

Carlton Pearson at the Emergent Tulsa cohort

I'm still in Michigan and enjoying the cool weather and frequent lake visits. The beaches up here are soooo great. (By the way... the person house sitting has a concealed weapon permit)

We come home tomorrow just in time for the Emergent Village Cohort in Tulsa.
If you are in the area on Thursday feel free to stop by.

Carlton Pearson will be telling us his story and it will be followed by a discussion.

If you want a bit of background on Carlton you can go here for his story on NPR, here for his story on Dateline or here for his story on CNN.

Agora church
Thursday:
Show up at !0:00am we'll start at 10:30am.
We'll end at noon and then break for lunch.
We'll be going to the amazing Joe Momma's Pizza.

Emergent Village Tulsa Cohort on Facebook

Hi Gang, if you are in the Tulsa area and are interested in conversation about being a missional people in Tulsa, join the facebook group.

Here's the Link.

Double Loop Learning and the Emerging Church

The emerging church's is a good start on Double Loop learning.
Folks associated with the conversation are often very good at questioning the Governing Values / Variables of the church. However, they are not as good about building action and strategy around those governing values.

Viewing from afar Doug Pagitt seems to have intuitively been able to connect a new set of Governing Values to New Action / Practices.

For example, his book on Preaching is a questioning of what most people consider a a standard normal practice in church. Then he takes something of a new action in it's place.

In my experience most churches who call themselves emerging are simply changing the strategy /action plan, by adding the infamous coffee and candles for their emergent service. this is fine, but it's very different from what Doug is doing.

I'm really curious if I'm making sense?
This is applicable to all organizations by the way, not just churches.
What's clear? What's fuzzy? Do you even care about such things?

Emergent Malaysia

Sivin sent out this link today.

EmergentMalaysia.org

Myth #2 - The Search for the perfect church / model

I often disappoint myself. It seems my default for fixing problems is often to seek out the solution that will permanently fix the problem I'm facing. PERMANENTLY. Whether it be the program that is "just right" or a training rhythm for youth workers that equips them for success AND balances an appropriate use of their time. or just the right curriculum roadmap.

Regardless, my default setting, when facing something that is less than ideal, I want to make it perfect, for good. So that once I set in place a curriculum for 6-12 grades I don't ever want to have to look at it again. Maybe you don't have this problem. No. Problem isn't the right world... psychosis is the right word.

The driving underlying statement for me "If I can get to a certain point, it will be fixed."

What I'm still learning is that Youth Ministry and the church is always evolving. Always changing. Always rethinking itself. As I read the last two sentances I think "duh! no kidding riddle!" but I don't actually live like I believe this is true.

Humility is the key to great leadership in this regard. The drive to have the youth ministry or church that "isn't like the church or youth ministry down the street" or that is "different" is to approach ministry in arrogance.

Why? Because the model / church/ youth ministry you are seeking asylum from, running from, reacting against will be the oppressive model for someone else who is to come. In short, your solution will be someone elses problem.

This shouldn't keep you from trying new things, coming "over-against" as brueggeman says, but it should bring a strong dose of humility. Your program may actually solve a lot of problems for others, but it will not be perfect and it will need to evolve, change and one day die. Knowing this when you start something new, especially a new church, will save you some heartache in the future. It will keep you from having to guard and protect your model / church/ youth ministry in the future.

There is no perfect way to do church.

Therefore, church who learn to learn will be the churches who impact their world.

maybe more later... got go to a meeting.

Jay Bakker has a TV show

It's on the Sundance Channel, which I do not have. so I'm downloading the iTunes version and will watch it soon.

UPDATE:
I love this show, though I can't completely put into words why I do. I met Jay, (that is we shook hands once) a year or two ago in Marko's suite at YS convention in Atlanta. Karla Yaconelli had visited his church earlier in the evening and had relayed (with much enthusiasm) her experience at Revolution. Jay showed up later in the evening. There were a lot of people there that night and I spent most of my time with other folks, but I for some reason I feel connected to this guy. I want to see him thrive. Thrive is probably not the word. Success isn't it either. I guess, I just want good for Jay and his family. Perhaps it's the pastor in me, knowing his past.

Vulerability is the word that stands out to me.
The scenes that at the end of the episode in Wisconsin are amazing based are are completely and refreshingly build on the Jay's life.


Also. I think that his story connects to so many folks I bump into every week. Folks who are trying to rid themselves of the demons of their past. Trying to make sense of their parent's faith and life. Trying to find a way to do church that feels honest to them. And Finding a way to do all this and support their family.

AND. Did you notice Jay holding a copy of Mike Yaconelli's book Messy Spirituality at the beginning of the episode?

I'm looking forward to seeing more of this show.