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"How much of this the emerging conversation is about language, and how much about practice? I mean, when the average emerging church person goes to work, do they do anything differently than your typical Christian?"  a friend of mine recently asked.

"Boy, I hope so," I responded. I thought to myself — if there is no change in the daily lives of ordinary people, then this whole thing has been a huge waste of time. Thankfully, I do believe the life changes of emerging church Christians are significant.

I went on to describe a few of the changed practices of emerging church Christians (on their best days!). Because of an emphasis on Jesus and the kingdom, and the recognition that the sacred/secular split ought not exist, the perspective on workplace interaction changes dramatically (just as it does with the school, the neighborhood, the club, the pub, etc). Instead of a sole focus on individual evangelism with a possible invitation to church, the kingdom-minded person thinks within other categories. What would it look like if Jesus were here? What would it look like if the marginal voices here got a say in things? What would it look like if people were paid fairly for their work? What might it mean for our company if we made products or offered services that actually help people, actually resemble God’s goodness? What would it take to create an environment of creativity rather than control? The kingdom-minded agent would look to embody God’s reign both in their individual responsibilities and in the corporation as a whole. As an advocate on the inside, he or she would look to create alternatives to the dominating practices of that particular institution. By serving as such a prophetic example, other possibilities for action become viable options within the organization.

This is a proclamation of good news that knows no bounds between sacred and secular. Evangelism becomes an invitation for others to live in this redemptive way as well — to embody servanthood, hospitality, and freedom in contexts that are anything but. Jesus is our example of transforming culture from within. By living in such a way, we demonstrate that God is just as concerned with our body as with our spirit, with what we build as with what we think, and with our world as much as with our sanctuary. 

I remarked recently that I had attended a near lifeless traditional church. More recently, I attended a traditional service that was filled with life. What was the difference? It really came down to who got to play and who didn’t.

Taking my cues from the Alt Worship network in the UK, new forms of worship do not equate to candles and coffee, videos and tables, stations and art. Rather, it is about access and inclusion. Who was invited and empowered to create and participate in worship? Was worship from the people or from the experts? Was the door open for any to come and share in the worship planning and execution? Did the worship itself invite a bodily encounter between a person and God, thus facilitating an engaged form of worship?  Was there a deep sense that this is the people’s worship and represents our collective offering to God? Was worship from us, the average Jane and Joe in the congregation, or was it from the priests performing rites for us, to us, but not with us?

These are the primary contributions of Emerging Church worship, but that is not to say that it hasn’t existed in other movements and at other times. But I would say it is more explicit here than I have observed in other movements in the recent past.

I received joy and a deep sense of communal worship at that traditional service, as I witnessed young and old, men and women, representing various cultures and traditions, offering themselves up to God, in ways that made sense in their worlds. For me, it doesn’t get much better than this…

"My heart goes out to the Boomers,"  I muttered to myself, as I sat through a traditional service I visited recently. "They were raised with this stuff, and they ran away. I don’t blame them."

I’ve been pretty hard on the Boomers. They moved the church from the urban to the suburban, from the older church building to the suburban mega-complex, and they removed all symbols and rituals from worship and replaced them with praise choruses. What’s to like?

I’ve spent some time visiting some traditional denominations recently, and I have begun to develop some sympathy for the Boomers. These communities, upheld by the Silent Generation, participate in rituals that have lost their meaning. If meaning is what something is and does in the life of a community, then I see no meaning in these activities. In some of the places I’ve visited, these rituals were lifeless and unconnected to the rest of life. They did not communicate in the ‘real’ world at all, at least not in mine. This communion really does seem reduced to grape juice and bread. Bread of life? Not in that service!

So, maybe the Boomers did what they could in simply moving away from practices that no longer carried meaning.  They introduced rock and roll to church because none of the church music integrated their everyday life to God. They removed Communion because it was anything but that. They moved the church to the strip mall because that is where they lived. 
 
I constantly give credit to Emerging Churches for retrieving rituals and integrating them with popular culture — rooting the community in a tradition while fostering a contemporary vigor. The Eucharist, the Christian Calendar, Ignatian prayers, body prayers, the Jesus prayer, praying the hours, lectio divina, labyrinths, the use of icons, all have a home in Emerging Churches. The difference is that Emerging Churches integrate these rituals into their everyday lives, and these practices are now pregnant with meaning, both corporately and individually. But maybe Emerging Churches were able to do what they did because the Boomers cleared the way. Just maybe…

The booksigning last week was exhilarating. We had 140 in attendance — many people from outside the Fuller community, which was way cool…Eddie and I told the story behind Emerging Churches — how we had met, why we decided to write together, how we wrote the book probably four times because of our own starts and stops, how our ideas changed after we saw new communities form in the US in 2001 and 2002, etc. We then put up on the screen our definition of Emerging Churches: 

Emerging Churches are those who take the life of Jesus as a model way to live (one), who transform the secular realm (two), as they live highly communal lives (three). Because of these three activities, they welcome those who are outside (four), they share generously (five), they participate (six),  create (seven), they lead without control (eight), and function together in spiritual activities (nine). 

For the next hour, we opened it up for questions and then wrapped it up to let people get going home…

I love doing these events with Eddie because still, even after six years working together, our perspectives are so different. Eddie is an ordained Anglican, and I am a ‘lay’ non-denominational mutt. Eddie is English, I’m American; Eddie is retiring from faculty, I’ve just getting going; Eddie is top-down and organized, I am bottom-up and, er, creative.

I like teaming up with Eddie because If I don’t feel I can answer a question adequately, he is there to back me and up, and, hopefully vice-versa. All in all, a great night…

The link for the radio interview yesterday with Larry Mantle is the same I listed the day before. If you want to search this after next week, then you will need to go to the archives (at the same link) — the talk is listed as "Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures" and it is during the 2nd hour of March 2, 2006.

It was great to be on Airtalk — I’ve listened to Larry Mantle for years, and I’ve always been impressed with his ability to ask nuanced and fair questions regarding virtually any topic. He always seems to be an insider on any issue.

The learning curve for me was to create sound bite answers — a real challenge for me! I love to explain things (ad nauseum for some)! I like to nuance and refine. Not in a radio interview. I had to create a one or two sentence response to questions that I wanted at least five minutes to explain.

But it was really fun –  it was over before I knew it. My fifteen minutes of fame, come and gone!

Barclay Press, a publishing house serving the Friends Church (Quakers), asked me to host a discussion on Emerging Churches. So, during the month of March, I will be over at Barclay Press if you want to venture over and ask questions…

Two local events today:

I am being interviewed on Airtalk by Larry Mantle on the NPR local affiliate KPCC 89.3 FM from 11:30am to 12:00pm regarding the Emerging Churches book. You  should be able to hear this program in much of Southern California. They put up podcasts of their programs so I’ll post that link when they get it up.

Tonight, Eddie Gibbs and I will participate in a book-signing at Fuller at 7:00pm in Payton 101. We will be discussing how we came to write the book, give a brief overview, answer questions, and oh, and I guess sign some books.