Doug’s well known for his role in Solomon’s Porch, a ‘holistic missional Christian community’ in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He’s one of the founders of Emergent Village, a social network of Christian leaders based in the United States.
A Christianity Worth Believing is a solid introduction to theology in development, carefully crafted with story, personal reflection and quotes from the Bible, the creeds and Protestant confessions. Pagitt begins the whole book with the story of his family background (explaining his need to stir) and his conversion. It’s the conversion story that sets up the tension that runs through the book. Deeply moved by his experience of a gospel play, a sixteen year old Doug responds with a life changing faith. But within two weeks the guy’s been introduced to the narrow version of Christianity contained in brochures, diagrams and statements of faith focused on Jesus dying to deal with sin so that God can connect with Doug.
Doug takes us on a journey with him as he reimagines what Christianity might be about. He introduces us to contextualisation through the Celtic adoption of the wild goose when talking about the Holy Spirit (rather than the traditional dove). He traces the modern obsession with uniformity back to the Greco-Roman adoption of Christianity in the time of Constantine. Today, he says, we’re still interpreting the story of Jesus through the lenses developed for a world dominated by Greek dualism and gods that needed to be appeased.
I like the way Doug writes about the Scriptures. “It’s in the way that you use it”, he says. Why is it, he asks, that the inerrancy concept is hauled out when we talk about certain emotive issues such as homosexuality but is abandoned when discussing other critical matters? When Paul talked about the Word of God being a sword did he really mean for us to use it as a weapon in our efforts to show that we are right and others are wrong? Doug is inviting his readers to think, really think, about the way they read the Bible, not as a one-dimensional instruction book, but as a resource that brings meaning and inspiration to us at different times and places.
Doug challenges us to take another look at what our focus is about. Is it about getting up and out of here, off to heaven, or out of the world into a safe place? Is that what God is about? Or is it about being down and in, thoroughly integrating faith with every part of our lives in a way that leads to being embedded in our communities? Do we take the incarnation (in the flesh) of Jesus seriously enough that we put it into practice ourselves?
Doug takes a crack at the atonement debate by beginning with the concept of original sin brought into mainstream theology by Augustine of Hippo in the fourth century. He suggests that the new Christendom model needed a compelling reason for citizens to turn up at the church. What better than to say that everyone was totally depraved and heading for hell without the intervention of Jesus, and of course the church as agents of Jesus? As Doug points out, even those who talk about original sin find it difficult to reconcile that approach when visiting maternity wards.
So is Doug a wishy washy theologian who now believes that Jesus was just a nice guy who had some useful things to say about life? Doug doesn’t think so. He admits that he’s had to do some hard thinking about alternatives to the penal substitution (Jesus died to take the punishment meant for us) explanation of Jesus’ life and death. He does this in the book by going back to the Jewish roots of Jesus, exploring the Hebrew concept of Messiah in contrast to the Greek understanding of Christ. Jesus is the fulfilment of what people are meant to do and be (The Human One or Son of Man). But more.
The final chapters deal with our historical obsession with heaven. Once again Doug grounds Jesus’ teaching on the kingdom of God in the Jewish concept of integration of all life together, here and now. He suggests that the Jewish scriptures don’t point too much to the future. In some ways I disagree. The Apocalyptic writings, and some of Jesus’ teaching, do indicate an interest in the long term future of the world. However we’d be hard pressed to find much in the Bible that focuses on what happens to us as individuals after we die.
Doug’s final chapter on future hope and heaven in some ways was a disappointing end to the book. It was like a chapter in progress, not as fine tuned as the earlier work. But maybe that’s a useful framework in itself. Doug’s presenting us with where he’s at now, recognising that he’s still exploring. As the father of a little girl who died at 18 months, I resonate with the story Doug tells in this section. I have a confidence that as we finish in this dimension we are held by God. But I’m not preparing for an ethereal bodiless stint in the heavenly choir.
Doug often refers to the Greeks as the ones who have given us the narrow faith perspectives we have today. I wonder what his Greek friends think of that! The reality is that society has moved along a little since the time of Augustine (as have the Greeks) but still is informed by some of the frameworks established then. The whole modernism/postmodernism phenomenon is in some ways an expression of a society that is critiquing the assumptions provided by those frameworks.
I imagine that A Christianity Worth Believing will be a useful tool for people wanting an alternative to the pre-packaged fundamentalism they’ve encountered in the church, not only in books but in the preaching, songs and explanations of what it means to become a Christian. I’d be interested in seeing or even developing a discussion guide for people talking through the book as they read it. Doug has a Facebook group set up for this purpose.
However I am sure that A Christianity Worth Believing will also become one more weapon in the ongoing culture wars of the church. The book will be quoted as evidence that Emergent and anyone associated with the emerging church really have gone off the rails and become liberals (read apostate). Those who take all their cues from the Westminster Confession will be thoroughly cheesed off by the number of times Pagitt points to the distortions found within. However many Presbyterians will be in total agreement with Doug! It was for this very reason that the Free Church of Scotland in 1892 passed the Declaratory Act.
Final thought. As much as Doug’s book is about belief, I get the sense that he’s presenting us with a Christianity worth living and worth sharing.
Tony Jones, national director of Emergent in the USA, has started up a video series on YouTube, featuring some of the people and thinking found in his book, “The New Christians”. The first features Trucker Frank, a guy who tells it like it is. Frank discovered that Jesus focused on what we do now rather than life after death. Frank got kicked out of the church he was pastoring for talking to the people who had left. The act that tipped the scales was throwing down a fake plant, in its pot, and telling the remnant that they were as fake as that plant…
Being a prophet is an exciting calling but it’s hard to find people who will pay you to live it out.
Tony will be in Australia in October, for Black Stump Festival in Sydney. We’re in conversation about the possibility of a visit to Queensland.
This was the video that got Steve and Kathy banned from GodTube. The senior pastors of World Revival Church of Kansas City (formerly The Smithton Outpouring) have cut out a niche in spoofing the excesses or potential hypocrisies of the Christian churches in the United States. Of course, now that their work is booming on YouTube, the couple themselves are vulnerable to the same ego-related excesses faced by any high profile speakers and writers.
Rob Bell is author of Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith, and Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality And Spirituality. He’s known for his tours of the United States: Everything is Spiritual, and The God’s Aren’t Angry.
I spent Saturday and Sunday afternoons of the Forge Grassroots Festival based at the UCA Hub in Little Collins Street, Melbourne. Cheryl Lawrie (of [hold :: this space]) (right below), Sam Charlesworth (middle) and Blythe Toll (left below) worked with a team to transform a corporate car park into Holy Ground : : Holy City. I was there to talk with interested people about alternatives to standard models of worship - a conversation deeply enhanced by the environment in which we met.
The burning bush/sacred ground experience of Moses was juxtaposed with the glimpses of God’s redeeming, transforming, hope-giving presence in the cities. iPods hanging from the ceiling showed video clips of the Tianenmen Square protester, the monks protests in Burma, and the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Around the walls and ceilings were projected films and photographs of pedestrian traffic in Melbourne. This was an invitation to explore the small clues to life, including the nature of concrete, cigarette butts and shoes.
In the middle was a space surrounded by security tape, with the words “Do Not Enter”, alongside phrases connecting the sacred ground experience of Moses with our experience.
Out on the wall outside was a chalk outline of the cityscape, with the words “New Earth”, and the invitation to dream of a future life for the city.
It’s now Day Two for the Forge Grassroots Mission Festival in Melbourne. Somewhere around 350 to 400 people have gathered from around Australia to catch up with each other and keep the cutting edge of the missional church movement sharp.
Al Hirsch was in full swing on Thursday, providing a bonus day of input for Forge interns and other interested visitors, talking through his book, The Forgotten Ways. Inspired by the early New Testament church experience, and that of the persecuted churches in China, Al talked about hallmarks of strong vital missional movements. Al spent a fair amount of time in the morning setting the scene for why the church needs to get its act together as incarnational and missional (being sent beyond itself). The afternoon was focused on developing common values, beliefs and practices expressed in practical ways.
Al reflected on the dangers of hierarchical approaches to church expressed in high views of ordination, and attempts to reproduce the Old Testament temple approach to worship. At the same time he expressed concern that ‘house church’ models were limited because they lacked the broadness of community found in the extended household models of the New Testament.
Al has spent the last year in the United States, on a speaking tour and working with leaders there. It was interesting to note his concern about the tendency of some emerging church leaders to lose a sense of confidence in the gospel. Moving past faith into doubt, Al suggested, would put the brakes on any sense of healthy movement. I’m not sure I agree with Al here. Yes, when we stop standing for anything positive we often stop looking beyond ourselves. But there is a season for reassessing and deconstructing before redeveloping expressions of faith that can be held with integrity and passion.
More to Come
It’s not too late to turn up at the Forge conference - at 488 Swanston Street, Carlton, Melbourne. I’ll be taking workshops in the afternoon on ‘post liturgical, post charismatic, post alt worship’, working with Cheryl Lawrie in the basement car park of the Uniting Church Centre, 380 Little Collins Street, 1.30 - 4.30 pm, Saturday and Sunday. Cheryl and team have set up a ’sacred space’ art installation with a focus on life in the city. In the same space Adrian Greenwood and the Praxis team have set up a cafe and exhibit focusing on ending sex traffic.
Tony Jones has published “The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier”, an insider set of observations on the Emergent movement in the USA. (Jossey Bass)
Tony is the national coordinator of Emergent Village and is working on a doctorate in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He’s known for his earlier books, Postmodern Youth Ministry and The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life.
Leaving the Old Country
I found the first chapter a bit hard going, to tell the truth. Tony sets out to explain why there’s a need for an alternative to the mainline denominations (Episcopalian, United Methodist, United Church of Christ and Presbyterian), and Evangelical protestantism (the loosely aligned born again Christians who tend towards literal interpretation of the Bible, emphasise personal conversion to Christ). No mention of Catholics here. Maybe the USA is more polarised than here downunder but my experience of the Uniting Church in Australia and Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand is that the tension between left and right is found within those denominations. In smaller countries there’s more likelihood that people will have attended conferences together, perhaps trained together at Bible College, or served together in an interdenominational organisation such as Scripture Union.
I appreciate Tony’s first two ‘dispatches’ from the Emergent Frontier:
Dispatch 1: Emergents find little importance in the discrete differences between the various flavors of Christianity. Instead, they practice a generous orthodoxy that appreciates the contributions of all Christian movements.
Dispatch 2: Emergents reject the politics and theologies of left versus right. Seeing both sides as a remnant of modernity, they look forward to a more complex reality.
I’m reminded of the behaviour of my third child as a toddler. The older two had the seating arranged for television. Kristen found that she had to push them to the left and to the right to get a seat in the middle.
The reality is that our formative heritage biases us, despite our discomfort with blanket generalisation. And so the “liberals” throughout the book are described by Tony (who comes from a Congregational background) as people who are all required to conform to a politically correct orthodoxy combined with conservative traditional liturgical worship. Although I’m living a long way away, I don’t believe that the mainline churches can be summarised through the writings of authors such as Marcus Borg or Stanley Hauerwas.
I did enjoy the inclusion of the Jon Stewart episode on CNN’s Crossfire show - which I’ve written up on my Propaganda blog.
After Objectivity: Beautiful Truth
One of the common critiques of the Emerging Church movement is the perception that these postmodernists have rejected the concept of truth. Tony responds by saying that Emergents embrace the whole Bible, the glory and the pathos. Emergents believe that truth, like God, cannot be definitively articulated by finite human beings. Emergents embrace paradox, especially those that are core components of the Christian story.
I enjoyed Tony’s personal reflections on the art of umpiring baseball and the difficulty of ‘calling’ and ‘naming’ what is true. I appreciated his consideration of the story of Jepthah’s sacrifice of his daughter. It’s a messy situation that calls us to consider our responsibility for our actions and God’s presence in great suffering. I like what Tony has to say about the way in which Christians qualify the word ‘truth’ with ‘absolute’ and other such adjectives. What Tony’s saying here resounds with my experience of attending a range of congregations in which the
Inside the Emergent Church
There are some great stories told here, with honesty. We’re taken behind the scenes at Jacob’s Well in Kansas City, Missouri, Journey in Dallas, Texas, Church of the Apostles in Seattle, Washington, and Solomon’s Porch in South Minneapolis.
Tony introduces us to the diversity found in these groups, the openness to newcomers, the commitment to dialogue, experimentation, and also the vulnerability found in small start up groups. Will they last? Does it matter? Will these groups get past the tentative dialogue stages and harden into something more definable such as Mars Hill Church (with Mark Driscoll) in Seattle?
Wikichurch
This is a brilliant analogy for the way any movement forms. Tony talks about the Emergent belief that church should function more like an open-source network and less like a heirarchy or bureacracy. He writes about attempts to move out of the clergy-dominated meeting structures found in most churches and develop an ‘Open Access’ approach to dialogue.
Tony points to the way Wikipedia trusts the collective editorial community to weed out abberations or rogue entries. In the same way he beloieves that the collected people of God, in community with the Spirit, will stay on track and engage with God’s work in the world. Two painful test cases are the issues of homosexuality and women in ministry. Already Mark Driscoll has parted ways with the Emergent crowd, now that it is clear that the Emergent crowd disagree with his hardline approaches.
Tony writes about the need for sustainability in response to criticism that the Emergent churches are not growing fast enough or making enough disciples. He suggests that the messiness of new startup groups can be a good alternative to highly ‘efficient’ congregations in which people burn out or are dominated by egomaniac pastors. Fear of failure is what stops movements like this starting or progressing.
Tony’s epilogue suggests that Emergent Christians are a bit like the feral camels in Australia, once domesticated, but now out in the wilderness pushing over fences, occasionally returning to bother the establishment.
Thumbs up Tony!
If you’d like to discuss the book further join the Facebook Group, administered by Sue McMahon-Jones and Doug Pagitt.
Today’s Q Weekend magazine, an insert in Brisbane’s Courier Mail, features a story on house churches by Will Storr.
Will introduces readers to the house church movement through the eyes of Sarah Williams at Jahworks in Doveton, Melbourne (ex Salvation Army), Bessie Pereira, Oikos House Church Network, Dave Andrews at Waiters Union, members of Pacific Parks Uniting on the Gold Coast, Pathway in Brisbane, and a group meeting in Cloncurry. There’s a photograph from one of the Coomera Baptist house churches on the Gold Coast.
Will sums up the house church movement with the common hallmarks of being decentralised, self-funded and unadvertised, meeting on a Sunday or Thursday, sitting in a circle, being leaderless, having a prickly dislike of preaching, a loose conversational program of worship usually involving a meal, considering their entire lives to be an act of “church”, and acts of charity and social justice to be an essential element of their Christianity. He says they’re often the subject of persecution from the inhabitants of what they like to call “pointy buildings”.
It’s a risky thing talking to a reporter knowing that only small parts of your conversation will end up in the article, sandwiched by fashion advertisements linked with the new David Jones store in Brisbane. The section of the article that focuses on our house group shows us as a group who focus on conversation, risking hints of heresy and intimate enough to reveal deep hurts and differences. Suggesting that I started the group as part of my Vision for Mission investigation into new forms of worship doesn’t quite do justice to the team with whom Ennis and I are working. For some of us, we are able to express our membership of the Uniting Church in the house church setting. It’s not an either/or situation.
The Waiters Union is described as Dave Andrews’ house church - which again over simplifies a network of people who wouldn’t fit into the house church framework.
‘Houses of the holy’ is a colourful article, with vivid stories, a critique of institutional Christianity since Constantine, showing awareness of the diversity found in the house church movement. Will, a freelance writer from the UK, is known for his book, Will Storr versus The Supernatural, a John Safran-style exploration of the ghost busting industry. Photography is by Russell Shakespeare, on the Gold Coast.
At the Emergent Gathering in Santa Fe last week a group of parents discovered a common interest in exploring alternatives to traditional approaches to ‘Christian parenting’. Following this up Julie Clawson has launched a new blog, Emerging Parents.
Julie explains that she’s had a very hard time finding people to discuss alternative parenting with, much less learn from their experiences. The few she’s found have not been involved in Christianity. She’s interested in a conversation that wrestles with models of spiritual formation of children outside of the assumed model of Sunday School or AWANA. The blog is designed to help men and women explore holistic parenting ideas, discussing how we can follow Christ as parents, integrating our emerging faith and practices in with how we raise our kids.
Steve Drinkall in Brisbane has launched Postcard Radio, a podcast site focusing on emerging missional church in Queensland, sponsored by the Churches of Christ, Queensland Baptists and Uniting Church in Australia.
Postcard Radio is committed to discovering and interviewing those brave souls who are finding innovative new ways to communicate an old message. All of the people interviewed on the site live, serve, work and play in South East Queensland and all have a passion for helping ordinary Australians connect with the person of Jesus.
I’m one of the first three interviewees, along with two Baptists…
Billy Williams is serving and reaching urban aboriginal people in Brisbane’s northern suburbs. As the founders and leaders of Dhiiyaan , Billy and his wife are reinventing what it means to be the church at a park on any Sunday afternoon.
Mick Cross, youth pastor at Reedy Creek Baptist on the Gold Coast, has taken the challenge of multiplication seriously in his youth ministry. He has restructured everyone into “Tribes” and allowed student interests to dominate where they meet, what they do and who will lead them.
Some of the ideas here are small, some are large. Some involve thousands of people, some involve just a handful. Some require lots of resources and some are completely free. We hope that these stories and ideas will create a new movement of innovation in living and sharing the message of Jesus with people in our region. Tune in, switch your brain on and imagine what else we could do…
Stewart and Susan Harris, members of the Forge missional training network in Brisbane, are starting a missional church in the context of Brisbane’s Central Railway Station. Here’s the text from an article recently printed in the Queensland Baptist Magazine…
What is Central?
Central will be a group of Christian ‘City Dwellers’ (people who work in or live in or near the City) forming a church community that will be intentionally shaped by the mission of Jesus. Central will meet on Tuesdays @ 5:30pm in the Dining Car of the Grand Central Hotel (Ann St, opposite the Shrine of Remembrance).
Why meet at Central Railway Station?
Simple answer: because there are lots of people there! It’s going to be great doing church right there in the flow of city life! Our long term goal is to make Jesus and His church more accessible to the average person. Initially a core group will meet to renew their commitment to Christ’s mission. In time, our interested non Christian friends will be able to continue their search by coming along to Central with us.
What will happen at Central?
We will restructure our lives for mission by using Lifestyle – pray, standout, socialize, include, companion*, 5 clues to living mission. So a night might include investigating from the Bible how to live an attractive, distinctive Christian life, discussing a topic dominating culture, planning how to create meaningful social opportunities, praying for friends, learning how to engage people in conversations, discussing ways we can share the gospel in word and action. Most of the evangelism will happen through relationships in the flow of life, not in a building. (* Lifestyle developed by City North Baptist.)
Why meet on Tuesday’s?
First, it’s a good time for ‘City Dwellers’ to meet. People who work in the city can easily come to Central on their way home. Second, it will make some Sunday’s more available for meaningful socializing with non Christian friends. Third, it will be easier for curious ‘City Dwellers’ to access a church community.
If someone joins Central will they have to leave their church?
Yes and No. Central would become the core group’s church. But because we won’t meet on Sundays, people could continue their association with their local church. Central’s aim is to work in partnership with other churches that would release people who share Central’s focus.
Interested? Need more info? Contact Stewart & Susan Harris ssharris at tpg.com.au / 0401 762 121 and come along to an info night on Tuesday October 16, 23, 30.
Duncan Macleod posts on life, faith and culture in Australia, drawing from his involvement in the creative industry, the Uniting Church, the blogosphere, generational research, the emerging church and life on the Gold Coast.
A Christianity Worth Believing is a solid introduction to theology in development, carefully crafted with story, personal reflection and quotes from the Bible, the creeds and Protestant confessions. Pagitt begins the whole book with the story of his family background (explaining his need to stir) and his conversion. It’s the conversion story that sets up the tension that runs through the book. Deeply moved by his experience of a gospel play, a sixteen year old Doug responds with a life changing faith. But within two weeks the guy’s been introduced to the narrow version of Christianity contained in brochures, diagrams and statements of faith focused on Jesus dying to deal with sin so that God can connect with Doug.
Tony is the national coordinator of 
