"Now is de time vhen we reinvent de church!"
One of my favorite Saturday Night Live pieces ever was "Sprockets" with Mike Meyers. The whole Sprockets concept was a fun poke at trendy Europeans and their snooty views of the rest of the world. Some of the best quotes:
"You are beautiful and angular."
"You disturb me to the point of insanity. There. I am insane now."
"Now is the time on Sprockets vhen ve dance."
Dieter and his trendy European friends had a whole new way of looking at the world. It was hysterical, if not somewhat tragic. They say that comedy is just tragedy separated by time. Anyway.
This leads me to a very interesting article I came across recently, in this publication from Fuller Seminary.
Brian McClaren reminds me in some ways of Dieter; except without the snooty part. Oh, and he is not German either. He is known pretty much as "Mr. Emergent" - the coolest guy around in terms of understanding what is going on in the Emergent Church. He has a completely different view of what "doing church" means. Go ahead, read the article, I dare you.
Have we misunderstood the Good News?
Whoa baby! There is a conversation piece for your next Bible study. Brian notes that "we need to rethink our understanding of the gospel". My goodness, what has this young fella been smokin'? Perhaps the gospel is, as McClaren suggests, "a vision of what life can be in all its dimensions". Worth giving some thought to. Also, this fits nicely with what my friend Pastor Tod is talking about today.
Lets redefine what a disciple is!?
Ok, now I am getting bugged at this bearded guy. A disciple is someone who always attends the men's bible study, is a deacon, usher, helps with the kids puppet show at church, and wears appropriately matched trousers and sport coat for the Ladies auxiliary events, right?
Wait. What? No? McClaren says "evangelism becomes not the recruiting of refugees who seek to escape earth for heaven in a flight of spiritual self-interest, but rather the recruiting of revolutionaries who seek to bring the good and healing will of heaven to earth in all its crises." Wow. Revolutionaries!? You mean my pants don't have to match? And its alright if I don't attend the Deacon's lunch, if instead, I might be playing golf with my unsaved neighbor, or maybe even buying him coffee and talking about what life means?
More on all this.....soon.
5 comments:
I can see McLaren wearing a black turtleneck, though.
AMEN!!!!!!!
Hi Steve,
I think there is a certain amount of becoming who you are not for the sake of the Gospel and a certain amount of being who you are for the sake of the Gospel. There are some churches and people in those churches who could use a little sprucing up and there are some churches and people in those churches who could use a little loosening up.
It seems to me like there are way too many Pastors who are trying to be the next Chuck Swindoll, and way too few Pastors who realistically take a look at what their church is and where it needs to go.
How are your friends doing who joined the older church?
David:
Thanks for your thoughts.
I will post an update soon.
Hey Steve, thanks for pointing out the link to the Mclaren article...as I wrote over at Tod's blog, Mclaren and a few other authors were very meaningful to me, especially at helping me end a long and difficult multi-year stretch of being "church homeless."
BTW, I ended up here...pastored by Rebecca Mcsparren...A place trying very hard to be like a "hive of Christianity" that Brian mentions...
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