NASHVILLE COHORT GATHERING LAST THUR.

If you didn't make it to the Nashville Cohort gathering last Thur, you were missed. We had a great turnout for lunch and conversation.

The topic this month was "Worship" and it was quite the discussion. Here's a recap from Taylor Burton Edwards of Emergent Methodist:

There were maybe 12 or so of us there today-- including a "recovering" Willow Creek staffer, a guy who's ended up having a Bible study meeting gathering in his home, another guy who is a poet/writer and erstwhile home church pastor (with 15 people 7 of whom are children under the age of 13), a youth/young adult pastor at a local Episcopal Church, a volunteer from that ministry, and another guy who was interested in the overall topic. In all about 4 of us were newcomers to the group today. We also had a special guest from Kiev, Ukraine-- a guy named Paul Thorson who's planting a church there, and who has just published a book called Painting in the Dark -- all of us there today got free copies. And yes, it was all guys today... I think this is a real challenge point for the whole emerging thing, to what degree it really represents male only leadership, even if it is not intentional, but that's another story.

Today's topic-- worship...

The conversation was rather free-form, and I think everyone contributed along the way. I think we came to a few common affirmations, though I don't think that was the point of what we were doing...
a) Worship is fundamentally corporate... worship itself is an act of a communal body.
b) Christian worship is primarily responsive more than generative... that is, in our worship we respond to what God has done for us and through us more than we try to "gin up" something we offer to get God's attention or even to offer a pleasing sacrifice to God.
c) Christian worship is relational-- God isn't the object, but the subject (the Thou, in Buber's terms, not the It) of our action, and we are certainly not the object either. Not even of God. We're all in this together.
d) God may not need for there to be a presider-- someone whose role is to help "conduct" the giftedness of the people in an orderly and profound way-- but we probably do.

We were of several minds on talking about whether worship and prayer are the same thing... my own tilt is that they're not... that prayerfulness or attentiveness to the presence of God in all things is something we may well strive to do individually at all times, but that's not the same thing, per se, as worship.

We were also struggling with the notion of strengths and weakness. Paul Thorson reminded us that God really makes a huge difference in our lives in the places of our deepest weakness... so we maybe need to be more thoughtful about whether we look at worship only as a means of offering our best to God, and need to make room for the possibility that God is also waiting for us to cry out in our distress, failure and weakness... no happy clappy all the time, no pep-talk self-help feel-good stuff as dominant mode, etc.

We will not be meeting during the summer months unless unofficially we get a group up. Have a great summer, y'all!!

shalom,
jonathon

Questions for the May Cohort

Our Cohort topic for May is going to be "worship" and while there will certainly be a practical dimension to our conversation we sould also come prepared to reflect on the theological motivations that inspire our practice.

So, I offer a few questions for reflection before next Thursday:

What is worship?
What is your theology of worship?
How has that shaped your praxis of worship for the emerging context?

As always, feel free to add other questions through comments.

I'm looking forward to the conversation.
Peace,
Dixon

favor, please and thank you

hello friends...as many of you know, i'm a one of several in our cohort who work for The United Methodist Publishing House. at UMPH, i'm part of a team that is working on some new projects aimed at young adults. we've set up a quick online survey to help with product development, and it would be great if as many of you as possible would click over there and take it. it doesn't take long, and your answers could have a major impact on some of these new ideas. will you please do me this favor? thanks.

MeChurch

You all have to check this stuff out. My bishop used it recently at a conference. Be prepared:

:: Me Church ::

Random Tidbits

Hey everyone. It was nice to meet you all the other day, and I'm really glad I've joined up. For those that were there (or those that are interested) here is the link to The Gathering. We start tomorrow morning, so please keep us in prayer. Anyone who would like to come check it out and give feedback is always welcome. I also have my own personal blog called The Truth As Best I Know It. Blessings to everyone during the Lenten season.

Think About It

Some thoughts to guide us:

1. With the first Christian community practicing their faith as a minority religion, can Christians today do the same as a majority?
2. How has the notion of empire and colonialism shaped evangelism?
3. How does one go about a theology of money and/or capitalism?
4. What is the church’s relationship to the state and vice versa?
5. What role should one’s faith play when campaigning for political office?
6. How has our understanding of democracy shaped church polity?
7. What if the American Revolution, with its believed divine inspiration, had failed?
8. How does one navigate the often blurry line between church and state when it comes to social programming?
9. Is America a “Christian nation”?
10. How does one live missionally and prophetically in today’s America?