The Worst Thing You Can Do…

The worst thing you can do is take this home and try it out next Sunday. There is a process of leading people through change. —Brian McLaren – In reference to the Mainline Emergent/s gathering.

Diana Butler Bass spoke in the plenary session this afternoon – translating emergent practices for mainline denominations. I found one of her insightful comments to be that the mainline church is not as needy as it thinks. There is a great deal to be offered between the mainline and emergent in which each can learn from the other. She asserted that there is a mutuality that is at different times obscure and obvious.

A helpful illustaration was about how to think about the conversations that happen in churches. Conversations and congregations often operate in the midst of three axes. These axes have different extremes which include:

• Axis from conservative to liberal
• Axis from established congregations to intentional congregations
  • Established congregations are those that were functioning most effectively between 1870 and 1960. One was often a part of an established congregation by birth.
  • Intentional congregations are those to which individuals make a particular choice to be a part.
• Axis among non-modern, modern and post-modern

Diana’s assertion was that congregations on both sides of the conservative and liberal axis are moving toward more intentionality and toward a more post-modern understanding of the world. As long as a conversation in a denomination or a congregation stays on one axis there are pre-determined arguments, answers and responses. We need to recognize that sometimes we are really on a different axis than the one in which the conversation is currently taking place.

Diana related a story of a man Peter from central Florida who observed – As communities move further toward intentionality and post-modernity the conservative / liberal axis will disappear because that axis is based on the modern worldview of dividing between right and wrong. Often congregations are holding on to the modern worldview because that is an integral part of the established type of congregations.

I found this to be a fascinating interconnection. The visual of the axes helped me to visualize what may be happening in various church conversations.

After the plenary, I attended the workshop “Chasing Community: theologies of relationship and the search for honesty” hosted by Nanette Sawyer – pastor at Wicker Park Grace, Jud Hendrix – pastor at Covenant Community Church and David Lewicki – associate minister at Marble Collegiate Church. This was an open conversation about what it means to be in community and entering into covenant. There is a covenant that exists between the congregation and the pastor and among the members of the congregation.

Thoughts from the workshop:

In the relationship between the pastor and the congregation – the pastor may see herself as living out one role and the congregation may see her as something very different. There is a need to have an intentional conversation about the difference in expectations and enter into a covenant or agreement as a result of the conversation. Among the members of the congregation there is a covenant about life together that individuals enter into either implicitly or explicitly and consciously or unconsciously.

It is, perhaps, most effective for a congregation to exhibit a radical openness that will accept anyone where they are and also give each person an opportunity to grow in faith. If you want to follow the way of Jesus Christ there are particular ways of living that result.