A speech outline

General Purpose: To inform
The audience will understand the emergent church in America.

It is nearly impossible to form a one or two sentence entry defining the "Emergent Church."
I. Introduction
A. Harry Blackmun quote "I'll know it when I see it."
B. The Emergent Church is not a shift away from Christianity as we know it, but rather a shift made by Christianity so that others can know it.
C. I will discuss three uniwue feature of the emergent church
1. tolerance of those with opposing views
2. a view of the Bible and our lives as being a story that intertwine
3. preaching in a style that this generation will understand
The post-modern world is here to stay, and the church has the option of changing it's medium or getting out of the soul changing business.
A. The Emergent church seeks to tolerate those who hold views that are in opposition to the church.
1. dialogue with those of different believes instead of monologueing about why they are wrong.
2. acceptance of others into a community of forgiven, sinful, and hurting people. Church - not just for Christians anymore.

The essentials (as stated in the apostles creed) haven't changed. Almost everything else is up for grabs. Chris Seay (1)

B. The emergent church stands against using the Bible as a textbook and the ensuing pursuit to undefinably be able to have all of the correct answers.
1. post-moderns want truth - not facts - but something beautiful and life changing
2. more than just a "get out of hell free pass" salvation is a journey, a story, and a song.
Preaching shouldn't be facts salted and peppered with more facts - it should be a story - God's story of redemption, because that is what the Bible really is.
C. Most sermons are preached on a linear level - 3 points and a conclusion, but most post-moderns don't think in a line as much as in a web.
The internet would be very tedious if every sight had just one link. It's okay for sermons to be random and spontaneous.
III. Conclusion
A. Review
1. God's word is a story of love, grace, and forgiveness - our lives, preaching, and churches should be, too.
2. We need to meet people where they are - John Wesley
B. Conclusion
1. The emergent church is not an attempt to water down the gospel or hate on those who love organ music
2. The emergent church is however a shift to bring a culturally relevant gospel to a culturally shifting people.

Although I doubt any of you will be able to tell me a brief one sentence definition of what the emergent church is - I hope you all have a better understanding and will be able to "know it when you see it."

So I will go ahead and be transparent. Only read if you care about what's going on in my life.

(Oh, crap. I promised myself my blog wouldn't be one of those blogs people read to feel better about their own lives.)

I'm very frustrated right now at a lot of people.

I'm very upset that my friend Ben is willing to forsake all of his friends for a possessive controlling girl. I've decided not to go to the wedding. I can't condone this. I love Ben, of course, but I can't watch him throw his life away. If he would step back for a second and see what he is doing to his friends' lives he would realize it isn't worth it.

I'm angry at my dad. He is going to have Gastric Bypass surgery. I won't come home for the surgery. If he goes through with it I won't be going home this summer at all. After he has the surgery and loses weight he will pick on my sister and I all the time about our wieght. He has been on one (1) diet my entire life! He feels that he has been on every diet plan known to man and it's physically impossible for him to lose weight any other way. That's bull.

I'm angry at my dad's unrealistically high standards for everything I do. He was angry at me that I only got a 3.5 gpa last semester. I needed a 3.6 to get on the dean's list. I worked my butt off for that gpa ... and now I realize that everything I did last semester was worthless. A mission agency isn't going to care whether I got an A or a B in a core class. If I do my best and it isn't good enough for anyone why even try?

If it comes down to either spending more time building relationships with my youth group or doing chapter summaries for a Bible class ... I'm going to be building relationships. All of my Bible classes haven't brought me one step closer to Christ. When I build a relationship and share my faith with a teen in youth group he or she moves closer to Christ. I realize that the ministries I have an active part in are things that I am called to do. Many of my classes I am only taking because I have to get them out of the way. I rejoice in a few of my classes, but for the most part they just fill a requirement.

I want my life to be lived vibrantly in ministry ... not filled to the brim with requirements. I still plan on doing my homework and going to classes, but if it's too much ... well I'm going to focus on Jesus - Most student's here don't want their ministries to interfere with their grades. I think that's why my college has such a bad testimony in my town.

A lot is going on in my life. I have a lot of assignments, committments, and deadlines to reckon with. I have a lot of things that I feel very called to do and am so excited about. There are a few things (assignments) that I dread.

I have an ambitious schedule set up. I'm excited about it though. I went to the administrative board meeting tonight. My church has a lovely set up. There brightest and most creative members are on the committes that deal with evangelism, worship, and missions. The left overs are on ad council and trustees. Amazing. This board just gives aproval. Everyone is over 70 except for 1 or 2 people who are there to keep them in line. We had a fun time being nostalgic about the past.

Sometimes I step back and think about how random and exciting my life is. I went from leading a drama ministry at 6 to fellowshipping with old people at 7 to chaperoning a friend's date at 9. How random can you get. I'm just so happy to be in the loving hands of a savior who gives plans that are stretching, challenging, and amazing.

I had an interesting experience reading a book last week.

I was reading "Church for the Unchurched." I was at Asbury College in Wilmore, KY. While I was reading about creating a service for pre-christian people. About half way through I started thinking ... "yes, but these principles aren't appliable everywhere. What about a place like Wilmore where there are only 2000 people when college is out for the summer?"

The last chapter of the book was about a church that started a church service for pre-Christians in WILMORE, KY! The author, I found out, was from the seminary - and he told of when seminary students started a service in Wilmore based on his principles. It was very successful, too. So I have come to the realization that if there are enough pre-Christian people in Wilmore "Christian Bubble" Kentucky ... well, there must be enough pre-Christians in Toccoa, Warren, and Kane to start new seeker sensitive services, too.

In Toccoa - the largest town in the MOST CHRISTIAN COUNTY in GEORGIA only 30% of the people go to church on any given Sunday!!!! If everyone decided to go to church there wouldn't be room. The same is true in Kane. What if our churches could reach out to the other 70%? Why can't we? What could possible be holding us back?

What if this summer my church planned 10 different neighborhood block parties in places where 3 or 4 families from the church lived? What if we really got to know our neighbors and invited them to church - or better yet introduced them to our savior?

I have so many grand ideas ... and yet so little energy. I have been trying an experiment. It takes about 4 times of being around a person I disliked before I can tolerate them enough to not dread hanging out with him or her.

It has taken 8 times of being with one person before I could call him a friend. Maybe that's a big investment ... it would be so much freaking easier to just say screw it and live with the fact that I don't like them. But, I know Jesus wouldn't do that. I know I do a lot of things that Jesus wouldn't do ... but I want to try and be more like Him. (So freaking cliche!)

I was with my youth group last night. It was a big hang out thing. There were 70 people there and most wouldn't be there if they were being preached at. Some were high, some came drunk, few are Christian, and the F-word was used liberally. For some reason I saw Jesus in it all. A lot of the adults - if they cared enough about the youth to show up - would be really pissed off at the whole thing. But, that's where Jesus was. That is where Jesus went. He would be with the drunk, high, non-Christian, and those who use the F-word. That's where I want to be.

I am praying about going to South Africa this december for the Youth Convocation. If I can go as a delegate it will cost less than $1000. If I just go as a random person it will cost around $2000. I would love to go as a delegate, and maybe there aren't other young adults from my jurisdiction who want to go to Johannesburg. I just think it would be so exciting to meet so many other youth from all over the world who have similar ideas and passions as I do. I was going through the stats on my home conference and ... well it's pretty dismal. There are a lot of churches that should be closed down. There were a few exception, of course, but overall each and every church shrank last year. Sometimes I wonder if it's even worth sticking with a dying denomination. I love the United Methodist church - but I think at this point it exists only as a springboard. I think that the emergent church will come out of the United Methodist faith. We will have to go back to a lot of Wesleyan doctrine. We will have to start loving. We need to stop our reliance on "superpastors" for church growth ... and maybe focus on Christ instead.

I went home for the last 2 days of break. It was good to see my family again. I don't think I could have lasted the entire week at home. My dad is having gastric bypass surgery. I hate having to tell my mom that if he has the surgery I won't come home in August even. I will work in Georgia from May until August 1. I plan on coming home during the month of August -- but I won't come home if dad has the surgery. I don't agree with him having the surgery, and I won't come home at all.

I'm sorry I don't have any deep theological content for my blog today. I'm very tired still, have a few hours of work ahead of me after a boring class. I'm excited about going to work today, though. I have to talk to a friend this week - and tell him that I don't agree with what he's doingn with his life. My roomate isn't sure he wants to keep me as roomate for another semester. If you count suitmates into the grand total I have had 8 roomates in 2 semesters. The number is only 4 if you only count those with whom I shared an actual room. I don't want to find another roomate. Aargh. I need to go in and talk to pastor Charles today about a skit. He is always to difficult to talk to about a new idea. Aargh. I have a lot of planning left for Threadbare, our event for male missions majors. I hope I'm not in over my head.

So Rebecca told me my ramblings had continued long enough on this subject and I shouldn't post this, but I'm bored and I want to.

Fishing. When Jesus called the fisherman to be his disciples fishing was their life. The analogy of being "fishers of men" rang true for them. When they fished it was their life. Some days they got lucky and some days they weren't so lucky - but they obviously caught a good number of fish in their nets ... otherwise they would have become carpenters.

When you say fishing today images of a middle aged guy standing in a river up to his thighs in water and not catching a single fish. Always telling the story of the one that got away, exageratting the size of his real catch, and otherwise just doing it as a hobby at best.

When a pastor reads that we should be fishers of men - to a 21st century group of pre-Christians or nominal Christians ... how many think of fruitless efforts standing in freezing water just to destract youreself from the harsh realities of life?

Things are different now ... why do we still use the same analogies as though they have the same effect?

So I have decided to comment on a recent blog I made.

I understand that there are times that the original greek has to be explained. I know in English we only have 1 word for love and in Greek there are 3 distinct words for 3 distinct forms of love. Maybe we should change English so that we have 3 distinct words. Would it be that difficult?

My main point is that Jesus and Paul were using parables and analogies to convey the message of God's love to the heart language of the people. Should we, as Christians, give the same efforts to convey that same message of God's love to in our people's heart language.

People are basically split when it comes to whether a preacher should preach using stories or "from the word." If a pastor tells too many stories people complain that "they aren't being fed" or that they don't come to church to hear a bed time story. If a pastor preaches directly from the Bible and explains in an exegetical fashion all of the parables people become board and want him or her to tell more stories like "what's his name" across the street.

Take the story of the good Samaritan for example. A pastor can stand up and discuss how the Jews hated the Samaritans because they were half-bloods and how a Jewish man wouldn't talk to a Samaritan, and the cultural relevance of the times. He could talk about how there were miles of road in between major cities and how dangerous it was. But, most people would walk away from it going "what a lovely young man that Samaritan was. I'm glad he stopped to help. If I'm ever walking miles and see a man I think I will stop and help"

What if the pastor told the same story. Only this time it was the church treasurer who was beat up and robbed on main street taking the offering to the bank. What if it was a pastor who was afraid, or the mayor, or the organist? What if a gay man, a muslim, or an ex-con stopped and helped the woman? It would be shocking. Pastor David Lake tells of a weekend retreat in the 80s when a drama team did this approach only a Communist stopped to help. An old man stood up and started yelling in the middle of the skit - "these kids need good American role models to look up to." I think a few heads would turn if suddenly the pastor was talking about an honorable gay, muslim, or rapist. The people would also get the point.

People in America don't intrinsically understand the life of a shepherd, fisherman, or "the evil tax collector." I know a tax collector - she's a nice lady. People wouldn't show up for church if the sign read, "this week we are going to study 1st century Israel and it's judaic moral system!" People still lead lives that have much that can be used to relate where the "rubber of Christianity meets the road of life."


We have different court systems, governments, laws, occupations, and lives. When they were wandering in the desert there were no fisherman ... there were also no tales relating life to fishing. The people Jesus was with were fisherman. Is that my or your occupation? Probably not. There are parables to be found between living as a Christian and working as an office.

I'm sure I won't be an excellent sermon deliverer, but I hope to never have to put more than 1 greek word in it's proper context in any sermon by using a translated definition. That's not what Jesus did, and I don't think it's what pastors today should be doing either.

It's so hard when those you love just don't understand you. My friend Marshall and I discussed theology last night.
Marshall rejects the idea of looking analytically at the church - at what we are doing right, wrong, and indifferently - based on data and percentages. He believes that we only need to look to the Bible. I agree that we need to look to the Bible a whole lot more than we are, but the most "biblically sound" churches are the ones who I feel are the least Christ like.

Every step we make in the right direction theologically - every time we have an idea that is closer to what is real truth - brings us one step closer to sharing a theology with Satan.

Read that statement again and you will understand what I mean. If you don't here it is: Satan knows all of the correct theological answers but has never applied it to his life and been saved. He isn't living a Christ-like life. If our goal as the church is only to teach the proper theology - or if we distance ourselves from people who we feel are theologically misguided - then we have failed miserably as Christians. Wouldn't it be far greater for me to have a theological viewpoint that is only half correct (in the eyes of those who believe they have it totally correct) and live that out in love for Christ -- than for me to understand the theology 100% but not apply it to my life.

I have some weird thoughts theologically. I think that a lot of the new testament was chosen out of a myriad of writings to best represent the religious politics of those who were putting the Bible together. I believe that the synoptic gospels are the most acurate depictions of the life of Jesus. I question the motives of the author fo John and therefore it's authenticity. I don't believe the Bible was meant to be read as a textbook, or in Book:Chapter:verse:a/b/c format. I believe it is a love letter, a piece of poetry or art, but not something that we are benefitted by when we hold it under a microscope. It pisses me off when pastors go into long bouts of translating word for word from Greek into English to show how the translation is wrong or coudl be more accurate. ("The greek word here actually refers to the throne that was covered in blood in Old ... blah blah") I believe that although the English language is not the most expressive God created it and it is sufficient. I like The Message because it uses the full throttle of English to translate the Bible again into the language of the people. I don't believe Christians have to believe every word of the Bible to become a Christian. I don't believe a person has to shed every sin of the BC (before Christ) days immediately following their conversion. I don't believe we can ever be bad enough for God to stop loving us.

God bought a barrel full of manuer with the intent of washing it out and making it something new when he sent his son to die for me. Why would God revoke his willingness to love me just because I got more mud on me?

Marshall feels that I am no longer a Christian (or atleast a very weak one) because I don't have a theologically sound conservative viewpoint on things. He is upset that I tell "your mom" jokes, and that I think heresy is occasionally funny (in the context of an entirely Christian group only). He knows that I am still living for Christ, but feels that it can't be possible to be a servant of Christ without having the proper theology.

I'm not a good Christian all the time, but I feel my life lives out the faith I preach. If it is sufficient for God why can't it be sufficient for those of whom I love?

I am having a great time in Kentucky. I love hanging out with my friends at Asbury. I love haning out with my friend Marshall. We realized today that we are very much opposites, but we get along so well. I went to church with my friend Andy. We went to Southland - which is a megachurch- for early worship, and then went to Mt. zion United Methodist - which is a back country church with no running water or microphones.

I enjoyed both sermons a lot. The worship at Southland was very fake and worldly. My friend Marshall told me some things he had disagreed with, and I think if he hadn't done so I would have made the same observations myself.
The rural church was packed. Both pastors are seminary professors who pastor the church without salary. A lot of seminary students go to see how "doing church" small can be effective. It was a very exciting service. They weren't focused on changing the traditions fo the church. The church was growing, but the idea of adding a flushing bathroom is never considered.

Southland has a Starbucks ... Mt. Zion had cookies and coffee for everyone (visitors first, of course). The powerpoint at Southland showed the band and singers bigger than the lyrics ... They sing only 10 or 12 different songs at Mt. Zion, but everyone knows them well enough to sing them with energy.

I began to think that I would be comfortable being a pastor at any sized church. A person could have been so moved to give their life to Christ at either service. That's all that really matters.

I succesfully made it all the way to Kentucky today. I left at 3 this morning form Georgia and was north of the mountains before the sun was up. The mountains were terrible to drive through. There were no roadsigns for 37 miles. I was on the right road, but the state of North Carolina is so embarrased by the state of their roads that they just don't claim them.

Sometimes I'm ashamed of my sin. I could try my best to take my name off of it, but it would still be mine. It would still be my sin to take care of. Although my name wouldn't be on it anymore, everyone would know that it was mine.

God took that sin. It wasn't something I did to improve myself - God did everything - I just had to accept God's love and forgiveness. God made me a new creation - to make an analogy, God built a straight, modern highway through the mountains of my heart.

If the national government was willing to take that tangle of road in NC - and put in a straight, modern highway ... woulnd't it piss you off if the state of North Carolina said no.

People say no to accepting the free gift of God everyday. People turn their back and God and create all sorts of reasons why they like their sin. They explain how much they like the "scenic route" with its hills and tunnels. They fail to mention the fact that the entire road system is shut down when it snows, they fail to mention that there are a lot of accidents that kill people, and they forget to mention that they are dead inside because of their sin.

Arghh. My school has now blocked the site used to create new posts . I have to go to a friend's house to post anything. I know there are others at my school who have an account like this. I hope if we all complain it will be unblocked. Expect significantly fewer blogs now.