Do You Have to Be Angry to be Emergent?

Do you have to be angry to be emergent? My most basic concerns about the emerging church conversation are really not theological. That is to say, while there are theological issues I would like to pursue in that conversation that is not significantly different from the ongoing theological conversation of the church in any time. What adds a problematic dimension to this conversation is the tone that seems to be characteristically present.

Let me acknowledge at the outset that any general consideration of the emerging church is an impossible task. The very nature of the conversation defies easy categorization. Proposals range from radical to incremental reform. So, any generalization can be easily critiqued. Nevertheless, it seems to me that there are some patterns that are, at the least, recurring.

The Importance of Life “On the Way”

"The medium is the message." Fifty years ago, Marshall McLuhan succeeded in bringing the insights of communication theory into popular culture with this dictum. The insight it expresses concerns the value and importance of the means we use - the medium - in communication. It challenges the popular notion that what is important in communication is what you have to say, not how you say it. It alerts us to significance of how we communicate as well as what we communicate.

What is true about communication is also true about other things. We may casually assume that what we are trying to do is the important thing, while the question of how we do it is only a pragmatic decision. What works? What will help us accomplish the outcome that really matters?

Kingdom (Culture) Builders

Pastoral leadership is about creating and nurturing culture - Kingdom culture. It isn't essentially about growing the church or even wining people to Christ (though both of those are important facets of the work of the church). It should be centrally concerned with transforming the patterns of value and relations of this world's culture into patterns of living and community that express the embodied and practiced character of the Kingdom of God. Effective pastoral leaders are Kingdom culture builders.

We have been too easily seduced by a production culture. The church becomes a means of producing a desired end. A secular Management by Objective mentality forms the life and directs the energy of the church. We identify an outcome goal - worship attendance growth, new members, etc - and work "backwards" to determine how we can achieve that goal. The measure of our success is our ability to produce that result.

My objection is not to intentional planning, or even to identifying significant outcomes we want to achieve. My objection is to the adequacy of that kind of thinking to express and reflect the full measure of the message of the Good News - that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The point is not  that we shouldn't plan purposefully (even using MBO strategic thinking) but that these tools should serve a higher vision of the work of the church. That vision needs to focus on the Kingdom of God breaking in to transform persons and the life of community to reflect the life and character of God.

One aspect of rethinking leadership in light of the project of Kingdom building is recognition of the critical importance of leadership as culture forming. Strangely, the business world has been more keenly interested in this than the church. Over the last 30 years the business world has engaged in an active conversation about the importance of leadership and culture creation. It has recognized the power of culture, its impact on productivity and effectiveness. Formal structures, policies, and leadership initiatives are forever interacting with informally expressed values, practiced patterns, and implicit definitions of identity.

Beginning Well – Infant Dedication

In the interest of full disclosure I should acknowledge that I was baptized by immersion as a young person based on a confession of faith, signifying my acceptance of God's saving grace in Christ and full purpose to follow him. My baptism took place in the sanctuary where I currently worship. Although in the years in between that time and this one I have lived in different places far from here, my spiritual journey continues to circle back to my baptism and what it means for me.

Mark Quanstrom's story and mine are different in this respect. And I'd like to bring my perspective to this conversation. At the same time I want to affirm my colleague and friend. Our disagreement is substantive but quite congenial. In this spirit let me identify some key considerations that should guide our thinking - and practice - of infant baptism/dedication.

Leadership – From the Center

Energizing the church begins with spiritual renewal, but it will also require us to re-think some issues of leadership. How we lead - and structure - the church will impact our effectiveness either positively or negatively. We may facilitate or inhibit the renewing, energizing work that God wants to do in and through His church. Good intentions and spiritual fervor are not enough.

I want to explore two types of leadership, leading from the center and managing the boundaries. While effective leadership is always some mix of these two skills it is important to consider which tends to form, even dominate, our leadership.

Leadership from the Boundaries

We have typically approached leadership is terms of boundary management. This approach is expressed in terms of institutional or management control. The leader functions as a "gatekeeper" who guards the boundaries. This takes the form of approval, permission and resource allocation. We ensure that persons in leadership or positions of influence can "pass" the clearance of theological orthodoxy or organizational loyalty. I can manage the direction of ministries by requiring their clearance as a requirement of their placement in those positions.

Holiness Directions

In the Battle of the Bulge during the Second World War one of the strategies of the counter-attack of the German army was misdirection. German soldiers slipped behind Allied lines and changed road signs. This simple sabotage created havoc as Allied troops and support units took the wrong direction, ending up somewhere they didn’t mean to go. Unraveling these mix-ups confused the response of the Allies to the advance of the German army, placing them further at risk. It matters whether we pay attention to our directions.

In the conversation concerning holiness, we are sometimes unsure of our directions. It seems to me that we sometimes use language – or make assumptions about language – that are not accurate. We may agree, thinking we mean the same thing when, in fact, we are talking about quite different things. Or, we may disagree, thinking we are talking about very different things when, in fact, we mean the same, or similar, things. For effective communication and exchange of ideas, we need to first be sure we mean the same things when we use common language. That may not resolve all our differences, but it will help us to focus on the real issues.