My Experience at EmergingUMC2: Friday night and Saturday Morning

It has been over a week now since EmergingUMC2: Restoring Missional Methodism finished up.  At  high noon, Saturday, November 14, our gathering headed back into the world.  Some having a 700 mile ride back home on a minibus. 

Where do we go from here?  That was the big question for me. 

We spent Thursday night watching and discussing The Ordinary Radicals, a beautiful film about what Christians are doing across the country to reclaim the faith from both apathy and the dark years of the Christian right era.  On Friday morning we walked through downtown Indianapolis and met  with arts leaders, janitors, and hotel workers, and got some context for how Lockerbie Central UMC developed and is developing its missional focus.   We spent Friday afternoon thinking about Methodist history and the current story of the United Methodist Church, especially the history of class and society meetings and their relationship to congregations.  

On Friday night some of us went to nearby Englewood Christian Church and saw Shane Claiborne speak as part of another conference going on that week, Through the Consuming Fire.

So, where do we go from here? 

A week out, that Saturday- morning seems like a blur.  I am sure I am leaving some things out.  

First off, we talked about our experience Friday night watching Shane Claiborne speak.  I showed up late Friday night  and just in time to hear Shane speak. For those who haven’t seen Shane speak before, the guy is a rock star.  When he spoke at our church, we had nearly as 1,000 people show up–the biggest crowd we probably have ever had in the 125 year history of the church. 

I know our group wa s a bit annoyed because the music prior to Shane went on and on and on and on.  And on. It went so long that the scheduled Q and A session had to be cancelled.  The thing that stuck out to me though was the power of Shane’s story–even though I had already read his books and have seen him speak before.   Here, a small group of people dedicated themselves to living out the Gospels and they launched a movement.  Nine people living together in community and in friendship and solidarity with the broader community.  That’s it.  And they are changing the world through their witness, activism, and Christian discipline.  Last year, UMC youth in Carmel, IN–the wealthiest city in the state were so moved by Shane’s Irresistable Revolution that they begged the church’s leadership to invite Shane to lead worship on a Sunday morning.  (He accepted their invite.)

Still, I feel that for some of us Methodists, Shane’s  Irresistable Revolution gets lost in translation. It might be called the Impossible Revolution for us United Methodists.  But for me, that was the great hope of EmergingUMC2.  In our own ways, given our deep traditions, we United Methodists could begin to restore missional Methodism. 

As the conference concluded and before our final worship gathering together, we broke up into small groups to talk about how we might begin to work together.  I talked with two UMC clergy from central Indiana.  It was exciting  to begin to dream about how local congregations and individual Methodists could work together in real ways. 

We finished up with a powerful  worship service that sent us back into our communities  hopefully ready to restore missional methodism.

Filed under: Christians, Earth House, Indiana, Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, Thursday Night Film Festival, church, emergent church, shane claiborne , art, Carmel, Christians, class meetings, emergingumc2, Englewood Christian Church, fringe festival, hotel worker' uprising, hotel workers, IN, Indiana, Indianapolis, Irresistible Revolution, janitors, Justice for jANITORS, lockerbie central, lockerbie central united methodist, methodist, methodist history, missional, missional church, missional methodism, music, ordinary radicals, shane claiborne, society meetings, Through the Consuming Fire, united methodist

The Mercy House, Anderson, Indiana

I was up in Anderson, Indiana yesterday and stopped by The Mercy House.   I wasn’t sure if it was going to be open, but heard about this unique church during Shane Claiborne’s stop in Indianapolis last year as part of the Jesus for President Tour.

Anyways, if the rest of the country is in a recession, Anderson is in a depression.  Located a quick drive from thriving white-collar Indianapolis suburbs like Fishers and Noblesville, Anderson’s once strong industrial economy (home to more GM jobs than any other city, including Flint, Michigan), has been wrecked by the thirty year process of economic globalization.

Here is a New York Times article from this spring about Anderson that paints a more rosy picture about Anderson’s future, but the city that has lost tens of thousands of GM jobs and other factory jobs and has declined in population by 8.3% since 1970.  Check out the recent HBO documentary Dirty Driving: Thundercars of Indiana for a glimpse of post-industrial Anderson.

The Mercy House is located in the old Shadeland Elementary School on the westside of Anderson’s downtown. The Shadeland neighborhood is a historically African-American neighborhood, whose economic well-being was tied to the fortunes of GM.   The elementary school shout down about ten years ago and was sold to a church, who then turned the building over to the Mercy House.

Anyways, in this abandoned elementary school, Mercy House is a place of hope.  From the website:

For this reason, everything we plan, organize, participate in revolves around this idea of reconciliation: acts of unity, social justice, and relationships. We hope to continue to be a place of reconciliation for Anderson, challenging the church to take Jesus seriously and offering grace, mercy and love to the world around us.

I talked with Steve, who heads up the maintenance for the mammoth building.  He is a graduate of Anderson University and talked about how the Mercy House is making a difference.  Though virtually ignored by Anderson’s political structure and surrounded by over a dozen slowly dying churches, Mercy House has large and multi-cultural worship services.  In a city that sees more people move away every year, the success of Mercy House has attracted people to Anderson and more students from the university are staying because of what’s going on there.

What Steve said made a lot of sense.  People in Shadeland and Anderson are tired of outsiders coming in to town with big dreams, promising the world, and then leaving when things seem too tough.  After five years of being part of the community and a commitment to be there for the long haul, Mercy House might be post-industrial Anderson’s biggest asset.

Filed under: Indianapolis, Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, bible, church, community, community organizing, documentary, emergent church, evangelism, film, film review, movie review, movie reviews, shane claiborne , African American, Anderson, Anderson University, auto industry, black, Dirty Driving, economy, Fishers, Flint, General Motors, GM, IN, Indiana, Indianapolis, industrial economy, Mercy House, MI, Michigan, new york times, Noblesville, place, post-industrial, Shadeland, Shadeland Elementary, shane claiborne, The Mercy House, Thunder Cars of Indiana

From United Methodist Emergent-cy to United Methodist Emergent insurgency?

There has been some push back on a recent post from the United Methodist Reporter comparing the early Methodists to the emergent church. I thought the analogy made sense and was excited about it.  I also wrote about it on my church’s blog.

Rev. Dan Dick who is my favorite UMC blogger and probably the most prolific UMC blogger was not impressed. From his “United Methodist Emergent-cy”:

I read the article in The United Methodist Reporter the other day, and it left me scratching my head.  I cannot figure out how some of our most intelligent thinkers in the church see the emerging/emergent church as a modern-day Methodist movement.  Missional, yes, but evangelical?  Only the later independent and mainline churches that undermined the original intention.  The Methodist movement went to the streets, extending a fairly strict orthodoxy on an unsuspecting world.  Not so, emerging church. The Methodist movement aimed at the lower classes — the workers, blue collar and otherwise, with little advanced education.  Emergent?  Primarily the privileged classes with above average income and education (with some exceptions).  Methodist movement governed by rules, regulations, and protocols.  Emerging/emergent… not so much.  Methodist movement ruled by a hierarchy; uhm, not so’s you’d notice in the emerging church.  Context is hugely different.  Sources and backgrounds, very different.  Focus, fundamentally different.  Energy — okay, energy and passion pretty close (but you can say the same of American Idol).

Now, I might be missing the point of Rev. Dick’s argument because there is a bunch to unpack here.  This is just the last part of the first paragraph of his post! And Dan is also right when saying that the translation of emergent thought and praxis into mainline/mainstream churches has been mostly disingenuous .

But Ill start with this paragraph and see where the conversation leads, if anywhere at all.

1.  “The Methodist movement went to the streets, extending a fairly strict orthodoxy on an unsuspecting world.  Not so, emerging church”

I think part of my confusion with Dan’s post is that he is referring to a longer emergent conversation that I am not aware of.  My understanding of the emergent church is based on the conversation/movement that has coalesced around Emergent Village with voices from a few others who aren’t as directly tied to EV. Think Rob Bell and Shane Claiborne.

The emergent church doesn’t have a “fairly strict orthodoxy” but there are definitely some guiding principles.  From the Emergent Village website:

• Growing”: which indicates our desire to develop as the dreams of God for the healing, redemption, and reconciliation of the world develop.
• “Generative”: which means that we expect our friendship to generate new ideas, connections, opportunities, and works of beauty.
• “Friendship”: Because we firmly hold that living in reconciled friendship trumps traditional orthodoxies – indeed, orthodoxy requires reconciliation as a prerequisite.
• “Missional”: Because we believe that the call of the gospel is an outward, apostolic call into the world.

Though this can’t be construed as “orthodoxy,” perhaps we can see this as A Wesleyan Quadrilateral for the 21st century? Or anti-orthodoxy?  And taking that “fairly strict orthodoxy to an unsuspecting world”?  While most Christians during the last decade plus spent most of their time dreaming of  mega churches and political power in the vehicle of the religious right, emergent folks were quietly organizing their churches and theology for  a post-Christian right America.

2. “The Methodist movement aimed at the lower classes — the workers, blue collar and otherwise, with little advanced education.  Emergent?  Primarily the privileged classes with above average income and education (with some exceptions)”

Are emergents in the prisons, in the fields, in the unemployment lines, at the Wal-Mart? Probably not enough–but what church is?  There are of course some very smart people who head up the emergent conversation–but didn’t John Wesley go to Oxford?

Tony Jones likes to tell the story of Trucker Frank–a pastor-turned truck driver–who embodies working class sensibilities.   Here is a video of Trucker Frank.   Most emergent folks I know are intentional about building a “church” that includes the poor and working class– and art kids!

3.  “Methodist movement governed by rules, regulations, and protocols.  Emerging/emergent… not so much.  Methodist movement ruled by a hierarchy; uhm, not so’s you’d notice in the emerging church.  Context is hugely different.  Sources and backgrounds, very different.  Focus, fundamentally different.  Energy — okay, energy and passion pretty close (but you can say the same of American Idol).”

Yes, the energy and passion of the early Methodists and the emergents are “pretty close” but I wouldn’t say that the emergents’ passion is “American Idol”-esque.  Most of the emergent leaders don’t make much of a living through there writing and church leadership gigs.  There has to be a real passion to keep this thing moving!

There isn’t an emergent hierarchy and Emergent Village has just got rid of its national coordinator position.  But there was seemingly much room to operate within the hierarchy of the early Methodists –especially on the North American Frontier. Here is a quote from Wikipedia bout those early Methodist circuit riders:”

They traveled with few possessions, carrying only what could fit in their saddlebags. They traveled through wilderness and villages, they preached every day at any place available (peoples’ cabins, courthouses, fields, meeting houses, later even basements and street corners.

It was those efforts that built the early Methodist Church and made it the most importan protestant denomination in the country.  Many of the Emergent leaders carry on this same spirit–minus the hierarchy.

Now, I don’t think the Early Methodist movement inspired the emergent convesration all that much–but that both originate from a similar historical place.   I think the emergent conversation overall  could give many UMCers  room to operate in ways that could potentially challenge and transform the United Methodist Church into something much closer to what Wesley was all about.

Filed under: Christians, Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church, bible, church, emergent church, evangelism, prison, prison justice, prison ministry, shane claiborne, theology, united methodist , American idol, blue collar, Christian right, circuit riders, Dan Dick, early methodists, emergent, emergent village, emerging, factories, hierarchy, john wesley, methodists, missional, orthodoxy, postmodern, prison, prisons, rob bell, shane claiborne, tony jones, trucker frank, united methodists, Wal-Mart, Wesleyan Quadrilateral