Allelon Trip ReportJanuary 27, 2003 Mike Bishop If I have had one beef with this 'emerging church' thing it has been the excessive (albeit necessary) amount of philosophizing about postmodernity, ancient-future organizational models, reoriented leadership paradigms, and generally any other topic that might make the conversation-makers feel smart. Frankly, my brain has been hurting for quite some time. I can't read message boards anymore. My eyes glaze over and every argument starts sounding like every other one. So, I was a getting a little depressed on Friday afternoon when it seemed like discussions aimed at unveiling the concrete realities of faith and life in these communities kept disintegrating into abstract questions about the 'right way' to do something that can only be discovered slowly, uniquely. Sorry, long sentence. Here's an example. On Friday afternoon Todd Hunter posed a very simple yet challenging question – “How do you act as a leader in a community of people who are supposed to be following Someone else?” Now that is a question that demands some extremely honest wrestling amongst people who are actually attempting to lead in faith communities. In truth, as Todd aptly communicated, it creates a situation where the leader finds him or herself in the middle of an identity crisis. However, during the discussion it seemed that it was difficult to respond with concrete stories. How have we wrestled with this paradox? How has it created situations that result in a deep questioning of vocation relating to what we’ve called being ‘a pastor’? Later I shared a little of my own story and the dark days I went through a few months ago with this very issue. On Saturday morning the mood changed. Maybe it was the open worship time the night before. Or the trip a few of my peers took to the Irish pub / sushi bar later that night (no lie – Guinness on tap up front, wasabi in the back – if I hadn’t been so tired I would have been there to see it with my own eyes.) Eric Keck, one of the local Alleloners, stood up to greet us that morning and did something completely unexpected. He’s a bit of a joker so when he starts crying with his arms raised I’m thinking - he’s got to be joking. But it’s a prayer, a supplication to God that I don’t even remember what about. Regardless it set the tone that we become acutely more aware of what God was doing than if we looked ‘cool’ or smart in a discussion. What followed could only be described as kingdom ministry 101 for the emerging church. Eric reincarnated John Wimber for a few minutes and modeled ‘the stuff’ by sharing a prophetic dream and then publicly praying for Kevin Rains and his friend Tawd. Then Dieter Zander shared about his journey from Willow Creek stardom to San Francisco kingdom obscurity. Finally, Bryan McClese, a grey-head from Colorado just about killed me with his plea, “He has called us to take the scenic route. Up ahead, we will run into many who are bankrupt. We need to be ready to accept them and love them and not say, “I told you so.” What an amazing word for us as we plow ahead. The scenic route is slow, often fraught with danger, and usually ends up getting you lost. That’s the road we find ourselves on together. There were too many stories shared on Saturday so I shouldn’t attempt to recall any one of them with any accuracy. Many, many people laid their heart on a platter for all to see. It gave me much hope that this emerging church ‘movement’ is not just a philosophical argument or abstract discussion. It involves real people who are going through tangible pain to see the kingdom break through in the western church. I will never compare the pain of this transition to what our brothers and sisters face in physical persecution every day around the world. But it still sucks. I left Boise with a few things on my mind…
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