In any case, we were finally able to go spend a week during Kiera’s Spring Break, and see some of the things they do. Though it was not a normal week, since there were students from two area colleges who were there, we still got to experience praying with Source folks,¹ the Fallout’s art gallery,² some great meals, hospitality, and conversations, and some of the work they do and have done among the poor and oppressed of the city.

Peter has led the Source since 1995, and at that time transitional housing began for folks who wanted to come off the streets, or live in intentional community in South Minneapolis. The Fallout Arts Initiative began in 2001, and it includes a gallery that hosts art shows, a small concert area, a co-op where folks can use supplies and studio space, and also the beautiful prayer room for the Source, which is always open and often hosts prayers from Northumbria’s Celtic daily office, among other things.

The Source has a deep resonance with the Celtic monastic identity, which existed and thrived away from the influence of the Roman church for a good part of the Middle Ages. These monasteries existed as small communities of prayer, work, hospitality and study in the midst of the people, often planted at the crossroads that people traveled upon. Rather than the imperialist methods that the Roman church employed at the time, these communities were much closer to what we now see as missional church, striving to live the kingdom of Jesus holistically among the people they loved.

The Source has lived in these ways among alternative subcultures,³ homeless and transient youth, and the art scenes of South Minneapolis, and in doing so has developed a beautiful sense of missiology⁴ that intertwines prayer, mission, and justice in a truly indigenous community, and sees that the gospel necessarily involves bringing good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed.⁵

While we were there, we had the opportunity to meet one of the folks who came through the Source’s transitional housing a few years ago. In his early teen years, he became addicted to meth, got into the drug and sex industry in Minneapolis, and lived on the streets until deciding in early adulthood to move into the Source’s housing. Today, a few years later, he has housing and has taken various culinary classes.

During our visit, the Source held an art auction and benefit for Haiti, with proceeds going to an organization that is currently feeding 20,000 folks a day. This person I just spoke of catered the event, doing research to learn what Haitians eat and preparing four of these entrees for everyone who came to the benefit. Everything was wonderful, but the beauty of it was seeing the peace in his life, and seeing him able to give back to the Source and be genuinely honored there. Too often, as you know, ministries that work with folks on the street end up (sometimes intentionally, sometimes less so) colonizing and patronizing them, rather than letting those folks give back to them and shape them as well.

So part of the reason I’ve written about the week is that it was a great week for both of us, spending time with a real mentor in a season of our lives in which we have few mentors, and watching the way a group we really believe in lives. The other part of the reason I’ve written is that I’d love to see the Source, and Peter, be a bit known among us emerging folks. Source is not well known among the emerging church, though it has similar values and passions. The deep experience in mission, spirituality, and justice that exists there is a deep well from which we can draw things to put into our own contexts.

In light of that, I think there are great opportunities for different areas of the emerging church to begin learning from and talking with each other. Folks who have a deep love for theology can learn from and talk to folks who don’t think much about it. Folks with a deep love for liturgical smells and bells can learn from and talk to folks who paint in prayer rooms with spontaneous drum circles.⁶ And of course, folks with trendy black glasses can learn from and talk to folks with dreads.

Do you see these possibilities, and the vast number of others here?

1. Source is a 24-7 Prayer Boiler Room, and thus the prayer room is an artist’s dream and is always open, in addition to the regular weeks of consecutive prayer.
2. The Fallout runs an art gallery, and a co-op where folks can rent studio space. Artists don’t have to be “Christian,” to participate in these or to have their work displayed.
3. In the 90s when rave was a bigger subculture than it is today, they hosted raves that were well-known in the city, and even today they attend rainbow gatherings and continue to host concerts among the scenes that are there.
4. This sense of missiology is accompanied by a strong knowledge of it. Peter was among the first folks several years ago to introduce us to books like The Shaping of Things to Come.
5. Luke 4
6. It’s often genuinely hard for me to understand the appeal of liturgical structures, while it’s very easy for me to appreciate the spontaneous and charismatic, but I do see a lot of people that I respect who benefit from them, for example.

Among these kind of communities, as well as in the broader emerging/missional church, leadership is often a tricky issue. It is hard to lead people who have been burnt by bad leadership, and are often skeptical that there is such a thing as good leadership. But that’s what this book is about: good leadership. This is leadership that is willing to lead and follow folks into something bigger than an individual, through crisis and pain, rejecting the power of violence and oppression in favor of the power of the Cross, toward freedom and real community; patiently waiting for the dreams of God.

I’ve read a number of books on leadership, from a business and a ministry perspective. This one and Henri Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus stand apart from all the others, and have shaken the ways I think about the idea and the practice of leading. I can’t recommend both highly enough, and I really think it’s possible to spend a lifetime learning the principles that both teach.

But at the moment, I want to look at two specific concepts from this one, as they deal directly with a deep fear that I have, and a dangerous tendency that I have.

The first is said like this:

A blessing is like a living organism, not some kind of plaque we hang on a wall or meal we eat at the end of the day. The promise contains hope, but there is always an element of it that goes unfulfilled. Sure, we might make progress and see some of that promise come about, but what we pass along is hope and a vision that can be carried forth, and a little bit more of it will be fulfilled by the next generation, and then the next.

I often wonder if I’ll accomplish anything with my life. Part of it, I’m sure, is American individualism. Another, just selfish pride. Part, still, is a genuine desire to be used for the kingdom of Jesus, but the fear is betrayed when I grasp the truth of simple things like this. I do think there is a tension between living into a view of promise like this one, and living into a good story, and I think that is where the Spirit can take us.

It seems as though I could lean on this idea of a future promise and never do anything, and later wonder why I didn’t live a good story; yet it also seems that I could try to force myself into a story and accomplish nothing better than burnout, hurting any number of folks around me. Folks like Donald Miller and Shane Claiborne, encouraging us to live into good stories, are not pushers of legalism but it is possible for us to take their thoughts, like so many other beautiful thoughts, and put legalistic demands upon ourselves. I need to learn this.

The second concept that I hope to learn is said like this:

One of the great things about my generation is our global awareness. With the Internet and all, the world has shrunk into a global neighborhood. Folks are aware of what’s happening in Uganda and East Timor. Young folks care about who made their clothes and where their bananas come from and how much the folks who grew their coffee got paid. But there is also a sort of missional ADD. Young people want to do everything … for three months.

The discussion there goes on to talk about the need for developing roots, and the need for patience – especially in the kind of neighborhoods where people like Shane and John live. John makes a statement that it takes 10 to 12 years to see lasting change in these kind of places. The same is true for folks in underground subcultures – roots and stability are necessary things.

I’ve yet to find a place where I feel I can put down these kind of roots, and part of it is because of this kind of “missional ADD” that Shane talks about. I see so many beautiful things that God is doing in the world, and so many places where the world bleeds for the peace and justice of the kingdom of God, and I want to do something for all of them. It becomes paralyzing to narrow down the things I could do and the places I could go because I fear that I’ll miss out on what I should be doing.

I don’t have the financial resources to follow through on this kind of missional ADD, at least in an extreme sense, but I fear the potential of spending five years in one place, two years in another, three in another, and so on without planting these kind of roots into something bigger than myself.

The entire thing is really exciting to me, equally as a part of the broader emerging church, a participant in a local context, and in light of potential endeavors for the future. One of the immediate things that looks to be incredible is the TransFORM: East Coast Gathering taking place from April 30, to May 2, 2010 in Washington, DC. I believe It is a free event.

The event has incredible speakers/workshop facilitators, and all have lived this stuff. I’d love to encourage you to come, if you can make it to DC during that time. I’m going to try to make it. It is being held at, and sponsored by, Wesley Seminary. Most cities have a discount airline that flies directly to DC (AirTran, Southwest, and JetBlue will cover many of us) for a decent price.

In any case, feel encouraged to join the network if you are interested in such things. If you do, I’m on there.

In light of the creation of this network and the potential I think it has, I want to draw your attention to Andrew Jones’ predictions for the next decade of the church. He is always perceptive about such things, and in this case he has great thoughts for where we may be heading.

I find it encouraging and challenging in more ways than I can express, and my hope is that this new network will be a way for many of us to move in these directions. It really is an exciting time to be alive.

The seminars are an amazing part of each Cornerstone for us. We have met and come to be in relationship with wonderful people through them, and this happens each year for us.

Brad Culver and his wife Mary are two of our favorite people. We have been able to spend time listening to and learning from them, and also just hanging out with them, each year for the past several years. They, their wisdom, and their hearts have become very dear to us. This year, Brad had a seminar on ancient doctrines and practices, similar to an extent to the things in his blog. His words are always wonderful.

Peter Wohler, and some of the others from Source in Minneapolis, have also been wonderful to us, opening their mealtimes and seminars and hearts to us. We have learned much from them, and feel a strong resonance with them as they continue to move in the 24-7 Prayer movement, seeking to engage the marginalized with prayer, creativity, and justice. We hope to visit them in the near future.

This year, Tony Jones and Phyllis Tickle did a wonderful seminar on the Emergence that is occurring in culture and the church. It was great to see them dialogue with each other and with us, and watch the wisdom and insight that they have. We also feel incredibly fortunate to have talked with both of them, and to have spent some time hanging out with Tony.

I try to talk a good deal about the links between the underground and Emergent, and this seminar continued to confirm that for me. I feel that it is an unknown thing for many on both sides. Many who spend their lives serving the marginalized or the alternative for the kingdom of Jesus don’t realize that Emergent is, in many ways, the continuation of that. It has broadened and deepened, but it is the same heart. Likewise, many within Emergent do not realize that their innovative ways of doing church and seeking the kingdom first emerged from university English departments in order to reach the punks and goths of the 70s and 80s.

Cornerstone has begun to be a place where this is evident. In recent years, the The Underground Railroad has started its own seminar tent, and the ideas about church and culture that its leaders have been sharing for years have begun to move into wider discussion. People like Tony and Phyllis, as well as people like Shane Claiborne, Brian McLaren, Miroslav Volf, and others have led well-attended seminars that have taken Cornerstone in new directions theologically and culturally, and it is a beautiful thing.

Recently, I finally got around to reading Red Moon Rising, which is the story of the first few years of the movement.

The story is utterly fascinating, in the ways that such a movement has evolved with the broader emerging culture in such a holistic way, combining prayer, creativity, and mission in ways that have caused continuous prayer for nearly ten years. This prayer has been done through lectio divina, examen, art, design, pilgrimage, and any number of other things. It has led to the formation of new monastic communities that serve the poor and oppressed, combining passionate seeking of the heart of God with passionate love for those that he loves.

I’ve often thought that this movement could be something that I could be a part of, and think that even more after reading its story in more detail. But one of the fascinating things happened right after my post about not knowing where I’d like to be in five years.

Near the end of the book, the founder, Pete Grieg, is asked where he wants the movement to be in five years. What kind of goals he has, what kind of strategies for success, and so on. The kind of questions that are valid and useful, to an extent, but are difficult to answer for many of the things that God is doing in the world.

That’s got to be the ultimate achievement, right? Still friends? Still dreaming? I guess some of the stuff we dream up will work. Some won’t. But failure’s more useful to God than success anyway! Maybe in five years’ time we’ll be a bigger bunch of friends doing even more stuff. That would be nice. But along the way every person who joins the movement will also change the movement. They will bring their own dreams and skills to the mix, which would in time change our entire direction. So it’s hard to say what the future holds.

The thing is, if we were a business we could cook you up a five-year plan no trouble. Might even have a PowerPoint to show you. But 24-7′s an accident; it’s like an adventure into the unknown. Success might mean that we don’t even exist as a movement in five years’ time, and if 24-7 stops, we’ve all got other things to do with our lives…

Most organizations define themselves around a fixed goal; a set of pre-defined corporate ambitions. That goal can be turned into a five-year plan, broken down into monthly steps, and then you can celebrate once you’ve ticked all the boxes and hit your targets. Along the way, I guess you hire and fire, wheel and deal, to get to that all-important goal. But what happens if you’re not sure where you’re going, only who you’re going with and how? What happens if you’re in it for the ride rather than the results? What happens if friendship is more important than function?

I guess it’s impossible to say where we’ll be in five years’ time. 24-7 might not exist. But we do want to remain friends, still loving each other, loving God, and loving his ideas into being. That would be success.

Pete Greig, founder of 24-7 Prayer

As I read this, I became a little more encouraged that I can’t point a direction for the next five years. I have a feeling that this is a common thing in our circles, and I wanted to throw that out there in the hopes that it is helpful for you, as well.

May we go along for the ride, in our seeking of the heart of God in prayer, creativity, and mission, as that is something way bigger than we are. May we focus on being friends with God, and with those he loves.

I’ve been interested in and talking and reading about these things for years, so it’s nice to see it get some broader conversation. I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of the church (as well as the future of these other things), pondering the moves of the Spirit in the people of God and in the broader culture, and how the Spirit can respond to the moves of the people of God and the broader culture. Both of these are equally important to this discussion.

It is clear that evangelicalism is, very possibly, in for a beating. The general consensus is that the movement has aligned itself too closely with theological ignorance, political conservatism and its accompanying agendas, culture war, and in general causing non-Christians to dislike it to endure with the relative strength that it has in recent decades.

The failure of the economy will certainly contribute to this decline, though how much remains to be seen. Regardless, large numbers of churches, schools, and other institutions will likely be forced to close their buildings, reduce their paid staff, get used to a lack of influence, and reshape their existence in the world.

In spite of, and really because of, these things I have hope for the future of the American church. Europe has been post-Christian for decades, and yet many of the most innovative parts of the broader emerging church have thrived there, largely without buildings, paid staff, or political/societal influence. I have taught and prayed for this to come to the States, and I think these kind of things will be the catalyst for the church to move forward, rather than a lot of the more flashy, expensive, “relevant” trends that currently get a lot of attention.

I have hope from the various streams of new monasticism, neo-Anabaptism, the parts of the underground church that have continued to reshape themselves, and the general potential of the values of creativity, worship, hospitality, prayer, and loving activism that have shaped and continue to shape these streams, and I have been greatly encouraged by their impact in Europe.

I believe that the American church has stood at a crossroads for the last few years, in which it has a choice of total irrelevance and exile, or a reshaping into a more organic and decentralized shape. This will equal “something really, really small,” though a lot of really, really small things do become a very large thing, as we can see in various networks that work along these lines.

That reshaping is my greatest hope for the American church. Many of my evangelical relatives would be shocked and dismayed, were the church to reshape itself in these ways, either out of choice (as I had hoped) or out of necessity (as seems more likely). But really: it is the post-Christian version of the Apostolic church that, for the first three centuries of Christianity, gave its life in love of God and love of those around it, refusing to give up on the kingdom of God.

Recently, I read The Celtic Way of Evangelism, which is a fascinating book that looks at the qualities of the Celtic church before its distinctiveness was squelched by the Roman Empire/church of the early Middle Ages. It looks at several of the key figures, including but not limited to Patrick, and after it gives a good look at these things, it considers the similarities between our postmodern Western culture and the “barbarian” pre-Christian culture of the Celtic British Isles. There are many, and there is much for us to learn.

Granted, the book has a specific goal in mind, and thus it glosses over many areas. Also granted, the author has a specific theological framework from which he comes, and it manifests itself in interesting places (for example, he concludes that stories of miracles performed by Patrick and other early Celtic Christians were probably made up stories designed to illustrate positive qualities, rather than actual miracles that God performed). But regardless of these, it is fascinating to examine these followers of Jesus.

They practiced many things that have influenced the emerging church, and I think will continue to do so. Their views on hospitality, spirituality, and relationship to culture are foundational to many of us, and the more we learn them the more suited we will be to the changes that are occurring in our culture. At the moment, I am thinking specifically of hospitality and the relationship of the church to culture.

These early Celts created “third places” that, instead of retreating from the world or standing against it, existed as a place of refuge for the world, accepting and loving those around it. I think there are wonderful opportunities for us to create communities like this, and I think this is the best way for us to respond to the failure of unrestrained capitalism that we are now experiencing, both in our own lives and in ministering to those around us.

As a final note, there is a fun story about the creator of Guinness, though I don’t know if it is true, at this post:

Arthur Guinness was a Christian. And he was appalled and saddened about the toll Irish whiskey was having upon his countrymen. Thus, Mr. Guinness set about making a drink that was so heavy and filling (Guinness is a thick, stout beer) that his countrymen would drink less and more slowly and, thus, reduce drunkenness, intoxication and addiction.

Several nights ago, I watched Jon Stewart discuss this with, among others, Bill Clinton. I was struck by the wisdom in what he said about the economic choices that we as Americans have made in the last several years. He spoke about our choices to pour money into the housing market in unreliable ways when, if we had had the foresight, we could have poured it into, for example, renewable energy. The difference that could have been wrought in our economy is mind-boggling to think about.

Now, of course this was an unveiled reference to the fact that Al Gore did not become president in 2000. Many of us agree that we would be better off if he had, but if you write off the words simply based on partisan politics I think you miss the wisdom that is there. We – we as Americans – chose to be the materialistic, selfish, pathetic slaves of the American Dream and we went after things that we knew we didn’t need and couldn’t afford, and now we are paying for it.

We can lay some of the blame for this at the feet of the companies who’s names are now in the obituaries, and we can lay some of it at the feet of governmental priorities and selfish interests, but we cannot escape from the fact that some of it is our own fault.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough, Bono reminds us that, as our government asks us to let it dig into its pockets to bail out the corporations that helped give us our materialistic fix, we still don’t care enough to meet our own promises to the poor and oppressed of the world; promises that in their totality are a fraction of what we will spend to bail out corruption. We are morally bankrupt.

Morally bankrupt. We don’t care.

At Revolution, for what it’s worth, we have started to look into the book of Jeremiah. I believe we’ll be spending a good amount of time with it. These messages will be posted on the website, if you have interest in this. Parallels can be made, of course, between various parts of our current situation and various parts of the text. But the one that I’m the most interested in at the moment is Jeremiah’s relentless care.

Jeremiah spends almost 60 years speaking the heart of God to the people of Judah and taking the people of Judah to the heart of God: defending the poor and the oppressed, rebuking the worship of other gods and the false worship of the true God, vying for wise political and cultural decisions, and praying for the people of Judah, asking for mercy on and from them, and trying to be a consistent presence on their behalf. God tells him to stop praying for them, and yet he continues to cry out for them.

Many of the bloggers in post-charismatic circles are spending the month of September looking at what apostolic leadership should look like; I want to present a reminder that we need to look at what prophetic leadership looks like as well. We need to be reminded of the passion that Jeremiah had to bring God and a group of materialistic, oppressive, selfish, and morally bankrupt people together.

Notice, finally, the almost complete absence of a Jeremiah to speak to our time. High profile religious leaders in our country have been almost silent as our moral bankruptcy has continued to grow and our financial bankruptcy has begun to manifest itself. Thank God for Bono.

The interesting thing is what kind of responses I got back then, if I told someone that I was part of a house church. Essentially, these responses varied from, “Oh, you go to a Sunday evening Bible study. That’s great for you.” (with a warning to ensure that I wasn’t part of a cult) to “Oh, that’s great. My church has those, too. We just call them Sunday Schools small groups cell groups life groups house churches. Then, the church meets together on Sunday mornings.”

I’m sure you can catch the implication that is in both of these responses. I don’t necessarily believe that the respondents were intentionally trying to either reduce the community to a Bible study, or assume that they already understood what was going on because it went on in their churches. But I do believe that this is an issue that is worthy of consideration.

The state of house churches

In the United States, there is a movement away from the building-based churches of the past 1,600+ years and toward smaller, less building-based churches that you could call house churches. George Barna believes that these churches (and their attendees), which are not housed in church buildings (whether they are cathedrals or shopping malls) will outnumber those that are housed in church buildings within just a decade or two.

Understand that we in the United States are behind the rest of the world in this trend, as the remnants of Christendom have stronger influence here than in other countries. As postmodernism and postcolonialism are two sides of the same coin, Christendom on the earth will hopefully have its days numbered.

You can read more about this in his book Revolution. These churches do not all necessarily meet in homes, as they might meet in bars, coffeeshops, nightclubs, or other neutral spaces. The main point is that they forgo the use of “religious spaces.”

A large percentage of these house churches, as my friend Brad Culver says, function in such a way that they try to transplant a traditional, building-based church into a home, or other space. So, this kind of church maintains an identical ecclesiology to the church on the corner. This is what we encounter when people believe that they already understand what a house church is, simply because their own church has small groups that meet in homes.

There is also a percentage, which I believe is probably growing, of house churches that function as a community of people that are angry with the traditional church. Many of these churches do have a genuine hunger to create something different for those who are angry, or hurt, or rejected by the traditional church, but because there is such a root of bitterness they will almost certainly be unsuccessful in truly finding the heart of God.

In alternative ministry, where my wife and I function, this is extremely common. You may be aware of the fact that alternative subcultures (punk, goth, metal, retro, etc.) are to a large extent rebellion against modern culture. They identified many of its shortcomings with incredible perception, and railed against them. In this sense, when they arose in the 60s and 70s, they were the first manifestation of postmodernism outside universities.

But because many of them, in their defining periods as subcultures, defined themselves by what they were against rather than what they were for, there is a potential for deep seeded anger and resentment (this is similar to the deep seeded anger and resentment that many Christians have for the secular world that they have railed against). Thus, when these subcultures are reached by the message of Jesus, they often retain their anger and resentment, and when the traditional church does not accept them in the way they function as a church or the way they function as people, this anger and resentment is turned against the traditional church as well.

Certainly, this kind of church, based on rebellion and bitterness, is not unique to alternative ministry or to the house church movement, and not all (or even most) alternative churches are characterized by this kind of foundation, but it is something against which these churches must intentionally guard themselves.

Finally, there are house churches that function as part of a genuine move of God that is happening in the earth. I want to again glean from the wisdom of Brad Culver, who calls his own community a “micro-missional faith community.” In this sense, he is able to define what his community is rather than having to defend what it is not.

In any case, these kind of communities have a beautiful potential for variety, and we can look at what they are like in another post.

I very strongly wanted, and still very strongly want, to introduce Jesus to people that didn’t know him. I don’t remember ever using this kind of disease rhetoric when discussing faith with anyone, and I’m positive that if I did use it, it didn’t work and I would happily apologize to anyone with whom I may have used it.

Theologically, the idea of a cancer cure is not a bad concept. Humanity is messed up, and we all know it. I believe that one of the reasons that postmodernism exists is that modernism, with all of its science and objectivity and reason and knowledge, could not stop the most technologically advanced society of the 1930s from putting people into ovens. Following this time period, people earnestly questioned their knowledge and reason, and the idea of an innate human goodness.

Also, I don’t think there is a theological issue with the idea that Jesus can help us in our messiness. Many people, Christian and not, would agree for various reasons.

My issue is with the environment into which we are expected to put that concept. In post-Christendom, we as Christians are much more likely to be viewed as a cancer that needs a cure, contributing to the horror of the world in which we live, than we are to be viewed as people that might have a way to make the world a better place.

Especially in a conversation with a new friend or acquaintance, the idea that I have a cure or vaccine for the world’s problems because I’m a Christian is going to be met with ridicule at best, and a lifelong rejection of any consideration of Jesus at worst.