up/rooted discusses Wal-Mart

Greetings!

I apologize for not getting a summary of our last up/rooted gathering out sooner. We last met on the Monday before Easter, but since then I've been crazy busy with preparations for our church plant's big Easter kick-off.

We met on the tenth at Kristine Socall's home to view and discuss the documentary, Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price. It was a disturbing look into the many unethical business practices of the world's second largest corporation (after Exxon). Of course they began by talking about the damage that Wal-Mart does to local businesses in small communities (an effect that I myself have personally experienced in several of the small rural communities I've lived in around the state of Michigan). They also mentioned the absurdly low wages and lack of decent benefits that Wal-Mart associates labor under. Apparently full-time Wal-Mart employees make so little that they still qualify for welfare, food stamps and government healthcare... and Wal-Mart's official benefits policy actually encourages their employees to apply for government assistance! But when Wal-Mart employees try to unionize to demand a living wage, the corporation goes into high-alert and utilizes rather extreme tactics to squash any unionizing attempts. The film also discussed the sweatshop conditions in China that Wal-Mart products are produced in, and the ecological damage that Wal-Mart stores often cause to their local environments.

For a short, and very humorous online cartoon that raises many of the same issues check out the "I've Got Friends With Low Wages" music video at http://walmartworkersrights.org/.

In short, the film raised a whole host of issues that make it clear that shopping (or not-shopping) at Wal-Mart is a practice directly related to how we live as followers of Christ that desire to stand against injustice in this world.

Of course, we didn't find any easy answers to how we should respond to these glaring issues. We talked about practical things like supporting local businesses, applying consumer pressure on Wal-Mart and writing to store managers and CEO's with our concerns. We also talked about deeper issues of consumerism and greed, and how to escape the materialistic trap of modern society altogether through practices of simplicity. We wondered together what the alternative to a Wal-Mart style economy could possibly be, and how to get there, given that giant corporations aren't going to be going away anytime soon. We explored ideas about subverting the system from the inside, so to speak, by influencing actual Wal-Mart managers and executives to make more ethical decisions.

Some might question whether these kind of concerns are really "faith" issues. We talked together about how whenever problems like these are raised it is easy for people to label them with terms like "liberal" or "hippie" and thereby dismiss them as important issues. But when one reads a Bible that says things like ""This is the kind of fast day I'm after [says the LORD]: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts...get rid of unfair practices." (Isaiah 58:6) you begin to see that fair wages and just business practices are the kinds of things God is passionate about too. Many of us agreed that these were not just "activist" issues, these were gospel issues.

At any rate, this discussion wrapped up our series on social justice issues at up/rooted. In May we are going to turn our attention to questions of how we "do church". Specifically looking at alternative models of church, such as house churches, intentional communities, cell churches and comparing them to more traditional or even mega-church models. Come help us explore the question of what the right way to do church really is. ;)

We will be gathering at the Caribou Coffee shop in Glen Ellyn near the corner of Roosevelt Rd and Main St just one mile west of I-355 on Monday, May 8 from 7-9pm. Hope you can make it!

Blessings,

-Mike Clawson
up/rooted.west co-coordinator

The Secret Message of Jesus

Hey all, here's my review of Brian McLaren’s latest book, The Secret Message of Jesus, that I promised:

This book should finally lay to rest any complaints that Brian is too often vague and evasive in stating what exactly he does believe about the gospel. In this book he is crystal clear. Bottom line: it’s about the kingdom of God.

Of course, that’s not to say that Brian purports to answer every question or spell out a detailed systematic theology. Instead, rather true to form, he paints us a picture with broad strokes, giving us a new way to look at what Jesus and his gospel were all about. And he does it with a remarkable clarity and simplicity.

Indeed, the most surprising thing about this book is that it seems to have been written as much for non-Christian seekers as for fellow Christians. This is a book you could give to your “spiritual but not religious” friends who might be interested in learning more about Jesus. In fact, when I saw the cover art along with the title touting a secret message of Jesus I couldn’t help but wonder if Brian and/or the publishers were hoping to tap into all the buzz about the DaVinci Code. People these days seem to be really fascinated with “lost gospels” and suppressed (“secret”?) truths within Christianity; so one can imagine a seeker picking up Brian’s book in hopes of finding more in this vein. (Not that I think this is a bad thing. One of my good friends came to Christ in part because his interest in apocryphal gospels led him to bring his questions to my youth group.)

However, I have to admit that when I first heard the title I did raise an eyebrow. I was worried that talking about Jesus’ “secret” message might imply some kind of Gnostic insight that only truly enlightened (emergent?) Christians really understand. However, I was relieved to discover that Brian’s use of the word was instead intended to raise questions about the lack of clarity we often find in Christ’s teachings. After all, Jesus’ own disciples complain about him using parables all the time rather than just speaking clearly, and Jesus admits that he’s being deliberately obscure (Matthew 13:10-15). So Brian raises the question:

“What if Jesus had actually concealed his deepest message, not trying to make it overt and obvious but intentionally hiding it as a treasure one must seek in order to find? If that’s the case, why would Jesus ever do such a thing?” (p. 4)

Once Brian raised this issue I realized that I too had often been puzzled by this in the Bible. If knowledge of the truth is so very important, then why couldn’t Jesus have just spoken more clearly and told us everything we needed to know. Why did he speak in parables rather than in doctrinal statements? Why does the Bible contain letters and poems and stories rather than systematic theology?

What Brian suggests is that perhaps Jesus’ purpose was not to simply impart knowledge. Instead maybe Christ’s goal was to effect spiritual transformation in the lives of his hearers; and maybe this goal is best achieved by means of parables and other similar forms of communicating. In his chapter on “The Medium of the Message” Brian states:

“If the goal is an interactive relationship (which is at the heart of terms like kingdom of God and eternal life), a parable succeeds where easy answers and obvious explanations couldn’t. With a clear and easy explanation, hearers can listen and achieve understanding and then go on their way, independent of the teacher. But when the parable confounds them, they must come back to interact; they continue to depend on the teacher himself, not just their independent understanding of his words… So parables have this capacity that goes beyond informing their hearers; parables also have the power to help form them into interactive, interdependent, humble, inquisitive, and persistent people.” (p. 46)

But what is Jesus’ secret message then? According to Brian, it comes down to the idea of the kingdom of God as present, political, social, and personal reality. In other words, he focuses on the fact that Jesus didn’t seem to talk about heaven as some place we go to after we die, but rather as a reality that we can begin to live in here and now (“the kingdom of God is among you!”). And perhaps by living in this reality (according to its ways and values) we can begin to transform the world in such a way as to bring a little bit more of heaven to earth. Brian puts it this way:

“What if Jesus’ secret message reveals a secret plan? What if he didn’t come to start a new religion – but rather came to start a political, social, religious, artistic, economic, intellectual, and spiritual revolution that would give birth to a new world?” (p. 4)

He spends the rest of the book describing this revolution and this new world. The book itself is divided into three main sections. The first, “Excavation: Digging Beneath the Surface to Uncover Jesus’s Message”, dives into the historical and especially the first century Jewish context of Jesus’ message. Of course, to me it seems obvious that if we are to really understand what Jesus is all about we must first understand him through the eyes and ears of his original audience. What astounds me is that there are still some Christians who see this approach as a threat to an “evangelical” understanding of scripture. But if we truly respect the Bible and desire to know what it’s really saying, then wouldn’t we want to look at it first through the lens of its historical and cultural context rather than through the lenses of our systematic theologies? After all, most of our current theologies, whether evangelical or liberal, were developed centuries later in response to very different questions than those that concerned Jesus and his followers.

As Brian uncovers this historical context of the message he shows how it has revolutionary political and social implications, both for Jesus’ time and for ours. Not revolutionary in the sense that Jesus was trying to violently overthrow Rome and set up a new Jewish kingdom in its place, but revolutionary in that Jesus was calling people to live according to the values and practices of a new social order, and swear allegiance to a different Lord than Caesar. This is the thrust of the book’s second section, “Engagement: Grappling with the Meaning of Jesus’s Message”, as Brian more fully explains the implications of Christ’s message of a kingdom of sacrificial love, subtle subversion and radical inclusion.

The third and final section, “Imagination: Exploring How Jesus’ Secret Message Could Change Everything”, discusses the practical and personal implications by examining how this new understanding of Jesus transforms our understanding of social relationships, spiritual practices, as well as the dynamics of just war versus active peacemaking. But Brian wades into even more controversial subjects when he suggests that this new understanding of the gospel requires us to also rethink our traditional understandings of Heaven, Hell and the End Times as well as who is really “in” and “out” of the kingdom and what that means. Without getting too mired down by trying to explain what Brian says about all these topics, I will say that the picture he paints is a far more satisfying and biblically consistent view than many of the ones that I’ve encountered in my theological journey thus far.

Of course, it shouldn’t be assumed that much of what Brian writes is entirely his own creation. This entire book is really a popularization of the work of many respected biblical scholars and historians such as N.T. Wright, Walter Wink, Dallas Willard and C.S. Lewis among others. He is standing on the shoulders of others, but he putting their work in terms that are more accessible to the average lay person, and indeed, even to non-Christians.

And it’s a message that needs to be heard. I had already started piecing this “secret message” together myself through reading some of the same scholars that have influenced this book, but once again Brian succeeds in putting what I was already thinking into words far clearer and more compelling than anything I could have come up with myself. And this understanding of Jesus’ message certainly will change everything for those who embrace it. Many of the perplexing absurdities and dilemmas of evangelical theology simply disappear when seen through this lens; while at the same time one is still challenged by Jesus’ message to reorient one’s whole life according to this new kingdom lifestyle. At least, I know I was.

You should all go buy the book and read it as soon as possible. This is a message that needs to be heard. Not Brian’s message, but Jesus’ message - Jesus true message, stripped of centuries of theological accumulations. This is more than just a new view of the gospel (i.e. new “theology”, new abstract ideas). It’s an invitation to a new kind of life. Jesus secret message is an invitation to live in the Way of the Kingdom. This is the message that we have been committed to teaching and following at our new church plant, Via Christus (the Way of Christ), and it’s a message that I hope all Christians would soon discover, because it’s what we, and the whole world, need to see lived out.

So buy the book, read it, then come join us at up/rooted over the summer months as we discuss it. You can order The Secret Message of Jesus here.

up/rooted.west update

Hey all,

We had a great time this past Monday night at up/rooted.west, which met at our newest location, the back room of Caribou Coffee in Glen Ellyn. For those of you who couldn't be there I wanted to pass along this update, so that you can share in the experience despite your absence.

The focus of our discussion was on how to practically live out principles of social justice in everyday life, and especially in our [mostly] suburban contexts. We began by brainstorming all the different kinds of issues that relate to "social justice", such as poverty, racism, fair trade, child labor, corporate exploitation, gender issues, care for Creation, etc. We talked about why these issues are of central important to Christians, and even to the message of the gospel itself. Some wondered whether our main purpose in focusing on these issues was so that we could win credibility to then share the gospel, though most agreed after some discussion that the message of the gospel was itself inseparable from compassion and justice for the poor and oppressed (cf. Luke 4:18-19).

We talked about the need to be aware of macro-issues like fair trade and socially conscious consumption, while at the same time being willing to get our hands dirty in actually serving the needs of real people. We especially affirmed the importance of being with the poor in whatever ways possible, so that our calling to service and compassion will be able to just spring naturally out of our relationships with other people.

We wrapped up our time talking about the vital importance of community in helping live according to our principles, and wondered how to go about creating these kind of intentional communities. We all agreed that living out social justice will only be successful if it's done out of a sense of joy and genuine love and not merely out of a feeling of guilt or obligation.

We also brainstormed a list of helpful DVD and book resources dealing with these issues. Here are a few:

Movies/Documentaries
The Constant Gardener
Hotel Rwanda
The Corporation
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of the Low Price
Born into Brothels

Books
The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne
The Upside-Down Kingdom by Donald Kraybill
Mustard Seed vs. McWorld by Tom Sine

If any of you have other recommendations please feel free to add them in the comments.

Our next up/rooted.west gathering will be Monday, April 10th. We decided to finish up our past few months of social justice related discussions by watching and discussing the documentary, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. We will be meeting at Kristine Socall's home at 26w325 Torrey Pines Ct, Winfield at 6:30pm and starting the movie promptly at 7pm with discussion to follow. Come on out and bring some food or drink to share!

Hope to see you there!

Mike Clawson
up/rooted.west co-coordinator

up/rooted.west gathering on Monday, March 13

Greetings up/rooted friends!

We will be meeting again for up/rooted.west on Monday, March 13 from 7-9pm. We will be following up last months discussion on faith, politics and the emerging church with a more personal/practical discussion of how we live out biblical principles of social justice here in suburbia. Come join us as we consider the following questions:

• How does/should social justice play a part in the shaping of our daily routines?
• How might our lives change if we truly lived a life valuing social justice?
• Where might we shop; what products would we buy; how would we spend our money; would we grow a garden; what would we wear?
• How would our entertainment habits change? Would we still pay $9 for a movie and $13 to eat out every other weekend, or would our lives require radical changes in order to truly live out what we believe?

We will be trying out a change of venue this month. We will be meeting in the back room of the Caribou Coffee on Roosevelt Rd in Glen Ellyn (495 E Roosevelt Rd, Glen Ellyn), conveniently located just west of I-355 - which should make it easier for those of you coming from further away. (click here for a map) If you want to come but you need a ride from Wheaton College or from the Metra Station, please contact me and we'll arrange a ride for you.

I hope to see you all there. Bring experiences and stories to share, and bring a friend as well. It's always great to be able to expand our network of friends and fellow travelers.

Blessings,

Mike Clawson
up/rooted.west co-coordinator

Coming Soon

I have a trailer/teaser for all of you. Just tonight I received an advance copy of Brian McLaren's upcoming book, The Secret Message of Jesus. The publishers have asked me to read it and and review it for the various blogs that I contribute to. I can't post my review until after March 7 when the book is released to the general public, so check back here later (or at Emerging CGGC or Emerging Pensees, the other blogs I'll be posting my review to.) But until then, here's a teaser from the introduction:

"Through the years, I have frequently had an uncomfortable feeling that the portrait of Jesus I found in the New Testament didn't fit with the image of Jesus in the church. I'd like to share my search with you, and invite you to be part of it. I don't want to spoil the ending, but I'll let you in on this: the farther I go on this search, the more inspired, moved, challenged, shocked, and motivated I become about the secret message of Jesus... If we succeed in grasping even some fragment of Jesus's secret message, if we take it in and manage not only to look at it but also learn to look through it, my hunch is that our world nd our lives will look very different to us at the end of our exploration. And if that happens deeply enough for enough of us, everything could change."

Politics, Social Justice and the Emerging Church

Hey all,

We had a great time this past Monday at the Wheaton College Stupe as eight of us discussed the relation of faith and politics especially as related to issues of social justice and ministry to the poor. We were especially blessed by the presence of Jane Fitzjerrell of Mission:USA, an urban ministry to gang members and inmates, providing a bridge for them to escape a life of crime. Her experience working with these issues in downtown Chicago brought a first hand perspective to much of our discussion.

We began by asking the question whether the emerging church (or perhaps the church as a whole) ought to concern itself directly with political issues. We all seemed to agree that the church has a responsibility to serve the needs of the poor and disadvantaged in the world around us, though opinion was diverse on whether this is best done through small, grassroots efforts or through working for change on the macro level (i.e. through politics). We all agreed that as Christians it's not enough simply to hold the poor at arms length and expect government or parachurch programs to help them. We must be involved in the intimate work of being among them, loving them and learning from them as well. However, some in the group felt that any kind of political involvement on the part of churches was an ineffective distraction from this kind of work. There was a sense that churches that focus too much on political issues can become too polarized and compromised by this agenda. Andy from Sojourn made the excellent point that pastors, especially when speaking with authority from the pulpit, should not abuse their position by telling the congregation what to think about particular political issues (for example the War in Iraq). Rather we should help people learn to think on a deeper, theological level about such issues so that they can reach their own conclusions.

On the other hand, several in the group made the point that fixing some problems require deeper structural, systemic change than can be achieved simply through church ministries or small communities. As Martin Luther King Jr said, "We are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside... but one day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be contstantly beaten and robbed. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that a system that produces beggars needs to be repaved." And several of us pointed out that this kind of work will usually involve working with political powers and trying to influence the structures of society.

As with any good discussion, we didn't resolve all the tensions or differences of perspective, though we did all agree that whatever else we do, we must be doing something to work for justice and compassion in this world, and not just talking about it at groups like up/rooted. If you would like to get connected to one such ministry I highly recommend contacting Jane Fitzjerrell at Mission:USA.

Also, don't forget that up/rooted will also be meeting this coming Sunday at North Park University from 5-7pm to hear from Dave Tomlinson. Check out the up/rooted website for more details.

Our next up/rooted.west gathering will most likely be Monday, March 20 at the usual time. The topic and location is still to be determined (we've have an option to meet at the Caribou Coffee in Glen Ellyn instead of Wheaton College) so if you have thoughts on either of those questions please let me know.

Blessings,

Mike Clawson
up/rooted.west co-coordinator

up/rooted @ North Park with Dave Tomlinson

It seems our gatherings are coming in bunches right now. We had Tony Jones last month, up/rooted.west a couple of days ago, and this next Sunday we will be hosting Dave Tomlinson .

He will be speaking to us about his new book (which hasn't come out in the US yet), Running into God: Reflections for Ordinary Days, and the narrative theology undergirding it. In this book Tomlinson investigates the sacrament of ordinariness - that we can run into God anywhere, anytime, in any situation, through any person, and how this
everydayness draws us into the Story of God.

We will be meeting on February 19th, from 5pm to 7pm in the Olsson
Lounge in the Seminary Building of North Park University.

Please feel free to bring friends, especially those from around the CITY because there are rumors about the beginning of an up/rooted.city coming soon.

And go here for a map to north park , and a map of north park .


grace and peace be with you,
geoff holsclaw

up/rooted.west gathering on Monday, February 13th

I wanted to let everyone know that in addition to the Dave Tomlinson thing on February 19th, up/rooted.west will also be gathering this month, on Monday, February 13th from 7-9pm in the Beamer Center at Wheaton College for those of you who can't make it all the way downtown or who just want to get together more often this month.

I've tentatively decided that we'll discuss the relation of the emerging church and politics. It's true that a lot of emergent folks also tend to be more progressive politically, but is this a necessary connection? Are issues of social justice inherent to the Kingdom of God themes that are increasingly at the center of the emerging conversation, or should we steer away from those kinds of discussions for fear of alienating and turning off people who might otherwise be sympathetic to the emerging church? If Emergent as an organization becomes too identified and intertwined with groups like Sojourners will that close off the conversation to people whose conservative leanings are more central to their own beliefs?

Let's talk about it! We can get into specific political issues or just talk about the more general relation of faith and politics, whatever you all prefer.

See you there!

Mike Clawson
up/rooted.west co-coordinator

Dave Tomlinson at North Park

It seems our gatherings are coming in bunches right now. Right after gathering with Tony Jones last week, I'm please to announce that we will be hosting Dave Tomlinson. He will be speaking to us about his new book (which hasn't come out in the US yet), Running into God: Reflections for Ordinary Days. In it Tomlinson investigates the sacrament of ordinariness - that we can run into God anywhere, any time, in any situation, through any person, and how this everydayness draws us into the Story of God.

We will be meeting on February 19th, from 5pm to 7pm in the Olsson Lounge in the Seminary Building of North Park University.

If you are planning on coming, please send me an email- holsclaws@netzero.net.

grace and peace be with you,
geoff holsclaw

up/rooted.west update - Late-night discussion with Tony Jones

This past Sunday we gathered at the home of Kristine Socall in Winfield for a special late-night discussion with Tony Jones, the National Coordinator for Emergent. The forty or so of us that were there had a good time connecting with each other, sharing food, and hearing Tony share with us about the past and future of Emergent.

Tony began by telling us the story of how Emergent originated as a dozen or so friends committed to exploring the intersection of theology and church ministry. Several books, conferences, and a whole movement later, Emergent has evolved as one of the major "servers" (to use Tony's Internet analogy) of this thing called the emerging church. Tony described his vision for Emergent to become a way of connecting and resourcing people who share similar visions for the future of the church. He also talked about his desire for Emergent to become a place where people with good ideas and something to share with the larger church could possibly get their books and materials published and publicized.

Questions from the group for Tony ranged from "What's the difference between the emerging church and anabaptists?" to "What's wrong with Stanley Hauweras?" to "Does a focus on social justice obscure the gospel of Heaven?" to "How does holistic medicine intersect with the emerging church?" to "Is Emergent becoming too institutionalized?"

We are grateful to Tony for taking the time out of his schedule to visit with us. We are looking forward to possibly getting together for a similar time with Dave Tomlinson, author of The Post-Evangelical, who will be at North Park University for a conference in a few weeks. We'll let you know when we find out more about that.

We'll also be having another up/rooted.west gathering sometime in February. I'll let you know as soon as we pick a date. Keep your eyes peeled for that as well.

Peace,

Mike Clawson
up/rooted.west co-coordinator

Special up/rooted gathering with Tony Jones

Just in case you didn't get the Evite I wanted to remind you all that our next up/rooted gathering for January will be a special discussion with Tony Jones, the National Coordinator for Emergent and author of several great books, including The Sacred Way and Postmodern Youth Ministry. I hope you can join us for an informal yet informative conversation with one of the leaders of the emerging church.

Because of Tony's schedule (he's in town to speak at Wheaton College) we'll be meeting on Sunday, January 22nd at 9pm. We'll be meeting at Kristine Socall's home at 26W325 Torrey Pines Ct, Winfield IL. Despite the late hour we're already expecting 30 people, and space is limited so if you haven't RSVP'd yet through the Evite please do so. If you didn't get the evite for some reason, please let me know ASAP if you are planning to be there. You can email me at mjclawson@hotmail.com.

Also, if you are coming, please bring some drinks or snacks to share.

I'll look forward to seeing you all soon!

Happy New Year!

Mike Clawson
up/rooted.west co-coordinator
http://www.up-rooted.com

December 12 up/rooted.west update

We had another great conversation last night at our up/rooted.west meeting at Wheaton College. After spending the first half-hour or so chatting and doing introductions among the nine of us that were there, we migrated from the Phelps Room to the more comfortable chairs in the game room across the hall. Above the noise of pool and foosball we discussed the question of church health and church growth.

Actually our conversation primarily focused on the former. Though we recognized that large megachurches do bring certain advantages and succeed in reaching certain kinds of people at particular points in their faith journey, we seemed to all come to a consensus that personally we each desired a more intimate experience of Christian community than a simple event-driven mega-church.

Kristine pointed out that of course this kind of intimate community is not necessarily antithetical to megachurches. She shared in particular about the changes currently underway at Willow Creek Community Church (the granddaddy of all megachurches), to deemphasize the Sunday events as the entry point for bringing new people into the community. Instead Willow wants to place much more of an emphasis on small groups as being the primary point of contact with non-Christians and the central focus of the life of the church, with the Sunday event then being more of a coming together of all these smaller, home-based communities. It's really a radical change if you think about it, since Willow pretty much pioneered the whole idea of event based church growth. This new direction, if they can pull it off, is in some ways a complete 180 from that model. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out for them.

As the conversation drifted towards discussion of what makes a healthy church in the first place we talked about things like intimate small group communities, a tangible and visible expression of love among the people in the church, an embodied message rather than a mere accumulation of words and preaching, real spiritual transformation occurring in people's lives, and a missional drive to transform the world for God's Kingdom. We shared experiences (both positive and negative) that we have had in churches in our past that either reflected these qualities or not. We were especially enriched by the experiences of one of our new members, Roberta, who has recently come here from Brazil, and was able to share with us her story of coming to Jesus through the love shown to her by her community of faith there in Brazil. What a great gift it was to hear how, even half a world away, God is still at work creating communities that embody Christ's message of love.

Our next up/rooted gathering will be a special event with Tony Jones, the National Coordinator for Emergent, and author of several books, including The Sacred Way and Postmodern Youth Ministry. Tony will be at Wheaton College in mid-January and has asked to meet with up/rooted on Sunday, January 22nd at 9pm. The event will be hosted at Kristine Socall's house in Winfield (26w325 Torrey Pines Ct, Winfield IL 60190) and we'll be doing it potluck style, so if you intend to come please bring some food or drinks to share. In fact please RSVP with Kristine by calling 630-668-6539 or emailing her at kristine(at)gifteddreamers(dot)com so we'll know how many to plan for as there is limited space.

I know 9pm is late for a Sunday but I can guarantee that it will be well worth it. I hope you can make it.

Have a Happy Christmas!

Mike Clawson
up/rooted.west co-coordinator

December up/rooted.west gathering coming up!

CHURCH HEALTH AND CHURCH GROWTH

What is a healthy church?
Is a healthy church always a growing church?
Is a growing church always a healthy church?
Is the mega-church movement good, bad or a little of both?
Is there a right way to do church?

Come discuss these questions and more at our next up/rooted.west gathering.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 12 from 7-9PM
in the PHELPS ROOM of the BEAMER CENTER at WHEATON COLLEGE

for directions go here: http://www.wheaton.edu/directions.html
and here: http://www.wheaton.edu/welcome/campus_map_brochure.pdf

I hope you can all make it. We need your wisdom and questions.

Happy Christmas!

Mike Clawson
up/rooted.west co-coordinator

up/rooted.west update from November 21

Hey everyone!

Those of you present at our November gathering last night can testify to a stimulating and productive conversation about how discipleship and spiritual formation happens within communities of faith. And those of you not present really need to drop back in some time. We miss you! And we especially miss the valuable insight and experience that you each bring to our discussions.

As with any good discussion, the thread weaved all over the place and sparked potential rabbit trails that could have used a good 8 hours each for further discussion. We started off the night asking four questions:

1. What does it mean to "make disciples"?
2. How has disciple-making/spiritual formation happened in the churches?
3. How do we see spiritual formation happening within scripture?
4. How has spiritual formation happened in your own life?

We began with some discussion about the differences between evangelism, discipleship and spiritual formation, and how these have perhaps been neglected or done poorly or well within the modern church. This led us briefly into the question of whether or not large, institutional, highly programmatic churches are the best vehicle for encouraging discipleship and spiritual formation (more on that later). We also talked about whether spiritual transformation is something that we can even affect or whether it is entirely the work of the Holy Spirit.

Mentoring and modeling was one area of discussion that we kept returning to. Biblical models of Christ and the disciples or Paul with Timothy, Titus, etc. seemed to point to a rabbinical style system of people doing life together and learning how to live in the way of Jesus by watching the example of others. We talked some about the difficulty of finding mentors, especially for women who are pursuing a ministry calling and can't find too many other women leaders in the church to learn from, and also for those of us being led in more emergent directions and not finding many older Christian mentors who are willing to go with us down that path.

Another dominant theme in our conversation was the fact that for most of us, significant spiritual transformation has happened most obviously during those times when we have been a part of an intensive missional community focused on a very specific ministry goal - e.g. a camp staff, a mission trip team, a ministry team within a church, etc. We talked about the value of being forced to spend large quantities of time with the same people and being focused together on a single purpose with those people. Many of us longed to make those kinds of experiences the norm for the daily life of the local church, but we wondered how that could happen, especially within a suburban culture where everyone is isolated and over-scheduled as it is. How do we create "monastic" communities that are not isolated from their culture and surroundings, but that at the same time live in a counter-cultural way to over-busy and overly individualized suburbs around us? What would that look like in an existing church, a multi-church ministry (like Emerge), or a brand new church plant like mine in Yorkville.

I for one came away from our discussion with renewed passion and some new ideas and directions for my own ministry, and I hope that others did as well. As we talked about what some of these ideas would look like in practical church settings, our conversation turned to what exactly is the mark of a healthy church, and how church growth ties in to church health. We decided that that should be the topic for next month: CHURCH HEALTH & CHURCH GROWTH.

I hope you'll join us next month on Monday, December 12 from 7-9pm at Wheaton College as we discuss those issues.

See you then!

Mike Clawson
up/rooted co-coordinator

Next up/rooted.west gathering!

SPIRITUAL FORMATION IN COMMUNITIES OF FAITH

That's the next topic of discussion at our upcoming up/rooted.west gathering on November 21. Let's talk about questions of discipleship, spiritual disciplines and practices and how local churches can effectively engage in the hard work of transforming the lives of real people. How have you seen it done, effectively or not, in the churches in your past. Come to share experiences, stories and strategies for the emerging church.

We're meeing at the PHELPS ROOM in the BEAMER CENTER at WHEATON COLLEGE from 7-9 PM on MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21.

For directions to Wheaton College go here:
http://www.wheaton.edu/directions.html

For a campus map go here:
http://www.wheaton.edu/welcome/campus_map_brochure.pdf

I hope to see you all there, both our newer friends and especially you old timers who didn't make it last time! :)

Shalom,

Mike Clawson
up/rooted.west co-coordinator

up/rooted.west update

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

For those of you that were at our October 24th meeting of up/rooted.west, I just wanted to send you this recap of our discussion and let you know how much I enjoyed hanging out with all of you. And for those of you who weren't able to make it, I wanted to keep you in the loop on what we've been talking about, and hopefully wet your whistle a little bit to come and join us next time. :)

As you know, this meeting was our first time in our new location in the Beamer Center at Wheaton College. We were joined by a good number of first timers from Wheaton College and the surrounding community. It was also great having food and drink and ice cream readily available once more for our gatherings!

The topic this past week was "WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?" and we began (after a much too lengthy introduction to up/rooted and the whole "emerging church" conversation by yours truly) by brainstorming how we have heard the gospel summarized or explained to us in the past. As you'd expect, common to most of us there was the idea that gospel is about "trusting in Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior for the forgiveness of your sins so that you'll go to heaven after you die." The next question then was naturally, "If that's the gospel, why then don't we see it explained that way in scripture itself?"

This led us into good discussions about the true fullness of the gospel and what it's really all about, especially in terms of being called into service of God, and in announcing the "kingdom of God". Many seemed to especially resonate with the lament that contemporary evangelicalism has seemed to make the gospel into a consumer commodity, and that our churches are offering
salvation as a kind of economic transaction. We have packaged and marketed the gospel in order to "attract" people, but the worry seemed to be that in the process we may have lost our vision of what it is we are actually "selling" (or whether "selling" is even the right metaphor at all). This led us into discussion about the nature and purpose of the church and what it should be all about in the first place.

While more was said than can be effectively summarized here, towards the end many excellent and provocative questions were raised by Tory Schalkle about the emerging church movement and it's attitude towards questions of inclusivism/exclusivism, of church structure and government, of doctrinal boundaries, etc. Though we ran out of time to discuss most of his points, his concerns did help us choose our topic for next month. I'd invite you to join us MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21 to discuss the question of "SPIRITUAL FORMATION AND DISCIPLESHIP WITHIN COMMUNITIES OF FAITH". For those of you who were there this past week, I wanted to also give an apology and a disclaimer. First, up/rooted is intended to be a discussion and my role is simply as a facilitator. However, I personally think I did way too much talking this time, and my intention is not to play the part of "professor". So, I implore you all, if I end up talking more than say 20% of the time next meeting, please just slap me upside the head or something. And, on a related note, I need to also give a disclaimer that my personal opinions, whether about the gospel, or inclusivism/exclusivism, or church structure, are simply my own and are not necessarily representative of everyone involved with up/rooted. In conversation at our gatherings, I am simply one more voice among the rest, and the things I say are no more the "right answers" or authoritative position than anyone elses. Our hope is to encourage free and open conversation, not to simply indoctrinate everyone into some kind of new "emergent" way of thinking.

So anyhow, with all that said, I want to remind you one more time that we're meeting again Monday, November 21 from 7-9 pm in the Phelps Room in the Beamer Center at Wheaton College to discuss "Spiritual Formation and Discipleship Within Communities of Faith". Can't wait to see you there!

Peace,
Mike Clawson
up/rooted.west co-coordinator

up/rooted.west

Our guiding ideas:
As postmodern Christians we perceive the world around us and understand we are in a changed context for ministry. Years of restlessness, church-hopping and significant personal study has revealed we differ from the pragmatic or modern approach to ministry and the Church. We understand we now minister in a new paradigm of thought while still valuing the essentials of the Christian faith. We recognize the road to the future runs through the past. We value our shared history with all Christians and understand our generation must embody the gospel of Christ in an authentic way.

We understand theology as narrative. Theology is a way to understand God and our world. Not as science, but as a reflection of God’s community on the narrative of God’s involvement in history found in the stories of Israel and Jesus.

We understand apologetics as embodiment, ecclesiology as the visible church. We do not mourn the passing of Christendom, but look forward to a new world in which the church can again reclaim its role as a counter-cultural force. We are committed not so much to congregation as to networking. We understand we are to be the church, not just do church.

The church is moving from market driven to mission driven. As pastors we seek to move from power to servanthood. As educators we long to move from information to formation. Through spiritual formation we desire to take people from legalism to freedom. As worship leaders we are moving from program to narrative with interaction and use of symbols. As artists in the church we will go from constraint to expression. The evangelists among us understand it’s not rallies but relationship, and our activists are moving from theory to action.

Together we will explore what this looks like in our communities.

What to expect at an up/rooted west gathering:
· Understanding that we are in a changed context for ministry, we will explore, teach, and encourage with a spirit of humility toward one another and toward the traditions and institutions which have nurtured us.
· Understanding this is a new world and we are the “experts” on our generation, we will take turns asking questions and sharing insights from personal study. We will discuss and brainstorm together in a round table environment.
· Understanding information must lead to formation we are committed not so much to pure academic thinking as we are to no-lazy-thinking. Our gatherings will be full of substance and creative imagination which leads to action.
· up/rooted west values the process of shared experience from which we derive a sense of wisdom and direction. We meet once a month for discussion on topics of theology, ministry and social justice. The meetings are open to any who wish to minister to their hurting generation, not just those with “official” church jobs.

Keeping coming back here to find out when the next up/rooted.west gathering will be.

join the conversation

Hosted by Yahoo! Groups (no point in reinventing the wheel), you will find people talking about theology, spirituality, the contemplative traditions, the arts, what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. The conversation is just moderated enough to keep out spammers but more than open enough to allow people to talk openly and honestly about tough questions/

up/rooted is made up people from very divergent backgrounds, Christian traditions, and places in their spiritual journey’s. What you take for granted may not be shared by all. While we value spirited discussion, we also value listening, learning, and respecting others.

about up/rooted

Declaration and Invitation

Situation

From Abraham to Moses to Jesus and the Apostles, God works in and through His people by taking them out of what they know and understand and moving them into exposed and difficult situations. All throughout history God has moved in this way: uprooting his people in order to work mightily through them. The followers of Christ all live according to the same call the Lord gave to Abraham, "Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you" (Gen. 12:1) At this time, the Church, especially in North America, is being uprooted from familiar ground (call it modernity or whatever you will) and rooted in unfamiliar territory (the emerging postmodern, post-Christian culture) and as a result is experiencing a re-envisioning of all aspects of being and living as the people of God. Some welcome and embrace this transition; others view it with varying degrees of apprehension. Yet within this upheaval we are not left stranded and drifting in this changing culture. Though we are "resident aliens" (1 Peter 1:1), living off the land in which we find ourselves, we are rooted in the apostolic witness to Jesus Christ. Just as the people of God were guided by the cloud by day and the fire by night in their wilderness wanderings, so also has God provided the means necessary for our survival. As God’s people we have been given the gift of the Spirit who guides us into all truth (John 16:13) through Scripture, the history and tradition of the Church, and the community of believers, local and global. Therefore we are both rooted and uprooted in this emerging culture.
In the midst of this liminal situation, transitioning from one epoch to another, the best way forward is to work out the transition together, exploring the future in the midst of friendships and partnerships. Untangling ourselves from (past)modern hindrances to faith and Church life and re-imagining the Church in this emerging culture is best done in a community of wisdom that is guided by the Spirit. Because we do not seek a firm and definite definition of this emerging culture but a permeable approximation, what we need is not a rulebook or prefab program, but a community dedicated to living faithfully within this emerging culture, while simultaneously dwelling within the story of redemption.

Commitments

As a means toward supporting, encouraging, and expanding the conversation concerning this emerging culture, we are a "collaborative friendship to understand and engage the emerging post-Christian culture."

Theological Commitments

• We are committed to God as the foundation of reality. In a world where particularity is a scandal, we seek rootedness in history, following God as revealed in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• We are committed to maintaining the authority of Scripture—the apostolic authority of Holy Scripture as a valid witness to Christ beyond modern reductionistic, propositional scientific criteria.
• We are committed to the faithfulness and integrity of the church as a ‘contrast culture’, witnessing to the reality of the Kingdom of God.

Practical Commitments

• We are committed to being a space of communal reflection, questioning, wondering, and rethinking essential aspects of the church as it stands "between gospel and culture." Therefore, we will gather monthly, if not more frequently, to discuss topics related to missiology, ecclesiology, spiritual formation, justice, the arts, leadership, and catechesis.
• We are committed to deepening relationships among current and emerging church leaders. Therefore, we will establish and maintain a website to facilitate this friendship. We will develop a common way of life that seeks the Lordship of Christ in all things through practices of prayer, worship, works of mercy, and other spiritual disciplines as a means toward forming our lives out of our consumerist culture and into the Life of Christ. We will gather face to face with each other either on the first Monday of the month or other more informal times.
• We are committed to being a place to stimulate creative resources for the benefit of this friendship and the larger Christian community. Therefore, we will generate critical and creative essays and articles, as well as art, music, and literature as expressions of new ways of being the Church and living into the gospel.

While utilizing existing internet communities, books, and conferences to enhance our conversation, we emphasize a commitment to the importance of regular face to face interaction. We commit to cultivating this "collaborative friendship" among local/regional pastors, church planters, worship leaders, artists, and students in and around Chicago.

Invitation

This "collaborative friendship to understand and engage the emerging post-Christian culture." we call up/rooted, in recognition that we are simultaneously rooted as the people of God yet uprooted in this changing world. We invite Christians from all walks of life to join us.

*****

up/rooted’s purposes are closely aligned with those of both Emergent (we are an Emergent cohort) and The Ekklesia Project, both national organizations creating community and intellectual resources for the emerging, post-Christian Church

Moving Forward

This up/rooted blog has fallen into some disuse, but not it's making a come back.
It will begin again to make regular posting and contributions from our members and friends.