THE EMERGING CONVERSATION
Recently, Dave (Korb) sat down with Skye Jethani, Assistant Teaching Pastor at Blanchard Road Alliance Church in Wheaton and contributor to Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal, to try to get a handle on “the emerging church.” The movement inspires unremitting discussion—at least among church leaders—that seems to be spurred on by misunderstanding and misaimed accusations as much as by the earnest desire of some to understand and identify.

If you, like Dave and I (Suzanne), are having a hard time wrapping your brain around the emerging church movement, you are certainly not alone; in fact, our struggle to nail down a comprehensive definition arises from the nature of the movement itself. As Skye explains in his article Unbundling Christianity: An Attempt to Define the Emerging Church, “To the frustration of its critics, and to the delight of its advocates, the emerging church has successfully resisted boundaries, categories, and labels. Such devices are seen by emergent’s adherents as the shackles of modernity used to confine and control what should be free and fluid.”

Nevertheless, it is very difficult to follow and enter into a conversation—with any validity, at least—without a basic knowledge of the topic. And since it seems that the flurry of discussion surrounding emergent thought and practice will not dissipate any time soon, we are grateful to Skye for his attempt to define the elusive.

Skye suggests that “the most significant contribution of the emergent movement is the unbundling of the Western church.” He explains,

"In marketing, bundling is the practice of packaging several items together as a single product…The modern church is characterized by bundling. Modernity’s insistence on categories and boundaries has meant certain theological traditions have been bundled with certain worship styles, forms, and modes of ministry… The assumption that [these things] must be packaged together is no longer valid to those with an emergent disposition… Instead, the emergent movement is creating a new ministry paradigm where unbundled elements of the church can be reconfigured into previously unseen forms of Christian community and mission."

Based on this description, Skye proposes that “perhaps a better name for [this movement] is the ‘merging church’ as previously estranged elements of Christianity are unbundled from modernity and reunited into endless permutations of mission and community.” (For further explanation of the emergent movement as unbundling, we recommend reading Unbundling Christianity in its entirety.)

Even when one has a handle on what the conversation is all about, emergent leader Brian McLaren cautions against judging where others are in that conversation. In another article, Skye relays McLaren’s “Seven Layers of the Emergent Conversation.” They are, in order: Style, Evangelism, Culture, Mission, Church, Gospel, and World. The idea is that a spectrum exists when it comes to emergent thought and practice, from those who deal mainly with matters of style, down to those who wrestle with foundational realities. (For illustrations of McLaren’s layers, read Skye’s article How Emergent Are You?) Different places, same conversation.

Once you feel ready to join the conversation, there’s also the matter of who’s participating. Skye pointed out to Dave that the emergent church is more diverse than many think. It is not merely a movement of idealistic and inexperienced twenty and thirty-somethings who dress and look a certain way. Some of the movement’s most outspoken thinkers are seasoned church leaders in their forties and fifties who look like they could be your dentist. This seems another area in which it might be helpful to think of it as “merging church” instead of emerging; rather than simply a movement of the up-and-coming, it is a coming together.

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THE THICKER LIFE
In his book Death by Suburb, David Goetz writes about the constant temptation among suburbanites to measure life by what we drive, the house we live in, and the job we do. Goetz reminds us that these things are only one dimension of reality. He writes, “The outward physical world of SUV’s and minivans, drearily earth-toned subdivisions, golden retrievers and chocolate labs, and endless Saturday morning soccer games is only one dimension. There’s another dimension or two. This much thicker world is a world in which I am alive to God and alive to others, a world in which what I don’t yet own defines me. It’s a higher existence, a plane where I am not the sum total of my house size, SUV, vacations, kids’ report cards—and that which I still need to acquire.”

While reading this book I have found myself repeatedly saying aloud, “AMEN!” (which can be an interesting experience when reading on an airplane). I’m saying amen not just because I agree with what Goetz is saying but because I long to be known and to know this “thicker” dimension. I am “wired” to live in that world and not the world that defines me by the car I drive.

These thoughts curiously remind me of another book I read a number of years ago. The book is Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple, written by then-president of Apple John Scully. In the book Scully describes how he came to his decision to leave Pepsi, where he was a high-level executive, to become the president of Apple. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, made many trips from CA to NY, trying to convince Scully to join Apple and give the rest of his career to that company. Each time Scully said no, but finally the conversations reached a level of intensity and a final decision had to be made. Scully tells how he stood with Jobs on the balcony of a NYC apartment, and Jobs said to him, “Today is the day! Are you coming to Apple or not?” And Scully replied with something like, “Well, you couldn’t pay me enough.” Jobs came back with, “How much do you want?” Scully answered, “I guess I would like a million dollars in salary, a million to sign, and a million in severance pay if things don’t work out.” (Remember this conversation took place over 20 years ago!)

Jobs responded, “If we have to do it with that kind of money, we will. We want you to come to Apple because Apple needs the best.” Scully still said, “I don’t think I can make the switch.” Scully writes, “And then Steve Jobs asked me a question that would inevitably change my life. Standing there on that balcony, Steve Jobs looked at me and he said this: ‘John, do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want to come to Apple and help us change the world?’”

Scully continues, “It was like someone had delivered a stiff upper cut to my solar plexus. I was left breathless. I was awed at the power of the question. It was the question that would drive my decision ultimately to go to Apple.”

These thoughts then take me to the Scriptures, where Jesus questions the disciples concerning his identity. “Who do the crowds say I am?” And then more importantly, “Who do YOU say I am?” Sell sugared water or change the world. One-dimensional living or the “thicker” life. Declare yourself and it will make all the difference.

As you know, it was Peter who answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter said the right words, but followed them up with wrong actions, indicating that he did not really understand what he had just declared. He was just like the crowd on Palm Sunday.

I have this strong feeling that over the last years, in the church and out of it, we have grown more and more resistant to making choices. In this changing culture it is becoming easier and easier for people to be choiceless, to just go with the flow. You can get away with that in our culture. You can do that in church.

I wonder if part of the “thicker” life is the constant affirmation of Jesus as Lord, Jesus as the Christ. There is no doubt that Jesus was trying to move those men beyond their hopes of a visible political kingdom inaugurated before their eyes to a “thicker” future hope.

On this post-Easter morning, I am also thinking that the world needs this challenge. We need that “NYC balcony” experience where we are pressed to make a choice. I constantly need that in my life, because it is too easy, in the name of religion, to do programs and leave Jesus out of it.

He is the Christ. He is our Savior. He is Risen! Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?” A great question. A necessary question, not just to be answered once, but over and over again as we confirm our choice and conviction.

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"When it comes to change, there are three seasons of timing: People change when they hurt enough that they have to, when they learn enough that they want to, and when they receive enough that they are able to." - John Maxwell

"Any deep change in how we live begins with a deep change in how we think. The biblical word for this is repentance—in Greek, metanoia, a change of mind. Repentance is a ruthless dismantling of old ways of seeing and thinking, and then a diligent and vigilant rebuilding of new ones. Change begins with fresh eyes, in other words. It begins with an awakened imagination. You turn away, stubbornly and without apology, from that which formerly entranced you, and you turn toward that which you once avoided. You start to see what God sees, and as God sees it. But that takes more than will. It also takes imagination.” - Mark Buchanan, in The Rest of God

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Night by Elie Wiesel, translated by Marion Wiesel, Hill and Wang 2006
(Reviewed by David Korb)

I read Night years before Oprah selected it for her book club. Due to the recent attention, however, I picked up a copy of the new translation by Wiesel’s wife, Marion. I found the new translation easier to read but the story no less totally heart wrenching. The inhumanity of which we humans are capable is absolutely shameful and beyond description, even this eloquent and thoughtful man’s words. Elie Wiesel, the author, is a survivor of Auschwitz and the horror of the holocaust.

Be warned that you may need to prepare your heart and mind for the terrors Wiesel describes in Night. This is the story of how young Elie and his father were separated from the rest of their family and loaded into a railroad car, treated with less dignity than cows, and transported across the country to a concentration camp. There Wiesel endured horrendous treatment and witnessed such atrocities as babies snatched from their mothers and thrown into the air for target practice.

If you’ve never read a firsthand account of the unspeakable evils done to our Jewish brethren in the Holocaust, it is important that you read this book. Allow Wiesel’s account to pierce your heart—this, even this, is the evil our Lord hung on the cross to cover with His blood. Dark and difficult, Night is an unbridled look at evil. Reading it woke up my heart once again to man’s capacity for evil and why we do what we do. Standing on this side of the cross, Wiesel’s story gives new definition to what Jesus bore on that tree.

Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times
by Donald Philips, Warner Books 1992
(Reviewed by David Korb)

I love reading stories about Abraham Lincoln. As you may be aware, he is not an easy person to figure out, be he certainly left an impressive legacy. Gary Will’s book Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America is an amazing story for those of us who make our living largely through the words we speak. Philips’ book is just as practical for those of us who lead in any capacity. Philips divides Lincoln’s leadership approach into the segments of People, Character, Endeavor, and Communication.

For example, Lincoln operated by the MBWA (managing by wandering around) principle. Phillips writes, “During his four years as president, Abraham Lincoln spent most of his time among the troops. They were number one to him; they were the people who were going to get the job done. He virtually lived at the War Department’s telegraph office… He met with generals and cabinet members in their homes, offices, and in the field… He toured the Navy Yard,…toured the hospitals to visit the sic and wounded…[and] even went to the field to observe and take charge of several battle situations himself, coming under fire at least once.”

This book is laid out for a quick read and easy access to the main points. I think that you will find many of Lincoln’s leadership principles easily transferable to what you do. This book may even provide you with material to draw from when teaching and training others.

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