The Church In An Emergent State
Prologue: I am really positive about the vocalized emergence of the Church from the institutionalized methodology and structure that is happening throughout the world.
Where does each of us belong in this structural change? I believe everyone has place in the emergence movement but will everyone take a place. Certainly not! Some just won’t receive that this is a God created and spoken emergence and others will just feel left out for various reasons. This I hope would not happen! However, the matter is at hand and the engine has started. The warmth of the keyboards is warming the internet air space in the blogosphere. How exciting is this? WOW, I am totally on board for the journey.
I do feel a bit strange though! Let me explain. I come from a Roman Catholic background and when I gave my heart to the Lord I went back to the Roman Catholic Church and felt as though I did not belong. Actually, the priests made me feel real uncomfortable. So I happen to meet some people who introduced me to the Pentecostal Experience. The rest is history.
Like so many others, I was saved from a very deep life of sin. Drugs, alcohol, gangs, etc., so my salvation was really radical and amazing. After 32 years of serving Him there have been times when I felt as though I should move on from this COG structure and method to something that I could relate to or that did not seem confusing or hypocritical. Let me also say that it did make me feel funny because I was not a southerner and I was a hippie. I have hung in there though and have had many days of confusion. Dazed and Confused as Led Zeppelin put it. Don’t get me wrong, I look at myself and wonder how I even have become a Christian! So, now I am 57 years old and have put four children through Lee University. Two of my four children have gone on to master’s degrees and one of them is a doctor at Stanford University Hospital. The other lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and pursuing his ministry there. The other two live hear in Santa Cruz with us and are helping with our ministry. I have been pastor of 3 very successful churches. Wrestling the whole time with traditions and success by numbers, almost like a Parker Brothers game.
Then a new thing started for us about 7 years ago. Bringing the love and compassion of Jesus Christ to the people that did not make it out of the 60′s and 70′s era. They are stuck in a cultural and characteristic time warp. I have “missional” church that has about 300 members. I now also pastor a church that has a membership roll that is not even close to who actually attends the church physically. This drives me absolutely to want to smoke pot. Everyone else does in Santa Cruz! There are great churches in Santa Cruz that are missional with the “norm” of society. So again, I get concerned about my place in all this. Here is an example: at one of the ministers meetings here in California we are presented with the “real” numbers of growth. My first reaction was “I have been lied to!” The statistics were like an obituary. The growth rate was so negative, we must entitle it “shrink rate.” There were only two ministers in their thirties and on in their twenties. We had only one active church in Los Angeles, CA.: OMG moment! I left there with real thoughts about quitting this denomination and just ministering independently. Now I am glad I did not leave. When I hear and see what is spoken and typed on the internet about an emergence I shout THERE IS HOPE FOR THE COG!
My intensity level is rising and I am already an intense pastor/evangelist/missionary. Maybe that is why God called me to Santa Cruz, the most liberal city in the U.S. I hope as many people get into this discussion at Missional COG Blog site. I am inviting all you radicals out there in cyberspace that have prayed for emergence to come out and discuss this with other blogsters who want change for the better.
Listen I grew up with the Hell’s Angels and my brother was the president in Cleveland, OH chapter. I still know a lot of these guys and I watched them almost become old and no young prospects. What they did was changed their method and approach. They had an emergence in outlaw motorcycle church. Yes, that is what they call their gatherings, “church”. Now they are the largest outlaw motorcycle club in the world and still growing. What I am saying is if something like that group can stop and see the problems and are willing to change how much more the Church of God? I hope that there is a great number of men and women who are at my age and older who will join in and help these young ministers move this church from the negative to the positive in spiritual and numerical growth outside of classical traditions and theological hoopla. Not for numbers sake but for the sake of shaking off these old skins and pouring wine into the new wine skins. What are your comments and thoughts?
Yes, I have more to say shortly….
My Heart To Your Heart
Dennis