Back in September, I got to attend the Alaska Lay School of Theology. I loved meeting Dr. Elaine Heath, a professor at Perkins at SMU. She has started Methodist monastic communities in Dallas, Texas and shared her ideas and dreams with us. It’s been exciting to think about how these ideas can be adapted in Alaska.
New Day Dallas website has the basics Our superintendent wrote a good summary here
Here are some of my notes from her sessions…
It’s a God-breathed thing that we’re moving back to the margins as a church
We don’t get to swagger around anymore like we own the place
Get opportunity to be prophets again
It’s time to purge ourselves of our junk diets as Christians
Christendom: the church becoming an empire that keeps growing and taking over – joining with secular power to get what it wants
Contemplative: show up and actually be present in the moment – being aware of God
Making Disciples in Post-Christendom United States
Challenges
Building: Overcome deeply ingrained belief that church is a place people gather
Churching numbs people to real and costly discipleship and rigorous expectations
Deemphasize dependence on buildings – instead mobilize for worship & service in borrowed space
Not sure God ever wanted us to build a permanent temple
Think back to the tabernacle being a tent
We need flexible and fluid space
Share space with other churches
Budget
Minimize money spent on themselves and their own comfort
Convert older churches into 7 days a week mission centers
More rigorous practice of stewardship
Boundaries
Location of authority is challenged in every massive cultural shift
Ordination will change
Now, clergy are part of a gated community residing at the front of the church
We’re now flattening out
Less emphasis on ministry professionals – more as servants and equippers of the saints
Growing permeability in what counts as ordained ministry
Are there really separate secular and sacred worlds? Plato introduced the secular vs. sacred thought. Who died and left Plato in charge? Why is sacred separate?
McLaren: I hope to never revile another Christian even as they revile me.
Kenotic Community (emptying)
Small
Not about mega, super-size me
Going down and serving, humility
Smallness in the size of our communities
Psychologically, it’s hard to be close with more than 12 people at a time
Teams of leaders – sent out in 2’s
Bi-Vocational
Earn your living at a regular job, get health insurance
Provide spiritual leadership
Community needs fewer costs
Jesus was a carpenter, not a professional clergy person
Discipleship formation with each other
class & band meetings, mutual confession
Don’t lock your people down with endless meetings about the building and things inside the church
Missional
Sent out
Being a church for others
The person who’s in love with their community will destroy their community – keep thinking about others
Flexible
If we can let go of our idea of fixed building & location, we’ll become flexible about where we meet
Will meet according to the needs of the missional context
Theologically flexible
Not about all towing the line on a doctrinal stance – fellowship comes around spiritual practices – room for growth – unified on justice & contemplative practices
Deep
Committed to ancient prayer practices – ikon, prayer, fasting, confession
Practices that help us show up to God every day = rule of life
Communal
I’m not even a self without my community
Mutually interdependent
Counter cultural push back in US against hyper individualism
Genuine community – at one ment
Creative
Risk-taking, entrepreneurial
Art, designing transformative ministry, links between “sacred & secular”
Helping neighbors be more fully alive
The kingdom of God is something we receive and enter, not something we build and make.
Invitations are made through friendships, don’t need much marketing
Here’s a video from one of the projects of New Day Dallas…
Is God calling you to explore this unique way of being the church today?