Emergence

I'm just back from a week in Colorado. My wife, Heidi, and me took our family out to Winter Park for a week long get together with our friends at Christian Associates International.  Christian Associates is a church planting movement that originally started in Europe with a church plant in Geneva, Switzerland and then Amsterdam, Holland. Over the years the group has grown and is fast becoming an organization with global reach. This past week was a "CONNECT" event primarily for those of us ministering in North America.

It was great to see a bunch of old friends again and make some new ones as well. I was introduced to a number of cutting edge planters in the Northwest from cities such as Spokane and Portland, as well as planters from California and the Denver area.  I am very excited for a few reasons. First, I thoroughly enjoy meeting people from other places and sharing ideas and stories. It is a huge encouragement to hear how God is working in other places in amazing ways. Second, at this stage in my life I need to continue to renew in myself the awe and reverence for God and His global kingdom. It is too easy to "work at church" and become myopic to the big picture. It is also refreshing to my soul to worship with people who have staked their very lives on joining in on the mission of God to reach the world. Not one of these folks is asking for sympathy or glory, that's for sure, yet I recognize the sense in which the words from the old hymn "I Surrender All" take reality in these people. And it is so true that, as I heard Michael Frost, author of "Exiles" once say, "People who are genuinely on mission worship like crazy." That worship is toward and for God, yet the communal aspect of that worship is incredibly moving to the soul.

A particular highlight of the week was a session with Hugh Halter, author of "The Tangible Kingdom."  He related a number of his experiences as a church planter as well as the life and practices of his church "Adullam" in Denver. (Actually they prefer to call themselves "a network of [Christ-centered] villages," who are open to all, not a "church" in the traditional sense as in "our activities are primarily centered in a specific location") Hugh and his group are truly breaking some new ground in terms of missional/incarnational ministry. I have almost finished reading his book and I'm looking forward to blogging thru it as I read it again. Also, I am looking at his latest work, "The Tangible Kingdom Primer" which he just released. Essentially it is the material he has been using as an introduction to Adullam/beginning discipleship for those new to the church. The back story to Adullam's  process is that Hugh uses this material to teach clearly the vision and values of the community - so that people can drop out if they don't feel they can commit to intense missional engagement in community as a way of life.  Adullam does not want to be just the latest thing to consume in the fad of cool church. They want people who want to belong and want to engage the world for Jesus.  The Primer looks very promising - and for those of you who will understand - I am particularly fond of it because there's a ton of material there from the book of James... Now that sounds tangible!