Ok, so I have a class this semester called ‘Naming the Future: Integrative Project.’ This class is as close as my degree gets to writing a major thesis paper. Tonight I spent osme time struggling through what I want my thesis to center around. I first thought that I was attracted to network theory and how it informs the necessity for an ecumenical Church. But then, I also remembered that I really want to better understand the role of Power within the Church. Because, we all know that power is one of the many things that the Church does so well at abusing. So, I decided to expand on power. Below is my roughdraft of my thesis as well as how I got to it.

Playing the ‘So what’ game

Post-Christendom Christians (i.e. The Emergent Church) don’t know what to do with power – modern power has been deconstructed but post-modern power is yet to be reconstructed

So what?

Therefore the common expressions of power are experienced as violating at worst, and infringing at best

So what?

Post-Christendom Christians don’t look to their modern superiors as mentors – instead they look at them as men and women that have no idea what they are doing

So what?

Therefore post-Christendom Christians get incredibly cynical of their modern superiors and end up dismissing the entirety of the person because of a dislike for how they express their power

So what?

Therefore further division occurs within the Church

So what?

This division is experienced as Movements that are started in rebellion of the old power structures

So what?

These movements stagnate because nobody wants to step forward and ‘take charge’ for fear of being ostracized or labeled as a ‘power-monger’ or a ‘typical leader.’

So what?

Movements and Ideologies die

So what?

The progression that is necessary to keep the Church accessible dies along with the Movements and Ideologies and soon the Church is worse off then when the movement began because everybody is upset at everybody.

Another Tool to Get at a Thesis

Topic: I am studying…the inferior understanding of power in a post-Christendom society
Question: because I want to find out what/why/how…modern power structures along side the emerging post-modern power structures help inform the current state of both the traditional church and the emerging manifestations
Signifigance: in order to help my reader understand…how to use and transform the power structures that currently exist to better enable both manifestations of church

Rough Draft of Thesis
Although power in the modern Church has been abused and power in the emerging church is shunned I claim that without a deep understanding of the power structures that are present all around us the Church will not be able to fulfill its call to speak into culture Because the fear of power keeps people from causing movement, Because the fear of power serves to further divide the Church, Because the fear of power causes great confusion around how to have influence and authority within a context

If you have thoughts, or good references please let me know. I have to write a 35 page paper on an idea that I am ill-informed about what so want to understand better

peace

joel

Listen Well.  Love Well.  Speak Well.

peace

joel

Brooke and I live in an 82 unit condominium complex that was built in 1949. Within our tenure here, which is a little under a year and a half, our home owners dues have gone up twice. The most recent increase was to cover an increase in insurance because of an apartment that was heavily detroyed by a candle catching a drape on fire and the owner was under-insured so the master insurance picked up the difference.

So one of the women in our condo complex got pretty fiesty about this whole situation and called a community meeting with the Board of Directors for our complex. This meeting was this past tuesday night — I went to it for the sheer entertainment value that such meetings tend to be. But, what I learned in the process of this meeting is that as almost 35 people showed up the Board continued to get more wide-eyed and eventually said, “In 15 years we have never had this many people come to a meeting before.”

Since this meeting the social activity at our condo has increased quite a bit. It seems as though rallying around a common cause (or enemy) unites people — at least at the surface level. I have witnessed a similar experience on other realms before and always find it interesting to observe what happens once the common enemy dissipates.

So my question is this, what is it in our pathology that brings us to movement when we have a common enemy? Or differently stated, why is connection felt when we have something to be against? The answers to these questions may just inform some of the power of propaganda that is felt everywhere in this country. May it be from the quote-unquote homosexual agenda, to George W. Bush’s foreign policy, to supporting organic food markets, to the way that Christianity ‘recruited’ (and continues to recruit) converters.

Since propaganda has power, how does one use this power with dignity and honor? I think that every Christian would admit that to scare someone into becoming a Christian goes against what is a true transformation of ones life, and yet evangelism is often crafted as talking about eternal life in Heaven instead of eternal life in Hell (the enemy). This approach seems to distort not only what I believe to be the good news that Jesus calls us to, but it also distorts the power of propaganda.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

peace

joel

UPDATE: I just found this blog link of a friend of mine about a conversation of after-life.

The self-righteousness of the righteous is a greater hindrance to the kingdom of God then the sinfulness of the sinner.

peace

joel

Yup, that’s right.  I added new pictures today to my website — mostly from Christmas this past year.  There are some great shots of my family building a snowman as well as Jay and I throwing the football and presents and food and my Grandpa.  Lots of fun.

peace

joel

Reason 1:  Brooke’s computer broke, possibly beyond repair.

Reason 2:  Brooke and I unknowingly lost our notetaking job that we have been doing for almost 2 years because of a flippant email that we were not the first to respond to.  Someone else responded back first and so, somehow, the job that shouldn’t have been open to the public was and we didn’t get it.  Can you tell I’m angry?

Reason 3:  This past summer I was asked by someone at my school to be his TA (teaching assistant).  After initially saying yes to this and planning on it, and rearranging my life so it would work a flippant email was sent to me telling me that I couldn’t do it because  I was still a current student.  This heavily upset both myself and well as the professor.  Then, yesterday I’m checking the TA schedule for the spring term and noticed that there is a current student that is a TA — uhhh, slightly confusing to me — because the Academic Dean made such a big deal about me being a current student only 6 months prior — you’d think that he would look at all the prospective TA’s since he made such a big fuss about me.  Can you tell I’m angry?

Sometimes life gets in the way of life.

I can be an asshole of the grandest kind
I can withhold like it’s going out of style
I can be the moodiest baby and you’ve never met anyone
who is as negative as I am sometimes

I am the wisest human you’ve ever met.
I am the kindest soul with whom you’ve connected.
I have the bravest heart that you’ve ever seen
And you’ve never met anyone
Who’s as positive as I am sometimes.

This week I officially begin my Mentored Ministry for my divinity education at Mars Hill Graduate School.  For the next 8 months I will be working as the Narrator at a church plant in the Northgate community of Seattle.

I am incredibly grateful that I get to have such an opportunity.  Rob Gillgrist, the pastor as well as a collegue and friend is truly a mentor of mine.  His grace, strength, and chameleon use of language are attributes that I hope to learn a little something about.  Also, being that it is a church plant many of the ’systems’ are open-ended, or not developed, and so it will be fun to help narrate such a formative and forming church.

But you may be asking the question, a narrater?  What in the world does a narrator do?  For a brief snipit of this let me quote answers.com — “A person who tells a story; in literature, the voice that an author takes on to tell a story. This voice can have a personality quite different from the author’s.”

“Ok, that’s great Joel, definitions are good, but it is only a definition, what are you going to be doing?”

Well, I’m glad you asked.  Right now, and this is destined to change, I will be listening to the story that is unfolding at Wits’ End Church as well as the Northgate community.  I will then be crafting these scenes into a story, and a language, that will hopefully skew the ’seen’ just enough so that something of the ‘unseen’ can be felt and seen.

peace

Joel