Mark Scandrette & Soul Graffiti

I joined the Emergent Village DC Cohort for a dinner with hippie cowboy preacher poet Mark Scandrette. He asked us a bunch of questions (? wasn't expecting that); read (and riffed on) excerpts from his new book "Soul Graffiti"; and (with a slight nudge from Mike) closed his eyes and recited his poem "ReIMAGINE!" -- a sort of trippy psalm spiced with wordplay, bright urban sounds and colors, a fleeting mention of "Tai-Chi Mariachi"... you get the idea.

"Soul Graffiti (Making a life in the way of Jesus)" is a book best read slowly and savored. I'm halfway through; I may reread some chapters before going on; I'm surprised at how many times I've paused and thought, "this is what I've been wanting to say but hadn't found the words." Instead of a real book review, I'll post "gems" from the book as I stumble across them. The "ReIMAGINE!" poem above is one (so go ahead, give it a listen); and here's another:

"Graffiti can be a plea for identity or a proclamation to puncture the darkness. ... The fragmentation I recognize in the world and in myself weighed heavily upon me as I cut words into a waxed paper stencil. I prayed as I sprayed the paint through the stencil out onto the sidewalk: CREATOR - RECREATE HERE NOW - INSTIGATE A REVOLUTION OF FAITH HOPE & LOVE...... What question or statement would you shout out to the universe or to God right now? Go public with your yelping. Write it with chalk on the sidewalk or post it on a Web site and see what kind of response you get."

More excerpts in a later post.

Jonny Baker in Lancaster, PA

One man went out to mow - Uploaded by jonnybaker

Jonny Baker (a creative force in UK "Alternative Worship" and co-author of the rather unique book by that name) is giving a workshop series this week, entitled "Faithful Improvisation: Worship and Mission in Post-modern Times" in Lancaster, PA. Lancaster's closer than London; but still two hours away; so I can't be there myself, but hopefully I'm only a couple degrees of separation from someone who can. (It's all free and open to the public.)

I've never met Mr. Baker, but his blog and other writings (including his "worship tricks" series and Flickr photo collection) have been an inspiration to many, and a source of highly creative thinking about Christian worship, theology, and culture. And for me and presumably others, he was the first link to the outstanding work of Andrew Jones, Pete Rollins, Kester Brewin, Roger von Oech, et al. Here he is (above right) mowing a prayer labyrinth -- one of many concepts he's catalyzed in the UK emerging church scene.

Finding our voices - maybe

At my fairly "normal" church (ARP, conservative Presbyterian), I've been trying to describe and explain emerging(-missional) churches [links updated] to a Sunday School class of about 50 people whose ages range from teens to 90s. It's been -ah- enlightening for all, and definitely a first for me. I'll try to post the slides as soon as I work through the copyright details.

The first week (Dec. 3) I successfully deferred discussion of the big "P" word, to focus on "people rethinking church" (regardless of self-consciously philosophical concerns). I borrowed liberally from Messrs. McKnight, Bolger and Gibbs, Baker, and especially Jones; but did add some fun things like a termite mound (emergent behavior), Gordon Cosby info [emerging church in 1947?], and "Babe, the postmodern pig"). Also threw in pictures of Upstream Communities, Vaux, Vintage Faith, Solomon's Porch, Grace, and local group The Common Table. So far so good; apparently a couple of people were concerned that we were going to start worshipping with parachutes but OK.

The second week (Dec. 10) we took a deep breath and looked at postmodernity and how to engage it as Christians. I borrowed from Wright, McLaren, Jones (again), and Rollins; and threw in some fun artifacts from Schultz, Launer, Ikon, and timetoturn. Unfortunately, I only got about halfway through my talk because a few folks had a strong aversion to the whole notion of skepticism. (And I didn't even get to the hard part [from Rollins], about how some skepticism about our own notions might be valuable!) So in closing, I skipped ahead to my favorite Peanuts cartoon ever (displayed here), explained the view that God is bigger than anything we could ever describe or imagine, ... and wished everyone a good week. To be continued.

Pete Rollins @ Emergent Baltimore

Spent a delightful evening Nov. 20 with Peter Rollins (in town on a book tour) and 15 or 20 Emergent Baltimore types (including a middle-aged, bald introvert with a small Buddha belly who identified himself as "Brian, Pete's driver"). Pete R. talked a mile a minute in a delightful accent that made "doubt" rhyme with "light." He wove together a number of points from his book, and some additional thoughts and jokes, in what I thought was pure free-association until he paused to check his notes about 20 minutes in.
Here are a few notable themes (if you've read his book these will be familiar):
- Powerlessness. He used this joke to evoke the risk of mixing the Christian message with an apologetic of power and fear and violence. Said we needed to avoid these in our message, but without letting it get anemic.
- Hypernymity (the other extreme from anonymity). He contrasted the Cartesian view, in which God is revealed and present, with Anselm's view of God as "something greater than can be thought," whom we can receive but never conceive.
- Conceptual idolatry. He likened Meister Eckhart's "God rid me of God" with Nietszche's "God is dead," which he suggested could be read as the death of one's concept of God.

Pete also talked about Ikon, the group he leads in Belfast, and showed some pictures. He described their "Last Supper" and "Evangelism" projects, their recent "Fundamentalism" service, and their new Wiki-based website. (all the more powerless to become?)

I had my book with me, so I asked him if he did autographs. He seemed willing but pretty reluctant so I changed the subject. He seemed to enjoy playing with little Timo as we spoke. (Yep, brought a baby to a theo/philosophy lecture...)

Browsing around the Ikon Website this weekend, I enjoyed the playful intro to their principles (iconic, apocalyptic, heretical, emerging, and failing -- which may sound pretty unsafe at first glance but don't let that fool you). I was also tickled to see that they used Michael Knott's Screaming Brittle Siren in last week's service. Maybe my "emerging journey" was already underway back in 1993 (?) when I fell head-over-heels for this CD myself.