Hey all!

I've been rumaging through some websites that deal with "afterlife" options. I'm not a traditionalist in any sense so I love to read ancient and emerging views on salvation, life after death, etc. Below are two links to an excellent site on a biblical and christian perspective of universalism. I can't say anything more about it than it can say itself so go read them. Afterlife views, in my opinion, are not critical to knowing/following Jesus....so for me questioning, thinking, and arguing (in good spirit) make for good theology and growth.

Enjoy!

http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/universal_restoration.html

http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/answers2.html

Just found a wonderful description of how the emerging church might more honestly be described as the "converging church". It's nice to know that 2 years ago when I started thinking about this I wasn't out of my mind. Below is the link to the sight that has the article. It's really good.

http://emergingpensees.blogspot.com/

I am attending the National Pastors Conference in SD and have been deeply afected by some of the discussion that took place during the Emerging Chruch Critical Concerns Cource. Two speakers touched me deeply. One affected me on a level of theology and ecclesiology and the other on church praxis.

In the area of theology I have to give much thanks to Scott McKnight who blew the doors off the conventional evangelical approach to the question "what is the gospel" in a style reflecting the thoughts and attitudes of Write, Willard, and others McKnight began to describe, in essence, the four-fold concept of what the gospel is. To start he described the effect sin had in the classic idea of "the fall". Mans complete relationship with ALL THINGS was fractured. His relationship to God (personal), his relationship to himself (psychological/physical), his relationship to others (congregational), and his relationship to the world (missional). The holistic gospel of Jesus requires reconciliation of all of these areas (for most more in some areas than possibly others, as is evidenced in Jesus' response to say Nicodemus vs his response to the young rich man). This is not to say that we have four distinct individual ways of being reconciled to God through Christ. What it means is we have considerably more options than ever before (in regards to conservative/liberal views of the gospel) that we can utilize to introduce others to the kingdom. It allows us to intersect people where they are at. Many are estranged from the idea of God. Many like the idea of God, but are too wounded to think God might actually love them. Some are infatuated with God/Jesus but can't stand His church, and still others can see the benefit of knowing God and "doing the churh thing" as long as they don't actually have to be responsible to the plethora of Jesus' teachings about the poor and marginalised. I walked away feeling like I could intersect with people who don't know Christ or whose relationships with Him are stunted much better and more completely.

As for John Burke, his book "No Perfect People Allowed" is simply the best primer on how to be a functioning church of grace I have read. His talk reinvigorated in me the idea that this whole evangelism thing is slow, strange, and messy buisiness, particulaly in the postmodern context much of the world thinks and functions in. His church's ability to let the "transformation" of the individual happen at a natural, safe pace is absolutely crucial to any church who has a heart to see this generation come into a relationship with Christ.

That's about it for now

Later

Happy New Year

Hi Folks

I have seen my blog starting to show up as a link on others websites so I thought I should actually write something new. I am now serving as a lay pastor for a methodist church in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm not sure what God is doing, but I think it something to do with letting me see how the other halk live (liberals that is). I gotta tell you in the realm of social justice and compassion for the poor they have evangelicals beat....bad. In the realm of having a practical grounded way of sharing the gospel...they suck! Sorry folks the right and left have swung waaaaaay to far away from the center. This problem is hopefully what emergent streams of christian thought and practice are going to be able to address in the coming years. As more me, I am still kicking around the idea of a "convergent theology", an intersection of our best worship practices and traditions (music, style, liturgy, history, programs, etc). I am deeply interested in finding the common threads which tie us as believers together. Here is a very abreviated list of things that keep roaming around my mind

From my evangelical back ground: a centered Christology ( a solid calling to share Jesus)
From Dallas Willard: A fresh balanced look at what Jesus' life was really about (Christus Victor)
From Edward Fudge: A bold look at Eternal Concious Torment vs. A Loving God of Grace
From Wesley: The quadrilateral and the truth of Free will
From Calvin: irrisistable grace and God's sovereignty
From Luther: a beautiful sense of Liturgical flow (working on putting this to music to mesh with a "contemporary" format
From Orthodoxy: The ability to see the Trinity in all of life, deep symbolism, and an austere faith
From the Anabaptists: peace making, a hermenutic based on the sermon on the mount, a good balance of evangelism and social reform.....and shape notes! (the can ditch the head coverings though! ...jk)

That should give you an idea of where I'm heading. I would relish any insight/comments you all might have. Please drop me a line. My wife and I are planning on starting a church within the next 3-5 years (maybe sooner). Please pray that we would see and follow God's will.

I really love this icon

This year in review

Got my little ol' butt kicked out'a church
didn't have any idea how much it'd hurt
had to figure out a way to make a dime
got a green apron and served coffee for a time
got a SWANKy job with a coat and tie
lifted something heavy and thought I'd die
left that job so I wouldn't croak
needed somethin' else to not go broke
sold guitars and amps for some real creeps
figured out fundamentalists can take a flyin' leap
hung out with an angel at a real sweet church
had to leave again but this one didn't hurt (thanks David)
stopped sellin' guitars 'cause I just can't lie
jumped in my car and sold pizza pie
got a job for the city but it's just part time
took a small church job to make some extra dime
small church wants to grow so it took a chance
made me a the preacher man and asked me to dance
So the year's almost over and I barely survived
it may be the end but the beginning just arrived

Merry Christmas

I'm starting to get the hang of this. I hope you don't mind but I thought I would talk about the title of this blog "Convergent Theology". I am a pastor in training and deeply interested in where the Emergent Church movement is heading. As for my own take on this, I have been working with a concept called Convergent Theology which is essentially trying to find the best elements from various denominations and types of Christianity and hopefully meld them into a theological matrix that would help bridge some of the huge gaps that separate us (Christians) from each other. I realize that the word best is very arbitrary and personal, but I only have my own experience and spiritual guidance to work from. I simply feel called to help heal some wounds caused by misunderstanding, bigotry, neglect, and a million other reasons why we don't function in a unified sense as "The Body of Christ". The actual paper I am working on called "convergent theology" will be posted here as soon as I can figure out how to provide it as a downloadable link since it is getting quite large (12+ pages so far). If anyone can respond to tell me how to post a downloadable file on my blog page I would be greatly appreciative

fools made me a pastor

Well it looks like it's the end of the world. My church has brought me on staff as a pastor for our restart/seeker/pomo-culturefriendly service. I will have a lot of hats to wear organizing: worship, outreach, speaking, media,etc so please pray for me....if anyone ever reads this. I still dont have a clue as to what I'm doing here, blogging that is.