Merton and Nouwen

Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen are known by many of us as monks who have written much about the spiritually inward and the acting outward life as an apostle of Jesus Christ. They found this balance out of their monastic callings. I keep trying imagine the local church as a monastery that sends out monks into the world. They are not hyper people running about trying to fix the world, but listening, discerning, and praying folks who have a greater impact on the world than any of their individual actions could imply. Another person who has been of the modern era and helped me with both of these actions is Elizabeth O'Connor who was part of Church of the Savior in Washington DC.

How do we do this? How do we slow down each day in a time of sabbath and how do we honor each 7th day as a sabbath to the Lord?

time with Erwin McManus

I just spent a great 2 days with Erwin McManus in Charlotte, NC at Origins. I am continually focused on the mission of the church when I hear and read Erwin. Jack Michael was with me who is an Eden Sem grad and is awaiting ordination in the United Church of Christ pending a call to ministry.

Some of my notes (but I mainly just lisentened):

The best way to take care of immorality and heresy is mission. (He was seeing this from scripture. Erwin thinks too much of the church is focused on "rules" couched in the context of "morality.")

The church now in the US needs to shift from institution to movement.

Instead of "joining" a church you rather should be commissioned as a missionary.

Obedience to God is about a posture of the human heart.

The ethos of the culture of the church is more important than its rules.

We need to seek to change more what people care about than than what they "believe."

The following leadership actions shape ethos - language, choosing which battles to fight, telling the stories of your life and the world around you, communicating through the person you are (authenticity, sincerity)

The tension today in the church is not trying to understand the Bible but being obedient to it.

There is a difference between loving ourselves (love your neighbor as yourself) and being in love with ourselves (self-centered).

Love is an unendless resource of unlimited power.

God created us to be in relationship with God.

The ethos of the church is servanthood which is the model of Jesus.

Gerardo Marti spoke who was a member of Mosaic LA and now in Mosaic Charlotte, who is a prof of sociology at Davidson College:

Every aspect of church structure today is borrowed from pagan life.
The denominations are a creation of the late 19th and early 20th century Western focus on organizational efficiency through bureaucracy. That model no longer serves or reaches the culture we are in.
The cathedral/sanctuary model is based on the original Roman basilica.
19th Century Protestant churches were modeled on the Victorian home of having a fellowship area and and an entrance area beyond what the Puritans had of simply a 4 walled sanctuary.
The sanctuary became more theater like in early 20th Century to enable better sound projection.

People today begin to choose to use their based on feelings rather than obligation or loyalty.

It is not simply what we say these days, but how people hear us. (I made add more notes from Gerardo in the future...as I write these they don't seem that strong, but I remember how excited I was as I was listening to him...very helpful).

Back to Erwin:

Creativity = freedom from constraint & development of new capacities

Acts 17:16ff - is the church trying to reach Peter and Martha or Dionysius and Damaris? an apostolic church is focused on the latter 2.

the inverted bell curve of the Diffusion of Innovations has across it: innovators, early adapters, early majority, late majority, late adapters, laggards(nostalgics). Most of the church today is focused on the last two groups and they have lost the first three. Right now the institutional church is trying to hold on to or recapture the late majority. A sign of its lost focus of mission in our culture.

When we fall in love with Jesus we will really grow.

This is only a brief synopsis of what was communicated. Great rock/blues band from Mosaic Charlotte. Visited a very creative neighborhood art gallery called Area 15 which is a group of Christians reaching out to a recovering neighborhood in Charlotte.

Origins themes

The following themes are what the conference I am going to next week is all about. Each theme is built off of one of the basic elements of the natural order of the world. This puts our spiritual journey at the heart of our life journey...not just a volunteer activity we do on the side to be a better person. But then...that's what Jesus was all about when he came from God to be with us...in the natural elements of this world.
Wind commision
mission is why the church exists...people matter most

Water community
Love is the context for all mission...love permeates everything

Wood connection
Structure must always submit to spirit...passion fuels action

Fire communion
Relevance to culture is not optional...relevance communicates truth

Earth character
Creativity is a natural result of spirituality...character creates change

to learn more about these, go to this site

David Loar at gathering in Charlotte

David Loar will be at the Origins conference in Charlotte, NC Oct 15-18. It is sponsored by the Mosaic Alliance and will be led by Erwin McManus of Mosaic Church in LA. Jack Michael who grew up in and is a member of Fairlawn West Church, now lives in MInneapolis and is a candidate for ordination to ministry in the United Church of Christ, will also be attending.

"This gathering of catalytic, pioneering, and entrepreneurial leaders will motivate and equip your team to create an apostolic ethos in your community.

Origins is a leadership development experience designed to equip church and para-church leaders for mission in our diverse, pluralistic, urban, and multicultural 21st century context. Origins also serves as the annual convergence for the Mosaic Alliance, Origins Project churches, and other like-minded ministries.

The Origins experience is designed to immerse your thinking in a cultural architecture for the 21st century. At Origins you will connect with leading practitioners from around the world, Erwin McManus (Cultural Architect of Mosaic), and the leadership team from Mosaic. The entire experience will amplify the frameworks of ministry set forth in the scriptures and laid out in Erwin McManus’ book, An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had in Mind."