THE JOURNEY

First Dutch Emergent Weekend

I have just come back from a brilliant weekend with young church planters and theologians and thinkers and artists — all Dutch folk interested in what we call Emergent.

Emergent is a movement that seeks to think about church, faith and practice in the world of the 21st century. As we discussed this weekend, we find ourselves in three interesting transitions.

• The transition from the modern world to the postmodern world
• The transition from the era of christendom (in which the church was a dominant force in the world) to the era of post-Christendom (where the church has to learn to operate in the margin of society).
• We have become post-denominational: we look over the walls of our denominations and visit left and right. We respect each other as Christians, borrow ideas and insights from each other and seek to bless each other.

In Holland more and more people are waking up to these realities. It was exciting to be together with like-minded people who are not afraid to ask questions, share frustrations, hopes and dreams. We met together in a lovely Catholic monastery where we prayed together, read scripture, looked at nature, shared personal questions, allowed nature to inspire us and talked theology. My personal highlight: a 3 hour discussion with 8-10 people of Andrew Perriman’s latest book Re:Mission. Here are some pictures.

pic 1: We are praying in the crypt of the monastery. The peace of wood in the middle is a peace of for reflection's sake - not an idol to pray too... Just thought I'd explain (before you draw the wrong conclusion).
pic 2: left: Rick Jansen from Villa Klarendal (a missional project in Arnhem; left, Johan Ter Beek of Oase (an Emergent Church in Soest)
pic 3: talking and praing together on a nature walk
pic4: Dave and Eef Hund, just a cool couple that I like a lot... Dave and Eef would like to start a new monastic centre - a vision I find very attractive!

Much thanks to the people who organized this (Dave and Eef, Martijn and Rosalie, Nico-Dirk van Loo and Rick Jansen. We plan to do more weekends like this, so if you want to join - let me know!

Plato and Aristotle in Church

When I get asked to teach on Postmodernism, I sometimes make the comment that in the transition from the modern to the postmodern world we are not just saying goodbye to Modernist principles and welcoming postmodern perspectives. We are also saying goodbye to principles we have inherited from Greek philosophers! These principles have been operational in Western European thinking for almost 2500 years! That's quite something!

These principles include, among others, 'the unity of truth' or 'coherence' and 'correspondency theory.' (I know: this post is boring to most of you - but I find it fascinating!)

Jesus and Darwin: when the fittest choose not to survive

Last Sunday I sat down on the couch with a book I very much enjoy, A short history of nearly everything, by Bill Bryson. Every now and then I grab this most interesting book, that is full of amazing biological facts, historical oddities, and natural wonders. I just open the book somewhere and start reading.

This time I landed on the chapter about Charles Darwin, and how he formed his theory that came to be called ‘Survival of the Fittest.’ Bryson describes how the theory swept through the scientific community, and became the cornerstone mentality of civilized people. You have to survive. You have to be fit. You must Survive! It seems to have become the central tenet of the way people think—including people who follow Jesus Christ.

I have been thinking a lot about Jesus lately. In a small group I lead we are reading the gospel of Luke. I have been fascinated by Jesus’ behavior, and the way Luke records it. Luke has Jesus starting his ministry in chapter 4. And right at the start of that ministry Jesus is baptised by John the Baptist, and he has an encounter with His heavenly Father, who says: “you are my Son, I delight in you.” And that voice seems to be the only voice that Jesus listens to for the next bunch of chapters.

Antenna06, Brussels, Belgium

I spent my Saturday in Brussels, Belgium, at an event called Antenna06. It seems that more and more people in Belgium are waking up to the fact that there is a new world dawning, and Christianity may have to look very different there... Antenna06 is sort of the Belgian Emergent, or 'missional church discussion.'

It was exciting. I had the privilige of speaking, along side with Jason Clark and two Filip's from Belgium. Great to meet so many people who are starting to think about these things. Kudos to Filip and Filip for starting this conversation--now we need to start it on Holland. Matthijs Vlaardingebroek and I have started talking about it. Drop us a line if you want to be involved/invited!

Your God is too safe

Really enjoying a book I am reading right now called 'Your God is too Small' by Mark Buchanan. Read a chapter this morning about the unfairness of li8fe, and the need for faith in the middle of that. Made me repent of all my whining and complaining--not that you hear me complain and whine so much. But in my heart it can get pretty noisy.

THINKLINGS MA7 2005

Met with the Thinklings group again. We are a group of people within CA who try to think theologically about matters of mission and ministry. Talked around the topic of leadership this type. Very fruitful discussion. I enjoy these people and times immensely!
All of us present a paper. My paper, entitled 'kings and prophets' can be downloaded here (pdf). The other papers can be found on the Opensource Theology website, which is run by one of the guys in the group, Andrew Perriman (love Andrew and his thinking). Also: a picture gallery of our time together, and links to previous thinklings meetings, here and here.

Stan Grenz passes away at age 55

Stan Grenz, author and professor of theology died unexpectedly on March 12. Although I have never met him, his books have had a profound effect on me, especially his 'primer on pistmodernism,' which was the best introductory work on the philosophy and culture of postmodernism - and perhaps still is.

I have never met him, but I did have an interesting interaction with him in may 99.