Class with Peter Rollins

This week one of my classes had a guest lecturer, we were privileged to have Peter Rollins come and speak to our class. Peter Rollins is an Emergent Philosopher, co-organizer of an Emerging Church Movement collective called Ikon. He is also the author of several books, How (Not) to Speak of God, The Fidelity of Betrayal: Towards a Church Beyond Belief, and most recent The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales. Oh yea he is also from Belfast Ireland.

So Peter came to our class this week while he is on tour speaking about his new book. So our class had the privilege to have him as our guest. It was pretty apparent from the beginning of the class that Peter is truly an Emergent Philosopher. He told us his style of speaking was like shooting a machine gun. So here are some thoughts and responses to things I took from this lecture.

Naming God and Un-Naming God...
No matter how great our theology and understanding of what we thinking God is it is limited and reductionist view. Every time we say God's name we must un-name God. This is an idea we are somewhat exploring in some of our readings. Darrell Guder talk about the idea of reductionism in his book The Continuing Conversion of the Church. Reductionism is a reality and a danger. We want to be able to describe God and in that we will inevitably reduce God to something we can grasp. But in our reduction we run the danger of limiting God. So we need to un-name God every time we name God. I see the importance of celebrating the divine mystery of God, while balancing the a human grasp of the concept of God. God is more wondrous then our concepts of God no matter how good our theology.

The Bible as Art
One of the coolest ideas from this lecture was Rollins idea that the Bible should be viewed as art. Not in the since that it lowers its value, but that different people can take different things from it. The Bible offers more than we can take in. The Bible gives us more and more, and it changes as we change and are impacted by the Bible.

Revelation as Trauma
Rollins said there were three stages of response to revelation from God. He compared these stages to that of trauma. Here are the three stages Rollins gave us...

1. Incomprehension - When we experience a revelation from God, our first response is just how can this be we are unable to comprehend what is taking place.
   
2. Bedazzlement follows once we have accepted the revelation. We stand back in aw of what is taking place after accepting the revelation from God.
   
3. Transformation follows once acceptance has taken place and our being in aw is calmed.
   

There is much more from this lecture, but I am still in the process of thinking through it and figuring our how I feel about it.

Kairos Church Experience

For several weeks I have been thinking about new church development, and what the emerging church looks like. So this Sunday, Ame and I went to Kairos church. This was a wonderful experience for us both. Both Ame and I have had our share of church experiences. We both grow up in vary active churches, that are still growing. We also have attended together two churches I have worked for. The thing that ties all of these churches together is their traditional format. They all have their own buildings, some of these churches were established in some cases as cities developed around them. All of these churches have a since of roots, and history. So attending a new church development was something exciting and held a sense of uncertainty of what to expect.

There were several things I noticed about this church. The first and most notable, there was some serious sincerity in everyone we meet from the Thomas one of the Pastors, to everyone we sat near and got to meet. During Thomas' sermon, he shared a very personal story about his and his father's relationship. It was so honest and open, and yet so refreshing. This sincerity was so amazing and left an impact on both Ame and me.

One of the other aspects of the service that was striking was how many young couples where there. There were more young couples - like early 30's and under, newly weds. For the two of us, who have been attending a church where our closest friends had a middle school aged son. So sitting in a church with a lot of young couples was exciting. And showed that there are young people out there who were looking for a community of faith to be a part of, and actively involved in.

The service itself could best be described as a what my experiences as a youth during youth group meetings. I don't mean this to say that it was overly simplified, or kiddish. There was no pretension, there was a great amount of openness. The service itself lasted roughly two hours. Neither Ame nor I realized this until we got in the car to head home. We both were amazed by this.

The sermon itself was challenging. The idea of not shying away from confrontation, and being willing to share my faith with others was challenging to me. I have no problem in being confrontational, it doesn't bother me. But the idea of sharing my faith has always been something I have struggled with. I am not sure if it is that I am overly Presbyterian and really cringe at the thought or word of EVANGELISM. So I have struggled with finding where that will fit into my life of faith and vocation as someone moving towards ordained ministry.

After this service I have begun asking questions about the church. Can this energy and excitement transfer over to the more "traditional" churches? How can this transfer to established churches? Are these churches willing to embrace the ideas about worship and community that are coming from these emerging churches? What will happen to these emerging churches as they become established churches?

There are many more questions and I am afraid I do not have any of the answers! We shall see as I will explore some of these ideas!