Where do you get your news?

A few weeks ago during a discussion session, people briefly referenced the different news sources they trusted (or didn't trust). It made me wonder where everyone went to get the news - whether online, TV, print or otherwise. I thought if we shared what sources we find particularly helpful, we might find some "new news."

So - where do you get your news?

Next Meeting: COTF - May 3rd

This Sunday, May 3rd, we will have a "Celebration of the Discipline" gathering. We will meet a little later than usual, at 6pm at Jesse & Kellye's house in Grove City. We will have the grill hot and ready to go, so please bring your favorite meat and veggies to put on the grill (for yourself) and then a side dish or beverage to share with everyone else. Kellye will be making a strawberry pie, which you don't want to miss :)

We'll eat dinner first, relax and hang out, and then build a fire and have our time of community worship, prayer, spiritual engagement and communion around the fire pit. We will plan to end around 8:30pm.

As always, everyone is welcome, even if this would be your first time visiting the group - looking forward to seeing everyone Sunday evening!!

Is Violence Ever a Good Thing?

Yesterday we asked that challenging question as we explored the topic of violence and attempted to understand God’s character as it is depicted in the Old Testament.

I am currently reading a book by James Hollis called “What Matters Most.” In one of the chapters he discusses the fact that we die many small deaths to become larger. I agree with this idea.

I allow God to bring about certain deaths:

The death of my pride, the death of my judgments, the death of my fears.

But what about the death of those things that I cling to?

My need to feel safe, my need to be loved, my need to feel secure about my future.

And do I have trust like Abraham? I raise the knife. Will God ask me to plunge it into the very promise I believe He gave me or will God stay my hand?

Sacrifice.

Violence.

I allow the death of everything I have, everything that I am. When Jesus said, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me, the answer was the cross.

Is violence ever a good thing? What have I to gain?

The Kingdom of God.

Film night!

Hey all,

I'm hosting another installment of Faith, Film, and Philosophy on Saturday April 25 at 7pm. Andrew is leading the discussion this time. Here is his description of what will take place:


Join us to watch Slumdog Millionaire followed by reactions and discussion. The movie itself contains a lot of interesting ideas about the narrative structures of our lives, the unknown events that become meaningful in time etc., but we will also consider the movie as a 'cultural phenomenon' that has received Hollywood's highest honor. Is the depiction of slum life exploitative, a kind of seemingly distant, but ultimately damaging, form of scintillating poverty pornography? How can we think of poverty as people of faith whose tradition calls us to love others as ourselves? Globalization. .. Flattening Worlds... The rise of sprawling urban slums... The utopian failures of low-income housing solutions... The looming population booms... It's all there. Perfect for Faith, Film, and Philosophy night.


My address is 1212 Summit Street and I live on the corner of Fifth Ave and Summit. Parking is available on the street but if you have any trouble there is some room behind my duplex as well. My number is (937) 572-2751. Please let me know if you're coming so I can get enough chairs!

Bring your thoughts, questions, and your best Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Trivia.

Hope to see you there!

Julia Sullivan

Psalm 88, 44, and 39

This Sunday, let's explore some of the uncomfortable implications about God and violence suggested
in the video below.

Easter Church Ideas?

Hi everyone - we've talked about a few of us trying out a church for Easter Sunday. I am pretty open to suggestions, so if you've got an idea go ahead and post it below. I would be happy to go to the same Catholic church from last year, but I am a little peaved with Rome right now...so perhaps something else?

Generate Magazine

I'm not sure why I haven't seen or understood what this was earlier, but Generate Magazine is "a forum to retell the stories of the grassroots communities and individuals who are finding emergent and alternative means to follow God in the Way of Jesus." From what I can tell, it is just getting started (officially) and they are asking for unsolicited submissions of all shapes and kinds: "completed essays, photo and art galleries/portfolios, poetry/verse, long and short fiction, plays, interviews, new liturgy/worship expression and reviews."

Is there something we could contribute to this? A collaborative effort? Favorite blogposts? Essays (Nancy's incredible work comes to my mind immediately....) Reflections on our past year and a half together?

What would you like to talk about?

We would like to extend an invitation for you (or anyone) to ask any question or raise any topic for one of our discussion sessions. Whether you have attended our meetings before or not, you are welcome to ask a question or point out a concern - just something you would like to hear so-called "emergents" discuss. Nothing is off the table!

You can post your question in the comments section of this blogpost, or email schroeder.jesse@gmail.com. We'll post information regarding the discussion session later.

Celebration April 5

This Sunday, April 5, Adam and Kara will host our Celebration/Worship time (1008 Manor Lane, Unit D). The idea for this celebration came from listening to Peter Rollins talk about IKON so it will include a bit of drama and story.

The food theme for this Sunday is fish (be it shrimp or fish sticks or tuna!)

I encourage you to bring a story or testimony to share--it can be a story that has brought you closer to knowing and loving Jesus. But it doesn't have to be serious. Feel free to tell a 'big fish' story as well.

Thank you in advance for allowing me to lead this time. I have really had fun planning and preparing it.

See you all Sunday.

Sunday Discussion Wrap-Up

We had a great time sharing lunch together at Nancy's house - thanks so much for hosting! We tossed around different ideas for the future of the cohort, and I thought I would just jot down a few of them here (anyone can feel free to edit this post of remind me of things in the comments section). I think the three things that were settled were:

1. Fewer discussion sessions, perhaps only one a month.
   
2. Having an assigned "coordinator" for each month, or perhaps a few months at a time. This person would simply be in charge of making sure the blog info was updated and something was generally "planned" for the week and info was getting out to everyone.
   
3. Having a "planning" meeting that would take place once every three months or so. This meeting would be an informal and open time to discuss and suggest new ideas for the upcoming months. New ideas for different activities/meetings could be any of the following:

• Visiting a church together on a Sunday, and then sharing lunch afterward to discuss/process the experience (this is something we did together a few times in the past, but is hard to do if a discussion session is planned at 3pm)
• Doing joint service projects together. These could be random, or connected to programs people are already involved in (for example, picking up trash in Weinland park area, serving a meal at Bellows Ave. church, or something totally new).
  
• Increased inter-faith dialog, which would involved inviting people of other faiths, other groups from Columbus to be a part of our discussion. For example, inviting a Buddhist to explain and teach meditation practices.
  
• Inviting other "emergent" speakers to share with our cohort (similar to the Rollins event).
  
• Encouraging new people to ask questions or suggest topics that could then be discussed. This would not be "leading" a discussion session, but would give them the opportunity to suggest a topic/author/book/idea, etc.
  

Some of the tensions involve 1) Wanting to accepting, affirming and welcoming of everyone, but also continuing to develop a close bond with each other in the group; 2) Encouraging diversity and differing opinions while recognizing people will naturally stick with people they agree with; 3) Providing a service to Columbus, inviting new people, but we don't feel like the goal of the group is to grow bigger necessarily; 4) being open to other faiths and ideas, but not being ashamed of loving and following Jesus.

As always, the cohort is in the process of becoming and it is a joint experience. We are so thankful to everyone who has been a part of the cohort in the past, and we welcome everyone's continued involvement and input, especially to those new voices who have just entered the conversation in the past months. More than anything, we desire for everyone to feel accepted and welcome, and to grow in the way that they most need to, whatever that might be.

I did record the discussion for those who couldnt' make it but wanted to be there. If you want an .mp3 file, just email me at schroeder.jesse@gmail.com

Sunday Meeting

Last Sunday Adam had volunteered to lead a discussion at Global Gallery for our next meeting, March 29. As it turns out, Adam let me know his week was extra busy and another alternative might be better.

I suggested to Adam that the group could meet at my home in German Village on Sunday for lunch around noon. In light of the recent blog, we could discuss ideas and suggestions and thoughts about the future of the Central Ohio Emergent Cohort and how to go forward.

How about if everyone packs a lunch and I'll provide some drinks. If it's a nice day, we could walk down to Schiller as well.

I live at 750 South Lazelle Street. Directions: As you are traveling on Third Street toward Schiller Park, turn left on Frankfort and then right on Lazelle. (Two cars can fit in our driveway if the first car pulls up as much as possible.)

Please feel free to make other meeting suggestions if the idea and time do not seem like a good fit for Sunday. Additionally, if you would like to skip the meeting this Sunday since some are going up to Canton on Monday, that's fine too.

A Time to Quit

So how would everyone feel about quitting the cohort?  Scandalous, right?  Or maybe just history repeating itself.

I feel like I'm in a private club.  Does anyone else have that sense?  And I don't mind the members in the club. They're quite nice.

What do we want to do?  What to do we want to be?  When Nick and Jane re-began the group (which is what I'm suggesting is in order again), the five of us settled on being a place to talk about emergent and doing topical discussions on a bi-weekly basis.  A few months later, Zach prompted discussions that led to our current schedule of discussion/celebration of the faithful/discussion/super-fun.  Now, many new voices are part of the conversation, so please speak up: what works and what doesn't?  Should we abandon the celebrations?  Should we only do celebrations?  How can we reimagine this thing?

Peter Rollins commented this morning that "no matter how much people within or outside the church accept doubt, complexity and ambiguity they do not want it to be reflected in the worship songs, the liturgies and the preaching. The structure itself is protected from doubt."  

How can we let doubt be a part of our structure?   

What's Next?

This Sunday we'll be talking about Phyliss Tickle's book The Great Emergence again. The basic message of the book (in fact, it's the subtitle) is that Christianity is changing for a variety of different reasons. Here a few links that have shown up in the past weeks that offer different perspectives on the changes within Christianity:

• TIME names "The New Calvinism" as #3 of the top ten ideas that are changing the world right now. The article quotes Al Mohler as saying about young people, "They have plenty of friends: what they need is a God...The moment someone begins to define God's [being or actions] biblically, that person is drawn to conclusions that are traditionally classified as Calvinist." (See also this post by Mark Driscoll himself that includes 4 reasons why neo-Calvinism is so attractive) Interestingly enough, the article begins by offering the Calvinist slant of popular Christian music as evidence for the shift; a statement akin to one Tickle made at the conference in Cincinnati a few weeks ago.
  
• The prediction that Evangelicalism is coming to an end. First a series of posts found here, then picked up by several other blogsites. One of the most notable statements is that, "This collapse, will...herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian west and will change the way tens of millions of people see the entire realm of religion. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become particularly hostile towards evangelical Christianity, increasingly seeing it as the opponent of the good of individuals and society." While this is simply an opinion piece, the statement that "HALF of evangelicals [will] be something else within 2-3 generations/10-20 years" is similar to Tickle's statement that in the coming years, 50% of Christianity will operate within what she calls "The Emerging Center" or "The New Rose." (She also claims that "experts" agree).
  
• A bit of a heated blog-a-logue regarding the nature of "virtual community," primarily started by Shane Hipps, author of Flickering Pixels. See an interview here between Shane and Rob Bell, a longer one here with Zach Lind (from JEW!), and finally, the one that started it all (watch this one if none of the others). Essentially, Shane claims that true community must have the following: 1) A kind of shared history: This helps establish a sense of identity & belonging; 2)Permanence: This is how you get the shared history; 3) Proximity: You have to BE with each other to create meaningful connection; 4) A shared imagination of the future: This is especially important within Christian community. More interesting than Shane's claims were the responses by different bloggers, most notably AWC here, and Scot McKnight here and here, with a final response from Shane.

So, my point in sharing all these links is several. First, to give us a bit of shared resources to discuss on Sunday. So in the following days, as you have time, peruse some of these links, and perhaps post some more in the comments. But more importantly, I want to pose the question to be discussed this Sunday, "Are things in Christianity and religion at large really changing, and if so, what do we think is next?" At the last discussion session we briefly discussed some ideas of what might be the coming "authority" in terms of religion and even society (BTW, Tickle claims that the authority from the time of the Reformation until about the mid-1900's was "Sola Scriptura" or "Scripture alone").

In short, what will Christianity look like in 5, 10, 20 years? What does that mean about how we should be living and believing now? Where are the changes taking place, and where will the "new" Christianity be, and what might it look like?

Discussion Sunday, March 22, 2009

We are planning to meet 3:00-5:00 at the Global Gallery as Adam and Jesse present Part II of the discussion about Phyllis Tickle's book, "The Great Emergence." I reiterate what Nick posted recently, “this book has been highly touted by other Emergent Village writers, and is seen as a synopsis of Emergence, not just in religion, but across all society.”

Perhaps near the end of the discussion we could consider sharing what initially brought each of us to the Emergent Cohort and how the Emergent Movement and the Cohort have affected and moved us forward in our spiritual lives so far.

On the American Dream

I was talking to my really good friend last night and I said “I partner my life with God—I don’t try to take the responsibility of having a great life on my own.” She was, to say the least, skeptical.

I grew up believing in the American dream—I worked hard, had a good job, had a family, had religion, a house, vacations, stuff and was told ‘this will make you happy.’

But then I turned 40 and realized:

What? Wait… that didn’t work. Why am I not happy and what do I have to look forward to?

The fascinating thing for me was that I expected to love my life because my religion said I would. The promises were great (Heaven) and the dots connected (how to get there). But I certainly wasn’t happy with my life and then it tanked. Good grief—really frustrating!

But I was determined to love life. So I set out to get close to God. I wanted to not only be happy, but I wanted to be peaceful about things. I started searching, questioning, fighting and believing.

…And surrendering.

The surprising thing was the more I let go, the happier I became. I started looking for ways to invest in others’ lives instead of my own.

Who knew?

I genuinely love my life even in these very uncertain times. I’m becoming fearless and actually starting to gain peace and contentment.

So is there hope especially now when many are watching everything they’ve worked hard for slip through their fingers?

My idea for The New American Dream:

Partner your life with God and let it all go. Your life will never be the same.