submergence

Hope rising - Jeff Lee, Bishop elect of Chicago

I'm so VERY happy that my friend and mentor, The Rev. Jeff Lee (from St. Thomas Episcopal Church Medina, WA) is the new Bishop Elect of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago. This gives me hope that real change CAN happen.

Change means developing the capacity to: RISK for mission, EMBRACE and support solid, new ideas in ALL areas of church life (including leadership training and credentialing).

To do this is to nurture a 'deep ecclesiology' and to uphold 'deep' tradition, rather than pouring energy into trying to maintain outmoded ways of operating, when such precious energy is needed missionally to be directed elsewhere.

When you insist on doing things 'the same old way you have always done them,' you are enshrining results that will deliver you 'the same old things you have always had.'
(a church with an average denominational member age of 60 in a culture whose average citizen is 32).

It is hard not to daydream on occasion, when I feel frustrated that new ideas will no be given 'voice, budget or vote,' no real risk will ever be taken and hardly any 'experiments' will ever be allowed.

The largest and oldest cohort of the Boomers (aged 55-65) continue to dominate denominational and diocesan staff positions, commissions and bishop chairs, with so many unable to see the need to purposefully distribute power to include even us late 30's to mid 40's Xers, which forces many of us to start churches and groups outside such systems which will allow us or our postmodern native ethos and ideas in.

With all this said, it is hard not to daydream about going back to Chicago and asking to be a diocesan Missioner under Jeff.

But this is pain speaking... as my deeper dream is to do more as a missioner here in Seattle and out of COTA, and in my diocese, as this is my home now.

'I have a dream' for the Diocese of Olympia... a dream of hope and renewal, where the emerging missional 'fringe' and frontier 'barbarians' are welcomed 'into the center,' to help spark the re-imagining of church and mission here around the Puget Sound.

My hope for us here is our new GEN X Bishop, Greg Rickel. I pray for him each day...
Literally i do..., as I know he, like Jeff, will be open to RISK, CHANGE and NEW THINGS, but the modern institutional church system in all around him was 'custom built' to shut out these very things. So i'm gonna work on becoming a 'Canon' here, as things need some new fire, and ''I've got a hidden stash of 'dry powder' i've been sitting on and waiting for emerging kairos time in TEC, which is now trying to bust a move in, so (Bishop) Greg will need all the help he can get.

Rising From the Ashes - TEC and 'Mainline' emergence

My friend Becky Garrison has written a new book called 'Rising from the Ashes'
and I did a 'review' of it on Amazon.

If you are TEC (The Episcopal Church) Anglican or part of any other kind of 'mainline' church seeking to emerge Do read Rising from the Ashes

Here is my review below:

Becky Garrison has done the 'mainline' churches (and especially The Episcopal Church and The Anglican Communion) a big service in writing this book.

A book like this has been needed for a while now, to help the often 'sidelined' mainline churches to get back on the playing field of western Christianity with both 'voice and vote,' and to offer our sorely needed giftings and perspectives.

Brian McLaren says 'Everything Must Change' in his new book, and I second it and add that 'everything' includes the mainline churches.

Becky moved freely around emerging church circles to gather data and collect some 'true stories' which may help to get mainline emergence 'on the radar' of the established mainline churches, which many of us love and serve faithfully with little 'institutional support' so far, in the ways we truly need it.

Over 35 % (my guestimate) of those active in the 'emerging church' in North America and at least 50% of those in Europe (especially in England) are from 'mainline' traditions rather than from the free church evangelical ones that most people associated with this 'movement.'

We mainliners are 'in the emerging church house.' - This book may help us 'come out' in our own denominations and communions.

As an emerging church 'practitioner,' I was able to tell the story of my community and our pilgrimage in emerging church and mission within the mainline for the last seven years, and I was also able to share my recent efforts to birth 'Anglimergent' (Anglicans) to walk alongside 'Presbymergent, Luthermergent, Submergent (Mennonites) and other mainline native emerging groups.

Sometimes (and quite recently) in my own experiences in my beloved 'TEC' tribe, I often feel as much 'buried in the ashes' as rising from them, but there IS real rising going on none the less.

This book is a must read for the rising that is taking place now among mainline 'scouts' of emergence who are 'on the ground, fumbling in the darkness, submerged in the water, off the map, and down the rabbit' hole, in seeking to actively participate in God's Kingdom and missional future with hope.