a community of Jesus living a contemplative way into peace and reconciliation
Last Abbey Meeting
So, there we were in a bar. Dave was wearing his Ubuntu t-shirt. The band was getting ready to play. This is truly emerging.
Kasey, Ethan, Dave and I took our conversation about god to The Green Room in downtown Flag last Tuesday night. Beer was optional. The themes seemed to be about living an integrated and authentic life. And these on-going conversations in this emerging church seem to be taking a form that is the antithesis of corporate culture. See what you think of these emerging characteristics...
1. Process-oriented. We're not focused on an end product, but on the journey itself. Sure it's cliche, but actually doing it it the real thing. (See how the powerful corporate culture has a grip on you? Depending on your age, "the real thing" might have brought up images and music from an old Coke commercial. It did me. How sad.)
2. Without accountability. This is not about bean-counting or membership size, or donated dollars, or number of saved souls. (No wonder Dave has a hard time taking this to his synod and church leadership.) It is.
3. Integrated. Not compartmentalized, mechanistic, fragmented. Not at the most segregated hour of the week. Not in a stand-alone and separate church building. But anywhere. Everywhere. Anytime.
(Okay, only at a time when childcare is available. Thanks, grandma.)
4. Exploring beauty, not selling one commercial view of it. Beauty is found in our relationships and in the the art, images, music, words, ideals, and silences we bring to these gatherings.
5. Complexity. Simple, dualistic thinking is for the very young. The rest of us have no excuses. (Well, that maybe too simplistically stated, but you know what I mean.) Life may have a few blacks'n'whites, a small number of rights'n'wrongs, but Life is Lived in the grays and in all the other shades and colors without names. We are sharing and living complex stories. Our judgments (yes, we all judge) can't be summed up in a soundbyte, a slogan, a 15-second commercial. We are more than that.
6. Giving. We participate in these conversations to give, not just to get. We are creating and generating, not just consuming.
Are these characteristics of anti-corporate culture? Is this how you see it? I bet not. I hope not. Your view, your lenses, your t-shirt are different and invaluable to this process.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu (in 1999, according to Wikipedia) describes a person with Ubuntu as "open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."
I think we're doing it again at Green Room next Tuesday night at 7. Whatever "it" is....
peace,
Chris
Kasey, Ethan, Dave and I took our conversation about god to The Green Room in downtown Flag last Tuesday night. Beer was optional. The themes seemed to be about living an integrated and authentic life. And these on-going conversations in this emerging church seem to be taking a form that is the antithesis of corporate culture. See what you think of these emerging characteristics...
1. Process-oriented. We're not focused on an end product, but on the journey itself. Sure it's cliche, but actually doing it it the real thing. (See how the powerful corporate culture has a grip on you? Depending on your age, "the real thing" might have brought up images and music from an old Coke commercial. It did me. How sad.)
2. Without accountability. This is not about bean-counting or membership size, or donated dollars, or number of saved souls. (No wonder Dave has a hard time taking this to his synod and church leadership.) It is.
3. Integrated. Not compartmentalized, mechanistic, fragmented. Not at the most segregated hour of the week. Not in a stand-alone and separate church building. But anywhere. Everywhere. Anytime.
(Okay, only at a time when childcare is available. Thanks, grandma.)
4. Exploring beauty, not selling one commercial view of it. Beauty is found in our relationships and in the the art, images, music, words, ideals, and silences we bring to these gatherings.
5. Complexity. Simple, dualistic thinking is for the very young. The rest of us have no excuses. (Well, that maybe too simplistically stated, but you know what I mean.) Life may have a few blacks'n'whites, a small number of rights'n'wrongs, but Life is Lived in the grays and in all the other shades and colors without names. We are sharing and living complex stories. Our judgments (yes, we all judge) can't be summed up in a soundbyte, a slogan, a 15-second commercial. We are more than that.
6. Giving. We participate in these conversations to give, not just to get. We are creating and generating, not just consuming.
Are these characteristics of anti-corporate culture? Is this how you see it? I bet not. I hope not. Your view, your lenses, your t-shirt are different and invaluable to this process.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu (in 1999, according to Wikipedia) describes a person with Ubuntu as "open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."
I think we're doing it again at Green Room next Tuesday night at 7. Whatever "it" is....
peace,
Chris
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Ethan Hulme on -
Very well said Chris. I wonder what we would even try to put into our 15-second soundbyte if we were forced to. I think so often we are forced to boil down beliefs and life into easily packaged consumable goods. How refreshing instead to have the space to share and explore. See you Tuesday, I look forward to continuing the conversation on "it."
-
Permalink Reply by Ryan on -
Thank you Chris for sharing some of the Green Room conversation online.
I was curious about Dave's t-shirt so I went to Wikipedia to learn more. I especially liked the "less is more" attitude expressed in the 2nd maxim of Ubuntu, (Stanlake J. W. T. Samkange,1980):
"If and when one is faced with a decisive choice between wealth and the preservation of the life of another human being, then one should opt for the preservation of life."
So, if the corporate message says the opposite, that profit is top priority not human life, then this part of the emerging conversation does seem to have a anti-corporate flavor.
Ryan
-
Permalink Reply by Existentialist on -
Aye, Ethan, and good luck for your preachin' in the morn.
See you Tuesday.
-
Permalink Reply by Existentialist on
-
Ryan, all in one word. Tres cool.
And how is fatherhood?
About
Badge
Photos
Blog Posts
sanctus
Posted by David Hahn on November 22, 2008 at 12:00pm
The World's Music as 'One'
Posted by David Hahn on May 30, 2008 at 12:00pm — 4 Comments
Groups
© 2009 Created by David Hahn on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
