racism and postmodernism

want the skinny on real postmodern church music (non-kum ba yah...), check out this no non-sense christian music review site called punkreviews posted by COTA | 2:34 PM|

got my latest new issue of "850 words of RELEVANT" this morning. 850 is delivered monthly to your e-mail box. there was a great story this month (02.18.02) about spirituality and faith in rock music. sign up (yep, some things on the web still are free), click on the latest issue, and stay tuned in to news and info. about instances when faith and culture dance or sing (rather than collide), it is RELEVANT posted by COTA | 7:47 AM|

after a full plate of two services at holy trinity, (my interim call) i'm off this evening to another service at quest. quest is a year old mission plant in seattle. they have a vision for god, and are growing steadily... quest is affiliated with the evangelical covenenat church. this is interesting... as i have heard about quite a few emerging ethos congregations that are likewise covenant affiliated, like solomon's poch in minneapolis.

whatever water the evangelical covenant church is drinking, i'm gonna get some of it and spike the water of my own lutheran and episcopal denominations. we have a ways to go, before we can plant as many emerging culture churches as this little covenant denomination is able to do.

so the thing about being missional is not size, but vision. any denomination that is not afraid to take a few bold baby steps out of modernism in order to allow some new things to sprout, can get busy and begin to thrive in the world of the emerging church.

i'm heading over to quest to worship, to kick back, to fellowship and to learn from pastor eugene cho and his quest community, because they are already doing what my new church of the apostles will seek to do (reach out with god's love to postmodern people in ways that they culturally understand).

do you embrace mystery and seek meaning? then you are like millions of other postmodern people in north america and around the globe... and now, there is a new online magazine for folk just like you, called "SEVEN." seven is brought to you by john wallis and his cool compadres like john o'keefe. so, seek more meaning : : and embrace more mystery : : : with seven. posted by COTA | 6:56 AM|

a few days ago, i got word that an outreach committee from my denominational headquarters listed the church of the apostles mission as a "low priority" for start-up funding. i am watering down my reaction a lot when i say i can't image how a misison seeking to share the gospel with the HUGE number of postmodern seekers in seattle (the second most unchurched city in the entire country) can be a "low priority." needless to say, i and the people on the ground here who support this mission are going to challenge this prioritization.

the vast majority of seekers coming to churches for the first time in north america are rising adults in their twenties and thirties. the main demographic in seattle are these same x generation folk. i heard that someone from the group noted that we "had a failed gen x outreach there previously," to which i must reply, we "had?" "a" church for postmodern generations (in a metro area with 500,000 postmoderns, of which 80% are unchurched?). if outreach is about having one or even two postmodern aware congregations (out of hundreds of pre-existing modernist congregations ) in a postmodern poster-child city like seattle, then that does not bode well for the future of our denomination.

we lutherans (and other mainliners) need to wake up and smell the coffee. and we have good coffee which we can smell! in our online gen x lutheran forum, one seminarian from the lutheran church-missouri synod commented that an acquaintance of his from a postmodern aware church (levi's table) in st. louis (the city where the lutheran church missouri synod is headquartered) said to him, "oh yeah, we know about you lutherans, you are the guys with the great theology, but don't know what to do with it."

we need to stop being "the guys with the great theology, but don't know what to do with it" and start becoming "the guys with the great theology, who can make real and authentic among postmodern generations, and all people, the good news of god in christ in a culturally understandable way." if we don't stop sitting on our ROCK SOLID teachings and shrouding our rich heritage in modernist garb, we will continue on as "the guys with great theology," as our churches continue to age and close down at an ever increasing rate (especially in densely populated post-christian urban areas).

my church plant (apostles, seattle) has little funds, but big dreams... we are seeking to raise $200,000 to launch a non-profit cafe/art gallery for god in seattle. we need both small and major donors. click below to make a tax deductible donation. if you are a major donor, please contact me off blog at: karen@apostleschurch.org

i ain't oprah, but here we go...

digital storytellers by len wilson and jason moore: at last, a book to save the world from the "modernist use of powerpoint in worship hell." if you want to torpedo boring ppt. bulleted sermon points from a modernist pastor who thinks he or she is now hip because he or she is using technology, read this book! better yet, buy the book and send it to the modernist pastor and do his/her congregation a big favor. read digital storytellers

gen x religion, ed by richard w. flory & donald e. miller, provides an accurate "npr like" documentation of religion, as actually practiced by xers, and even reflects theologically on xer subsets (like the goths) and on the phenomenon of piercing among us.
and, unlike many other xer books (filled with clever quips by boomers about xers), this book was written by serious sociologists of religion (many of them xers) who actually researched and studied churches founded by and for xers. amazing and authentic...
read gen x religion