surrexit christus via via dolorosa - in search of "hermeneutics most radically conceived"

i'm not blogging much lately. 'wonderland' factors keep monkey-wrenching within my life and calling. trying to begin something new within two non-deconstructed denominational systems is crazy and more radical than i had before realized.

if i feel this way, just trying to work with a small local community, seeking to be church in more culturally embedded ways... then i get awe-struck and rendered silent all over again when considering what god (in christ) put out there, and put up with for us.

talk about the ultimate craziness of god, in proposing the hermeneutic of the gospel, a new way to be in the world... and look at the path that this 'new way to be' took god on, the via dolorosa (the way of tears), and the via crucis (the way of dying) which birth among us a new and final interpretation of being via the reality of surrexit christus.

i'm trying to keep my bearings by this, and not loose hold of my tiny little crumb of this most radical hermeneutic.

the vision for apostles way of embedding is clarifying, yet the energy depleting struggle to find backing for this 'new take' on church here is daunting... i have to find mission partners. i'm spending almost one third of my time seeking funding, and behind that, some measure of understanding that can motivate support for this new thing. because of this, my paycheck is also in question, yet this is the least of my worries, as it pails in comparison to the crazy beautiful church that i'm seeing.

the most radical hermeneutic, already given to us by god in christ, is the ultimate source of boldness and courage that we could ever have or need, yet much of the modern church remains timid and seemingly uninspired by the radical gospel calling to 'conceive of a new rendering of things.'

much of the postmodern thing is about deconstrucion, so i've been doing that with modern conceptions of 'outreach' and what church has been (making me seem like a 'trouble-making' ghost within my machines). but i am not 'the trouble.' god is the trouble in all stagnant waters, stirring them up, to help them become clean.

currently, the focus of the emegring church (and my small part within it) is on pilgrimage... shifting the balance of energy away from deconstructing 'the church of what is,' towards fragile and partial embodiments of what church is called to be.

yet deconstruction/troubling needs to continue... not at the center, but beneath the surface as a more gentle, yet ongoing current, filtering and purifing our river towards god's new thing.

'by a hermeneutics more radically conceived, I mean one that sustains a working relationship with deconstruction, that takes its point of departure in a deconstructive analysis of our beliefs and practices, that stresses their radical revisability, reformability and the contingency of any take we have on things.  None of this has anything to do with relativism or skepticism, but, on the contrary, with a radical affirmation of an unforeseeable ethical and political future and of the possibility of being otherwise." (dr. john caputo, villanova univeristy, author of more radical hermeneutics: on not knowing who we are)

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