Marginal Christianity

  Our Situation Pope Francis said last year that we are not living through an era of change but a change of era.  We are entering a new chapter in the istory of the world, and of the church.  In order to act effectively and faithfully it is good to understand what those changes are and how it is different to what went before. These changes have been building for a while. In the era of globalisation, the previous chapter, it was assumed that borders and place would matter less and less as technology, knowledge, and trade dissolved restrictive barriers.  Transferable skills were the key to success in the ‘knowledge economy’ and university degrees were the means to achieve social mobility.  The future was for the educated and the working class were viewed as ‘left behind’ in the faraway towns by forces beyond their control.  They were an evolutionary casualty in their inability to adapt to the changes that globalisation demanded.  It was assumed ...

  The Missional Network has listened deeply to Christian leaders around the world during the pandemic and have heard the following from them: 1.        We can’t assume we know where leaders are at and what they’re wanting at any particular time across the trajectory of this unprecedented unraveling. 2.        They are at a point where they’re looking for something far deeper than how-tos. 3.        There’s an awareness that this unraveling isn’t just about our roles as leaders or the challenges of pastoral care and worship in Covid. Something deeper is happening to the whole society.  

  A bush suddenly uprooted from its established bedding in the ground undergoes a terrible trauma. Its roots were so deep they had to be cut all around before moving the bush to another location. The bush isn’t going to bounce back in a few months or even a year. Rather, it requires the time of numbers of seasons before it can regenerate new life in its roots and branches. To have a chance, all the bushes’ pretty flowers have to be cut off so its energy is redirected to the traumatized root system. (Canadian pastor, Preston Pouteaux) “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.   He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  John 15:1-2

  n recent years many have offered “options” for forms of life the church might practice for greater faithfulness in life and witness in these strange times of this still young and highly troubled 21 st century (e.g. the “Benedict Option”). As far as I am aware, though, none have offered such “options” specifically for the Pandemic. So I offer the “Joshua Option” as a contribution toward that end. I will use chs.1-5 in Joshua specifically as the basis for this option, an allegorical riff on the people of Israel crossing the Jordan into the promised land for the first time under the proviso “for you have not passed this way before” (3:4). Where We Are At The American church today stands before a “river” it too must cross into an unknown and at this point unknowable future. “Nobody really knows” is the only honest way to face up to this “way we have not gone before.” Joshua could at least send spies into the land to reconnoiter the surroundings (Josh.2). We have at best educat...

 On living in the pandemic: Our vocation is to face the realities of this unnamable moment, to confess the grief and trauma that beset us. The how-tos are dead ends we grab on to when we don’t know what else to do. To acknowledge this is to begin the work of discernment. Facing together the hard questions of this unraveling requires the writing of a new chapter, one that will be very different from the one we’ve written to this point. What is critical in this moment is that we become clear on the source of our hope. Without this we are tossed and turned by every wind and proposal for change that comes along.  

  Appendix:                                                                                                                                                         5 Ways to Preach/Teach Genesis 1-2 None of Which Involve Creationism/Int...

In their helpful  introduction  to CRT, scholars  Richard Delgad o and  Jean Sefancic  identify five major themes of this theory. First, CRT affirms that racism is an “ordinary” or “common” part of everyday life. It is more than simply individual acts of prejudice against people of color. Racism is a system of discrimination built into American institutions, especially the law. Second, CRT affirms that since White people benefit from such systemic racism, they will not have the incentive to do anything about it. Shock events such as the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis or the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha might alert White people to racial injustice, but it is unlikely such tragedies will lead to a sustained anti-racism. Third, CRT affirms that race is “socially constructed.” That is, racial categories are not biologically determined but invented by human beings. They are a way of leveraging power over other people groups. There is nothing inher...