What’s an Emerging Congregationalist?
The congregation I serve is a part of the NACCC .
The books I’m reading (besides the sci-fi of course) are mostly in connection with the emerging church (more info at Emergent Village).
I’m trying to foster a connection between these two groups. Why?
Basically, I’m hoping that ongoing engagement with Emergent will help the NA remember itself. The folks engaged in the emergent conversation are intuitively practicing the kind of free fellowship that was the hallmark of congregational (also called federal) theology. Unfortunately today, the Congregational movement is fractured. The UU, the CCCC, the UCC, and the NACCC all claim roots in that heritage. Given the choice, obviously, I’d pick the NA, but even here we are commonly less than Congregational; We are independent. On a personal level this sounds like, “I’m a congregationalist. That means I can believe whatever I want.” On a congregational level this sounds like, “We’re a congregational church, that means no one can tell us what to do.”
That’s garbage. (In the “We’re too nice to translate skubalon correctly” sense of the word.)
Sometimes people explain it by saying, “We’re an association, not a denomination.” Translated, that means, “We work together because we choose to love each other, not because we’re bound by some top-down structure.” Unfortunately, most people hear it more like, “We’re not like THOSE people. We’re the REAL congregationalists.”
What we have (that we often fail to recognize/remember/use) is an incredible history of people trying to work out a federal/covenant bond in real life. Over the years, they discovered a lot of what doesn’t work, and a few things that work surprisingly well. They uncovered a pretty amazing balance between the autonomy of the local church and that church’s free and loving responsibility to live in relationship with her sister churches.
With their emphasis on relationships and networking, the emerging churches are discovering and practicing some of those same ways of being Christian. Perhaps by living with them, the NA can remember itself. Perhaps in remembering itself the NA can uncover some of the hidden gems of practical, lived theology that made Congregationalism a robust and faithful way. Perhaps those gems might even be of use to a fledgling group like emergent as it continues to define itself.
How do we know if we believe?
This was a fantastic question from PF last Sunday. We had a small group because it was so cold, but I didn’t want the rest of you to miss out on the good conversation. So here’s a quick summary as best I can remember it.
“How do we know if we really believe?”
First off, let’s admit that we don’t believe perfectly. No one does, not even in the Bible. The first example that comes to mind is this story. The key line is “I do believe; help my unbelief.” This person speaking to Jesus had the guts to admit that faith and doubt were both alive in him but that he wanted to believe. So step one is to admit that we’ve got doubts and beliefs at the same time and that’s ok.
Step 2? Another Bible story.This one say that we will be judged not on what we say or think, but on what we have done for “the least of these”. Who are the least? That’s a whole ‘nother blog post. For now, just get your head around this:
What you do shows what you believe.
Do you act like a follower of Jesus? Do you love God and love others? Do you care for “the least”? Then you are a believer, whether you’re sure of anything or not. Do you behave like you are the most important person in the world? Then in your deepest heart, you don’t believe in God because God is love.
Don’t freak out! That doesn’t mean you go to hell if you’re mean to your sibling. We’ve already established that everyone has belief and doubt in them at the same time, right? Hear the good news in this, and stop searching for bad news. Within most every person you meet there is some spark of love. Even in the most messed up, angriest, meanest people there is some place or moment in their life where they put others first.
That means there is always hope, even for messed-up, kinda-sorta, trying-to-believe, but-not-really-getting-it believers like us. And it means that same hope is available even to the people we don’t think deserve it.
WARNING!
This is a journal. As in, personal opinions. As in, NOT the official stance of anybody but me. As in, NOT my final answer on anything. As in read at your own risk, your mileage may vary.
