Today I will lay the foundations for my purpose in establishing this blog. First my prayers go out to the people of Haiti as they deal with the aftermath of the recent earthquake. I have come a long way in my spiritual journey over the past 65 years. I've had a blessed life. My children are very special to me and some have suggested that I do some writing in my retirement so this is one step, an attempt to codify the thoughts and peace which have come to be me at this point. I am not a scholar or writer of note but the life experience of my family, my spiritual heritage, my finding and then loosing the love of my life, the uncovering of a spiritual path rich with fulfilement and a sensible world view, have very much given me peace, the peace I would term the Pax Christi. I will attach to this posting a letter describing this "Emerging" journey. This ties my past through the more recent past of joy and anguish and into a foreseeable future of a more Christic word view of action and contemplation. Part of this will tie to such diverse areas as Global ecology and Green Technology, President Obama, 2012, Social Justice and the "Secret
Message of Jesus", Noetic Science, our National Mission and Blessing from the eyes of our forefathers and beyond! It should be pretty obvious why this will not be a quick letter. The concept which basically ties all of these divergent areas together is that of an "Emergent" understanding of our God and His desires for us in His creation. Hence I will close this post with an overview of that concept along with a very impactful bibliography! Pax Christi! RV
Letter to my Emergent Friends!It is a pleasure to be able to communicate areas of passion and concern with you. Even with the non structured, except for common civility, nature of this group I feel we are embarking on a path of understanding God’s will and eventually focused action. Some, or several, form of action seems to be an eventual goal of this type of fellowship.As for my motivation to be a part of this Emerging ? Entity. This has been a sequenced experience for me in the past year or so and I’d like to outline this for you. The reasons a person may seek direction, redirection, or refocus in their life would be many and varied. Richard Rohr postulates that such a searching is often a result of “Great Sorrow” or “Great Joy”. In my case it was both. My story is secondary here but what I wish to share is a sequence of events and resources which have proven very cohesive and symbiotic as far as presenting a picture or plan of “being all I can be” in my role as God’s child. Since the first of the year I have attended two conventions focused on the emergent movement. At a later time I would like to expound a bit on the content of these meetings. At this juncture however I’d like to share a bibliography and CD resource which has greatly impacted my quest. The first book is by Brian D McLaren titled “The Secret Message of Jesus”. The crux of this very readable work was to suggest that the message of Christ in the scriptures was a call to action in this world and not just an “evacuation plan for Christians in the next”. A Social Gospel if you will. Following the reading of this book I attended a conference in Los Angles, California where I listened to two presentations by Fr Richard Rohr and procured two CD’s of his. The first was titled “The Emerging Church” and outlined the factors leading to this Emergent movement arising from many existent denominations. Kind of a para church or trans denominational approach to Christ’s teaching. A “get over our own self indulged community and seek instead an overarching universal focus on Christ”. His second CD set I was blessed with is titled “The Cosmic Christ”. At the get go one could be taken aback by this title, coming from a traditional Christian background, as smacking of some “New Age” fluffy theology. Richard, however, does a wonderful job of presenting Christ as being “Bigger than Christianity” and eloquently presents the concept of “non dualistic” thinking while resting in comfort (but not arrogance) within our home church families.Approximately a month following the LA convocation I was able to join 1000+ attendees at an “Emergent Church” gathering in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Emergent Church, or Village movement has been active with in some protestant denominations for about a dozen years or so. This was the first convention sponsored by and targeted toward the Catholic faith. In the 1000+ were included over a dozen denominations from 40 states and half a dozen countries. Very moving, not the least of which was the bringing together of dynamic writers, speakers, and social activists on the same venue. Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle, Shane Claiborne and Alexis Torres-Fleming.Prior to attending this conference I was able to read Brian’s book, “A Generous Orthodoxy”. The blessing of this book was Brian’s ability to point out the contribution of the individual church movements to the larger picture of the “Body of Christ”. Again, as did Richard, progressing toward a larger Christ picture. At the same time valuing the individual contributions, limited as they are by the human components, and building toward a greater manifestation of Church! A greater manifestation of the Christ.While in attendance in Albuquerque I got the latest of Brian’s books. This one is quite the manifesto for action. The title is “Everything Must Change” By itself this is a call to action but as the third in a series interspersed with Richard’s CD’s this book is a natural progression. Not only is it a natural progression of contemplation and action but it also gives us a starting point for varied conversations within the emergent movement.We, in our meetings so far, seem to keep trying to define an objective or mission statement. The only firm agreement we seem to be reaching is the opportunity for a conversation forum. The reason prompting my participation would be in agreement with this principle and also bolstered by another concept. That is the desire to be led or guided by a not mortal power, a cosmic force (entity), toward actions of Love focused toward God's creation. These actions, as partially covered in "Everything Must Change", are fodder for ongoing action. Suppose what I'm saying here is that by keeping an eye on the God directed goals maybe we don't need so much, if any, human direction or organization. It also strikes me as significant how great could be the witness to the “world” when they see people doing works of Love and compassion without a goal except the work itself. My hope is that as individuals and small groups are prompted into action we can maximize the communication via a web posting approach. This should aid communication and understanding within our "cohort" as well as possibly with other cohort groups. A part of this understanding may be a developing concept of a dynamic definition of what it is we are all about. I am excited to share and learn what "action goals" you are all led toward.Southern Oregonian Spirit Of Christ Offering Our Love, SOSOCOOL, seems to me to be a very inclusive and simple handle by which the trans-denominational characters within our cohort can be differentiated from the Waters Edge members, Pastor David's Church. Some may be uneasy with the incorporation of "Christ" in such a title. Anyone who reads and listens to the resources listed below will probably understand my reasoning. I would be very happy to dialogue regarding the absolute appropriateness of the word. The Spirit of Christ is far greater than "Mere Christianity". It is within that Spirit that I lovingly offer the following resource list; along with a fervent prayer for an increasing indwelling of Love for us all.Blessed Pentecost to you all! Bob bobvlach@hotmail.com"The Secret Message of Jesus", Brian D. McLaren http://www.brianmclaren.net/ "A Generious Orthodoxy", Brian D. McLaren, Brian's books are also quite often available at Barnes and Noble"The Emerging Church" (CD), Fr Richard Rohr, The Center for Action and Contemplation http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/ "The Cosmic Christ" (3CD set), Fr Richard Rohr"Everything Must Change", Brian D McLaren
Here is another take on this subject by a fellow participant at Albuquerque
http://www.mendingshift.com/2009/03/25/the-remerging-church/
Message of Jesus", Noetic Science, our National Mission and Blessing from the eyes of our forefathers and beyond! It should be pretty obvious why this will not be a quick letter. The concept which basically ties all of these divergent areas together is that of an "Emergent" understanding of our God and His desires for us in His creation. Hence I will close this post with an overview of that concept along with a very impactful bibliography! Pax Christi! RV
Letter to my Emergent Friends!It is a pleasure to be able to communicate areas of passion and concern with you. Even with the non structured, except for common civility, nature of this group I feel we are embarking on a path of understanding God’s will and eventually focused action. Some, or several, form of action seems to be an eventual goal of this type of fellowship.As for my motivation to be a part of this Emerging ? Entity. This has been a sequenced experience for me in the past year or so and I’d like to outline this for you. The reasons a person may seek direction, redirection, or refocus in their life would be many and varied. Richard Rohr postulates that such a searching is often a result of “Great Sorrow” or “Great Joy”. In my case it was both. My story is secondary here but what I wish to share is a sequence of events and resources which have proven very cohesive and symbiotic as far as presenting a picture or plan of “being all I can be” in my role as God’s child. Since the first of the year I have attended two conventions focused on the emergent movement. At a later time I would like to expound a bit on the content of these meetings. At this juncture however I’d like to share a bibliography and CD resource which has greatly impacted my quest. The first book is by Brian D McLaren titled “The Secret Message of Jesus”. The crux of this very readable work was to suggest that the message of Christ in the scriptures was a call to action in this world and not just an “evacuation plan for Christians in the next”. A Social Gospel if you will. Following the reading of this book I attended a conference in Los Angles, California where I listened to two presentations by Fr Richard Rohr and procured two CD’s of his. The first was titled “The Emerging Church” and outlined the factors leading to this Emergent movement arising from many existent denominations. Kind of a para church or trans denominational approach to Christ’s teaching. A “get over our own self indulged community and seek instead an overarching universal focus on Christ”. His second CD set I was blessed with is titled “The Cosmic Christ”. At the get go one could be taken aback by this title, coming from a traditional Christian background, as smacking of some “New Age” fluffy theology. Richard, however, does a wonderful job of presenting Christ as being “Bigger than Christianity” and eloquently presents the concept of “non dualistic” thinking while resting in comfort (but not arrogance) within our home church families.Approximately a month following the LA convocation I was able to join 1000+ attendees at an “Emergent Church” gathering in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Emergent Church, or Village movement has been active with in some protestant denominations for about a dozen years or so. This was the first convention sponsored by and targeted toward the Catholic faith. In the 1000+ were included over a dozen denominations from 40 states and half a dozen countries. Very moving, not the least of which was the bringing together of dynamic writers, speakers, and social activists on the same venue. Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren, Phyllis Tickle, Shane Claiborne and Alexis Torres-Fleming.Prior to attending this conference I was able to read Brian’s book, “A Generous Orthodoxy”. The blessing of this book was Brian’s ability to point out the contribution of the individual church movements to the larger picture of the “Body of Christ”. Again, as did Richard, progressing toward a larger Christ picture. At the same time valuing the individual contributions, limited as they are by the human components, and building toward a greater manifestation of Church! A greater manifestation of the Christ.While in attendance in Albuquerque I got the latest of Brian’s books. This one is quite the manifesto for action. The title is “Everything Must Change” By itself this is a call to action but as the third in a series interspersed with Richard’s CD’s this book is a natural progression. Not only is it a natural progression of contemplation and action but it also gives us a starting point for varied conversations within the emergent movement.We, in our meetings so far, seem to keep trying to define an objective or mission statement. The only firm agreement we seem to be reaching is the opportunity for a conversation forum. The reason prompting my participation would be in agreement with this principle and also bolstered by another concept. That is the desire to be led or guided by a not mortal power, a cosmic force (entity), toward actions of Love focused toward God's creation. These actions, as partially covered in "Everything Must Change", are fodder for ongoing action. Suppose what I'm saying here is that by keeping an eye on the God directed goals maybe we don't need so much, if any, human direction or organization. It also strikes me as significant how great could be the witness to the “world” when they see people doing works of Love and compassion without a goal except the work itself. My hope is that as individuals and small groups are prompted into action we can maximize the communication via a web posting approach. This should aid communication and understanding within our "cohort" as well as possibly with other cohort groups. A part of this understanding may be a developing concept of a dynamic definition of what it is we are all about. I am excited to share and learn what "action goals" you are all led toward.Southern Oregonian Spirit Of Christ Offering Our Love, SOSOCOOL, seems to me to be a very inclusive and simple handle by which the trans-denominational characters within our cohort can be differentiated from the Waters Edge members, Pastor David's Church. Some may be uneasy with the incorporation of "Christ" in such a title. Anyone who reads and listens to the resources listed below will probably understand my reasoning. I would be very happy to dialogue regarding the absolute appropriateness of the word. The Spirit of Christ is far greater than "Mere Christianity". It is within that Spirit that I lovingly offer the following resource list; along with a fervent prayer for an increasing indwelling of Love for us all.Blessed Pentecost to you all! Bob bobvlach@hotmail.com"The Secret Message of Jesus", Brian D. McLaren http://www.brianmclaren.net/ "A Generious Orthodoxy", Brian D. McLaren, Brian's books are also quite often available at Barnes and Noble"The Emerging Church" (CD), Fr Richard Rohr, The Center for Action and Contemplation http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/ "The Cosmic Christ" (3CD set), Fr Richard Rohr"Everything Must Change", Brian D McLaren
Here is another take on this subject by a fellow participant at Albuquerque
http://www.mendingshift.com/2009/03/25/the-remerging-church/
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