Great Convergence<\/p>\n
Richard Rohr<\/p>\n
Tuesday, November 28, 2017\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>The emerging church, a convergence of hopeful and liberating Christian themes, is happening on all continents, in all denominations, at all levels\u2014and at a rather quick pace. I want to name this movement so that you can first of all recognize how it has already happened in you on some level and so that you can offer this wonderful Gospel emergence your time, your prayer, your love, and your energy. If you do that, there will be no time left to oppose, hate, or deny anything or anybody. There is no need to reject or deny any one\u2019s present or past experience. God will lead us from here, including and transcending the past, as Ken Wilber says.<\/p>\n<p>Continuing where we left off yesterday, here are some more of the historical developments propelling the emerging church movement:<br \/>\nA global sense of Christianity frames the denominational divisions in a larger context. Many of the things we historically fought about are resolved, boring, or non-essential. We have all been both victims and beneficiaries of these very specific histories and cultures, and we can find unity in that.<\/p>\n<p>There is a growing recognition of the unnecessary limits that church protocols and historical idiosyncrasies have put on reading and living the Gospels for each of our denominations. This is a new ability to distinguish the essentials from the incidentals in church practice and teaching.<br \/>\nThe Pentecostal\/Charismatic movement tells us that experiential Christianity is actually possible, desirable, and has the potential to lead us to a more Trinitarian theology\u2014opening up the mystical and the prayer levels of Christianity. So many who have had \u201cbaptism in the Spirit\u201d experiences find themselves naturally Trinitarian, even if they lack formal theology to understand it.<\/p>\n<p>A developing spirituality and theology of nonviolence allows us to pursue things in a \u201cthird way\u201d beyond the old fight-or-flight dualism.<\/p>\n<p>We see new structures of community and solidarity, including groups for recovery, study, contemplation, lectio divina, service and mission (for example, New Monasticism, Catholic Worker houses, JustFaith). Many of these are led by lay people. The emphasis is on \u201cmediating institutions\u201d instead of just parish churches, yet these are normally not anti or against the local or official church.<\/p>\n<p>There is a new appreciation for \u201cmany gifts and ministries\u201d (1 Corinthians 12), \u201ctogether making a unity in the work of service\u201d (Ephesians 4), instead of concentrating on a top tier of ordained leadership where gender and power issues dominate. With many gifts and many ministries, legitimacy comes from ability, solidarity with suffering, and willingness to serve, rather than from top-down authorization.<\/p>\n<p>With this new kind of reformation happening, we are happy to stay at the exciting movement level as long as we can\u2014and God allows\u2014and if possible, avoid becoming rigid and stagnant as \u201cmonuments, museums, or machines.\u201d Remember, \u201cThe best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better\u201d (a CAC core principle).<\/p>\n<p>Gateway to Silence:<br \/>\nRooted and growing in Love<\/p>\n<p>______________________________________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Riches of the Destitute<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>By <a href=\"https:\/\/utmost.org\/oswald-chambers-bio\">Oswald Chambers<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><!-- \/.col-12 --> <!-- \/.row --><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-12\">\n<div id=\"key-verse-box\">\n<h4>\u2026being justified freely by His grace\u2026 \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&search=Romans+3%3A24\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Romans 3:24<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>The gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and an equally intense resentment, because the truth that it reveals is not palatable or easy to swallow. There is a certain pride in people that causes them to give and give, but to come and accept a gift is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom; I will dedicate my life to service\u2014 I will do anything. But do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p>We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God through our own efforts. We must either receive it as a gift or do without it. The greatest spiritual blessing we receive is when we come to the knowledge that we are destitute. Until we get there, our Lord is powerless. He can do nothing for us as long as we think we are sufficient in and of ourselves. We must enter into His kingdom through the door of destitution.<\/p>\n<p>As long as we are \u201crich,\u201d particularly in the area of pride or independence, God can do nothing for us. It is only when we get hungry spiritually that we receive the Holy Spirit. The gift of the essential nature of God is placed and made effective in us by the Holy Spirit. He imparts to us the quickening life of Jesus, making us truly alive. He takes that which was \u201cbeyond\u201d us and places it \u201cwithin\u201d us. And immediately, once \u201cthe beyond\u201d has come \u201cwithin,\u201d it rises up to \u201cthe above,\u201d and we are lifted into the kingdom where Jesus lives and reigns (see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=John+3:5\">John 3:5<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Great Convergence Richard Rohr Tuesday, November 28, 2017 The emerging church, a convergence of hopeful and liberating Christian themes, is happening on all continents, in all denominations, at all levels\u2014and at a rather quick pace. I want to name this movement so that you can first of all recognize how it has already happened […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16200"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16200"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16207,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16200\/revisions\/16207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}