2. catching
Methodists
doing right

3. 5
encouraging
signs

4. 1. More and more Methodists
are entering the “U”

5. Letting Go Letting Come
Letting Be

6. Death
(Friday)
Resurrection
(Sunday)
Burial
(Saturday)

7. note: “Covenant Prayer” is
the epitome of “letting be”
the letting go process
breaks open our boxes...

9. 2. More and more
Methodist “heroes”
are emerging “on the
other side.”

10. heroes:
adding to governance ...
leadership.
bishops ... ds’s ... pastors ...
others

11. 3. More and more
experiments (prototypes)
are happening.

12. When you think
“congregations” ...
what are your assumptions?

13. mixed-
economy
denominations

14. 4. As pressures are
increasing, creativity,
courage, and
determination are
growing...

15. seeing problems (thousands
of churches, etc., that will
not survive)
as possibilities (a historic
fund for the “church of the
future”)

16. 5. Methodist identity is
under stress - which
means it can break
open (or break apart).

17. Traditional Protestant Identity:
Who/what we’re protesting (hostility)
How we’re properly structured (polity)
What makes us superior (legitimacy)
What makes us different (distinctives)

18. Emerging Pro-Testifying Identity:
What we love and value (affinity)
How we network to everyone (harmony)
What makes us authentic (fidelity)
What difference we make (utility)

19. When I ask what people love
about “Methodist” or
“Wesleyan” identity, here’s
what I hear:

20. 1. Intellectual freedom.
2. Social holiness.
3. Emphasis on “heart”
4. Emphasis on mission
5. Connection/fellowship

21. 1. Intellectual freedom.
2. Social holiness.
3. Emphasis on “heart”
4. Emphasis on mission
5. Connection/fellowship
(nobody has ever talked about
Methodist structure.)

22. When I ask what’s the worst thing
about being Methodist or
Wesleyan, here’s what I hear:
1. Too internally political
2. Too polarized
3. Too bureaucratic
4. Not attractive enough to young
people

23. 23
If you asked me ...

24. The key identity issue is not simply the identity
of being Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal,
Lutheran, etc., considered separately ...
but a shared, emerging identity
as
vibrant, collaborative, missional
Christians.

25. - Flexible global network of
- vibrant missional congregations...
- Who emphasize spiritual vitality and
theological depth
- Who practice invitation, welcome, disciple-
making, diversity, and inclusion,
- Who express compassion in the pursuit of
social justice
- Who cherish tradition with a bias towards
innovation
- Above all, who follow Jesus Christ, guided and
empowered by the Holy Spirit, to the glory of
God.

26. the identity question
all mainline
Protestants face:
do we imitate the
words/policies or the
example of our
founders?

27. Emerging Churches
By Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger
(Baker, 2005)
9 characteristics

28. 1. Recentering the gospel on Christ and
the Kingdom of God …
“May your kingdom come…”
Sanctification …

29. 2. Engaging culture without a sacred-
secular dualism
Field preaching … popular music
3. Doing life together in community
between Sundays
Band, class, society

30. 4. Listening with openness, including the
outsider
Becoming more “vile” -
5. Serving those in need without ulterior
motive
Social holiness

31. 6. Involving participants actively in
worship
Queries … licensing preachers
7. Valuing creativity in the image of the
Creator
Charles’ hymnody

32. 8. Leading through networks, with or
without hierarchies
Renewal through parallel “marginal”
structures … itineracy as flexibility
9. Integrating ancient and avante-garde in
spiritual formation
Spiritual direction … Anam cara …
monastic/formational community

33. 5. Methodist identity is
under stress - which
means it can break
open (or break apart).

34. Theologians who Fly Fish:

35. Theologians who Fly Fish:
Ich-theology

36. 36

38. 38

39. 39

42. 1. More and more Methodists
are entering the “U”

43. 2. More and more
Methodist “heroes”
are emerging “on the
other side.”

44. 3. More and more
experiments (prototypes)
are happening.

45. 4. As pressures are
increasing, creativity,
courage, and
determination are
growing...

46. 5. Methodist identity is
under stress - which
means it can break
open (or break apart).

47. 47
What I think is happening...

48. A beautiful movement is being born.

49. we need a theology of
institutions, movements. and
Communities

50. Communities
Families, individuals, and
organizations linked to a
common environment,
collaborating for the
common good.

51. Institutions:
Organizations which conserve
the gains made by past
social movements.

52. Social Movements
Organizations which make
proposals or demands to
current institutions to make
progress towards new
gains.

53. A beautiful movement is being born.
You are about to surprise everyone by
launching a movement that brings
together innovative bishops, ds’s,
pastors (large and small church),
artists, activists, and lay leaders
(business, professions, etc.).

54. You can expect this movement to be
bigger than Methodism.
Remember that you are either
governing/tending a constituency that
will be captured by other movements
... or your are choosing/leading the
movement yourselves.