Emerging Women

So I was amusing myself at Crummy Church Signs and getting more and more appalled at the stuff churchs put out to show the world who they are. One of the signs read –
“Sunday Service 11:00
Women should remain silent in church.
Air conditioned”
The sign was from Canada, and I’ve seen similar billboards in missouri. As absurd as the pronouncement and air conditioning advertisement are mixed together, I know this represents the sentiment of many churches out there.

What is your reaction to this? How would you respond to such a church? How do you think the world responds to this? Can opinions like this be accepted or is a church putting something like this on a sign really really hurting the church? Thoughts…?

Another interesting discussion about women in ministry is happening over at Jesus Creed , Scot McKnight’s blog. He raises the question about why ordained women are not given large congregations to lead.

I have throughly enjoyed the conversation on this blog lately. It has spoken to some of my innermost questions and has been encouraging because I realize that there are many others with the same questions and struggles that I have. I admire and respect all of the comments made, and so therefore, I’d like to post a situation that I came across tonight.

I have been meeting with a Korean friend for about a year to help with her english. It came about through my church, and her and I and our families have created a deep friendship. We have had conversations about politics, faith, why Americans are the way we are, what her culture is like etc. I’ve learned so much from her and my hope is that she will realize that not all americans are what she thinks.

Tonight we went to a fair in town. Her daughter, 4 years old, wanted to get a free face painting. Well the face painting was free after she heard a bible story. I thought, this could be bad. So I tried to listen in on some of it, and my friend did too a little bit. I wanted to grab her daughter and pull her out of there. The face painting girl started out telling her about God and heaven and how heaven is full of gold streets. I didn’t hear some of it but basically at the end the girl was telling this four year that she was a sinner and that she needs to ask Jesus in to her heart in order to go to heaven. She then asked the four year to ask Jesus into her heart right there! I was so angry. Hannah’s face looked so sad, like she had done something wrong after saying no to that question. This is really the first time Hannah had heard any of this.

My conservative background says that this is the way you do it. But my emerging faith screams otherwise. I’m not saying that the things she said aren’t important. But I just think it was so inappropriate to tell a four year old and I felt like it was just so they could say, “We preached the gospel to x amount of kids this year at the fair and x amount asked Jesus into their heart”

My friend asked if this was a Christian organization and I said yes. I told her that I thought what she said to Hannah was inappropriate and if Hannah asks them any questions, which I know she will, to please feel free to come talk with me. Hannah was so sad after that and thought her face painting looked bad. I don’t blame her.

It felt wierd to be angry about the situation, as it contradicted the church background I grew up in and I found that I tried to convince myself that what the girl did was a good thing. But in the end I couldn’t shake it, and still can’t, I’m mad about it.

The ‘voices’ are women’s voices. The ‘re-imagining’ is from a text by Walter Brueggeman who argues for new prophetic voices needing to arise and come forth, speaking into the postmodern culture in which the Church finds herself. The ‘stories’ I’m looking at are the biblical stories in which females play a role but have been traditionally sidelined, minimalized and spiritually stereotyped.

An example: I suggest that emerging women could re-imagine Hagar’s story for the benefit of ministering/serving/witnessing in a very real way to people, especially women of the 21st century. In Hagar’s story are the stories; of women kicked out of the house by a competing, favored woman, of women who are abandoned by the father of their child, of women who find themselves homeless with a child to care for, of homeless women with a child that find themselves in the desert of social systems not designed for any long-term help, of women who have married into families of different ethnicity and find themselves being treated as second best, of women globally who are still bargained with and used sexually to meet the political/social needs of others, of women who must rebuild their lives with no help from any family …. Others?

Not many sermons/teachings/Sunday School lessons that I’ve heard in my 40 years of experience through Lutheran, Wesleyan, independent charismatic, Word of Faith, Nazarene, Pentacostal, Evangelical seeker-driven, or Methodist tell Hagar’s story with any of these relevant, theological critical views so that women can find their story in hers and meet God there. However, I suggest that emerging women have an opportunity to seize the day and prophetically re-imagine, building on the foundations of generous orthodoxy that the “emergents” are establishing …

Hagar Anyone?

The Truth Project
Has anyone heard about this? It’s Focus on the Family’s latest gig. I checked out their website thetruthproject.com and here’s just a sampling:

“The Truth Project begins by defining truth as “that which corresponds to reality.” This absolute and eternal truth, at the heart of Jesus’ mission on earth, continues to be the focal point of the Cosmic Battle in our own time.”

Well, ladies, I guess the battle lines are being drawn. Apparently, if I don’t accept as truth what these men have defined it as then I am just not in touch with reality. (Incidentally, the majority of whom are white and in their 50-60′s–nary a woman in the group–guess women just don’t know truth if it smacked them in the face.)

You know what my reality in evangelical world has been? It’s been all about people who cared far more about their image and whether or not they are “in” with God–everyone else can go to hell–literally–than how they treat others. I have seen the ugliest side of humanity in the church.

You know what my reality in the real world has been? Most (I would say somewhere above 90%) of the people I have known outside the church would never dream of behaving the way most Christians do. So, unfortunately, I would say to the truth project people–the truth for me (if it does, indeed, correspond with reality) is that people without God are a heck of a lot nicer than those who claim to be his followers.

Of course, there was a dig or two for postmodernism and any idiot (I’m sure in their opinion) who comes close to embracing it. And you know what else bugged me??? The very last thing on their list of tenants, or whatever, is the whole love-your-neighbor thing. Seemed like an afterthought to me and something to neatly tie up the package. For only $119 you can buy the truth (a deal at $149 for a couple). If we wanted the poor of this world to know the real truth–God loves them–think of how much truth for them could be bought at $119 a pop!

just my two cents

A friend posed this question (or variation thereof) recently to me. He quoted someone else, saying that the emergent movement would live or die based on what it decided it meant to follow Jesus.

I’ve grown up in churches that lived out a message of social service, but distrust of the scriptural Jesus. In churches and a college, where defining and demarquating (sp?) the limits of scriptural meaning and interpretation meant everything. Personally, I’m transitioning to a definition where living with my choices in the way I believe Jesus would has more meaning than whether I know the verse reference to back up my decisions. There’s obviously more to this question than that, but I’d love to hear my fellow sojourners thoughts.

How do we follow our Jesus? Where have you been, where are you going?