Next meeting will be Thursday, January 13, 2011

At the October meeting we decided to take the holiday months of November and December off and meet again on Thursday, January 13, 2011. Enjoy the break and your time with family and friends.

October Meeting on the 14th

We should have a great conversation this week as we discuss what is the purpose of the church and is the church accomplishing it's purpose?

You'll be ready for this meeting if you think about your answers to those questions before we meet. Hope to see you there.

Mark your calendar for September 9

On Thursday, September 9 we'll meet at 7:00 PM at ESCAPE in Allen to discuss McLaren's next question: What is the Gospel? You're welcome to join the conversation, whether or not you've read McLaren's A New Kind of Christianity.

August Meeting News

Make plans to join us on August 12th as we discuss "Is Jesus the victim of identity theft?"

July Meeting Recap

Thanks to everyone who participated in the conversation on July 8th. Terry says that the group didn't get to most of the questions, so we'll continue this conversation at our August meeting. Make plans to join us on August 12th as we discuss "Is Jesus the victim of identity theft?"

June 2010 Meeting Recap

We had another stimulating and insightful cohort meeting June 10th. We had the pleasure of two new faces. Ruth Ann, Clay's wife, and Catherine, Joseph's wife, joined us for the first time. It was great to see new faces and old friends once again!

Our focus was the third question posed in McLaren's A New Kind of Christianity - "Is God Violent?" In general, most felt that God as we understand him (or her) is a kind and compassionate God. A God that was seeking deep and spiritual connections. In many ways, a God who we see through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. We also noted that God cannot be confined to our views and perceptions. Surely the creator of all that is seen and unseen can react to mankind as he (or she) deems necessary.

What appears to be changing as much as scripture's view of God is our ability to allow God's spirit to take charge of our lives and lead us to a deeper relationship for those who seek him. Christ in so many ways represents this view. His message regarding the Kingdom of God and a constant growing relationship with God is leading us to a deeper spiritual relationships that we feel is God's desire. In general, this is not the behavior we would expect from an angry God or one that uses violent episodes to get our attention.

Below are a few other associated items we touched on as well ...


* Some commented that the question is best stated as ... Is God Violent Today?
* In our discussion of Noah and the flood, we had an interesting discussion that offered the possibility that the story was more a parable than an actual event. A way of communicating the importance of listening and obeying God's word. As a parable, the view of God and the emphasis takes on a much more understandable and compassionate nature.
* It was also noted that the flood didn't really change things! Soon after Noah's descendents were in the same despicable situation that created the need for the flood in the first place.
* We also discussed the three levels of consciousness found in Polynesian culture. 1) First, you must be aware of your feelings for yourself. You need to be aware and at peace with who you are. 2) Once this is in place, you can extend your focus to those around you - your brothers. 3) Only after one has a good grasp of yourself and relationships with your brothers are you then able to develop a healthy and fulfilling relationship with God. In striking similarity to the basic themes of the "Good News" message and ministry of Jesus Christ.
* One person noted that their conscious self was focused on Christ ... "Jesus saved me from living for myself!"
* We also had several other discussions revolving around the evolutional nature of scripture and our developing views of God. We also alluded to McLaren's use of Spiral Dynamics to explain the Bible's changing view of God. We also briefly mentioned the upcoming (June 18-19th) Dallas Faith Community Outreach Workshop where Don Beck will be presenting more on Spiral Dynamics as well as a full-day workshop.


Lastly, we discussed the nature of Emergence in general. We see a growing number of people from all faiths and beliefs that are asking some of the same questions that McLaren has posed. This appears to be a spiritual movement that binds us together even though in some cases we may have very different views and feelings. It's a movement that seeks to understand and embrace spiritual diversity rather than exclude those who appear to be different. Our cohort is very excited about the many possibilities this "ongoing emergent dialogue" offers.


Thanks Clay for these notes!

July 8 meeting

On Thursday, July 8 we will meet at 7:00 PM at ESCAPE in Allen to discuss McLaren's next question: Who is Jesus and Why is He Important? You are welcome to join the conversation, whether or not you have read McLaren's A New Kind of Christianity.

May meeting recap

The discussion on the 13th was stimulating. Most, but not all, of the cohort members present had either grown up in, or passed through, churches who viewed the Bible as a constitution. We shared those experiences and enjoyed hearing from those who came from different traditions. We explored alternatives to a constitutional view of scripture, and most agreed that McLaren's "community library" analogy was very helpful.

We enjoyed having Joyce and Bob with us for the first time.

In June we'll consider McLaren's third question, the God question: Is God violent? Be thinking about it and we'll see you on June 10th!

May 13 Meeting

We'll discuss McLaren's 2nd question dealing with the authority of the scriptures - "How should the Bible be understood?" Is it best understood as a legal constitution or is it best understood as a community library? Hope you can join us in this conversation.

No Rising Tide

If you're interested, Dr. Joerg Rieger of SMU's Perkins Divinity School is delivering an address on his book No Rising Tide dealing with Christian ethics and the economy. The address is May 8 at 2:00 PM at Northaven United Methodist Church.

Sojourners Discusses Emergent

The progressive evangelical group Sojourners has hosted an online dialogue about if emergent is open to racial and ethnic diversity. Check it out.

It all started with a rather scathing article in their magazine.

Give it all a read and let us know your thoughts.

A New Kind of Christianity

At our April meeting, we'll start our discussion of Brian McLaren's new book, A New Kind of Christianity. Join us Thursday at 7 at Escape in Allen. We'll begin with a review of "What is the overarching story line of the Bible?" and go from there.

You're welcome even if you've never read a word of McLaren's writings. Hope you can join us.

What defines you as emergent?

In his recent book Deep Church: A third way beyond Emergent and Traditional, author Jim Belcher identifies 7 themes that the emergent church is "protesting" about the traditional church. In general, Belcher says emergents are protesting traditionalists':

1. Captivity to Enlightenment rationalism
2. Narrow view of salvation
3. belief before belonging
4. Uncontextualized worship
5. Ineffective preaching
6. Weak ecclesiology
7. Tribalism

So what about you? Are you concerned about these issues or do other issues define you as an emergent Christian? We'll discuss these issues at our March meeting.

February Meeting will be on 2/18

The forecast for this Thursday evening is Mostly Cloudy and a low of
48 - practically summer compared to last week! Hope you can join us
at Escape on Thursday at 7:00 PM.

The questions we'll be starting with are:


1. How can you be emergent without being perceived as being arrogant?
2. Why be emergent?
3. Why do you believe what you believe?

February 11 Meeting Postponed

As of 5:20 PM Wednesday, the forecast for tomorrow night is for the snow and slush that falls during tonight and tomorrow to start to freeze. So let's postpone the cohort meeting one week until February 18th. Help spread the word! Stay safe.

Cohort Meeting This Thursday 2/11

We will meet this Thursday at 7 at Escape. We'll start with these questions:

1. How can you be emergent without being perceived as being arrogant?
2. Why be emergent?
3. Why do you believe what you believe?

The forecast is for snow...so come back here for any late breaking news on changes to our schedule...