A friend just called and we were talking about my last blog post. We were talking about whether or not the person who e-mailed had a point. Part of me thinks that they do. Not that I shouldn’t be blogging (although we joked that it has happened regardless of the comments) but rather or not I am irrelevant to the conversation about the Gospel and culture because of where I am in life.
A mentor of mine told me in all seriousness that no one takes bi-vocational pastors seriously. Sad to say, in many ways he was right. Looking back at it, while I was criticizing those that lived and died on the words of Bill Hybels and Rick Warren, I was doing the same with different thinkers that met my idea of what success was in the church. The big difference was the metrics that we were using. The values may change. For some it was job stability and a sustainable size of church, for me it was may attraction to cutting edge ideas and theology. Both I think are flawed in a very similar way as they are both dependent on success (size of church | book sales | appearance @ TED)
For me my worldview changed overnight when I started to work at the shelter. I saw the poorest side of Saskatoon and while there are a lot poorer areas of Canada, it was a shock for me. 99% of it I can’t or won’t talk about here but I remain shocked over the impact of total family breakdown, heavy drug use and addictions, domestic violence, alcohol related dementia, and undiagnosed mental illness. Despite only living 15 blocks from it, I had missed it all. On Monday while heading home, I saw members of the Saskatoon District Health picking up needles. I looked in all four directions at a side street and everywhere I looked, someone was picking up a dirty needle. Being around it has changed a lot of things. I make our beds differently even at home (I flick the sheets away from me) without thinking about it and much to the families irritation when we have other things to do, I tend to talk with every panhandler and make sure they know they can get a meal and a room.
Over the last couple of years my theology may have gotten more complex but my praxis has gotten a lot simpler and focused on the poor. At the same time my vision for impacting change and the community has grown exponentially. At the same time a quick drive through the core neighborhoods of Saskatoon and other cities show that the homeless, drug addictions, prostitution, and poverty are not on the agenda of most churches. Much ado was made of one church who is doing "affordable" condos at $100,000 a shot. Yeah it’s affordable, if you are middle class and can get a mortgage.
The ratio of churches to homes are twice on the east side of Saskatoon as it is on the west side. Why, there is more money (and therefore better givers) on the east side of the city as there on the west. With most of the growth happening on Saskatoon’s east side for years, church growth practices dictate that you go with the growth. I should know as I found an old memo I wrote outlining a similar idea.
I guess if your idea of the emerging church is that it is the latest thing in a long line of church growth ideas and relevance, then I am pretty irrelevant and the stuff I link to and write about is pretty irrelevant. I think I am pretty cool with that.
Note: A couple of people asked where I am going to church now. I work a LOT of Sunday’s but Wendy is starting to attend Lakeview when she can. It is where many of our friends attend and Lakeview was there for Wendy when she was having Oliver.
Yeah, because the only famous bivoc pastor I can think of is…um what’s his name…Paul of something.
I think you’re on the cusp of the most radical thing and the guys doing book tours or sitting in comfortable churches are the conventional that will be on the way out regardless of if they have tea candles or still use a pipe organ.
Does anybody think that a significant failure of the Emergent guys was anticipating how success would have an effect on distorting and even subverting the most radical elements of it?
I remember discussing at a cohort once the fact that we would eventually get enough notice to start being attacked and we should begin to anticipate some of it (prefiguring Carson by about four years IIRC) and being pooh poohed.
Go on with your irrelevant relevant bad-ass self:
http://onehouse.blogs.com/onehouse/2004/07/relevant_irrele.html
Jordan,
I have so appreciated your views, your blog, and your self. I think what you do is what really matters in this life and the next. Keep up the good work. It has been good to get to know you here, and follow what/how you’re doing.
So Jordon, after all that, what is the answer? What is the answer for all those hurting people you have now come into contact with working at the shelter?
After all the criticism of what the church is not doing, what should the church do in your opinion?
Hey Jordon,
Funny thing…I did the same thing you did. I was a youth pastor in S’toon area for 12 years and then decided to go work with street kids in South America. I was home recently and was looking through that same “Emerging Church” section at the bookstore that used to hold so much interest for me, and well…not so much any more. Not that there aren’t still interesting reads there…but once you move on from “church ministry” it doesn’t feel like there’s that much there.
I guess what I’m saying is that, I (along with many others, I see) enjoy what you write and think you add a voice that is rather sorely needed…no matter what church community a person might be from.
As a funny side note, I started reading different blogs more once I moved south, then one day ended up at your blog through a series of links (I don’t actually remember how). I followed along for awhile before I realized that your “Spiritwood” was actually Spiritwood, SASKATCHEWAN. It made me laugh. So it’s interesting to hear what’s happening back home.
Keep at it man. I’m not sure I’ve ever smelled like urine exactly, but lots of places I hang out smell like that…
Thanks for what you do Jordon!
Lucky you.
Unfounded criticism and George too.
George, maybe plant churches based on need rather than financial demographics. A vision based on mission rather than sustainability.
Tried to come up with an appropriately sarcastic/witty response to this thread (specifically the original email), but I failed. That email deserved a hearty laugh, not a conversation.
Ok, so we plant more churches in the inner city where there is great need, or in the crime ridden, drug infested housing complexes in the suburbs (Toronto).
For what purpose? As you interact with all these hurting people, what is their need? What was your need before you knew Jesus Christ? Was it not Jesus Christ? That’s what all these people need, they need Jesus Christ. We have to, as the Church, reach out to them with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He alone is their only lasting eternal hope. What I don’t hear you saying Jordon is just that. What I don’t hear so many emerging/missional minded people saying is how other people need Jesus Christ. How they need a relationship with Almighty God through Jesus Christ. That is the greatest need of every person.
He is the One who can set them free as they turn to Him. Isn’t that true? Wasn’t that true in your own life?
Is God not able to turn these people around? Change them from the inside out? We believe that don’t we, that God can and will do that? So what do we do folks, come on, it’s clear isn’t it. We got to love people and point them to Jesus. Tell them the truth, love them with the truth, God will use that, that is their only hope. Let’s do it, come on, lets do it. Yes, let’s help them with their immediate needs and all that and as we do let’s tell them about how they can be set free. Anything short of that is not loving them like Jesus did.
Can george just go away? Can we make that happen?
> I tend to talk with every panhandler and make sure they know they can get a meal and a room.
Around here (San Francisco), panhandlers make $200 a day, more than twice minimum wage, and that’s a pretty well known statistic. The public is pretty much turned off, such that other poor people (single moms, handicapped, …) are left out. I’m glad to see you are developing a women’s shelter, and are looking at the whole spectrum of poverty.
How well can you communicate this to the well-off east-siders? I think they would give to assist, but most people are reluctant to give money that (indirectly) frees up other money to buy drugs, alcohol and cigarettes? Sort of “the elephant in the middle of the room”.
What Christians are starting to do in greater numbers is that they are starting to “emerge” out of the cocoon of the local church. For so long the institutional church has turned inward. Yes we sent missionaries abroad but in our own local communities we developed a seige mentality. Like ostriches we stuck our heads in the sand ignoring the reality around us. If we just prayed and sang loud enough the world would eventually come our way. How wrong we were. Maybe we are finally seeing things the way they really are and trying to make a difference in practical ways.
Many, many professing followers of Jesus Christ follow the award winning blog Jordoncooper.com. They cannot agree that the answer to the problems of those who are so messed up is Jesus Christ. And if one should dare suggest that Jesus Christ really is the answer, they just want him to go away. How sad, how incredibly sad.
So much valid criticism levelled against the church for not doing enough in reaching out to the down and outs, to those who have no hope, but the emerging/missional conversation/church does not seem to have an answer. Profess to follow Christ but have no answer. How sad. How sad. And all those without hope do not receive the incredilbe news, the Good News that can set them free.
George, the problems are far more complex than spiritual ones. Drugs, mental illness, sexual abuse… I do believe in the power of Jesus but those problems still exist after a person accepts Christ.
I would accept your criticism of the emerging church not having an answer to the problems of the poor except I don’t see many other churches doing anything either.
My favorite part of the Good Samaritan parable is when the example of the story leans over to the beat up guy and says “Jesus is the answer.”
George, Jordon has an peer awarded winning blog.
And as a cop, besides an attitude you have…?
Delete my comment if you wish to Jordon, in the years many of us have been going down this road with George, plus ça change, plus c’est la même.
“George, the problems are far more complex than spiritual ones. Drugs, mental illness, sexual abuse… I do believe in the power of Jesus but those problems still exist after a person accepts Christ.”
Jordon, surely you believe that Jesus Christ will help a person who suffers from all that once they have received Christ. He absolutely will and it is the most amazing unbelievable thing to see. How Almighty God can transform a life from the inside out. That’s what He does. He has given us a message to give to the world and especially to those who He has a special place in His heart for, the broken of the world.
You obviously have a big heart if you are working for the Sally Ann in a shelter. They do great work in reaching out to those on the margins. I think so much more can be done though. People need to be reached out to with the Gospel. It is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. We are the ones who have been given the message to give to the world.
God uses His truth by His Spirit to transform lives, He did it in my life and countless others. The emerging church is good at talking about reaching out practically but I see no power of God in what they are doing, I do not see evidence of transformed lives only lives being helped out, or at least they talk about it. If all they want to do is help people with their practical needs I think they might be better off if they all just got together and had a better lobby to bring to bear on the different levels of gov’t.
Jordon, talk to them about Jesus. As you’re working with them trying to help them, trying to build those relationships, tell them about this awesome God and what He has done in your own life and how they too can be set free as they turn to Him. They will still have their problems but they will have a different Master who is going to begin to take control of their lives and help them along. He absolutely will. The next thing you know they will be praising God and living for Him and expressing their incredible gratitude to you for making the introduction.
You’re right George. I’ll bet Jordan never mentions Jesus, probably doesn’t even cross his mind.