CCBlogs thinking critically, living faithfully

Julie Clawson's blog

In my Having Fun in Church post from a couple of weeks ago, Patti left the following comment that has been gnawing at my brain for the past few days –

I think fun is great for church. I also think that activities like roller skating and rodeos (a big church in Nashville had a rodeo in church for July 4) don’t belong in the sanctuary. Hold them in the gym, the grounds, the activity center, the parking lot–maybe even in lieu of “regular” services sometimes, but not in the sanctuary. Keep this place apart for the decorum and solemnity that some activates need, i.e. communion, weddings, christenings, confirmations, funerals/memorial services, etc. Individual, personal introspective reflection is needed for enlightenment to occur.

I’ll be honest, I flat out disagree with her perspective, but I really appreciated the comment because of how it illustrates different conceptions of what the purpose of church is.... READ MORE.

Julie Clawson's blog

The day after we here in the U.S. paused to remember the men and women who had died fighting for our country, the fight continued from beyond the grave. On Tuesday in the town of Göttingen, Germany a World War 2 era bomb exploded killing three people and injuring six others. The strangeness of death coming from a conflict long resolved, the destruction of former enemies now become close friends, gave me pause as I read the headline.

My first thought in the “what a tangled web we weave” category, was to wonder if the Allied airmen dropping those bombs some years ago ever thought that their action had the potential to kill their unborn grandchildren. Or that one day we would live in a globalized world where the idea of Germany and America being at war with one another would be utterly preposterous. And still the violence and the hatred of a time gone by had its latest causalities in 2010. ... READ MORE.

Julie Clawson's blog

Most countries around the world are celebrating a holiday today. While here in the United States we might have a few blog posts and an auxiliary lunch or two, other countries are hosting parades and setting aside time to honor women. For today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. A national holiday in some countries, this is the day set aside to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women. Of course, just mentioning the day’s existence prompts some to ask “well, why isn’t there an International Men’s Day?” In response I’d echo my mom’s reply when on Mother’s Day I would ask her “why isn’t there a kid’s day?” and she would say “because every other day is kid’s (men’s) day.”

But the fact remains, if women truly were treated as equals, valued for our contributions, respected for our ideas, and not assumed to be inferior or incapable in any way, then there would not need to be a day to bring attention to the achievements of women.... READ MORE.

Julie Clawson's blog

In my last post on experience and words an interesting conversation arose in the comments on what it means to welcome others. The question centered on whether or not emergent is welcoming of all if disagreements exist or if “us verses them” divisions exist.

On one level the discussion asks the question if a person can feel welcome in a non-homogeneous group or if they are the minority. I’ve personally talked about how hard that can be for me when I feel like I am not even allowed to be myself in groups. I don’t like being the odd one out, and I know there are some that would rather not make concessions to welcome the other either. I recall a very awkward interracial experience I had a number of years ago in this regard. It was Christmastime, and this good Texas girl wanted her traditional tamales for Christmas Eve. So I headed over to a Mexican market in West Chicago to buy some. I was walking out of the store with my tamales when an elderly Hispanic woman stopped me at the door, gestured emphatically at me, and asked “what’s a gringo doing in my store? What do you want with us?” I replied something lame about the tamales and made a quick exit, but I had impressed on me the difficulty of crossing boundaries - especially the ones you barely knew existed. It is hard to feel welcome or to welcome the other when you really don’t know how to interact with each other.... READ MORE.

Julie Clawson's blog

So I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to say about this past weekend. Like I mentioned in my last post, I spent the time as part of a group out in Washington D.C. who met to re-imagine the future of Emergent Village. But as simple as it was beforehand to say that I was going to help discuss the future of EV, it is much more difficult to express what actually happened. I know there are a lot of people wanting to know what we all decided - what the future will hold so to speak. But hard concrete decisions were not what came from this time. Oh, we have direction, and vision, and momentum from which such decisions will form in the near future - but no descending from the mountaintop proclamation. Not that it was ever that sort of gathering to begin with. And while there were some great conversations about ideas and possibilities (which I am still personally processing and will trickle out here over time), I think I should share a bit about the structure of this gathering and the more personal impact it held.... READ MORE.

Julie Clawson's blog

So the whole missional vs. attractional church debate has risen to the bloggy surface yet once again sparked by Dan Kimball’s recent post on the Out of Ur blog. In the piece he questions the fruit of so-called missional churches because a few that he knows of anecdotally haven’t grown while attractional churches are making converts in droves. Since they aren’t making converts, they therefore are ineffectual. Being missional means squat apparently unless you are growing in numbers and the sins of attractional models are incidentally absolved since they are making converts. Others have questioned the reality of such conversions, and I especially liked Dave Fitch’s response on that account. But to the specific accusation that... READ MORE.