Mike Morrell

Housing Faith: The Priesthood of All..?

December 6, 2011 in Church, Community, Faith, God, House Church, Justice, Leadership, Theology with 12 Comments

From 1998 to 2008, I was heavily involved in intentional house church communities, even moving from Georgia to North Carolina to help ‘seed’ a church plant consisting primarily of a dozen collaborators from my undergrad alma mater, Berry College. (We even had a launch conference at Duke, and everything) Long story short, somewhere around 2008 our church began to disintegrate, and we’ve all moved on. Even so, much of the core DNA of ‘house church’ (also known as ‘organic church’ and ‘simple church’) remain with me. This week, I want to revisit some of this still-central resonance, which I think can be a gift to the larger community of faith as we’re navigating 21st-century changes.

The mysterious PostScript (who on earth are ye??), asked something insightful in relation to yesterday’s post:

Random question…If the church is a community of priests, for whom is it interceding?

My first response is “the world!”

Of course, I’m not a Hebrew or Greek scholar (unlike my interlocutor, whose identity is actually not mysterious to me), nor am I versed enough in a religious-socio-historical account of the development of ‘priesthood’ concepts globally. But my gut instinct is that when people say ‘priest’ they mean ‘ministering,’ in a deep, true sense of the word. And this could be directed in, oh, any and all of four ways–ministering unto God, Godself; ministering unto one another, ministering on behalf of humanity, and indeed, creation and the cosmos.

The question takes on even more compelling twists in a “Jesusian” context as the author of Hebrews seems to invert certain commonly-held priesthood concepts. I’m not sure if the other New Testament authors follow suit in a similar way, but for all there seems to be an emphasis on Jesus as the High Priest (fulfilling and completing a certain epoch of God’s dealing with the cosmos and humanity), and us as a ‘kingdom of priests’…or are we?

Some, such as my friend Kevin, add another tantalizing idea into the mix: What if the priesthood, the ecclesia, as “called out” ones, were called out for an important but limited season in the first century: As a first-fruits signifying the whole harvest, or as some fore-running yeast giving rise to an entire loaf of Reality? In other words, what if now in the 21st century, the need for any priesthood has ceased as those in century one “made up for what was lacking” in Christ’s priestly sacrifice?

It is a strong possibility, methinks, though I’m well aware that there are many involved in the front lines of justice work who would beg to differ, saying that we still need a cadre of wounded healers–mediators, reconcilers, indeed, priests–today. And if this is the case, I hope we’re part of the healing balm rather than part of the problem.

I’d love for people representing different perspectives on this potentially-urgent matter of the nature and duration of priesthood to feel free and jump in. Share your wisdom!

Note: Andrew Tatum has written a reprise clarifying some of this thoughts re: clergy.

Recommended House Church Reading:
(Even for those in more bricks-and-mortar and institutional settings, there are spiritual, relational/organizational, and theological treasures to be mined from a house church critique of organized religion and its proposed alternative. One need not be a fundamentalist or a primitivist to appreciate these insights. Here are some of the best works available.)

Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity & Finding Organic Church: A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Sustaining Authentic Christian Communities by Frank Viola
Church Outside the Walls by Raj Samuel (on Kindle this week for $2.99!)
An Army of Ordinary People: Stories of Real-Life Men and Women Simply Being the Church by Felicity Dale
Christ in Y’all by Neil Carter
Going to the Root: Nine Proposals for Radical Church Renewal by Christian Smith (now out of print; good luck finding it)
The Pastor Has No Clothes, What’s With Paul and Women?, & No Will Of My Own: How Patriarchy Smothers Female Dignity & Personhood by Jon Zens
The House Church Book: Rediscover the Dynamic, Organic, Relational, Viral Community Jesus Started by Wolfgang Simson
The Community Life of God: Seeing the Godhead As the Model for All Relationships by Milt Rodriguez
Paul’s Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Cultural Setting, The Church Comes Home, and Going to Church in the First Century by Robert Banks
Christian Community: Biblical or Optional? by Hal Miller
The House Church: A Model for Renewing the Church & The Fall of Patriarchy: Its Broken Legacy Judged by Jesus & the Apostolic House Church Communities by Del Birkey

This was originally posted on October 17, 2007. Except the recommended reading list, which is brand-new.

Housing Faith: Professional Ministry – An Oxymoron?

December 5, 2011 in Church, Emergent, Faith, Gatherings, God, House Church, Leadership, Theology with 19 Comments

The idea of a distinction between clergy and laity is one of those extrabiblical human inventions that needs to be challenged and possibly even abolished altogether in believing communities. If, as the Apostle Peter claims, Christians are truly a Royal Priesthood then it seems that the very presence of a distinction between professional clergy and believing laity robs the “average” believer of his responsibility and calling to ministry in a local assembly through the use of his or her Spiritual gifts. Now I am aware that history happens and that it would be almost impossible to completely abolish any sort of “priestly” caste throughout the entire church but I am hopeful that communities within the emerging church, house church & organic church “movement” will begin to challenge this paradigm that – in my view – has vested too much power in the so-called clergy, thereby placing the burden of pastoral ministry that should be shared by an entire community on one person or a small group of persons. This over-burdening has two effects: first, it makes effective and relational ministry in churches nearly impossible because one person simply cannot embody every spiritual gift identified by Paul as beneficial and necessary for a functional Christian community. Second, it relieves “ordinary” Christians of the pastoral duties that they are called to embody by encouraging the truthless claim that the role of “pastor” should be embodied only by a formally trained and supposedly more fully gifted group of “called” and “equipped” pastoral elites.

So says my friend and Duke seminarian Andrew Tatum in his blog today. Go here to read his entire thought-provoking post.

Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity & Finding Organic Church: A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Sustaining Authentic Christian Communities by Frank Viola
Church Outside the Walls by Raj Samuel (on Kindle this week for $2.99!)
An Army of Ordinary People: Stories of Real-Life Men and Women Simply Being the Church by Felicity Dale
Christ in Y’all by Neil Carter
Going to the Root: Nine Proposals for Radical Church Renewal by Christian Smith (now out of print; good luck finding it)
The Pastor Has No Clothes, What’s With Paul and Women?, & No Will Of My Own: How Patriarchy Smothers Female Dignity & Personhood by Jon Zens
The House Church Book: Rediscover the Dynamic, Organic, Relational, Viral Community Jesus Started by Wolfgang Simson
The Community Life of God: Seeing the Godhead As the Model for All Relationships by Milt Rodriguez
Paul’s Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in Their Cultural Setting, The Church Comes Home, and Going to Church in the First Century by Robert Banks
Christian Community: Biblical or Optional? by Hal Miller
The House Church: A Model for Renewing the Church & The Fall of Patriarchy: Its Broken Legacy Judged by Jesus & the Apostolic House Church Communities by Del Birkey

This was originally posted on October 16, 2007. ~~I’m afraid Andrew’s links no longer work~~ (thank God for Archive.org!) He’s blogging here now. I’ll find out if he moved these particular posts.

Way of the Heart Interlude: Kenosis Hymn

December 4, 2011 in Christian Mysticism, Worship with 8 Comments

Let what was seen in Christ Jesus be seen also in you -

Though his state was that of God,
yet he did not claim equality with God
something he should cling to.

Rather, he emptied himself,
and assuming the state of a slave,
he was born in human likeness.

He being known as one of us,
Humbled himself obedient unto death
Even death on a cross.

For this God raised him on high
and bestowed on hi the name
which is above every other name.

So that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven, on earth and under the earth,

And so every tongue should proclaim
“Jesus Chist is Lord!”
to God the father’s Glory

- Philippians 2:5-11, Christian Community Bible translation, from the Philippines, as cited in Cynthia Bourgeault‘s Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening

This is a nice interlude in our Way of the Heart series, which continues soon. Here is the series so far:

The Way of the Heart Part 7: When 20/20 Hindsight Becomes Blindsight

December 2, 2011 in Books, Christian Mysticism, Emergent, Faith, God with 16 Comments

We do our Christian history in retrospect; like white people watching The Help, we write ourselves into history and assume that we’re the good guys & on the right side of history.

Our catechism process assumes we know the right things about Jesus.

We’ve sent others to the stake because they know the wrong things about Jesus.

We think that by claiming the title ‘Christ’ that we have recognized all that we need; this is a fatal assumption, blunting the very instrument we need.

Cynthia played a ‘dirty trick’ on their parish in Aspen by asking – “If the resurrection didn’t happen, would that change what you believe?” She elicited a strong reaction from her congregation – “What are you, a Unitarian or something?”

Even so, you can be a completely orthodox Christian and recognize that Jesus’ apprentices weren’t following him because they knew Jesus was resurrected, or the Son of God – all of the theological categories contemporary orthodox Christians cite for following Jesus. They knew/believed none of that yet! It hadn’t happened yet. And yet there was still a compulsion, still an attraction.

Modern spiritual teacher A.H. Almaas distinguishes between ordinary knowledge and direct knowledge. The former comes pre-packaged from outside, via formal education, cultural conditioning, et al. “Depression is anger.” “Pedophilia is incurable.” Etc… It’s an essential cultural shorthand; you must acquire a store of ordinary knowledge. But. It’s radically limited in that it comes from the outside. Direct knowledge comes to us in the moment, from a deeper place within ourselves. Intuition is a weakened form of this. Something you know & recognize because it’s been indelibly imprinted in your being all along.

Ordinary knowledge tends to override and disenfranchise direct knowledge. Loving Jesus and a sense of calling starts people on the path to ministry; seminary tends to separate people from this immediacy, this central integrity of your call.

What happens with all education, & spiritual education in particular, is a seduction of our birthright (direct knowledge) for a mess of pottage (ordinary knowledge).

We don’t yet have an anthropology of direct knowledge. Direct knowing is a heart capacity, not a head capacity. The path is faith, as opposed to 20/20 hindsight and perception by separation. Direct knowing is not infallible; it can and should be purified and matured. But if you override it, you’ve essentially destroyed a person. Direct knowing is a living umbilical cord connecting our being to God’s. Our certainty, integrity, authenticity, and marching orders flow to the heart, and are mediated through the heart. Purification of the heart is what classic Christian spiritual training is all about.

Direct knowing is accessible only by an alert knowing of the present moment.

To be continued…to see where Cynthia’s going with this, I recommend checking out her books The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, and The Wisdom Way of Knowing.

In this series:
The Way of the Heart – Cynthia Bourgeault Part 1: What IS the Path of Jesus?
The Way of the Heart – Cynthia Bourgeault Part 2: See What Jesus Sees; Do What Jesus Does
The Way of the Heart Part 3: Cynthia Bourgealt’s Four Proposals – Beyond ‘The Imitation of Christ’
The Way of the Heart Part 4: Heartfulness Practice Transcends & Includes Orthodoxy
The Way of the Heart Part 5: Upgrading Our Operating System
The Way of the Heart Part 6: A Rorschach Blot for the Mind
The Way of the Heart Part 7: When 20/20 Hindsight Becomes Blindsight
The Way of the Heart Interlude: Kenosis Hymn
The Way of the Heart Part 8: Heart Surgery

The Way of the Heart Part 6: A Rorschach Blot for the Mind

December 1, 2011 in Christian Mysticism, Church, Emergent, Faith, God, Theology with 5 Comments

This discussion by Cynthia Bourgeault on Jesus‘ Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard is directly related to yesterday’s post.

One level: It’s not fair! Social justice-inclined Christians tend to say: “That’s okay for the Gospels, but in the real world workers need a living wage!” If that’s the case, then welcome to the Jesus Theme Park, the ghettoized parallel universe where we “discuss spiritual things” insulated from their having any actual impact. Jesus’ teachings don’t apply; they can’t apply. But we have to learn how to use these parables.

It takes a different perception of this parable to pick up

a.) There was never a question of scarcity, and

b.) The landowner’s motivation is participation – the people standing out there are isolated from the Web of Exchange that is the Mercy of God.

Mercy and Merchant are part of the same root. The landowner isn’t trying to get rich; he’s trying to include everyone. [Note: This is another very Capon-esque point. Kingdom, Grace, & Judgement is your friend here if you want to look at all of Jesus' parables from the lens of koan and grace and play that Cynthia is advocating for.]

A mind that perceives separation is going to see through scarcity; the mind that perceives union perceives abundance. The former mind cannot follow Jesus’ teachings. The constant tug-of-war between Jesus’ teachings and hearing them through our egoic ears isn’t going to cut it; it’s hard. It’s commendable that we’ve even tried! Wow! I’m not angry with Christianity; I have tremendous admiration in the sincerity of those trying to follow Jesus in spite of their lacking a proper operating system.

The place where I fault the tradition is that we failed to see that Jesus was teaching us a method of how to move into the sincere & conscientious application of Jesus’ teachings in real life –interiorizing and integrating. So far, this has only happened in the few – we tend to call them “the saints.” But this path is for all of us!

When we see how Jesus sees, we see what Jesus sees!

When we move from parts to the whole, and then see from vantage of the Whole to the parts…this is transformation.

The Way of the Heart Part 5: Upgrading Our Operating System

November 30, 2011 in Christian Mysticism, Emergent, Faith, God, Theology with 9 Comments

The move to nondual from our usual egoic way of being requires an upgrade to a whole new operating system. The software you run on is ego – the characteristic is perception by separation and delineation. Brain studies confirm that we see in binary – the grammar of looking at the world is subject and object, predisposed to manipulate a playing field of consciousness, parallel opposites. Male/female, foreground/background, more/less, et al.

Our egoic mind will interpret the “search for True Self” as the search for the correct label when in fact it is the discovery of a Self with no definition at all.

The Egoic Operating system is very useful. But it can’t do two things:

1.) Ask “Who am I?”

2.) Ask “Who is God?”

These can’t be discovered by perception of differentiation; they require perception of union.

The parables are subversive nondual teaching (See Keating’s Meditations on the Parables*), stunning reversals. Politically subversive, yes, but also putting hand grenades into the mental/egoic operating system of the brain – they’re very much like Zen Koans.

If you perceive the world from separation, you’re going to see a separated universe – even if you’re an activist, trying to create a more just and fair world. If your lenses are off, your vision will be off.

Jesus is about destabilizing. The parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard is a representative hand grenade:

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

*I have to say, priest & chef Robert Farrar Capon‘s omnibus Kingdom, Grace, & Judgement has forever altered the way I see Jesus’ parables – in a beautiful way that I’m sure Cynthia would resonate with. And to see where Cynthia’s going with our operating system updgrade, I highly recommend her books The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, and The Wisdom Way of Knowing. To be continued..!

The Way of the Heart Part 4: Heartfulness Practice Transcends & Includes Orthodoxy

November 29, 2011 in Christian Mysticism, Church, Emergent, Faith, Theology with 7 Comments

Cynthia Bourgeault recites the creeds perfectly happily each Sunday; she’s not denying Christ’s divinity, his personhood in the Trinity, or any core idea of Christian orthodoxy. “It’s true; it’s numinous poetry – I love it.”

Seeing Jesus as Wisdom Master is not a demotion. It isn’t making Jesus less than fully human and fully divine; it’s about how Jesus invites us toward the same realization for ourselves!

Seeing Jesus’ program of participatory divinity is crucial for the survival of the planet. We’re running out of our margins; if we don’t get this in the 21^st century, there won’t be a 22^nd.

Jim Marion noticed that one of Jesus’ most frequently-used sayings is “The Kingdom of Heaven.” Whatever this Kingdom is, everything else hinges on this. Marion suggests that Jesus’ Kingdom of Heaven is Jesus’ way of languaging nondual consciousness or unitive seeing. It exists Several rungs above rational consciousness. Jesus sees no separation between God & self, which you can see in “I and the Father are one.” This statement is meant to be inclusive and invitational – read John 15 through 17 in one sitting and see if you can come to any other conclusion! (Go ahead - http://bit.ly/JesusPath) Christology as the early church saw it wasn’t a confession about Christ alone; it is an invitation to participatory divinity.

This is the ‘dangerous’ truth that Jesus revealed and was (in part at least) executed for revealing: “Not only am I not separate from God – you’re not separate from God either.”

Jesus sees no separation between self and neighbor. What part of “Love your neighbor as yourself” don’t we understand? Our mind inserts the phrase “as much as” – Jesus doesn’t say this!

Jesus’ habit of non-separation (seen in the Great Commandment) is characteristic of nondual consciousness, whereas our average egoic mind draws every distinction.

To be continued…to see where Cynthia’s going with this, I highly recommend her books The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, and The Wisdom Way of Knowing.

The Way of the Heart Part 3: Cynthia Bourgealt’s Four Proposals – Beyond ‘The Imitation of Christ’

November 28, 2011 in Christian Mysticism, Church, Emergent, Faith, Theology with 19 Comments

1.) Jesus came to this planet as a master of the transformation of consciousness – he’s all about demonstrating and calling people to a new & higher degree of heartfulness; a deeper understanding, a more intimate, global, and non-divisive way of seeing a world held together in tender love.

2.) This evolutionary consciousness must be carried by the heart; you can’t do it with the mind alone. The great maps we have these days of human consciousness, ie Wilber, are mind-centered. Not everything is mental. We need a whole new operating system to kick into our being; this system is carried – metaphorically and literally – in the heart. Brain/heart entrainment opens up the Third Eye. (“If your eye is single, your whole body will be filled with light.”)

3.) The most important, main-stream way, of accessing/engaging the heart, dropping the mind into the heart, is through the practice of kenosis, or letting go. AKA a radical non-clinging or detachment. (See the Philippian hymn) Take the things we ‘want/need/have,’ and learn to have an open-handed (and open-hearted) approach

4.) Centering Prayer practices, in meditation form, are daily & active practice in kenosis – a decoupling of fixation and attachment. This is why Centering Prayer has provided, unbeknownst to itself (!), the experiential key to unlock the heart of Jesus’ teaching. Of all the hundreds of meditation options out there, this one is closest to the heart of Jesus’ teaching, giving us the physiology and emotional disposition to do the Jesus path – not just out of imitation, but because you derive it from inside out.

“Christianity isn’t a failure; it just hasn’t been tried yet” – G.K. Chesterton.

We need to stop beating up on ourselves, and the Church at large. Christianity’s failure is not a failure of nerve, or belief, or strategy, but of physiological readiness. If you can’t see what Jesus sees, you can’t do what Jesus did. If you see a world of scarcity & threat, of course you’re going to lock up your church at night. Of course you’re going to lock away your savings in a 401k instead of give to the poor. This isn’t because you’re a hypocrite. It’s because you need to slowly build the brain/heart synapses that allow you to see from abundance. Otherwise, you can no more adopt the heart of giving-ness at the core of the Jesus program than a three year old can compose Mozart-quality music!

By means of a strange, random miracle 30 years ago, a group of Christian monks uncovered and popularized a Christian meditation form that – unbeknownst to them – gives us the keys the unlock a body of transformational knowledge that will enable us to not only worship Jesus but to become Jesus.

It’s a process of incremental change, slow growth. Give yourself a lifetime to learn the technology of heart renovation, and you will see results.

Note: For another take on these four proposals, couched in very different language, see my friend Frank Viola’s chapter in Jesus Manifesto on Living by the Tree of Life, now available for free here.

Sunday Devotional: Dorothy Day

November 27, 2011 in Justice, Leadership with 0 Comments

After Howard Zinn passed away a few days ago*, I began thinking about those who have come before, in our recent past, who have told a different story of a better way. Dorothy Day came immediately to mind. Nicely enough, the Open Door Community in Atlanta was sharing these videos on their Facebook page. Herein lies rare television footage of the holistic peace activist and Catholic Worker co-founder. Enjoy!

*This post originally posted January 31, 2010.

Spirit Week: The Complete Series

November 26, 2011 in Christian Mysticism, Theology with 3 Comments

Hi all – here’s a roundup of the posts I did for the series I dubbed ‘Spirit Week,’ where I sketched a bit around my Pentecostal and charismatic past, the movements on the whole, and where I think they’re going – or could go. I focused on two quite different ministers who might represent two different (though complimentary) visions of the future of Spirit-filled expressions of Christian faith: Leif Hetland, who recently released the lyrical, love-drenched Seeing Through Heaven’s Eyes and John Crowder, whose classic 2008 interviews are re-showcased here in anticipation of having him back on to discuss the new turn in his ministry, outlined in the new release Mystical Union.