Any Way You Slice It

Some thoughts on church,
and postmodernism,
and how it is that we find integrity and wholeness
in our varied forms of worship
and understandings of God.

An Entry Point

I've organized this blog chronologically from its inception, which is backwards from how most blogs are organized. Basically that means that the dates you see for each post to the right are imaginary. Don't worry about it. They show up in the right order...think of the "older posts" link as a "next" button.



And a BIG THANKS! to those who were willing to be interviewed, and who offered suggestions. You're really good sports, and I'm glad to know you (even though I've only ever really met Jay Voorhees, and I'm not sure that we did more than show up at the same seminar once).

9.07.2008

Troublesome words

Having an issue in some conversations I've been having about postmodern ministry. It seems that we can't agree on our vocabulary, and so we're spending some time arguing about words that could be spend really exploring how we might be about ministry and relationship-building in postmodern culture. An example: in talking about the emerging church and the concern that some parts of the movement are focusing on relationships to the exclusion of doctrine, we realized we don't agree on the meaning of the word "doctrine". I guess maybe I've sort of reappropriated it for myself to mean the foundational teachings that invite us into relationship with God and others, and help us to live in community. Some of my peers reject "doctrine" as a narrowly defined, rigid, and exclusive set of rules that no longer have any real meaning. We've spent most of the conversation this week disagreeing when we mean to agree, I think, that narrow doctrinalism is bad, and something we reject. But I've had a hard time agreeing that all doctrine should be rejected, due to my own definition. And I've been told that insisting on knowing what things mean is "modern" thinking, not postmodern...well, so be it. Anyone out there have a term you'd like to get rid of, or redefine? Hit me in the comments and let me know!
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About Me

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I am a United Methodist (UM) pastor, married to a UM pastor, which makes life entertaining from time to time. I am a newly minted D. Min--yes, that's Rev. Dr. Anne, to you. I am a learner and teller of stories, looking at how we share faith and relationships. Any views I express here are not necessarily United Methodist views: they are mine.