Happy New Year

I hope all of you have a safe and healthy new year. I look forward to the journey with you in 2006. See you Sunday.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of our Wellspring family around the world. Merry Christmas to those in Vietnam, London, San Francisco, Modesto, Dallas, Florida, North Carolina Houston, Tomball and anywhere else. I hope you have a great holiday. I look forward to seeing everyone again soon and hearing your interesting holiday stories.

Christmas Eve worship gathering

Our Christmas eve worship gathering will be Saturday at 4:00 P.M. @ Main Street Crossing. I hope you can join us. The Shuman family tradition is to go to Pappasito's afterward. All are invited to join us.

Merry Christmas

Thanks Ken for todays service.

We got a chance to change things up a bit today and even though no one got to see my wonderful Christmas powerpoint (it's ok, <>, I'll live, you'll probably get it in July or something) I know i was impressed with our ability to go with the flow. In fact, I think it worked out very well with a quieter service so that we could reflect on what Wellspring is and what Wellspring can be. We don't need a fancy brick building with a TV studio to get our message out. Just talk to your friends, the ones you know are searching. I think the hardest part of that also is to convince them that they don't have to be convinced. They won't be preached at, hounded into a babtismal tub or fire-and-brimstoned into emptying their pockets. I think the hardest sell is convincing people that they won't be sold at.

So anyways, I thought it was a wonderfully Christmas non-Christmas service that fit us better than we thought it could. it was a bit dark and a bit different and to be honest, I don't look forward to the same carols and kids-in-bathrobes every year. So whether or not Ken planned it, it was a Christmas service I'll not soon forget.

--Baldy-Neumann

Eichenlaub party

The Eichenlaub party scheduled for Sunday night has been postponed.

You're On My Mind

The pastor here would love to have access to Ken's wisdom. We would sooooooo benefit from the incredible things these guys can do as both VJs and DJs in worship. More than one of our loving mothers would want to embrace some of these searching artists, muscians, photographers, and more. I miss you guys most when I want to make the connections and see what God has in store!!!

Last night we worshipped in the coffeehouse. There were new faces and familiar ones in the crowd of about 50. The emphasis was on Doxology . . . what is our act of praise when we realize that every day we could lift up even the ordinary as an act of worship. We heard from an artist on a journey of his own. We experienced/connected by creating a work of an art from ordinary objects. And we were led on a visual exploration of creativity with images and music that would blow your mind.

But it was afterwards . . . when I let go of the idea that there was some kind of timetable and just listened to the troubled young woman grappling with friendship and faith issues, voiced a blessing to a dear woman who will face many new opportunities in the coming days, prayed with a guy whose mere presence blesses me, and engaged with several others. Noodles and mushrooms at 2 a.m. topped off the evening.

I don't know how to bless this group who struggle with financial concerns while absolutely serving as a voice to a community only a few blocks from the red light district and a few minutes from a nearby university. But I pray I can.

A New Kind of Christan - Chapter 4

Just as there was a tremendous change in worldview when moving from the medieval world to the modern world (15th & 16th century) – a tremendous change in worldview is required as one moves from the modern to the postmodern world.

Changing your worldview/paradigm is never easy. There are real costs associated with it. There is something to be gained but there are also things that must be given up. One becomes spiritually homeless.


“To really get the impact of how different the medieval model was, we could imagine what would happen if we could take two of you students and send you back into the fifteenth century. Nobody could possible believe that you could be Christians. Of course, first there would be the obvious cultural issues – for example, even a medieval prostitute wouldn’t have been seen in public dressed like you – and your fine haircut would have made people either laugh at you or fear you were a witch of some sort. But on a deeper level, if you told them you didn’t believe in the pope and you didn’t accept that kings ruled by divine right and you didn’t believe that God created a universe consisting of concentric spheres of ascending perfection, and if you let it slip that you agreed with Copernicus that the earth rotated around the sun, you would surely be tried as heretics and perhaps burned at the stake.” To the Christian culture of medieval Europe, none of you today could be considered real Christians.

Is it possible that we moderns have similarly intertwined a different but equally contingent worldview with our eternal faith? What if we live at the end of the modern period, at a time when our modern worldview is crumbling, just as the medieval one began to do in the sixteenth century?

“Most modern people love to relativize the viewpoints of others against the unquestioned superiority of their own modern viewpoint. But in a way, you cross the threshold into post modernity the moment you turn your critical scrutiny from others to yourself, when you relativize your own modern viewpoint. When you do this, everything changes. It is like a conversion. You can’t go back. You begin to see that what seemed like pure, objective certainty really depends heavily on a subjective preference for you personal viewpoint.”

I believe that the modern version of Christianity that you have learned from your parents, your Sunday School teacher, and even your pastors is destined to be a medieval cathedral. It’s over or almost over. Most of your peers live in a different world from you. They have already crossed the line into the postmodern world. But few of you have. Why? Because you want to be faithful to the Christian upbringing you have received, which is so thoroughly enmeshed with modernity. One of the most important choices you will ever make will be made in the next several years. Will you continue to live loyally in the fading world, in the waning light of the setting sun of modernity? Or will you venture ahead in faith, to practice your faith and devotion to Christ in the new emerging culture of post modernity? I want you to invest your lives not in keeping the old ship afloat but in designing and building and sailing a new ship for new adventures in a new time in history, as intrepid followers of Jesus Christ.

Update from Karen's Travels

I am in Germany now on a German keyboard (where the z is where the y would be and there are keys like this ä and ö) so this will be short! Made the journey with no problems and am being well cared for by good friends!

Wish you could see the coffeehouse community I am in at the moment. The guy i am staying with used to be in a hip hop group . . . was once offered opening act to LL Cool J in his rap days but turned it down bc it didn't align with their principles. Now he runs a graphic design group (he began as a graffitti artist) and this coffeehouse and is trying to build a community via this place which is not too many blocks from the red light district and about 3 min walk from a university campus. Pretty cool!

Blessings on you all!

tonight...

dinner tonight was great! it was so encouraging to have people from the "outside" truly interested in what we're doing at wellspring. it's great to know that there are those that aren't just looking for holes in our postmodern argument and really want to understand us!

An interesting quote

I just started a new book written by two professors at Fuller Seminary and found this quote. "The church must recognize that we are in the midst of a cultural revolution and that nineteenth-century (or older) forms of church do not communicate clearly to twenty-first-century cultures. A major transformation in the way the church understands culture must occur for the chruch to negotiate the changed ministry environment of the twenty-first century. The church is a modern institution in a postmodern world, a fact that is often widely overlooked. The church must embody the gospel within the culture of posmodernity for the Western church to survive the twenty-first century." This quote adds more to the growing body of evidence that says that what we're doing at Wellspring is the right thing and is the future. I'm really glad that we're not lagging too far behind. I'm also really glad that you're making the trip with me. I know that sometimes if feels scary - but that's o.k. - because I think we're on the right path.

Exciting opportunity

How would you like to help plant a new emerging/post-modern congregation in Modesto, Ca.? Wow!
Wellspring has the opportunity to assist a new group in getting started. This is a group of young adults that I met last spring when I was in Modesto. I am really jazzed! This really fits my personal calling and vision but I want you to share in it with me. I want this to be a ministry of Wellspring not just of Ken. I'm sure this raises many questions so fire away. We'll talk face to face about this often in the coming days.

Request for Prayer from Karen

Wish I could be with you guys on Sunday when Larry Jay and his cohorts will be with us but alas, I fly out a few hours before you get together. I'll arrive in Germany around 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 12 and be met by the pastor who is hosting me and my friend Shannon.

We will meet on the Doxology art project with other Doxology partners -- Rob, the artist; Aimee, the co-curator and his partner; Mark, the pastor and multi-media expert; Shannon, the project manager; and whoever else may come into the dialogue. The discussions for 3-4 days will be around next steps for taking the experience to other locales in the world. These folks love each other but like all communities made up of humans we'll need your prayers as we hash out directions, potential new directions, details, etc.

I'll enjoy the sites and sounds of Germany with this crew and then Mark, Shannon and a newly arriving Roger and I will spend a long weekend exploring the nearby Alps, Black Forest, and local culture.

Roger and I depart for Vietnam on Dec. 20 and will arrive on the 21st. We have a great itinerary worked out and Ken and Becky will have details should anyone want a peek. After a short hop over into Cambodia, we leave that part of the world on Jan. 6, overnite in Frankfurt and return home on January 7.

I'd appreciate all prayers you might offer for traveling, interacting with people, and being wise enough to take in all that I'm being blessed to recieve!

Blessings on you all as you make your way through the coming weeks. ENJOY!

-- Karen

Discussion group

As usual our discussion group will meet this Thursday night - 7:00 P.M. - @ the Shuman's. We will continue our discussion of the book A New Kind of Christian. We will be discussing chapter three this week. If you can't join us feel free to join in the dialogue on this blog.

This Sunday we will be hosting a group of pastors from out of town again.

Prayer Request - The Neumanns

I had a great time at church tonight, it was so nice to be home again. I mentioned in the prayer that John's mom and dad are heading home from Chicago. Well, I'd really appreciate it if you guys could put them in your prayers. You see, John's dad (Ron) moved to Chicago a few months back for a temp job that paid a lot of money. His mom (Linda) went up over Thanksgiving to visit and while she was there, he developed what appears to be Neuropathy and they had to stop in southern Illinois and check him into a hospital. He will spend tonight in the hospital on antibiotics and morphine to control the pain. Tomorrow afternoon, John's Aunt Winnie and cousin Merle will head up to Illinois in a full size van so that they can bring Ron home in a reclined position. Then once they get home, Linda will take him to the doctor and they will see what needs to be done from there. Linda seems to be in good spirits, but you know, after what is it now, 6 rounds of cancer, I do believe that woman might be indestructible. But I also know that none of us want she or Ron to have to go through any of this, especially miles away from any family or friends. So please pray for a safe return for Linda and Ron and for Ron’s health. Thanks guys, it’s good to have such a great family to share these things with.

Welcome!

We've been talking about doing this "blog thing" for a while.

Now we've done it.
Please note that this is not Ken's blog or Karen's blog or insert name here's blog. This blog is for the Wellspring community to share thoughts, ideas, questions, concerns, etc.

You can invite others to join in. Comments can be added anonymously or you can use your name. We hope "Wellspringers" will feel free to use names! But do as you wish. If you want to add a post (an entry like this one), contact Ken and he can give you the details on how that's done.

A New Kind of Christian Chapter 3

All that we currently understand being a Christian to be has been conditioned by our being modern.

I wonder if I’m underemphasizing the ways that modernity twisted and deformed the Christian message.

All of our “Christian” institutions – seminaries, radio stations, denominations, Bible studies, and so on – are in fact modern inventions. Within the world of the church, almost every influence is a modern one.

I feel that we are potentially on the verge of a genuine spiritual awakening. The spiritual resurgence that I see brewing is unconventional and even irreverent at times, largely developing outside the boundaries of our institutional religion.

There is a story about a guy who had two objects hanging from his rear-view mirror: a Christian crucifix and a Native American dream catcher. My guess is that this driver respects Christianity but finds something lacking in the modern version that we have presented him with. Native American spirituality, represented by the dream catcher, is more connected to creation. It’s more holistic, more mystical; it fulfils what he feels is missing in modern Christianity.

I’m scared. The kinds of things I’m thinking will surely be considered heresy. How many Christians do I know who could accept that there is a difference between “our version of Christianity” and any other version of Christianity that could possibly be “right”? Even harder to accept might be the idea that while the modern version was right (by “right,” of course, I mean appropriate, not perfect) for five hundred years (just as the medieval version had been appropriate for a thousand years), the modern version might not be right for the next leg of the journey. Wow, that sounds relativistic.

But maybe I’m still not going far enough. Maybe talking about our version of Christianity being appropriate to modernity is a cop-out. I can’t get the thought out of my mind that our modern version of Christianity may have been so shaped by modernity’s pressures as to be severely deformed, distorted. But we can’t even see it.

Lord, can I trust you beyond my own theological understanding? Can I acknowledge you even in the midst of what feels a lot like doubt?

A New Kind of Christian Chapters 1 & 2

• Dan is a pastor who is thinking about quitting. He’s struggling with his own faith journey.

• This guy is safe to talk to – he understands.

• Evolution

• It was a simple matter of intellectual honesty. My faith has plenty of room for science, and my science only strengthens my faith – and I guess that just flows out of who I am.

• What makes you so sure I’m a liberal? I used to be a fundamentalist. I’ve found that liberals can be fundamentalist too. Liberals are often just fundamentalists with a different set of beliefs.

• You have a modern faith, a faith you developed in your homeland of modernity. But you’re immigrating to a new land, a postmodern world. You feel like you don’t fit in either world. You can’t make the transition to the other side alone. You need a sponsor – someone who has already settled and acclimated, who can help you do the same.

• Diagram:

1. Prehistory
2. 2500 B.C. Ancient World
3. A.D. 500 Medieval World
4. A.D. 1500 Modern World
5. A.D. 2000 Postmodern World

• To be postmodern doesn’t imply being antimodern or non-modern.

• Discuss ten characteristics of the modern age.

• I believe it possible to describe postmodernity – the broad culture defined by its having moved beyond modernity – without having to go too deeply into postmodernism as a philosophy.

• Whatever postmodern philosophy is, it is still in its infancy.

• In a new philosophy’s early stages, it tends to be negative – to focus on what’s wrong with the prevailing school of thought. It takes time for the phase that deconstructs the prevailing view to give way to a phase where a new view is articulated, a new vision is proposed. We aren’t in that phase yet.