Thoughts from The Shaping of Things to Come. Pt. I

I am currently reading the book: The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. It's kinda thick, kinda heavy, and it takes a bit of wading to get through. All of that because it is full of ideas and insight into culture, church and the world we live in. So to help process my own thoughts, I am going to spew out some of what I am processing, some of what sticks out and whatever else deems itself worthy of being spelled out. Note: most of the following will be extracts taken from the book or their thoughts in my words, with my occasional thoughts thrown in. I will try to mention when it is me thinking out loud.

Part I

There is a phenomenal shift taking place in our Western World, a spiritual awakening happening and everyday the institutionalized church is becoming less and less relevant. Perhaps the description of a festival that takes place in the Black Rock Desert in the Western United States can describe this awakening, this hunger that is being felt by humanity.

The festival is called Burning Man.

"Each year thousands of artists, musicians, bohemians punks, taggers, rappers and other artistes or simply interested bystanders journey into the 107-degree heat of the desert for a festival like no other. It is a temporary community of people committed to generosity environmentalism, celebration, spirituality, and above all, art. Burning Man has been so successful over the past five years that it has come to represent those trends that pose the greatest challenges to the Christian church. It dares offer acceptance, community, an experience of god, redemption, and atonement. In short, it resembles everything the church is supposed to offer. But many people are finding the transformative power of Burning Man to be far and away more effective than anything they experience in church."

What is it that is attractive and so real and so true? There are six key elements:

BELONGING: (says the official website) "You belong here and you participate. You´re not the weirdest kid in the classroom- there's always somebody there who's thought up something you never even considered. You're there to breathe art... You're here to to build a community that needs you and relies on you."

In a society that has been fractured by economic rationalism, globalization, racial disunity, ideological differences, fear, and violence, the Burning Man community claims to offer solace, welcome, and acceptance.

SURVIVAL: It is not for the faint-hearted. It involves venturing into the desert and surviving without restaurants, air conditioning, or shopping malls. With all the comforts of home stripped away, participants are forced to look deep within themselves, to discover who they truly are, and to summon up from within themselves the will and the power to survive- both in the desert and after they return to the world outside.

EMPOWERMENT: (says the official website) "You're here to create. Since nobody at Burning Man is a spectator, you're here to build your own new world..." Everyone is to participate, no one is deemed to be without talent.

SENSUALITY: Burning Man is a highly sensual, experiential community. "You're here to experience..."

CELEBRATION: The crescendo of the festival is the burning of the large human effigy in the middle of the camp. Participants have said that as the Burning Man goes up in flames, they experience a deeply spiritual sensation. Artists also cast their works into the flames. There is apparently a purging, a form of atonement, and a sense of liberation and joy.

LIMINALITY: The word liminal in Latin signifies an in-between time. A transition, temporary period of human transformation. The Burning Man community appears in August and takes over the seeming untouched playa (desert), then leaves in September leaving no trace it was ever there.

This festival, judge it how you will, is a cry from an emerging postmodern generation for a community of belonging, spirituality, sensuality, empowerment, and liberation. Of course the transformative power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is greater than anything offered at this festival, but is the church living out and expressing that? (excerpts from pages 3-5 occasionally in my own words)


Me thinking out loud-
What does the church currently have to say or offer? Is the church prepared to be a community that offers those (Biblical) characteristics in some form to people who will never cross the threshold of a church building? These needs, desires, and longings expressed by the artists at Burning Man are not so far off from most people's. There are real and they are legitimate. Surely Jesus has something to say to those feelings and states of being as much as the Burning Man festival. As the church, we find ourselves a long way off from being relevant to anybody willing to express the spiritual awakening which they are experiencing. There is something of those six elements in each of us, whether we have smothered them in the name of security and institution or not. There is something of truth being expressed in them. I believe Jesus has something to say to it and as his church we had better too.