Lemme ask you a question...

well two questions please, if you don't mind me taking liberties with your goodwill ...

1) I'm stuck! What do you think Jesus meant when he said:

" I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

I'm asking this question and looking for help in my guest post on Jason Clark's blog: 'Throw me a mountain?"

and...

2) What does deep church mean to you? If your answer is :

• huh?
• nothing?
• confusing?
• oh great another '&^$% label! etc

...than we'd especially love to listen and talk with you.

Jason and I are in the process of tying down where we think deep church fits into the emerging church conversation and how it can help it. In the meantime, before we sink ourselves deep in concrete, we'd love some input from you here: what does deep church mean to you?

If you'd rather post your thoughts here than please do so. And thank you very much!

Comments

[brunettekoala]

Dare I say it...my answer to question number 2 would be closest to the 4th bullet point there...

[Sue]

I'm afraid Im with brnettekoala (great name). I'm so tired of labels, of trying to define the wind blowing (but that's just me, and this is very unhelpful, really isn't it? Sorry 'bout that :)

As for your first question, well I'm not very helpful there either because I have no idea what he means. Sometimes it makes me think that maybe hardly any of us have faith then ... but then I know that's not true. I don't know! (But I look forward to reading what you have to say about it!

[Paul]

Thanks BK, you can dare to say it, it's one of the values of this place that it is ok to be honest :)

I think it's important to engage with why i think deep church is more than a label - it's not something that you can slap on your head but a cluster of values which deep church is shorthand for. I suspect that quite a few people will be embodying the values that we'll ascribe to deep church and never ever use the term and that's fine by me.

What i would really hate though is for this to become some new label to weigh us down under all the many other labels - Makeesha, made a great point, to this effect earlier on - her list of labels was impressive and i'd hate to be the final label that sends her and others into confusion :)

[Paul]

Thanks Sue - well i don't find it unhelpful. Perception is reality and if people are reading Deep Church as another label than it's about time we actually were more helpful and fleshed out the values behind it. Not so people have to adopt DC as a label for themselves but because we find it a helpful concrete way of doing/being church and therefore need to start embodying. If that helps other people that is awesome and if other people want to define it other ways or not at all then that is equally as good :)

At least that's 2 of us then that are struggling with what Jesus meant :)

[Brunettekoala]

So what exactly is 'deep church' is this a new denomination or is it a new church plant called 'deep church'??

[cindy]

Paul- good questions.
As for moving mountains, at this point in my life, it means to me that I have a long way to go- I wouldn't even dare to guess which mountains need to be moved, never mind have the faith to try.

about deep church. i think it's about starting with questions rather than answers. not in the sense of re-defining orthodoxy, but as to how to live. i approached your question by asking myself what is shallow church. that was easy. i see it all the time. shallow church is where you go (sic) to be told exactly how to live, speak, believe, act, etc in order to fit the mold. deep church challenges the norm by allowing questions. by not always having the answer. and by looking up rather than over for the answers.

[Paul]

Thanks Cindy, as someone commented on the post at Jason's, maybe mountains get moved one stone at a time. Of course it would be easier with some sort of great big faith digger and blasting apparatus ;)

I think questions are a vital part of what deep church is about, we don't seem to do very well with being able to have a simple faith and a questioning faith and deep church helps recognise that we go through both, as a community there will be those who are questioning and those who are content with the answers they have - how we can that climate where both can help each other is crucial :)