community affirmations

after a summer's worth of tweaking, i can open this up for comment.
this is our new missional community's statements of affirmation:

1.    We affirm our desire to be a community shaped and led by the Spirit of God speaking through Holy Scripture and the Tradition of the entire church.

2.    We affirm our desire to orient our common life around the teaching of Holy Scripture, the formation of intentional community, the Eucharistic table, and prayer.

3.    We affirm our desire to worship, love, and serve the one true God who is revealed in Holy Scripture as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We repent of our idolatries in whatever forms they have taken and continue to take: modernism, postmodernism, capitalism, militarism, consumerism, materialism, eroticism, individualism, conservatism, liberalism, and pursuit of the “American Dream.” While recognizing that some of these concepts may be more compatible with the teaching of Holy Scripture than others, all stand under the judgment of the gospel.

4.    We affirm the place of mystery and paradox in the life of faith. We acknowledge that not all questions have ready-made answers. Often, the best we can do is to learn to live with the question in our pursuit of truth. We humbly confess that God transcends our theological formulations concerning him. As a result, we will utilize liturgy, the arts, silence, and contemplation in our attempts to worship God, discern his presence, and bear witness to him.

5.    We affirm our desire to be a “missional community.” We will love and serve our neighbor in practical, concrete ways. We affirm our commitment that approximately one half of our missional community resources (time, property, money) be utilized to reach and serve those outside of our missional community. We affirm that “orthopraxy” (right practice) is as important as “orthodoxy” (right theology). We acknowledge our commitment to more faithfully and consistently live out that which we claim to believe.

6.    Following Jesus’ identification with the poor and the powerless, we affirm our desire to stand in solidarity and in relationship with those whom Jesus referred to as “the least of these.” Today, this includes the poor, the disabled, the handicapped, the aged, widows, orphans, the imprisoned, the sick (including those with HIV-AIDS), and the oppressed. We affirm the dignity and value of all human beings as bearers of the image of God and as worthy of our love, friendship, and concern. We affirm our commitment to welcoming the “stranger” and practicing hospitality.

7.    We affirm the value of the family and familial relationships, especially the unique “one-flesh” husband-wife relationship. We affirm that this relationship is to be characterized by love and “mutual submission in the Lord.” We recognize and affirm our responsibilities to “nurture our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord” and to “honor our parents.” We acknowledge the role and responsibility of the whole community in the spiritual formation of our children.

8.    We affirm the vocation of singleness and celibacy for those so gifted by God’s grace. We reject any view that would assign “second-class” status to single men and women or segment them off from the rest of the community. We affirm our love and support to individuals with these gifts and affirm our commitment to them as equal participants and co-laborers in our missional community.

9.    One of the primary effects of modernity on individuals and communities in Western democracies is fragmentation and alienation. We are fragmented in our inner lives, in our families, in our local communities, and in our church communities. We are often alienated from our truest selves and from one another. We affirm that intentional community is essential for overcoming this fragmentation and alienation and recognize that our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ are at least as important as our family relationships. We affirm that authentic community values independent judgment, honest self-expression, and differences among individuals.

10.    We affirm our desire to be a community of transparency, acceptance, and grace. We recognize that the common life to which we have been called is exceedingly difficult because of our inherent selfishness, lack of wholeness, and the fragmented society in which we live. We affirm our complete dependence on the grace of God and the power of Christ’s cross to live in community with one another. We affirm our commitment to the ongoing practice of concrete acts of forgiveness, peace-making, and reconciliation.

11.    We affirm our desire to be in unity — and in dialogue — with our brothers and sisters in other Christian traditions and denominations.

12.    We affirm that the kingdom of God (his rule and reign) has already “broken in” to our world in the person and ministry of Jesus. Yet the kingdom has not come in its fullness (The kingdom has come and is coming.). We live in the tension between the inbreaking of the kingdom and its future manifestation in its fullness at the consummation of history when it will be said, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever." As individuals and as a missional community we desire to be a sign of the kingdom by living in a way that makes God’s reign visible. We affirm and celebrate the signs of his reign wherever we find them.

13.    We affirm our desire to be a community that is also “looking forward” to and working for the coming kingdom reign of God. We acknowledge that we are “foreigners and strangers” on this earth. What we see around us is not our home. What we currently possess is not ours to keep. We confess the constant urge to measure ourselves by material possessions, socio-economic status, and other temporal things. We seek to live freely, generously, and hold loosely, if at all, the things God has entrusted to us. We recognize that the “American Dream” functions as the de facto “gospel” in America. We repent of our complicity with this false gospel. We affirm our desire as a community to bear witness to the true gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom of God as we wait for a new heaven and a new earth.

14.    We recognize that God communicates his grace to us at least in part through the “disciplines of grace,” both individual and communal. We are committed to reclaiming the practices and insights of the whole church (Apostolic, Patristic, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant) as we seek to live in grace and follow the way of Jesus.

15.    Finally, we affirm our desire to be agents of justice, peace, and reconciliation in a world full of racism, discrimination, oppression, religious conflict, and war. We affirm our desire to be a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-generational, diverse missional community that actively works to break down walls of division and hostility. We are committed to social justice as an expression of the good news of Jesus and the coming of the reign of God. We affirm the necessary connection between evangelism and social action.

Comments

[virusdoc]

This one:

"7. We affirm the value of the family and familial relationships, especially the unique “one-flesh” husband-wife relationship..."

seems to pose an obstacle for homosexuals who might be interested in your community. Was this part of your intent? Has your community discussed the role of same-sex unions in the emerging church?

I ask because I am ignorant of the course of this topic in emergent circles, and because it's one that I became fairly sensitized to before leaving the evangelical church. It seems to be a theological area that is heavily shrouded with the "mystery" to which you allude in affirmation #4, which is by far my favorite part of your credo (if it can be called a credo; I'll have to see if there is a single Latin word for belief that is more tinged with tentativeness and humility).

[erik]

did you ever see the above? I think I posted it while you were away in NM, and it may have slid under your radar screen.

[paul]

An excellent question, Erik; i think I remember seeing this and then forgetting to take the time to comment... i wish i had a prepared opinion.. but i don't. so: I would never want to set up an obstacle to anyone, so this wasn't the impetus. i'm glad you let us see this affirmation through a new lens... we should revisit this affirmation through multiple lenses -- we probably won't codify an opinion about same-sex unions, and/but we have not, in our community, given it as much conversation as we might. i'm interested in your opinions.

[erik]

I've thought about this a bit more since my original post. My off-the-cuff take on this issue vis-a-vis the Emergent Church:

Christian anti-homosexual biases are only marginally supported biblically when you use a literal-inspiration approach to the text, since it's not clear that monogamous same-sex unions are ever addressed in the scriptures.

If you use a more historical-contextual hermeneutic and downplay the idea of divine dictation (which most Emergent churches seem to do, eh?) I can't think of any way to support anti-homosexual bias in the church at all.

So it would seem that the most gracious thing to do, given the rather horrible historic conduct of Christians on this topic, is to have a policy of open affirmation, with monogamous life-time commitment ("marriage") being the standard for gays and heterosexuals alike.

But I don't have a clue how individual emergent churches are tackling this issue on a practical level.

[Amy Everett]

When I first started attending TH and read the affirmations, I too was struck still by affirmation #7 because it made me wonder whether it was an intentional, though somewhat passive, way of excluding, thus shaming, homosexuals. I think it is easily read that way in light of the church's (and state's)recent grappling with this issue. My opinion is that we do away with that affirmation completely...if I were homosexual and came across that affirmation, I would not come to TH. Definitely in need of further discussion...

[Paul Soupiset]

thank you for putting that so well, Amy. Sounds like we do need to revisit, reword, and open the wording.

[Cliff Knighten]

Amy,
As the primary author of the affirmations I can assure you that I did not intend to exclude or shame gay men and women. Rather, my intention was to affirm both celibacy and marriage. I am very open to revisiting this affirmation and either revising or deleting. Thanks for your sensitivity to this issue.
Peace,
Cliff

[kelticpete]

if you change "We affirm the value of the family and familial relationships, especially the unique “one-flesh” husband-wife relationship."

to "We affirm the value of the family and familial relationships, especially the unique “one-flesh” relationship of MARRIAGE, then those that see gay marriage as marriage will be happy and also those who define marriage as man-woman will be happy. just don't ever define marriage :) smiles