CHRISTIANITY21: Visceral, Diverse, and Friendly
Christianity21 takes seriously a daring and daunting conversation for dispelling the notion of a Christian meta-narrative. While most attenders are Gospel-committed people, all work toward mutuality found in the Jesus meaning of Mark 9:40 that says, “those who are not against us, are for us.”
This mutuality asks the question about the nature of a shared human awareness for a personal faith-walk that responds to cultural injustice. How must we work together to right this injustice and in the process meet God in ways not known before? What do we think needs to rise from the ashes of the church?
Operated by the JoPa Group, Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones founded Christianity21.
The JoPa website says about the organization: we “purposefully create events to bring together a wide variety of people from different backgrounds and different places on the Christian spectrum.” Goal accomplished!
The promised mystery guest at Christianity21 turned out to be Rob Bell. Rob was greeted with a supportive standing ovation, affirming his recent marriage-equality backing and his challenge to traditional teachings on a literal, eternal hell. He spoke to both of these issues in his address.
Visceral, diverse, and friendly – these are three characteristics I offer to describe my experience at the Christianity21 event held in Phoenix, where more than 300 attended.
“Visceral” conveys the intentional focus for speakers and presenters that come out of wounded and passionate hearts. For example – Dieter Zander, someone I never knew, was an early rockstar in a megachurch-GenX ministry. After suffering a stroke in 2008, he lost his ability to speak clearly, to read, to write, to sing, and to play the piano. Now he is a janitor at Trader Joe’s, and he is discovering new and authentic inroads to intimacy with God. His riveting story is a clarion call beyond our damaged lives to an intimacy with God.
“Diverse” conveys the enormous range of folks present representing different racial, ethnic, sexual, socioeconomic, age, and faith identities. For example – Mark Charles, Navajo Native American, elucidated the 200-year story of inhumanity brought upon the Navajo Nation. He learned just recently, two years after the fact, that the US government had issued an apology to its Native American citizens, but did very little to publicize it. His story was a call to extricate from our culture and government this injustice and all systemic complicity against humanity.
“Friendly” conveys the openness for any attender to share stories and passions by speaking in what are called the “7-21” breakouts. In this opportunity presenters are given 7 minutes with 21 automatically timed slides (of their choice) to present their intellectual and/or inspirational story. This is accomplished in rapid fire. I was one of the presenters and, like others, found this to be both inclusive and friendly of lesser-known voices.
What an impressive exploration for 21st century faith this turned out to be for those seeking a transformed life of personal and communal faith. Churches clinging to their traditions and depending on endowments will one day be asking the hard question, “what needs to rise from the ashes of the church?”