An Emergent Manifesto of Hope

Further notes from a community: re-schooling

By Geoff and Sherry Maddock

Sherry and Geoff Maddock live with their 3-year-old son Isaac in downtown Lexington, KY where they garden, work, worship, and serve.  They belong to a missional community called Communality.

We have learned that missional spirituality and discovering the heavenly in the ordinary doesn’t come easily.  When things are challenging and the easy answers are not readily churned out, we have found our religious reflexes to be very strong indeed.  We default to programmatic answers to questions that really deserve and demand more of us.  There is a time when we have to put the book (or laptop) down and take up our crosses, walking the way of Jesus into life around us.  Where can we find the re-training that simultaneously diminishes our appetite to outsource the solution (church staff, programs, buildings) and fosters an active hope in new disciplines?  One exciting new (old!) solution is to meet with like-minded sojourners and break bread.  Communality is honored to be a part of a ‘community of communities' becoming known as ‘a new  monasticism.’  Out of this wider family was born a series of gatherings called ‘schools for conversion.’  These gatherings are hosted by different emerging missional communities, and over several days attendees eat together, share stories of struggle and grace, and walk the neighborhoods—learning from their hosts about where God is active in Kingdom initiatives.  If you are eager to learn more about how different new monastic communities are discovering and practicing this emerging, missional way, check out the website and take some time to attend a 'school’  or just go and visit one of the participating communities.  There is no substitute for being with people in the ebb and flow of life.  ( www.newmonasticism.org )

Further notes from a community: environment

By Geoff and Sherry Maddock

Sherry and Geoff Maddock live with their 3-year-old son Isaac in downtown Lexington, KY where they garden, work, worship, and serve.  They belong to a missional community called Communality.

We have suggested in our chapter that a core concern for missional living is increased sensitivity to environmental issues. In this time, when the earth’s climate is under the influence of our day-to-day choices, the people of God must revisit ‘creation care’ and freshly explore the biblical mandate of stewardship. What we are proposing will require a serious re-imagination (and re-action!) on the part of evangelicals, particularly in North America. For many Christians, environmentalism is not even on the gospel agenda, and for too many others it is seen as a dangerous distraction. We need people who can clearly and intelligently inform and guide the emerging missional church in this issue of justice. To this end, we have recently been blessed by meeting Matthew and Nancy Sleeth. They have been traveling around North America helping Christians and non-Christians alike join the dots between God’s creative love and the environmental disaster we are courting. Matthew’s background as a medical doctor has attuned him to the horrifying impact our failed stewardship is having on all of God’s creation—particularly human health. We encourage you to check out his book, Serve God, Save the Planet, and their website (www.servegodsavetheplanet.org) for inspiring ways to take up informed habits that will, by God’s grace, begin setting things right.