Diana Butler Bass is at it again...well, I am getting caught up. Here are some links for you.
Leadership in Congregations
Thawing the "Frozen Chosen"
Some protestant churches feeling "main line" again
Living the Story
Regarding the "main line," I have heard this song a lot lately sung by Ry Cooder, Johnny Cash, and now, Aerosmith!
Jesus is on the main line, tell him what you wantI think it is an amazing song and, well, Aerosmith may just put it away...but then there is the Man in Black. Wow. Posted by tripp at January 25, 2007 09:29 AM
Jesus is on the main line, tell him what you want
Hey Jesus is on the main line, tell him what you want
Ooh Call him up and tell him what you want YeahHe will come in a hurry, just tell him what you want
I said he will come in a hurry, just tell him what you want
Oh he will come in a hurry, just tell him what you want
Ooh call call him up and tell him what you wantJesus is on the main line, tell him what you want
Ooh Jesus is on the main line, tell him what you want
and Jesus is on the main line, just tell him what you want
Ooh call him up and tell him what you want, yeahIf your sick and you cant get well, just tell him what you want
yeah if your sick and you cant get well, just tell him what you want
yeah if your sick and you cant get well, just tell him what you want
Ooooh call him up and tell him what you wantPEOPLE Jesus is on the main line, tell him what you want
Yeah Jesus is on the main line, just tell him what you want
Sing it baby!
Jesus is on the main line, just tell him what you want
Ooh call him up and tell him what you want.
Well, he may be on the main line, but it is the phone this time, not the railroad.
Have you ever heard Manhattan Transfer sing "Give me Jesus on the Line"? That is a piece of work.
Posted by: IdaSusan at January 25, 2007 06:28 PMInterestingly the town where I work is part of something called 'the Main Line' of course because of the railway going through it. Good to know that Jesus is there. :)
Anyway it does seem the rumours of the death of the mainline churches were exaggerated.
That said...
Tradition is orthodox but not monolithic nor like a sculpture or other museum piece as a look at the depth and breadth of traditional Catholicism shows. Nobody would mistake the Franciscans for the Jesuits for example, or monks in the Eastern churches for Irish-American nuns teaching primary-schoolers. One Tradition, one set of Catholic dogma, but lots of traditions.
Breaking free from classical Protestantism seems a two-edged sword, freeing people up to (re)discover things like monasticism and mysticism but also, by cutting people free from the moorings of the Bible (the answer is neither literalism nor deconstruction - the church figured it out centuries ago) and the creeds, by treating big-T Tradition as something completely malleable, sawing off the branch one is sitting on. Self-refuting.
It can come down to a case of 'spirituality' ('I'm in charge - God works for ME', a boutique approach that fits consumer culture) vs religion ('I'm NOT in charge - God is').
Or... fundamentalism is actually modern, as modern as the sceptics, and this approach is not the only alternative to that. There's another one that's older.
As a wise and kind friend likes to say, I'm just sayin'.
Posted by: The young fogey at January 27, 2007 12:04 PM