{"id":23284,"date":"2019-06-07T09:52:42","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T16:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=23284"},"modified":"2019-06-07T09:52:42","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T16:52:42","slug":"reasonable-radical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/reasonable-radical\/","title":{"rendered":"Reasonable Radical"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part of my journey to faith was spent in the Episcopalian tradition. My father and step mom\u00a0 went to St. Andrews Church in downtown Ft. Worth and while I lived with them of course, I went with them. My last day inside St. Andrews was my senior year of high school in February of 1989, unfortunately that coincided with my 5 year old brothers funeral.\u00a0 It was also the last day anyone on my dad’s side of the family went to church until the early 2000’s when I gave my first sermon at the church I was serving.\u00a0 I always appreciated the reverence one would expect to find in a “high” church setting and I always believed that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church were one and the same I know that they are part of the Anglican Communion\u00a0[1] and thus take direction<\/span><\/span>. After beginning to read Reasonable Radical?: Reading the Writings of Martyn Percy<\/em>, it started to bring back a flood of memories, some good, some not but it brought them back none the less. In reading what others wrote about Martyn Percy, one thing became clear, this minister is on the right track and no matter what denomination you are part of, if you are a minister of the Gospel, you could learn much from this man.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In beginning my look at Percy I found an article talking about his possible removal as Dean of Oxford from last year, in it he is described by the Bishop of Liverpool (a supporter) as ” a decent, kind, infuriating, magnificently mistaken, splendidly articulate, rightly and helpfully prophetic Christian theologian. Many prayers for his resilient flourishing.\u201d\u00a0[2] and another, Dr Linda Woodhead, Professor of Sociology of Religion at Lancaster University, gives what I would consider the best description of a strong minister, \u201cI know Martyn well as a colleague and a friend. The irony is that he\u2019s a thoroughly decent, old-fashioned establishment man \u2014 but he believes in holding the establishment to account by the highest standards.\u201cI know Martyn well as a colleague and a friend. The irony is that he\u2019s a thoroughly decent, old-fashioned establishment man \u2014 but he believes in holding the establishment to account by the highest standards.\u201d\u00a0[3] Percy seems to be a strong proponent of making sure the church is fighting for the right things. A strong belief in Christ, and being an advocate for those who need it the most.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the section on Ecclesiology, Richard Lawson describes Percy and his method of tone, “He is curious about real people, empirical but not dry, sacramental in the broadest sense, and usually conversational.”\u00a0[4] The picture I get from this writing is of a minister who is deeply concerned with knowing those to whom he is ministering and for the church to do the same. It is not to be caught up in the minutiae of doing church but to be Christ to those around us. The idea that people are way more important than a stained glass window, music style, or whatever your church wants to focus on that day seems to be lost in the church today. He goes on to describe a time when Percy was called in for an exorcism because a young boy was unable to sleep in his new house because he saw things that might be lingerings, Lawson writes, “These very personal and often emotional pastoral experiences are the real context in which God is–if not experienced, at least sought”\u00a0[5]<\/span> The idea of only finding God in the midst of a worship service is thrown out the door, as ministers our goal is to have a congregation that spends more time in being Christ to those who do not know him rather than playing church, which a great number of people have been doing in my experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This is not to say that the church proper should be abandoned, far from it. In the section on by Gerard Manion, Percy is quoted as “cautioning against abandoning tried and tested (and indeed, cherished) forms of ecclesial life and structure and a rush to allow a “post-institutional structure” to dictate present and future policies”\u00a0[6] It seems that the “seeker sensitive” churches are just as worried about their structure but they have thrown out all that has come before them as useless. In the town I live in, there is a church that is very popular that has put up billboards around town with the message “Not Your Grandmothers Church”. They want everyone to know how hip and cool they are, but the problem is, they have just put themselves in an aggressive stance against the other churches ways of doing things to attract people to their church. The idea is you wont find your grandmother’s traditions here, her love for God and the people around her are pushed to the side. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, I loved the discussion on the difference between management and leadership. Percy argues that to often the church is governed by management, not “theological leadership and vision”\u00a0[7] Ministers spend to much time managing the day to day as opposed to actually leading their church. I believe this is the reason behind churches being in a state of decline, people don’t need to be managed, they need to be led. A company that does not focus on good leadership dies, so to a church. They can limp along for quite a long time, but without vision, they are doomed to be ineffective. Living mausoleums of what could have been.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] “The Anglican Communion.” Episcopal Church. March 28, 2019. Accessed June 07, 2019. https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/anglican-communion.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0Davies, Madeleine. “Dean of Oxford, Martyn Percy, Faces Removal from Office.” The Church Times – News, Comment, Features, Book Reviews and More. November 05, 2018. Accessed June 07, 2019. https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/articles\/2018\/9-november\/news\/uk\/dean-of-oxford-martyn-percy-faces-removal-from-office.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[3] Ibid.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[4] Markham, Ian S., and Joshue Daniel, eds.\u00a0Reasonable Radical?: Reading the Writings of Martyn Percy<\/i>. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2018. 70.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[5] Ibid. 76.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[6] Ibid. 87.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[7] Ibid. 89.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part of my journey to faith was spent in the Episcopalian tradition. My father and step mom\u00a0 went to St. Andrews Church in downtown Ft. Worth and while I lived with them of course, I went with them. My last day inside St. Andrews was my senior year of high school in February of 1989, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23285,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23284\/revisions\/23285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}