I've had two opportunities in two days to speak about my first call to Spirit Garage. I haven't done this nearly as much in recent years as I did between 1999 and 2002, and by now it feels a little odd, given that I'm now in a much more traditional setting (though ECLC folk might be offended to hear themselves called traditional!). The first gathering was a group of United Methodist ministers convened by my friend Michelle Hargrave, who pastored her own new ministry during the same time I was working with SG. Her own reflections on our gathering are worth reading.
The second gathering was a class of seminary seniors. With them I gave the nutshell version of my CC article on this subject ( and had the Power Point gods wreak vengeance on me for my Congregations article). There is so much about this kind of ministry that still calls me, intrigues me, troubles me, and the week's young adult consultation only convinces me further that this conversation is urgent and critical for the church.
Brian MacLaren's review of Robert Wuthnow's latest tome, After the Baby Boomers, puts into relief many of the questions I'm still struggling with, trying to bridge the gap between "traditional" congregations and emergent ministries. Wuthnow argues, and my experience bears out, that marriage and children are greater divides than age when it comes to determining whether a person attends church or not (which may explain why there are more young evangelicals going to church than mainliners: in my limited experience, evangelicals marry younger). Places like Spirit Garage, by catering to single young adults, make space for people who feel that their lives are too nomadic to fit into a more settled congregation. I now sit within one of those more settled places and constantly ask myself, why can't we do better ministry with nomads? I still don't have an answer.
