|
Core
Commitments:
on Life in
the Way of Jesus- Evergreen is
a distinctly Christian community, and
though one does not need to be committed
to Christ to participate in it, this
community as a whole is committed to
seeking God through the person of Jesus.
For those who are following Jesus, this
means commitment to living life in the
way of Jesus, and to introducing others
whenever possible through word and deed
to the person of Jesus. We commit to
time spent listening to God individually
and as a community and to living out
life in the way of Jesus for the glory
of God, and the good of the city of
Portland.
on
Presence- part of being a part
of a community is being present. We
commit to being present physically,
emotionally and spiritually at community
events whenever possible, and present to
others in the community, giving them the
gift of our attention, our wisdom and
our friendship as well as our prayers.
We commit to time spent with each other,
formally and informally, whether in
Sunday gatherings, home groups, or in
each others homes and over meals, and
seeking a balance in our relationships
between those within the community and
those who are not.
on
Discipline- A large part of
being in community is teaching others,
making substantial contributions to
their lives, as well as being teachable,
being open to learning, changing, and
occasionally, being corrected. Very,
very rarely, a church community needs to
confront someone (as in the case of a
spouse who is cheating on a husband or
wife). In this instance, every attempt
is made to approach the individual in a
sensitive and listening way, but at
times, when someone refuses to listen,
refuses to stop hurtful/sinful behavior,
church discipline needs to be enacted on
behalf of the entire community through
the agency of the elders. We acknowledge
the authority of the community in our
lives enough to listen and we commit to
loving the community enough to speak.
When we see someone acting in a way that
is hurtful to themselves or to others,
we accept the responsibility to speak to
them in a loving manner. on Leaving Community- When, for some reason, someone decides that he or she no longer wishes to participate in the evergreen community, it is important to let the community know, and to let them know why. Rather than simply disappearing or jumping to another church community, commitment to community means informing someone (whether that be an elder, or someone else with whom you have a relationship at Evergreen) of a decision to withdraw. Part of community life is being open with one another, and the future absence of someone will affect the entire community. The reason we ask you to tell someone is that 1. We value your presence and want to know if you choose to be part of another community. 2. You probably have something to tell us, something that we need to hear. on Our Core Values- Our presence as part of the evergreen community signals our commitment to the core values of the community. We commit ourselves to missional living, to justice, to participation in the community, to giving the gift of hope to others and to seeing ourselves as part of the story of the people of God. |
Page Directory
| Relativism | Pluralism | Spiritualism |
| Mysticism | Conversationalism | Communalism |
| Missionalism | Incarnational | Contemplative Prayer |
Introduction
While the Emerging Church strongly, emphatically resists the idea that they have a "belief system," a careful examination of their adherents suggests otherwise. Although its several proponents have varying views on how the Emerging Church is emerging, it is no less divergent than the assorted expressions of Protestant Christianity. Just as it would be impossible to find a core belief system that all Protestants would agree, it is equally impossible to find a set all Emerging Churches would fit. If the concept of "Emerging Churches" does not have a generally agreed upon set of principles that are or can be understood, it is a meaningless term. Perhaps, we all can't agree on what "Protestantism" is that would suit is diverse expressions over some 600 - 1,000 denominations, there is a core set of beliefs the fairly well defines the term and distinguishes the Protestant faith from other religious expressions such as Roman Catholicism or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. It is with this understanding that we, after careful examination of the movement, present is the core set of beliefs of the Emerging Church somewhat in order of importance.
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Relativism is the thesis that all points of view are equally valid. In ethics, this amounts to saying that all moralities are equally good; in epistemology it implies that all beliefs, or belief systems, are equally true. It is a theory that knowledge is relative to the limited nature of the mind and the conditions of knowing b: a view that ethical truths depend on the individuals and groups holding them. It is not a single doctrine but a family of views whose common theme is that some central aspect of experience, thought, evaluation, or even reality is somehow relative to something else. For example standards of justification, moral principles or truth are sometimes said to be relative to language, culture, or biological makeup.
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The plurality of religious traditions and cultures
has come to characterize every part of the world today. But what is
pluralism? Here are four points to begin our thinking:
•First, pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic
engagement with diversity. Diversity can and has meant the creation
of religious ghettoes with little traffic between or among them. Today,
religious diversity is a given, but pluralism is not a given; it is an
achievement. Mere diversity without real encounter and relationship will
yield increasing tensions in our societies.
•Second, pluralism is not just tolerance, but the active
seeking of understanding across lines of difference. Tolerance is a
necessary public virtue, but it does not require Christians and Muslims,
Hindus, Jews, and ardent secularists to know anything about one another.
Tolerance is too thin a foundation for a world of religious difference
and proximity. It does nothing to remove our ignorance of one another,
and leaves in place the stereotype, the half-truth, the fears that
underlie old patterns of division and violence. In the world in which we
live today, our ignorance of one another will be increasingly costly.
•Third, pluralism is not relativism, but the encounter of
commitments. The new paradigm of pluralism does not require us to leave
our identities and our commitments behind, for pluralism is the
encounter of commitments. It means holding our deepest differences,
even our religious differences, not in isolation, but in relationship to
one another.
•Fourth, pluralism is based on dialogue. The language of
pluralism is that of dialogue and encounter, give and take, criticism
and self-criticism. Dialogue means both speaking and listening, and that
process reveals both common understandings and real differences.
Dialogue does not mean everyone at the “table” will agree with one
another. Pluralism involves the commitment to being at the table -- with
one’s commitments.
(emphasis added)
Diana L.
Eck
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The term "spiritualism" has been frequently used to
denote the belief in the possibility of communication with disembodied
spirits, and the various devices employed to realize this belief in
practice. The term "Spiritism", which is used in Italy, France, and
Germany, seems more apt to express this meaning. Spiritualism, then,
suitably stands opposed to materialism. We may say in general that
Spiritualism is the doctrine which denies that the contents of the
universe are limited to matter and the properties and operations of
matter. It maintains the existence of real being or beings (minds,
spirits) radically distinct in nature from matter. It may take the form
of Spiritualistic Idealism, which denies the existence of any real
material being outside of the mind; or, whilst defending the reality of
spiritual being, it may also allow the separate existence of the
material world. Further, Idealistic Spiritualism may either take the
form of Monism (e.g., with Fichte), which teaches that there exists a
single universal mind or ego of which all finite minds are but transient
moods or stages: or it may adopt a pluralistic theory (e.g. with
Berkeley), which resolves the universe into a Divine Mind together with
a multitude of finite minds into which the former infuses all those
experiences that generate the belief in an external, independent,
material world. The second or moderate form of Spiritualism, whilst
maintaining the existence of spirit, and in particular the human mind or
soul, as a real being distinct from the body, does not deny the reality
of matter. It is, in fact, the common doctrine of Dualism. However,
among the systems of philosophy which adhere to Dualism, some conceive
the separateness or mutual independence of soul and body to be greater
and others less. With some philosophers of the former class, soul and
body seem to have been looked upon as complete beings merely
accidentally united. For these a main difficulty is to give a
satisfactory account of the inter-action of two beings so radically
opposed in nature.
New
Advent
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The term ‘mysticism,’ comes from the
Greek μυω, meaning “to conceal.” In the Hellenistic world, ‘mystical’
referred to “secret” religious rituals. In early Christianity the term
came to refer to “hidden” allegorical interpretations of Scriptures and
to hidden presences, such as that of Jesus at the Eucharist. Only later
did the term begin to denote “mystical theology,” that included direct
experience of the divine (See Bouyer, 1981). Typically, mystics,
theistic or not, see their mystical experience as part of a larger
undertaking aimed at human transformation (See, for example, Teresa of
Avila, Life, Chapter 19) and not as the terminus of their efforts. Thus,
in general, ‘mysticism’ would best be thought of as a constellation of
distinctive practices, discourses, texts, institutions, traditions, and
experiences aimed at human transformation, variously defined in
different traditions.
Under the influence of William James' The Varieties of Religious
Experience, heavily centered on people's conversion experiences, most
philosophers' interest in mysticism has been in distinctive, allegedly
knowledge-granting “mystical experiences.” Philosophers have focused on
such topics as the classification of mystical experiences, their nature
in different religions and mystical traditions, to what extent mystical
experiences are conditioned by a mystic's language and culture, and
whether mystical experiences furnish evidence for the truth of their
contents. Some philosophers have begun to question the emphasis on
experience in favor of examining the entire mystical complex.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Forms of mysticism are found in all major
religions. Hinduism, with its goal of absorption of the soul in the All,
is inherently predisposed to mystical experience. Buddhism emphasizes
meditation as a means of moving toward nirvana. In Islam, Sufism employs
metaphors of intoxication and of the love between bride and bridegroom
to express the desire for union with the divine. In Judaism, the
foundations of mysticism were laid in the visions of the biblical
prophets and were later developed in the Kabbala and in Hasidism.
Mysticism has appeared intermittently in Christianity, notably in the
writings of St. Augustine and St. Teresa of Àvila, and in the works of
Meister Eckhart and his 14th-century successors.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
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A conversation is, "An oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas: talk An informal discussion of an issue.
An Emerging Conversation is:
A desire for a humility that recognizes the shortcomings modernistic
enlightenment philosophy bent on striving for absolute knowledge and
certainty in all things. This humility ranges from radical agnosticism
(e.g. a denial of our ability to know anything for certain) to
essentials-only mentality (e.g. we only focus on the essentials that are
clear and have been held by the historic Christian faith). Such
as: Suspicious of all truth claims. Willingness to question
personal traditions at the deepest level. Doubt and uncertainty
concerning an individualistic approach to truth and knowledge – we learn
in community. More desirous to broaden perspectives outside
subjective cultural norms. Recognition that our knowledge is not
objective, we all learn in a biased context. Denial of man’s
ability to have absolute certainty (this is reserved only for God).
More skeptical of traditional sources of information and authority
(science, denominational authorities, pastors, theologians, media, etc)
More apophatic, emphasizing mystery and our inability as finite beings
to definitely and conclusively define an infinite God.
In more extreme forms the conversation takes the form of: Denial
of the existence of “Truth” with a capital “T” (absolute truth).
Denial of any claims to certainty. Denial of the analogy of
language (e.g. language is not a sufficient conduit of truth)
In general, it is consensus building: "Truth" is arrived at by consensus. This means every Christian doctrine is on the table for discussion and fair game for skepticism or outright denial
For example: "The fundamental claims of
Christianity are that Jesus of Nazareth died, was buried, and rose again
to a new life. 5 To suggest, as postmodern philosophy does,
that there are no absolute truths (or in a softer form, no “systems of
truths”) reduces the New Testament’s claim to nothing more than how one
personally feels about the subject, and makes out the witnesses of
Jesus’ resurrection to be sophisticated liars."
Philosophical Underpinings of the Emerging Church
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Communalism or
Community
American
individualism vs. Christian communalism
This is a more “democratic” model for
the "church," with the development of a roster for members to facilitate
the gatherings, the meal that typically opens each meeting, and to
contribute to reflections and prayer. each member brings their own
influence to worship, they are able to cover a breadth of spiritual
journeys, and their gatherings follow a cycle of exploring themes such
as home and hospitality, neighborhood, Jesus as healer, the Bible, and
social justice. The aim is to nurture the threefold journey
of a faith community – the inner journey of the members and their
connection with Jesus and their spiritual formation; the outer journey
where members explore how they live out their faith in the world; and
the together journey where members learn how to live these individual
journeys together. Friendships are a natural by product of the
community. “A lot of social activity goes on outside of church time, a
lot of meeting up for a coffee.” The idea of community underpins
everything including valuing their local community. Members often
avoid Sunday meetings in order to spend weekend time in their local
communities with friends and colleagues. This intimate gathering
of faithful friends means that the group can only reach a certain
number before it becomes unworkable. So while mainstream churches might
consider their success evidenced in growing and retaining larger
congregations, Emerging Communities usually follow a
“sending out” model by establishing other similar communities.
While the relaxed nature of the community and the lack of physical
encumbrances to support such as a stipendiary minister and church plant
might give the group freedom in exploring their future, there are
potential pitfalls in the absence of an overseeing bureaucracy. They
have to be careful to be accountable when money is involved.
from
Green Shoots by
Jane Still
Rather than view ourselves as a provider of religious goods and servics, we choose to see this as a covenant community- a group of people choosing to lean in with each other and to God, journeying together. In addition to our core values, we've identified some commitments that serve as some of the guiding commitments of this covenant community.
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"Missional" is an adjective used to describe a unique
posture from which the Body of Christ ministers in cultures of
discontinuous change. A missional church is "a reproducing community of
authentic disciples being equipped as missionaries sent by God to live
and proclaim His Kingdom in their world." Ministry in post-Christian
culture requires churches to equip members to live as missionaries.
"The church should stop mimicking the surrounding culture and become an
alternative community, with a different set of beliefs, values and
behaviors. Ministers would no longer engage in marketing; churches would
no longer place primary emphasis on programs to serve members. The
traditional ways of evaluating 'successful churches' – bigger buildings,
more people, bigger budgets, larger ministerial staff, new and more
programs to serve members – would be rejected. New yardsticks would be
the norm: To what extent is our church a 'sent' community in which each
believer is reaching out to his community? To what extent is our church
impacting the community with a Christian message that challenges the
values of our secular society?" David Horrox
"a body of people sent on a mission
who gather in community for worship, encouragement, and teaching from
the Word that supplements what they are feeding themselves throughout
the week." Dan Kimball
(Broadman & Holman, 2006) like
this:
•From programs to processes •From demographics to discernment •From
models to missions •From attractional to incarnational •From uniformity
to diversity •From professional to passionate •From seating to sending
•From decisions to disciples •From additional to exponential •From
monuments to movements (Breaking the Missional Code by Stetzer
and David Putman)
Orthopraxy • The Bible
does not teach that as long as you get an A in what you believe, you can
get a D in living it out.
• The emphasis in Scripture is on living it out. • We must teach
people that “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself
through love” (Galatians 5:6, NIV). • Do an experiment with your
group — tell them that they aren’t allowed to read the Bible for a
month, but they must take something they already know and try to live it
out. - Brian McLaren
When we realize that Jesus is going to someday destroy hunger, disease,
poverty, injustice, and death itself, it makes Christianity what C. S.
Lewis called a "fighting religion" when we are confronted with a city
slum or a cancer ward. This full version of the gospel reminds us that
God created both the material and the spiritual, and is going to redeem
both the material and the spiritual. Tim Keller
The church is missional. The
emerging church movement began as an effort to reach people who were not
currently being reached by the efforts of the average, or modern,
church. This movement began not as an effort to get people already at
church more involved or more committed, but to reach out to people who
previously had nothing to do with church and no desire to change that.
There is a strong emphasis that church is meant to produce disciples,
people who live out the mission of living into God’s kingdom on earth
(Burke, 119; Kimball, 15, 17). The church is not just missional;
however, it is a missional community—that is, people who come together
to live out the mission to which God has called them on earth. People
not only engage in this mission individually, but as a community called
by God to serve God together as well (McLaren, 36, 197; Pagitt, 17,
146). In some ways, people are living into their missional call most
fully when they are living into it as part of a community of other
believers.
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Incarnational Practices
By Mark Van S
Just to prime
the pump on how we might move forward to engage our neighborhoods
missionally, I’d like to suggest to you 6 incarnational practices. These
are the sort of things that a group of Christians can do out of their
existing church, but I think it is better for a group of Christian
friends to practice these sorts of things BEFORE a church is
established. As they engage in these practices, they'll begin to meet
people and know people and as those people need to be discipled and grow
in their faith, an ecclesiology for that context should begin to emerge.
So, these practices are written with church planters in mind, but should
be helpful for the rest of y'all as well.
Practice 1: Move and Observe If you want to minister in a
neighborhood that you don't live in, you should move into that
neighborhood, or at least very close to that neighborhood. It is
difficult to be incarnational if you are a commuter. You need to
cultivate similar life patterns and center your life on the same sort of
places and institutions as those you want to befriend. Once you
move into the area (or if you already live in the area), spend time just
observing. Don't get frenetic. Don't start doing things until you
understand the ethos of the neighborhood. Let the spirit of the place
make its impression. Fall in love with the little things. Get to know
the people. If you start "doing your thing" before you are familiar with
the place, then you're forcing things to much. Ministry should fit with
how God is already working in a place. If you start pushing your agenda
before you start making friends with the neighbors and finding out about
their lives, then you're a salesman, not a minister of reconciliation.
And throughout it all, pray. Pray for spiritual eyesight. It is the
Spirit's job to reveal Christ...not just to "them" but also to "you."
Pray that you can see Christ's fingerprints in your neighborhood. Pray
to see the face of Christ in the face of those who live around you. Pray
for the Spirit to show you what is wrong in your area, and also
what is right. Seek to understand.
Practice 2: “Intentional Friend-Making” Yes, I know it
sounds lame. Extremely lame. But “intentional friend-making” is
helpfully descriptive. I'm willing to use a different phrase if you have
any suggestions. “Intentional friend-making” is different than
"friendship evangelism" because the goal of friendship evangelism is to
share your faith with your existing friends. I highly encourage that.
That is a great thing. But the problem is that if we stop there, we
never move beyond our (usually homogenous) circle of friends. Here's the
basic idea: Pay attention to where people congregate and hang out.
It could be a coffee shop, it could be a bar, it could be the park, or
the library, or a cruddy diner, or the local YWCA, or community center.
We should try to spend our time more and more where neighborhood people
spend their time. This won't work as well in suburbs, because people
don't center their lives in
"third places"
in the suburbs—though many do in urban and rural places. It
isn't enough to spend time there, though. You must engage people there.
This is where it gets sticky for people. We don't naturally make friends
in public places like that, though it is socially acceptable to do so.
Many people hang out in
"third places"
because they want to connect with a neighborhood and their neighbors.
These are the general rules of social interaction that I have discerned:
1. If you see someone at your favorite place a few times, you
have permission to give them the "nod" of recognition (or subtle wave).
2. If you've recognized their presence a couple times, it is
socially ok to say "hello." 3. Once you've said hello to
someone once or twice, it is ok to make comments like "hey, it sure is
nice today" or "is that book you're reading interesting?" [if someone is
deep into reading their book, it may be rude to interrupt them, but if
they look up on occasion, it is probably ok to talk to them].
4. After you've broken the ice, you can introduce yourself.
5. Once you're on a first-name basis. You have social permission
to have normal conversations with them, and things develop from there.
Here's the thing: most of us follow this sort of interaction in settings
like school or at church, and it is perfectly normal there. Just realize
that it is ok to do those sorts of things at third places too. If you
are a bolder person, you can skip steps. It isn't offensive to have
polite chit-chat with strangers. It is only rude if you do it when they
are in the middle of something that requires attention. Even then, most
people won't decide you are a jerk, they'll probably just think you’re a
ditz. And that is better than not knowing them at all. Those of us who
make connections with people in this way will be able to graft them into
our network of friends. So in a healthy church, only a handful of people
need to be doing this well for the whole church to be making new
friends.
Practice 3: Gather in 3rd Places and Homes Being
incarnational means that the Gospel should come to people where they are.
When we build special buildings just for fellowship, and then center
ministry and community in that place, we are asking people to come to
us. Sure, you can do incarnational ministry out of a church building.
But I think the edifice complex (cute play on a
phrase) that afflicts many churches is contrary to their
missional calling. The energy and resources tied up into buildings
should be used elsewhere. The amount of time spent in church buildings
should be spent elsewhere. Church should be done where life is
lived--not the other way around. The early church gathered in homes and
the apostles preached in the markets because those were the centers of
society. What are the centers of our lives? Be the church in those
places, rather than making your own place. If you are involved
with a church that meets in a church building, I'm not suggesting that
you leave. Many churches use their buildings well. But most don't. If we
are going to be faithful in the future, we need to rethink how we
gather.
Practice 4: Mobilize Discipleship When Jesus trained his
disciples, he didn't take them into the wilderness for 3 years. He
didn't take them to Jerusalem Seminary for 3 years. Nope. He took them
with him for 3 years. The way you do training and discipleship should
fit the form of your church. The University system developed out of a
medieval ecclesiology. The current Seminary system is roughly based upon
the university system. And most in-church discipleship training is often
loosely based upon seminary training. We need to re-orient our methods
of discipleship to fit an incarnational church. I've alluded
to this recently on my
blog—though
many others have suggested it as well: we need to get more "monastic" in
the way we do discipleship. Monks take vows (they agree with a certain
pattern of Christian life), and the entire brotherhood (or sisterhood)
centers around these shared vows. Postulants (newbies) spend a trial
time with the community. If it seems as though they are ready to
continue in this path, they become novices. A monk is usually a novice
for 3-5 years, which is the length of their training. The
Mendicant (begging) orders--like the Franciscans--are not cloistered
away. They are very active in service to the world. But their
vows make them distinct. They engage the world from a place of
distinction. We need to move from membership to discipleship—from a
gathering of interested people to a mobile order. Sure, a monasticized
church will still gather, but their gathering will be an expression of
who they are. Gatherings will develop out of missional, discipled,
incarnational, ministry. I think we can learn something from this
approach. The Mendicants remain very serious about discipleship, and
they do it on their feet. We need to find intense and rich ways of
training people on their feet. It may involve some coursework, but
coursework done in a missional way. But mostly it would involve lots of
one-on-one conversations between "novices" and those who have gone
before them.
Practice 5: Volunteering (instead of starting new programs)
Most urban areas have social service organizations in place. I suggest
you volunteer with them instead of starting church programs--at least
early on in the life of your church. In the West Bank, there are over a
dozen organizations that will take volunteers. When we started, we tried
to do our own ESL program. It didn't work like we wanted. I'm realizing
now that it would have been better to put our energy towards
volunteering at existing ESL courses. When we volunteer,
we submit to the service organizations--yielding to their agenda instead
of forcing our own. In that place, we can begin to make relationships
with people. As we meet people and get to know them, we have the
opportunity to take that friendship outside of the volunteer
organization. As we find out more of their needs, then we may try to
serve them as a church. The basic idea is this: utilize existing
structures. Build relationships within the existing systems. Social
services provide a great way for you to meet people (both volunteers and
those with needs) without having to put a lot of time and energy into
planning. You get the benefit of meeting people by simply volunteering.
And you will grow in your understanding of the people you want to serve.
Plus, you are helping people. And too many churches don't do enough of
that. This, of course, doesn't mean that a church should never
start programs. A church may be obligated to do so because there is a
profoundly unmet need. Or you may be led to do so; these are simply
suggestions to help you think through being incarnational, not
hard-and-fast rules.
Practice 6: Limit Your Attractiveness These practices are
merely illustrative. Take them for what they are. I think if everyone
did more things like this, the church would be healthier. However, they
aren't meant to be straight-jackets. They are supposed to open up new
possibilities. In their book
The Shaping of
Things to Come, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch suggest that
many churches follow an “attractional” ecclesiology rather than an
“incarnational” ecclesiology. Basically, attractional churches try
to make it very easy for seekers to visit them. They attract
seekers to come to the church, where they will experience God.
Incarnational churches go to people where they are instead of
spending a lot of energy on attracting people to come to a service.
This final practice challenges those who want to cultivate incarnational
ministry while still maintaining an attractional style. The attractional
approach and the incarnational approach aren’t two complementary
approaches: they are two different foundations for doing church.
Incarnational churches start with the assumption that they must go to
where people are at. Attractional churches may do some incarnational
things, but they are ultimately trying to bring people in. You can not
have a church effectively built upon both approaches. And so, if
you want to be incarnational, you have to limit the attractional things
you do. This is our sixth practice. It is easier to have more people if
you are attractional. But if you get a lot of people who come without
being incarnational, your church may loose its incarnational flavor.
Furthermore, if you are building relationships with cynical people who
have been neglected and abandoned in the past, the worst thing is to get
a bunch of people moving in and out of attendance, building
relationships with folks, and then breaking it off when they no longer
find the church attractive. And so, you have to decide that you won't
"grow" your church by attracting people from all over to come to your
funky service. You need to decide that you're going to "grow" your
church incarnationally. You may do some seemingly attractional
things (like community announcements of events). But be careful. Keep
your incarnational focus. Make sure that you are engaging people where
they are…and build your church as you build new relationships.
Don’t fall into the attractional trap. Attracting a crowd may
seem like the best course of action now, but it is reinforcing a
deadly habit in the American Church.
(emphasis added)
Mark Van Steenwyk ("Van S") is currently finishing his MDiv
at Bethel Seminary (concentrating in Christian Thought). Mark is the
founder of
Missio Dei,
a missional house church movement in south Minneapolis. He is also an
adjunct instructor at
Bethel Seminary,
where he teaches a course on applied ecclesiology.
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Advocates proclaim it as, an ancient
tradition in the Church, contemplative prayer is a time set apart to
rest in God, to open our minds and hearts — our whole being — to God,
the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thoughts, words and emotions. Quietly
consenting to God's presence and action within, we find our attention
may also move outward to discover God's presence everywhere.
Contemplative prayer is a meditation technique which was taught and
practiced by Christian mystics such as Saint John of the Cross. Today,
its practice is being revived by several spiritual teachers with a
Christian background. Rather than working with the mind and developing
concentration, it aims at transcending all mental processes by stilling
and emptying the mind.
Sitting Posture for Contemplative Prayer
Contemplative prayer is usually
practiced just like any other type of sitting meditation. A first step
is usually to prepare the body for sitting still, using simple
stretching or relaxation exercises. There are various possible
sitting postures which are usually similar to those of other forms of
meditation. When sitting for meditation, it is advisable to begin by
focusing on physical sensations such as the buttocks resting on the
cushion or the rhythmical movement of the belly. This allows the mind to
relax and arrive in the here and now.
Contemplative Prayer Calms the Mind
The practice of contemplative prayer as such usually begins with
observing the breath passing in and out of the nostrils. This helps to
calm the mind and focus it on the practice. Once the mind has
calmed down sufficiently, the main element of contemplative prayer can
begin. This is to let the mind become empty of all mental chatter by
simply observing any thoughts, feelings and images that arise and let
them sink into silence.
Repeating a Sacred Formula
One way to do this is by repeating a formula such as "Amen," "Shalom,"
"Jesus Christ have mercy on me," or simply "Jesus," "God" or "love"
combined with the breath. Another way is to merely continue to watch the
breath, with emphasis on breathing out. A third approach is to simply
rest in the silence beyond all words and thoughts. Whenever the
mind gets distracted (which will occur frequently,) it should gently be
brought back to the practice of watching the breath, repeating the
formula or resting in silence.
Teachers of Contemplative Prayer
The practice of contemplative prayer goes back to early Christian times.
Descriptions of contemplative prayer are found in the writings of the
4th century Christian monk by name Evagrius Ponticus and in a collection
of early and medieval Christian writings called Philokalia.
Contemplative prayer gets also mentioned in the medieval text Cloud of
Unknowing which is the works of an anonymous 14th century English
writer. Furthermore, it is central to the teachings of St. John of the
Cross, a famous Spanish mystic of the 16th century and contemporary of
Teresa of Avila. Some of the best known modern teachers of
Contemplative Prayer are Father William Meninger, Thomas Merton, Thomas
Keating, Willigis Jager and Father Bede Griffins.
The Essentials of Contemplative Prayer
Contemplative prayer is a Christian meditation technique, going back to
the early and medieval Christian mystics. As a first step in
contemplation, one usually watches the breath which calms the mind.
Whenever other thoughts arise, one simply returns one’s attention to the
breath. Other possible methods are to repeat a sacred formula such
as "Amen," "Shalom," or "Jesus," or to simply let the mind rest in
silence. Any distracting thoughts, feelings or images that may arise are
simply being observed and not suppressed. One merely takes notice and
then returns to the chosen method.
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