Esther

The Hebrew Bible readings from the lectionary lately have all been from the book of Esther and have made me recall one of the most powerful moments of my life, which occurred last year. I was raised in a fundamentalist church which did not permit women to even pray aloud in front of men. My parents attend a more evangelical than fundamentalist church in that denomination now (Church of Christ), but their church still does not permit women to have any sort of leadership in worship, down to forbidding them to be the ushers passing the collection plates. When I realized I was called to ordained ministry (I make this sound so simple, when in fact it was very messy and difficult), I was nervous about telling my parents for fear they wouldn't support my call. I very nervously told them that I felt called to emerging church ministry and that all the things that made me somewhat inappropriate for regular parish ministry (too tattooed, too sarcastic, too foul-mouthed...I could go on...) actually uniquely qualified me for emerging church mission development. My father stood up, got his Bible and read the verse from Esther when she goes to her uncle and says she's nervous about what God is calling her to do, to which her uncle says "you were born for such a time as this" (my paraphrase obviously). My parents then embraced me and prayed for God's blessing on my ministry. I can't express the grace in that moment.

Image is from the Veggie Tales video "Esther" in which Esther is a scallion of some sort and king Ahasuerus is, I believe, a pickle. Seriously, I really couldn't make this shit up.

Comments

[MadPriest]

I always wondered what a nice girl like you was doing in a church like this. Now I understand.

To be honest, SL, I have problems with the Emerging Church. Like you, I've been doing it for as long as I can remember because I am one of the different people - although I don't feel, or see myself as, different. The Emerging Church seems to be aimed at the people I think are normal. I'm a lorry driver, from a council estate (project?) who didn't go to college until my mid-30s, who is fanatical about various forms of the devil's music.

However, what scares me about the movement is its obsession with leadership and book writing celebrity. How can you have an emerging church that is lead? Isn't that a contradiction in terms? With the liberation theology movement the priests tried to remain servants of the laity and tried to let the laity dictate the agenda and direction of each congregation. Of course, they were human like the rest of us and so it didn't always work as planned, but the theory was good.

Perhaps you, being on the inside, could explain to me this apparent dichotomy in the thinking of the Emerging Church.

This is in no way an attack on the movement and most certainly attack on your integrity. I really am interested and could do with more info on this new thing.

[MadPriest]

whoops

most certainly NOT AN attack on your integrity.

(and I even previewed it first - I'm getting old)

[towanda]

I love how our parents surprise us sometimes...I wonder if your need to speak comes somewhat from growing up in a church that didn't allow you to...

[cheryl]

i so love that you blog...

[Dave]

What a great story. That must have been a healing moment for you on all sorts of levels.

Regarding Emergent as leader/celebrity driven, I'll just say that there's Emergent and there's emerging. The same machine that created The Purpose Driven Life is driving Emergent as a constellation of figureheads, but meanwhile emerging churches are, well, emerging. And that big-shot Emergent publishing magnate will be eating granola in two weeks with his or her peers in the common area of their shared housing in New Mexico. So maybe we should sympathize with Emergent for getting sucked into the celebrity machine, but we can pray for the work of God in and through emerging churches.