If you stir the pot its bound to stink once in a while

I was reading Tony Jones' blog again today, and it made me laugh.

Tony is the coordinator of the emergent "conversation", and he is working on a PHD in Practical Theology. He used to be a youth minister at a church in the suburbs of MSP. He has written several books, and I have most of them. Several of them were little things written for a publisher here in the Springs, and then he has also written a couple books for YS and YS' Emergent Line of publishing things.

Anyway...what most people like or hate about Tony Jones is that he tends to be a bit of an iconoclast. Last time I saw him he was in a vigorous debate with Duffy Robbins on the "slippery-slope theory" of morality of sexual ethics. Duffy was maintaining that if we give ground anywhere in our discussion of sexual ethics, soon we will be supporting beastiality. Tony argued that the whole slippery-slope theory was more of a manipulative tack to silence debate than an honest discussion of said issue at hand.

Tony was right about the slippery slope, and Duffy was right about the issue they were discussing, in my opinion.

The thing is, part of Tony's role in this Emergent church conversation is that he runs around and pushes peoples buttons a little bit. He gets people to think outside of the box. With his book "Postmodern Youth Ministry" he challenged youth ministers to think outside of the box at how we can be missiological to coming generations within the culture they live in. In the process, he trampled on some sacred cows of conservative christianity (dont remember what they were at the moment.)

I find all of this very interesting.

What I find even more amusing is that he always seems genuinely shocked and angered when either Emergent or Tony pushes in new directions and presses envelopes. It seems to me that when you stir the pot, it is bound to stink. In other words, if you are going to be a leader in pushing the church in new directions, dont be surprised when it pushes back.

I think it amusing in part because I see parellels in my own life. I like to rail against windmills as well, and then I wonder why people think me a little odd.

This fall, at our church retreat, I began to point out and share things in an open manner. Especially about how our church culture was becoming more and more closed to outsiders. I knew I was stirring the pot. I knew I was upsetting people. So, when I recieved a little backlash for not towing the party line, and for agreeing with our retreat speaker instead of some influential church leader, I was not surprised. A little irritated. But not surprised.

When I speak bluntly to the congregation about things that they really need to be challenged with through my newsletter or when I speak, I also know there is going to be a little backlash. I just hope my SP has my back. For instance, when I wrote a newsletter article about how fundamentalists were wrong for villifying Halloween, I got in a little trouble. I knew I would, so I dealt with it. Told a few friends about the anonymous notes I got in my box, and the parent who pulled their kid from youth group for a couple of weeks.

Also, when I got angry that I was "benched" from any worship leadership whatsoever and wore a Hawaiian shirt to worship one Sunday, I was also not surprised when people got angry. I was surprised that nobody wanted to talk to me about it directly except for a few people that uttered words of encouragement. But these things are a whole other story.

But it constantly cracks me up when people, and Tony is one of many national, church, and personal examples of people who stir the pot, and then expect it not to stink.

What about you all?

Are you more quiet conformists or lightning rods of controversy?

How so?