Reverent Irreverence
Integral Church for the 21st Century from Cradle to Christ Consciousness
Original Price: $19.95
In Reverent Irreverence Pastor Tom claims that churches are uniquely positioned to transform our society. Following Ken Wilber’s insight that churches, as the owners of western mythology, can become “conveyor belts” for the evolution of human consciousness, Tom sets out to tell how.
Part I
Set within an emerging myth for our time, Tom applies Integral Philosophy to the church. After briefly outlining the developmental path of human consciousness, he presents culturally relevant “Jesus Stories” to contextualize individual transformation. “Yes…And” Theology applies Integral Philosophy to scripture.
Part II
In Part II Tom presents a map to guide emerging Integral Churches, or churches that simply want to become more integrally informed. He then applies the model to the church he pastors in western Washington.
Appendix
An extensive Appendix provides resources and practices that churches can adopt and use.
REVERENT IRREVERENCE
Integral Church for the 21st Century
From Cradle to Christ Consciousness
Rev. Tom Thresher
Integral Press, Pacific Grove, CA 2009
While there have been numerous ventures toward a more authentic and valid view of the Christian faith, these have most often been through efforts to get “back” to a truer picture of what Jesus “really” was and what he said. This has involved the attempt to penetrate through the subjectivity of early writers to a clearer and bias free Jesus. Great progress has resulted from the work of the many scholars engaged in the efforts.
Rev. Tom Thresher offers a new and creative view using the recent and progressive approach of the Integral Institute think tank, which is presented in the book by Steve McIntosh, Integral Consciousness, and the Future of Evolution. This is his further development of the work of Ken Wilbur, author of some very original thinking in his books, most recently his Integral Spirituality.
Though Thresher is the pastor of a United Church of Christ in Suquamish WA. , his early background in Eastern religions is evident.
One of the main tenets of Integral Consciousness is that, as the most current of the stages of human consciousness, it respects and values all the prior levels, so the more traditional Christians would likely be disturbed by Thresher calling himself a Christian.
Thresher takes a very large step in his attempt to bind such disparate approaches as Christianity and the all-inclusive spirituality of Integral Consciousness into one. And doing so in a little town in Washington state is a real challenge, as the North-west states are the least “churched” of anywhere in the U.S.
Thresher is clearly not expecting to build a mega-church. He appears instead committed to the gradual and comprehensive creation of a broad ministry to those who do not find the more traditional churches meeting their needs.
One of the number of things that sets Thresher apart from many other clergy is his light and easy sense of humor that is not only part of his personality, but is an important part of his theology. In numbers of places he appears to be saying, “Hey, don’t sweat it; God delights in you as he/she does in all things, just giggle and enjoy it.”
Those exposed early in life to a God on the lookout for sinners who he will send to hell if they don’t John 3.16, will likely find such an optimistic view of God either a delight or shameless blasphemy.
Thresher’s work is one small part of a growing movement to attempt to recapture the “Spirit” that existed in the earliest period of the Jesus movement before it became an institutional “church” and before “correct belief” defined the faith. In his book “The Future of Faith”, Harvey Cox foresees just such movements as the primary direction of world-wide Christianity.
I at first found the many charts and diagrams to be harder to digest than his writing, but after putting in the additional time required for my brain to take them all in I found them to provide a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of his numerous thoughts and ideas. He goes to great length to make sure you “get it”.
A major principle in his message and also in his church’s programs is that “Christ Consciousness” is a never ending journey that welcomes and celebrates any and all of the stages at which one may be at any given time. Michael Dowd, author of “Thank God for Evolution” , considers Threshers work a welcome contribution to the field of “Evolutionary Christianity”.
This is a term not widely used at present, but it has much in common with those who are part of the “Progressive Christianity” movement. It makes me recall one of the statements I early learned from John Wesley, “If we cannot think alike, at least we may love alike and can anything but love beget love?” Unfortunately this was not one of Wesley’s most cherished quotes and was not a basic element in the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
As I live about an hour’s drive from Thresher’s UCC, I look forward to a visit. I do not anticipate his work becoming a rapidly growing movement, but will not be at all surprised if it does continue to grow and become known and valued widely.