Aj Schwanz

When I was a freshman in college, I hung out with seniors. One friend’s brother was the lead singer of a band and performed under a pseudonym. My friend told stories about getting to travel around with his brother on tour: meeting David Bowie, Bonnie Rait, etc. — the crazy things that one gets to do when one’s brother is a rockstar.

When I was a freshman, I was also head over heels infatuated with U2 - they were my boys (and still are). My Biography/Autobiography professor Laurel Lee Thaler gave us an assignment to read a biography: guess what I read? It was St. Patrick’s Day week, and a high school friend and I decided to sprint up to visit a friend as Seattle Pacific University on a whim. So as not to be completely irresponsible, I took my U2 book with me: I read, he drove - see how I was a good college student.

On my way up there, I was reading about a time when U2 was having problems with Spin magazine: they were reviewing U2 albums that hadn’t been released yet, and they were printing stories by a “fan” who followed the band and somehow had info into backstage information. It wasn’t very kind. U2, or someone, traced the “leak” back to the boyfriend of their opening band’s bass guitarist. The biographer talked about how the opening band’s bass player and lead singer were having problems. As the author talked about the lead singer, the name started sounding more and more familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Then finally, as Kasey and I were heading back home, it came to me: “Good Lord, this is my friend’s brother!!!!”

The first thing I did upon my return was beeline back to my friend, throw the book in his face, and say “Is this stuff true?” Why did I ask my friend that? If the author got that story right, then most likely he got the rest of the biography right. My friend’s personal experience could help validate the thoughts and ideas of the writer. My friend read it and said it was pretty dead-on (see, my friend was actually there when it happened. Yes: that means my friend GOT TO TOUR WITH U2, but that’s beside the point).

How cool was that, to read a book, and read about someone you kinda know? That’s pretty cool. Last night, I had a similar experience. I was reading more of “Emerging Churches” and came across a section in the chapter ‘Transforming Secular Space’:

Emerging churches do not occupy a reactive and defensive stance in regard to the wider culture but rather seek to engage it as insiders. As Andy Thornton (Late Late Service, Glasgow, U.K.) points out, “It is not only missional questions that drive the impetus for creating new forms of church. What plays a major role in new forms of church is simply the desire for lifelong Christians to make sense of their two worlds: their church and their culture. The people who care most about the cultural disconnect within the church are the kids of the people in church. Look at the leaders of the alternative worship scene. Almost all are kids of influential Christian people. These kids want to stop being cultural outsiders. They look to bring their two worlds together. They seek authenticity, and, in so doing, they need to end the dissonance.” Emerging churches want to stay true to both their faith and their culture. (75)

I wrote a big note in the margins: “That’s ME!” No, the authors aren’t quoting me or my specific life, but it so cries out of my experience that it felt like they had a peek into my life. I’ve always felt like I’ve lived two worlds: my school/work/real life world and my church world. Sometimes they meet up, mostly because I live in a small town where I run into folks on a regular basis. When I lived in Boise, that wasn’t the case: I definitely had a work-world/church-world/play-world. It’s not that I wanted to keep them separate, but I didn’t really know how they could ever meet up: they had nothing in common.

Why did I start on this whole faith quest? Because my friends who used to be in my church-world have moved over to my daily-life-world, and I wish everyone could meet up and get along. Life should be holistic, shouldn’t it?

I know there are critics and advocates of the emerging church conversation: everyone seems to have something to say. But reading something that so sums up my experience, something said with understanding and compassion, it makes me want to give that person a big hug and say “thank you” and listen to them some more.