SCOTTY B [OKLAHOMA] feels like a 3-week old puppy...
[04.06]

Hi, welcome to our virtual coffee shop. Pull up a chair, take the load of your feet. Let's chat.  

So who are you, where you from, what do you do in life?
Scotty B. from K2C (Catoosa, Oklahoma USA). I'm a bi-vo joe trying to convert myself from traditional to emerging church. Bi-Vo = Bi-Vocational, i.e. I work a full time job for money and nearly full time ministry for Jesus.

Can I get you a drink? Cappuccino, earl grey, dandelion and burdock, pale ale...?
I just haven't acquired the taste for much more than an ice cold Dr. Pepper. If I'm really bent, I'll have a Mt. Dew.

Would you like a doughnut or pastry to go with that?
Does a white chocolate macadamian nut cookie show up on the menu?

So, if you had to describe the church/project/experiment/thingy you are currently involved with in one sentence, what would that sentence be?
We call ourselves emerging but to us that only means we only crawled out from under the traditional rock a short time ago and we're still trying to find our idenity.

Are you an instigator? / new recruit? / have absolutely no recollection of how you got involved?
Involved on purpose, way beyond new recruit, and quickly progressing through active recruiter to instigator.

What do you value most about being part of it?
Like a 3-week old puppy - I got my eyes open now!

What excites you most about it?
The fact that for the first time in over 20 years of ministry (yes I'm an old head) things seem to fit together with good reason and it feels comfortable. And more than that: I can see things working the way they should.

Has anyone ever turned up out of the blue not knowing what to expect? What did they say?
No. Our problem is more that people show up with certain preconceived ideas about us and then they are blown away by what they actually see, hear and experience.

Three words that describe your attitude to 'being church' in the big wide world:
Pure, simple, and fresh.

Three words that DON'T:
Programmed, complicated, and predictable.

You have this weird dream - you meet Jesus face to face. Where does it happen, what does he say to you?
First you got to understand that Oklahoma is known for turning an Interstate highway into a Turnpike and charging everyone, Okie and visitor alike, to travel on a road paid for with government funding. With that, my dream is that I'm waiting in a long line at the toll booth. I'm frustrated because two lanes to the left everybody is zooming by in the PikePass lane without even slowing up. As I inch toward the booth at a snail's pace, the toll booth attendant looks familiar. As I get within a couple of car lenght's, I notice its Jesus. Of all the things I should say, or want to say, I am struck with nothing, a feeling of emptyness and void. I only remember him telling me that the cost of path I have chosen is the same at the other fast moving lanes, the only difference being the one I have chosen is more challenging and frustrating. Then he waves me on saying he will see me at the end of my journey. (My interpretation: The way of traditional church can be extremely frustrating and results may seem to come slowly and with much effort, but the simplicity of emerging church will reach the same destination without the baggage, delays and frustration, resulting in greater end results.)

What's the big secret you're itching to share with everyone?
There is another way to follow The Way.

What would your 'emerging church survival kit' contain?
A hammer - to drive a few nails as in building, constructing a haven for the missing or nailing a notice to the door of a few of the misguided and missinformed.
A key - to unlock the "mystries" of the Scripture to a generation who hasn't heard.
A mirror - for me to look into and verify I am looking like Christ to the world and for the missing to look into to see the work of God in them.

Anything else you'd like to share with us before you have to rush off?
Thanks for your friendliness and kindness toward those that drift your way.

Thanks! Good to see you, have a good day!