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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Jerry,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Thanks for the note. My exhortation to you was clearly private, which
you would have known for two reasons: first, it was addressed to you only and
not to the vision 2020 list. In fact, there was nothing in the subject
line, ‘To’ field, or content that would have suggested I had sent
it to Vision 2020. Second, the content and tone of my email were clearly
private. I do not normally write to you that way and I do not make posts
like that publicly on Vision 2020. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>I can therefore only suspect that you knowingly posted very private
correspondence from me to Vision 2020; this is something, ironically, I have
never done to my recollection. The fact that you wrote to both myself and
Vision 2020 demonstrates that it was not the sort of slip I made a few months
ago.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>With that said, I noticed it seems as though you are attempting an
argument here, or at least something similar to an argument; and so I will seek
to answer this argument as best I can. By ‘everyone,’ I was
referencing—which I thought would have been fairly clear—my knowledge
about what people outside of <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Christ Church</st1:PersonName>
(and some within) think about the general nature of ‘kirker’ posts
on Vision 2020. Perhaps this was hyperbole, perhaps a bit misleading; if so, I
apologize. Although, since I was writing to you and nobody else, how ‘misleading’
this was before you decided to post it to Vision 2020 was not very problematic.
Hopefully my clarification here is sufficient. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>There is plenty of internal evidence for my claim, and I meant to also
imply the fact that I most likely have a better feel for public opinion on the
outside of <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Christ Church</st1:PersonName> than you
yourself do. Further consider the important fact that my own embarrassment
as a fellow kirker regarding these kinds of non-argumentative, rude, arrogant,
or else vain posts soon turned to anger once I finally peeked inside this list.
I was a Gre[a]yfriar student minding my own business, and I lifted the man hole
and got a whiff only accidentally. I have already provided a sampling of
the more obtuse kind of rhetoric to which I am referring at the following link:
<a href="http://poohsthink.com/?p=133">http://poohsthink.com/?p=133</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Keep in mind as well that I exhorted <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Dale Courtney</st1:PersonName>
at two different times privately about the non-Christian approach to people
within the local community, and even pointed out slanderous comments in
addition to comments that were merely insulting or arrogant. He was apparently
not interested in hearing my concerns. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Lastly, you reference “Generous Orthodoxy.” Perhaps
you mean to imply that I am not acting consistently with my defense of Brian
McLaren’s book ‘A Generous Orthodoxy.’ I’m not
sure how this would be so; if you read the book (ahem) you will find that
McLaren is extremely hard on precisely that form of American Christianity that
is well represented by Wilson and many kirkers. In fact, McLaren gets out
a little bit of a satirical ‘serrated edge’ for those arrogant
Christians who refuse to embody a missional stance towards those without their ‘walls,’
set up by means of doctrinal distinctives and elitist conceptions of
themselves. I have sought to follow ‘A Generous Orthodoxy’ in this
respect. In fact, I informed Wilson to his face many months ago that I
had concluded that he is the only person that currently deserves a full
Serrated Edge, which is reserved for arrogant religious leaders who use people
to further their own position; the Serrated Edge is not to be employed towards non-Christian
neighbors we live in community with, members of <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Christ
Church</st1:PersonName> who critique the Leader, nor folks who you find across
your property line with a camera. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>I hope that helps. And once again, after my experience with your
tender and pastoral heart and with the clear Group Think direction you are
going in, I strongly encourage you to take a break from the Kirk. I do
believe you are gifted for the pastoral ministry at least in your ability to
give yourself to the service of pastoral care; I think your continued involvement
as a real ‘insider’ at the Kirk is damaging your ability to express
these gifts. If you removed yourself entirely from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PersonName
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Christ</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:PersonName></st1:place> for a while,
and its culture, and I think you would likely come to agree with my assessment.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Yours<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Michael Metzler <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Michael,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>I don't think it's your place to speak on behalf of what 'everyone'
sees in 'stupid posts kirkers make to Vision 2020, including [mine]' but thanks
for encouragement. Generous orthodoxy indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Cheers,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Jerry<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=4
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center id=stopSpelling>
</span></font></div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 09:11:47 -0700<br>
From: metzler2@verizon.net<br>
Subject: <br>
To: owenjerry@hotmail.com<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Jerry,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Go find a job somewhere else. There are other decent churches out
there. You don’t see the vanity and pride in the stupid posts
kirkers make to Vision 2020, including yours, but everyone else can. Get
out while you still have anything left of your Christian soul.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Yours<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'>Michael<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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