Continuing the Emerging Conversation
Continuing a series of articles on defining the emergent movement. Earlier pieces can be found on 5/5 under the titles 'Back to the List' and 'Statement or No Statement?'
Here are the last four characteristics Doug Pagitt (Pastor of Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis, MN) listed in defining the emerging church movement with my comments added.
8. Openness to the "other" - outsider, foreigner, doesn't get freaked out. I like the spirit behind this statement, that where dialogue is concerned, the church should be open to others.
9. Wants the good news of God to change the world and be good news for all creation. Again, I can't imagine believers not agreeing with this statement.
10. Understands community to be an essential part of the Christian life. This is certainly true of my thinking - we were not adopted into God's family to become an island unto ourselves, but rather to be a small part of His whole - and so often this truth is neglected.
11. More interested in the future than fighting the battles of the past - people who are trying to live the story of Jesus in our world in ways consistent to where we have come from. I read something just this morning concerning the prefix 'post'. The person speaking shared that 'post' didn't mean anti or negative or anything like that, it simply meant 'post'. He used the word 'post-pubescent' to illustrate. This word means that a child has gone through puberty and is now an adolescent. This means that they cannot go back to being a child, they are 'post' that threshold. Yet, they are very much affected from having been through that period of life. They are not negative towards it or 'anti' it, just rather they are through it, and to some degree the adolescent that they are now was shaped by it. I think that picture is a good one. When we talk about being post-modern, it is not that we should forget the fact that we grew up in the modern-era church. We shouldn't despise those things. We shouldn't forget or look negatively on those battles of the past - for they have all been an important part of shaping our today. I think that's what Pagitt means when he says 'live the story of Jesus in our world in ways consistent to where we have come from'. I agree.
So what do you think of these four? Are we emergent? Should we be? Is the emerging church movement heresy? Click comments and chime in.
Here are the last four characteristics Doug Pagitt (Pastor of Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis, MN) listed in defining the emerging church movement with my comments added.
8. Openness to the "other" - outsider, foreigner, doesn't get freaked out. I like the spirit behind this statement, that where dialogue is concerned, the church should be open to others.
9. Wants the good news of God to change the world and be good news for all creation. Again, I can't imagine believers not agreeing with this statement.
10. Understands community to be an essential part of the Christian life. This is certainly true of my thinking - we were not adopted into God's family to become an island unto ourselves, but rather to be a small part of His whole - and so often this truth is neglected.
11. More interested in the future than fighting the battles of the past - people who are trying to live the story of Jesus in our world in ways consistent to where we have come from. I read something just this morning concerning the prefix 'post'. The person speaking shared that 'post' didn't mean anti or negative or anything like that, it simply meant 'post'. He used the word 'post-pubescent' to illustrate. This word means that a child has gone through puberty and is now an adolescent. This means that they cannot go back to being a child, they are 'post' that threshold. Yet, they are very much affected from having been through that period of life. They are not negative towards it or 'anti' it, just rather they are through it, and to some degree the adolescent that they are now was shaped by it. I think that picture is a good one. When we talk about being post-modern, it is not that we should forget the fact that we grew up in the modern-era church. We shouldn't despise those things. We shouldn't forget or look negatively on those battles of the past - for they have all been an important part of shaping our today. I think that's what Pagitt means when he says 'live the story of Jesus in our world in ways consistent to where we have come from'. I agree.
So what do you think of these four? Are we emergent? Should we be? Is the emerging church movement heresy? Click comments and chime in.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home