Slipping into Emergence
For a while, I’ve been aware through various blog articles about the Emergent Church. Without delving into it, I found myself intrigued. Yet, many other things on my plate to be more than intrigued.
Then a few weeks ago, I decided to dive into the Twitterverse. I found a couple celebrities to follow for fun and linked Twitter with Facebook. Then somehow, I connected with The Emergent Village. From there I found myself connecting with a large community of Emergent Church people and leaders and went from being intrigued to resonating. The first couple weeks there were a couple Emergent Church conferences around the country and the participants were tweeting quotes and thoughts from those conferences. The result surprised me, I saw some old passion for ministry slowly regenerating. So, this 50 year old United Methodist pastor/Spiritual Director has been slipping into the Emergent field.
I don’t have much street cred, though, just a Resonating heart. (energy level hasn’t reached the level yet.) I find myself appreciating the emphasis on creativity in worship and in ministry activities (how about a free breakfast on Sunday Morning in Atlanta?). I love the call to the church to renew a new missional as well as spirituality focus. All my time learning and living systems thought and Process focus as well as my post-modern perspective on life finds a welcome home in this movement. Of course, it doesn’t help that there is not only little fear of technology, there is a reveling in it (hence being all over the Twitterverse).
Yet, the one area that is most resonant to me, and also the source of greatest creative tension is the attitude and relationship to the institutional church. From what I can discern, a big part of the movement arose out of the dissatisfaction with the limitations and embedded nature of the church. This was seen as stifling passion and creativity and mission. While I have chosen and continue to choose to be within those structures, I understand the pain and scars that come from those institutions. I have said and will continue to say that the answer to the world is Christ not the church. Yet, the church is still the means that God (by grace) chooses to work. The renewal of God’s people will not be found in “church” itself, no matter how we contruct or deconstruct it. (Yet, I will also say that I don’t believe the renewal we seek can be found outside the community of believers either.)
All that is actually prelude to what triggered my thoughts today. Yesterday, the Emergent Village linked to an article by Mark Sayers, The Emerging Missional Church Fractures into Mini Movements.I found it a very helpful article to understand the Emergent Movement (he relates it to the rise of Protestantism, which worked for me). I’ve been reflecting on that every since I read it…hoping this exciting movement of God will not fall prey to the evils it seeks to remedy. The one that is most visible to me is the institutional focus (even if it a reaction against those structures, the focus is still as powerful). Mark talked about moving beyond the “defining against” phase through he “defining itself” phase. Which led to a strange dream last night.
I woke up in the middle of the night with the image of a laser light. That light was at first the sharply focused energy of this new movement of God. Then I saw that it also represented the institutional mentality that demands laser precision and order. This light then passed through a prism and the light fractured into myriad dimensions and colors and hues. The institutional view is that this fracturing is bad, so pick a color as the right color. And in choosing, one must say that the other colors are wrong. Hence we find ourselves hundreds of years after the prism of Luther and the Reformation still fighting for our “turf” as the place God loves best (nyah, nyah, nyah). With the light being this new movement of God (today it is Emergent, tomorrow it will be ?) the prism always invites us into a new perspective on the light. What prevents us from seeing the full spectrum of mission and ministry to the world as different parts and realities of God’s One True light? I like being red, and while I’m not blue, I am glad there is a blue ministry somewhere in my world and in my community.
Each hue then becomes not better, not worse, not more God-like, not less God-like, just different. Isn’t the work of the Essence of Life, the Beloved of the Universe more than what any one or any few of us can do together? Absolutely.
Embrace the richness of God’s Light to the World. That is true within the stone cathedrals and on the streets. This is much better than returning to the spiritual turf battles where everybody (especially the children of God) lose.
