Thanks Tony for the heads up on this great power point presentation. Good summary and application of the movement from modern to postmodern within Christian communities.
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Stay tuned for more info on Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, and Mark Scandrette’s visit to Bend, OR this Summer!
It’s time to come out of the hole. Start writing again, Nate. You have things to say.
Probably the thing that keeps me silent to a great degree these days is the overwhelming amount of thought that goes into trying to decide how “Nate” fits into the world… as Nate. To be myself, to be the man that I have been made to be… that is where I want to live from. But this just so happens to be very non-status quo… not easy to maintain with the pressure from an outside world wanting to mold me into another robot for success and achievement.
We are all supposed to be this way, that is, living out of our very center. I am amazed that it seems so easy for many. Life, for many, seems so cut and dry, so happy-go-lucky. I am amazed… and slightly jealous. It can’t be so simple for me. So I slow down. I have less to say.
Talk to me about life. Talk to me about soul, about depth. Talk to me about understanding and feeling. Politics, money, stuff, success, religion, formulas, or hypotheses… I’m not sure that I have much to say about that. And I’m not sure how to move forward in that regard, either. I’m not sure how to emerge.
There is a book coming out called, Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be. I haven’t read it, and probably won’t… and after reading a few reviews, I realize I probably don’t agree with most of what they say. But it is a brave title, and it leaves me thinking about my own choices. Another book I am pretty excited about… and one with a title I like even more, is Doug Pagitt‘s new book: A Christianity Worth Believing: Hope-filled, Open-armed, Alive-and-well Faith for the Left Out, Left Behind, and Let Down in us All. This is one I think I’ll definitely be picking up.
Darren has a good question here:
What does it mean to be emergent?
The first ever “emerging” Amish church will launch on December 23rd just outside of Columbus, Ohio. The church, calling itself “Solomon’s Barn” blends cutting edge worship with Amish sensibilities. Its pastor, Jacob Yoder (who prefers to be called “Jay”) believes that the Amish can learn from emerging styles of worship. “We’re ready for something new…something fresh,” says Pastor Jay.When asked about his sources of inspiration, Pastor Jay (who wears a soul-patch instead of a traditional Amish beard) responded by saying: “I mean, there I was, settling with ‘church as usual’ when I stumbled upon the writings of Brian McLaren. I felt like his words were coming right from my own head, you know? I realized that I was a postmodern Amish person…I needed to reject pre-modernism for a more authentic faith.”
Full article here at Jesus Manifesto
From a friend of mine, to many more friends. To those of you who I haven’t been in face to face conversation with here in Bend or elsewhere, I will proudly claim friendship with the folks at Emergent Village and the emerging church:
From Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village:
Is this the “Emergent Moment”? Is this this tipping point, the time for us to really have an impact on the future of the church? It sure seems so. The interest continues to build, and the pressures continue to mount. The cries of “Heresy!” continue to come from one side of us, as we push into some new theological territory. From the other side we hear, “It’s inevitable: you’ll become an institution just like us.”
I, for one, don’t think we’re heretics. Instead, I think that we’re actually being faithful to our theological forbears by doing what they did: aggressively theologizing about the issues that face the contemporary church.
And, on the other hand, I don’t think we’re bound toward institutionalization. We in Emergent Village continue to be a relational network — not a bureaucracy, not a top-down organization, and definitely not a denomination. Instead, we’re a group of friends. We come from diverse theological (and, increasingly, ethnic) backgrounds. We value one another deeply. We’re committed to being friends.
For the rest of Tony’s blog entry visit Emergent Village.
