Linked up >>> emergingumc: Emerging, Post-Emerging, Integral… Theses for Discussion

By
ak
– September 20, 2006Posted in:

Are you allowed to use the words “emerging” and “UMC” in the same sentence? Apparently:
emergingumc: Emerging, Post-Emerging, Integral… Theses for Discussion

Good post with great links around the ideas behind and the idea of the “emerging church”. Here are some snippets:

“There is a complexity to this religious phenomena that is captured in yesterday’s understanding of the Emerging Church as a conversaton. Movement tends to move it backwards into linear / concrete / static thinking. If it is a movement, there must be some sense of concrete definition to it. Truth is, there are many. The Emerging Church, in its rawest of forms, is non-linear / dynamic / multi-layered / spiral. With the Emerging Church labeled a movement by media and adopted by the mainstream, we still need to understand this expression of Christianity not only as a religious or theological occurrence, but one that is anthropoligical and sociological.”

“That “emerging” may be entirely incompatible with and not supportable by existing or any “institutional” structures without the latter essentially regressing and undermining the former…”

“I admit, I’m not satisfied at all with what the emerging church is in mainstream Christianity. It’s a rather open ended label that anyone can adopt and derive some meaning or definition; most often the meanings and definitions identically resemble the old more than they do the new. Since the emerging church theoretically is the space between the old and the new, I don’t think our thoughts should be stuck in the canyon of the in between. Hence, why I would consider myself to be post-emerging – I’m naturally moving beyond.”

About ak

I am because we are. Or, to be more verbose, click here