I am heading to toronto tomorrow for a weekend conf/meeting with Brian Mclaren … i am looking forward to the meeting as i have really enjoyed some of the thoughts that his books have sparked in recent years …But, I mentioned in a response to some preliminary questions from one of the organisers that i feel a caution:
if small ‘e’ emergence is consumed by the marketing of large ‘E’ Emergent, then the thoughts of emergence will be simply considered a way to speak to this most recent generation. Something like all youth groups in the 90’s using a form of the letter ‘x’ in order to reach gen x. Emergent thought must be more than another way to market, and truly collect all (Christian and not) who are concerned about the way of Jesus.
along the same lines, i ran across this thought from a person on the resonate listserve today. they challenged me further …
“I have been thinking and talking with people over the last little while about our “third day” stream of emails, about subcultures, new ideas, and all the rest. I have been very challenged and humbled by my attitude of late. Basically, I have realized that I’ve been hypocritical in my criticism of “Christian” culture because while I wasn’t looking I’ve bought into a new, different, but not much better sub-culture. A sub-culture based
on intellectual pursuit, new-ish theological interpretations, different ways
of doing church, and being different from traditional church. Unfortunately
my new sub-culture has involved little or no increase in the degree to which
I love people, live sacrificially, or give gracoiously. It’s new and different from the old sub-culture, but it’s still not back to what I believe Jesus lived out. The IDEAS might be back to talking about acting out what Jesus lived out, but that hasn’t translated into me living it out any more. In fact, I think the new sub-culture may be doing more for my ego
in allowing me to sound cutting edge, post-modern, and intellectual, but I haven’t changed the way I live yet. So what’s interesting and sad is that for all the new sub-culture talk, it has still remained centered on me. So how do I actually change? Thats my struggle… any thoughts?”
Jared Ott
May 21st, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I have found it amazing to love and be loved by my neighbors. I no longer think in terms of Christian and non-Christian, which truly used to matter to me. I remember needing to know where a person attended church before I would bother to put in an effort to know them, if I bothered at all. I try to leave aside judgement and allow myself to care about people just because they are people. Ironically, it was my “non-Christian” neighbors that showed me how to really love others.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:03 pm
thanks for the thoughts Sarah … it is interesting how easy it is to use labels as ways to exclude, and ways to turn off our thinking. As soon as someone becomes a label or a project, we do not have to think of them as a person … this happens all to frequently in my opinion