A Special Letter About the Future of Emergent Village

What about the children? Where do they fit in? Do they fit in?

A suggestion for the Village Council—consider staggering terms on the Council to provide stability and continuity rather than having all six positions end simultaneously.

Great letter! Clearly lots of thought & prayer went into this action. Thank you all for stepping into this new role. The discussion/connection continues!

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”

B-A-R-F.

I’m very new to all things Emergent, and even so as an educator I would love to explore the synthesis of Emergence and Christian School education.(apropos of the first note about the children)

Michael

F-A-I-L-U-R-E.

What a lot of babble. All this talk of a village, of conversation, arts, justice. If you have no intention of lifting up Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and the Word of God, please hasten your “emergence” to the point of dropping any reference to Him altogether. He’s Lord or He’s not. He is no addendum to your own agenda.

I second Andy’s comment (#4).

When you finish “dreaming for the future”, maybe you can start handling the present by presenting the Gospel to a lost and dying world – a world sinking in the mire and needing a lifeline. FWIW: That ain’t you. It’s not even ME. It has nothing to do with ANY OF US. The lifeline is “Repent and be baptised, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, and you will receive forgiveness of your sins…”

Strange how these last few comments manage to miss the whole “ways of following Jesus” reason for all this activity. Why is this in any way threatening? It’s just another way of being faithful to Christ.

Beloved Spear (comment no. 10), it’s not as much threatening as it is a little hard to take seriously. :-)

When the whole platform of a movement is trying to correct excesses (such as programmed megachurches or legalistic congregations), inevitably the very opposite excesses will result—license, lack of truth mixed with love, cheap grace, and frankly, lack of love because on shies back from learning the truth.

Rather, followers of Christ should strive to follow everything Christ taught. That does include much more than mere social justice and being more community-spirited, though these things are byproducts of His grace.

We are not the Gospel. We proclaim Christ crucified, first and foremost. That is the Gospel.

Everything else should follow that and is inexorably woven with that.

Anything else is no gospel at all. It places the onus on us merely to behave better and change the world through God’s morality, not God’s Gospel, downplaying—or worse, ignoring—how everything we have is because of what Christ has already done for His people.

The truth needs to be told, and it seems hard to find here in this village. I pray that the true message of Jesus will prevail over the darkness.

Wow. It is because of comments like some of these (that actually have nothing to do with the subject at hand) that I resisted becoming a Christian for so long. Thank God (literally) for loving Christians like those of the Emergent Conversation. Thanks to them I found out Christ was about Love and Grace, not hatred and strong-arming.

Alienation is a powerful thing. I’m thrilled to find a place that challenges us to be inclusive rather than exclusive. It’s time to cast aside our politcal agendas and ideologies for the sake of loving and supporting each other. I think we can ALL agree that we are ALL in need of God’s grace. Our cities are starving for a sense of community and belonging that cannot be found in the majority of churches – how can we not join together at this time, listen to their cry(in some cases, our own cry) and do something about it?

If anyone in this cultural movement ministers to the elderly, and not some place 5000 miles away in Africa, then please post a blog about the work. Much emphasis seems to be on one’s self and one’s own generation, as to a neglect of those who came before.

“How we choose future Village Councils is still yet to be determined,” How you choose what is the core Christian beliefs hasn’t been decided either.

Danny- If you are truly a Christian now, you would realize that the comments encouraging EV to proclaim the gospel to a dying world and preach Christ crucified is driven out of nothing but love. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world (or shares in a community, or participates in the arts, etc.) and loses his soul?

It is fascinating, and SAD to read this predictable emergent twaddle. It amazes me to see seemingly high minded, thoughtful individuals obsessing over the endless, serpentine “conversation,” in which one can end up thinking, believing, or “feeling” virtually anything, or nothing, and delude oneself (and others!) into regarding virtually any desired contextualization as representing “Christianity,” or being a “Christ follower.”

The whole “conversation” is like a spaceship hopelessly lost in the universe, with virtually no guidance coordinates. Anything and everything means whatever one wants it mean or not mean.

Well, our basic is that Jesus and God is love, and everything else that flows is caring, loving, and all “inclusive,” and non judgemental, non divisive, non hateful universal harmonious love and understanding among all?

We should strive to be a “Christ follower,” by emulating his total love, and always positive, non offensive ways with all, right?

Anybody happen to recall how well received Jesus was when preaching his first public message in his hometown? Being our highest ideal of an example, how to inspire people to peace, harmony, and universal brotherhood, they really were all touched, inspired, and blessed beyond belief, right?

Uuhh, the recorded FACT (for those in the midst of this definitionless, shapeless twaddle who have any regard for such things!) is that they were OFFENDED and OUTRAGED, and wanted to throw him over a steep cliff at the edge of town.

Jeepers, could it just possibly be that Jesus stood for, and out of loving concern, soberly cautioned and warned on numerous occasions of things such as judgement, the dreaded consequences of sin, and the need for REPENTANCE? The New Testament has NUMEROUS passages emphasizing this vital OTHER HALF of the picture that’s totally ignored by the perpetually definitionless emergent jello.

Jesus said that “Narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life, and few there be that find it.”

Seems very bigoted, non-inclusive, non “missional” hatespeak coming from “peace and love” Jesus! Or was it?

WhitemoonG (and other contributors that seem to want to polarise rather than to come together through one spirit) – I think it is possible to build the discussion with your angle whilst not describing another set of positions as twaddle – perhaps also you should consider your own ‘measure’ – when was the last time your expression of faith ‘offended or outraged’ the community around you?

Let’s build one another up and admonish one another in appropriate ways and with an open and generous spirit

Having just completed seminary at the Episcopal and Lutheran seminary in Columbus Ohio, and having taken a course in emerging church and having met with representatives of the local cohort, I simply must write to set the record straight about a statement made in this article. As I studied the emerging church, I came to the conclusion that it is espousing the same principles upon which our denomination is founded. The Episcopal Church, and the LUtheran Church, too, are VERY involved in engaging our members and congregations with Scripture. The language of our services are drawn straight from the Bible. There are generally 4 readings from Scripture at every service, and sermons are geared to making it relevant to everyday life. It is erroneous and misleading to state that traditional “religion” does not encourage engagement with Scripture. Certainly we can learn, and I have learned from you; we are far from perfect. Yet, we are very mission-minded, we rely heavily on the traditions of the early church and its practices, we are inclusive of all people (our Baptismal Covenant states that we respect the dignity of every human being), and we work hard for justice in our local communities.

We, too, are emerging from where we have been to where we are going.

I see a great deal of similarity between what I understand (and I know I certainly have more to learn) of the emergent church, and the Episcopal Church. So, please give us a chance! I really think we have much more in common than we do in difference.

Our ministry flows from the prayers and work of the people, along with the clergy. We are not a top-down political structure.

Thank you for listening; I look forward to continue to learning more about the emergent church, and I hope you will be open to learning more about us!

May the Holy Spirit lead and guide us all—
In Christ’s love,
Joan Grant

Gareth: Sorry, but your sentiments are not completely congruent with a matter of fact reading of the New Testament. The Gospel, the truth, is what it is. Jesus Christ himself said that following him, obeying his commandments and proclaiming his truth, will itself be very polarizing, and even set family members against each other.

NOT because the person proclaiming and living the Gospel in accordance with Christ’s command is necessarily an offensive person,or trying to be offensive for being offensive’s sake, but because the MESSAGE, THE TRUTH is offensive.

“Men hate the light, and love darkness.”

“Just as the world has hated me, so will it hate you, for my sake.”

The Gospel as recorded CLEARLY in the New Testament is that of man acknowledging he is hopelessly lost, repenting of sin, and unmerited salvation by God’s grace alone to the repentant sinner.

There are NUMEROUS,NUMEROUS clear admonitions in the New Testament to discern, expose, and avoid those who revise, change, or muddle the gospel.

It doesn’t matter what century it is, or how advanced, “enlightened,” or “hip” modern man thinks he is,

The gospel, and the truth remains the same.

Emergent twaddle is exactly that: twaddle.

Under the guise of supposed humility and honesty, it is a never ending hopelessly definitionless giant pile of shapeless fluff. All about endless “conversation” and self orientation/”discovery” that is, by it’s own lack of definition, neither coming or going anywhere.

Whether one accepts or rejects it, Biblical Christianity has concrete teaching and pillars provided by the Lord in his revelation in holy scripture, as well as his sojourn among us in the form of Jesus Christ himself.

Sorry, those who hopelessly dilute, or allow to be diluted, God’s clear teaching in scripture to the point that it can mean virtually anything or nothing (namely, God’s truth is dragged so low as to supposedly be whatever any individual is comfortable with),that typical emergents who embrace this nebulosity are not “Brothers in Christ.”

Believe what you want to believe.

But typical emergents out there, don’t waste your time deluding yourself that you are somehow within the realm of “Christianity.” By emergent definition (complete LACK of definition would be more accurate), ANYTHING could be considered “Christian.”

And Sherpas are the best surfing instructors.