The Emerging Ghetto
my introduction to postmodern christianity and the emerging church happened to be at a conference held at brian mclaren's church, CRCC. the conference was called "out of the christian ghetto"... and was certainly good news for me at the time... since it helped me identify the ghetto that i had just been kicked out of. i remember someone using architectural styles to illustrate premodern, modern and postmodern ways of reading the bible - which was a major (and much needed) crack to the skull.
fast forward a few years. the emerging church conversation is well underway - we're not just pissing on everything (i.e. deconstructing) some good things are actually happening (i.e. reconstruction)... and one day while cruising through wikipedia - i notice Postmodernism (and Postmodernity) lack entries in terms of theology and christianity. huh? philosophy, architecture, literature, music... all of these are represented. -- interesting that we've overlooked wikipedia. anyway - the description herein is great stuff, and so stinkin relevant - the first keyword is even metanarrative.
fast forward to this blog. i have 7 keywords posted that resonate with me - ideas i wrestle with - that help me think / see / categorize the world and see God... powerful concepts - and one of them is this notion of emergence. i love this concept - a idea that stands all on its own... but simultaneously does a fantastic job of describing the phenomena that is happening within and without the church. once again i find that wikipedia hosts a lot of specific applications of this idea and its properties, especially as it applies to games (my professional interest), as well as nature, engineering, physics (lay interests)... but strangely enough, no entry as it applies to the church. bizarre.
and then...
i see why.
heavy sigh.
it is because...
we've staked out our own ground
separate
safe
away
from the world
away from relevance:
Postmodern Christianity has its own entry
and the Emerging Church has its own entry.
connection
is
forfeited.
a new ghetto
is
emerging.
fast forward a few years. the emerging church conversation is well underway - we're not just pissing on everything (i.e. deconstructing) some good things are actually happening (i.e. reconstruction)... and one day while cruising through wikipedia - i notice Postmodernism (and Postmodernity) lack entries in terms of theology and christianity. huh? philosophy, architecture, literature, music... all of these are represented. -- interesting that we've overlooked wikipedia. anyway - the description herein is great stuff, and so stinkin relevant - the first keyword is even metanarrative.
fast forward to this blog. i have 7 keywords posted that resonate with me - ideas i wrestle with - that help me think / see / categorize the world and see God... powerful concepts - and one of them is this notion of emergence. i love this concept - a idea that stands all on its own... but simultaneously does a fantastic job of describing the phenomena that is happening within and without the church. once again i find that wikipedia hosts a lot of specific applications of this idea and its properties, especially as it applies to games (my professional interest), as well as nature, engineering, physics (lay interests)... but strangely enough, no entry as it applies to the church. bizarre.
and then...
i see why.
heavy sigh.
it is because...
we've staked out our own ground
separate
safe
away
from the world
away from relevance:
Postmodern Christianity has its own entry
and the Emerging Church has its own entry.
connection
is
forfeited.
a new ghetto
is
emerging.
posted by P3T3RK3Y5 for meltingearth
3 Comments:
Perhaps. But perhaps not.
sad ... but I see your point.
wow... I knew this, but am so aclimated to the "separation" practice that I didn't even notice that "emergent Christianity"
was already a ghetto. I've already thought it was going that way, but without strong effort I think it will continue into it's own "emerged" ghetto (just like every denominational trend of the past). It's got to embrace more self-suspicion of our own success and a stronger hunger for "love in ACTION" than "love in definition" or emergence has emerged and will continue to be dogmatized, instituationalized and ghettoized, I think. Like so many movements, the guts get pinned down to a dogma that the Spirit moved past and off into the wind... leaving the dogma shell behind. When we think we've got something, we've got so little... and getting smaller. we'll need more and more love as more and more of the "truths" we have approached start to get "pinned down."
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