Aj Schwanz

It might just be too good to be true.

Allelon just announced courses in their summer leadership institute:

Over those years itís become clear that if weíre to cultivate a missional church we have to address the question of leadership. And if we are to see unfold among us the kinds of local missional communities we talk and write about then it is going to require a multi-generational movement of men and women committed to this journey.

How refreshing it is to hear that I’m not the only one aching for an intergenerational effort in doing ministry!

At Allelon, we believe no single group, system or organization has within itself the resources or imagination to address the challenges of forming mission-shaped churches and their leaders. Unless we come together, without competition and across our boundaries, to focus on future generations rather than the immediate moment, we wonít achieve or sustain the innovations and transformations required.

What a clarifying and well-balanced approach to learning it sounds like: something I needed to hear about, particularly now. Today has been a discouraging day for me thinking about what God’s got coming up for ministry and how we get in his way.

Andrew Jones wrote a wonderful yet challenging letter to folks in the Western emerging church conversation (I think he was getting his inner-Quaker on):

THESE THINGS WE ARE BEING CRITICIZED FOR ALREADY BY THE WORLD. AND RIGHTLY SO - ALL WHO DESIRE TO LIVE GODLY IN CHRIST JESUS WILL BE PERSECUTED. DOES THE WORLD THEN SEE US MORE CLEARLY THAN THE CHURCH CRITICS? IF WE ARE MORE VISIBLE TO THE WORLD DUE TO OUR REDEMPTIVE RELATIONSHIPS, THEN I UNDERSTAND THE CONFUSION. PERHAPS WE NEED TO GET OUT MORE INTO MAINSTREAM CHRISTIAN CONFERENCES AND GATHERINGS, THE LAND OF DOCKERS AND WEAK COFFEE, AND START THE PROCESS OF INTRODUCING OURSELVES AND OUR MISSION.

Alan Creech voiced frustration regarding folks who talk about the emerging movement:

Really - if you want to know - I think most of the time people outside “it” talk about “it” they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. Many of those inside don’t really know either. They/we try to define it and write books about it and have conferences to introduce people to it. Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

Some folks enjoyed the Emergent Theological Conversation; some were disappointed/discouraged; some were encouraged to engage in a more “right direction” afterwards.

Some recognized that folks know what “emerging is against” - but what are they for?

why is it that people seek to find a universal agreement in the emerging? why is it that people can not see what we are for? people say, “we know what you are against, but what are you for?” that got me thinking, and that can be a very dangerous thing [me thinking]. here is what i think we are for in the emerging:

Scot McKnight explores whether the emerging conversation is The Future or A Fad.

It’s hard to hear so many voices - where to turn? Why can’t God just blast through all the words and opinions and thoughts and reactions and simply drill the truth straight into my brain? I find folks in the emerging conversation sighing when I tell them that I’m part of an evangelical/traditional church as though there’s no hope for us. I find fellow congregants hostile and suspicious if I mention the word “emerging” as though I’m going to try to secretly convert them to the Dark Side (which sounds a lot like how we do evangelism in the first place, eh?).

One thing that has resonated with me, that fans my wavering flame of hope, has been Andrew’s particular words:

And its not because the emerging church in North America is necessarily guilty of the things ascribed to them by the critics. In many cases the critics are wrongly informed. But sometimes the only window to what God is doing in the emerging church is through these critics. The identity and definition of the American emerging church thus rests, by default, on what the critics say. If you had more of a personal relationship with the mainstream churches and institutions then some of these issues could be ironed out before the misfires hit the press.

This is what I’ve felt has been part of my calling, Lord help me. And so I’ll, as he says, continue to turn to Scripture. I’ll worship and discern with my community. And I’ll find my identity not in a movement, but in Christ - my source of Light.