Facebook Surprise

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Early last week I claimed my space on Facebook. My kids love it. It’s a great way to communicate and laugh with them. I’m also excited about the level of communication among believers, especially of those among my tribe.

There are various (actually many) groups and forums a person can join. I would encourage anyone who wants to communicate, become familiar with the outer edges, and learn what is on the horizon to go to Facebook.com and claim their space.

There are so many things I could mention but I’m especially excited about the two emerging Church of Christ forums I’ve found. The emerging conversation continues to gather and has now overflowed right smack dab into the lap of my religious heritage. I was surprised by the growing numbers of members signing up in this forum. Today I posted the following thoughts on emerging/missional and John Mark Hicks made his comment below.

The Following is taken from the group “The Emerging Church of Christ”

I’m going to attempt to jump-start the conversation here:

Emerging will never progress from conversation to movement and one day, all of a sudden, burst onto the religious scene as a single, unified and distinct perspective or become something that can be charted in some linear fashion. The conversation continues to gather but it is not unified by a shared theological tradition, nor does there appear to be an aspiration to develop one. There is a sense in which those involved in the conversation are acknowledging the process of ‘journey’ and ‘becoming’ as opposed to the long held idea of ‘destination’ (destination is in the journey). In other words we are all becoming saved, we are all becoming church. The other obvious point, within the emerging conversation, is that a missional component has evolved and is now taking root.

From my somewhat limited travels I have discovered that the ‘progressive’ Church of Christ (I could say ‘all’ progressive churches) appeals to the attractional model of church and mistakenly call it emerging. By attractional I mean the centerpiece has become the Sunday worship. Preaching and praise music. Many hours are spent crafting the event when equal time should be given to traing people to be missionaries to America. FRED

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I would agree that the Emergent and Emerging movements have rejected the “attractional” models and are seeking a more missional model. Most progressive Churches of Christ are still attractional in my experience, but many wanting to move toward missional.

Part of the hope here, I think, is that many recent church plants are seeking to work out of a more missional-type model that embraces much of emerging thought and sometimes practice (which is quite varied). John Mark Hicks

The conversation is gathering, more and more are beginning to understand!

From My Library

Peter Rollins is a young philosopher and practioner of postmodern Christianity and a fascinating writer. Currently I’m reading “How not to Speak of God.” His newest book (The Fidelity of Betrayl: Towards A Church Beyond Belief) is a must read for all who have read the above mentioned titled.

It seems the premise of Rollins’ first offering is the idea that two ways of thinking does not cancel each other out.

Brian McLaren calls How Not to Speak of God one of the two or three most rewarding books of theology he has read in the last ten years.

I’d be interested in hearing from those who have read Rollins.

Noble Acts

It’s a noble thing for the Christ-follower (individually) to live a godly, Christ-like life before family, friends, and peers. But when a church harmoniously and effectively utilizes the influence of its corporate strength to capture and engage its host culture the effort becomes a nobler act on a much broader scale.