over the last few years I have been on somewhat of a journey with discovering who I am within the world of christianity - seeking identity amongst God's people.
there are many hues and contours; through evangelicalism to liberal and everything in between.
and then there's the scope within evangelicalism itself. evangelicalism which is still my 'home' has the fundamentalists, the conservatives, the opens, the charismatics, the emergents and I'm sure there are many more, and of course all these labels themselves do not represent a monolithic body of people - I am a self-confessed 'open', but I'm also charismatic and emergent and, on some things, extremely conservative.
my concern as I journey on this road, meandering along the way sometimes with conservatives til we have to part company, sometimes with charismatics...you get the idea...my concern is that what I observe is some very discrete groups of people. we're aware of each other, and for some things we might even agree! but continuing and ongoing dialogue?
the breach is even easier to see in cyberworld. you just have to look at the links on the side of most people's blogs and you will see that there are a set of similar people all in dialogue with each other - but where are the friendships across the boundaries? are we all so caught up in our own comfort zones that there is little breadth in our conversation? or any conversation that is done, is done over the parapet?
emergent church defines itself as a 'conversation', something which I identify with, but where is it? and who is it with? how does anyone join it? is it of any use to the local church?
there are many hues and contours; through evangelicalism to liberal and everything in between.
and then there's the scope within evangelicalism itself. evangelicalism which is still my 'home' has the fundamentalists, the conservatives, the opens, the charismatics, the emergents and I'm sure there are many more, and of course all these labels themselves do not represent a monolithic body of people - I am a self-confessed 'open', but I'm also charismatic and emergent and, on some things, extremely conservative.
my concern as I journey on this road, meandering along the way sometimes with conservatives til we have to part company, sometimes with charismatics...you get the idea...my concern is that what I observe is some very discrete groups of people. we're aware of each other, and for some things we might even agree! but continuing and ongoing dialogue?
the breach is even easier to see in cyberworld. you just have to look at the links on the side of most people's blogs and you will see that there are a set of similar people all in dialogue with each other - but where are the friendships across the boundaries? are we all so caught up in our own comfort zones that there is little breadth in our conversation? or any conversation that is done, is done over the parapet?
emergent church defines itself as a 'conversation', something which I identify with, but where is it? and who is it with? how does anyone join it? is it of any use to the local church?
these are serious questions. questions that we need to keep asking ourselves if there is to be authentic kingdom light in the diversity of who we are as God's people.
1 comment:
I'm conversing! Conversing about all our different agendas so we can better understand each other - check out http://hrht-revisingreform.blogspot.com
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