Under a few heavy deadlines this week... so a short thought.
There are many who ... Some have labeled me as an emergent thinker.
Not sure if I agree or even understand what people think this means.
So in light of that I ask the question...
What do you think is emergent?... Lets avoid the Branded, american, Brian Mclaren, Miller marketing tactics and get to the root of what this really means.
Emergent is...
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I think its a mashup of 3 words:
E - for electronic, as in E-mail
Mer - from from ancient language: Sea, as in Mer-maid
Gent - In traditional terms, as in Gent-leman
So you're an Electronic-Ocean-Man.
Simple.
Alex
I am without words man ...without words.
That is deep... electronic ocean man. EO-MAN
how about, people who concern themselves with the current shift in cultural mindsets, and how the church will look in amidst that shift?
Emer, according to irish mythology, was said to possess the six gifts of womanhood: beauty, a gentle voice, sweet words, wisdom, chastity and skill at needlework. :)
Gent according to my dictionary is a slang used when refering to a man of character and nobility.
Therefore you, electronic ocean man, must be viewed by many as a very metro pomo-sexual as Jeffrey affectionately calls you.
lol
shaka. that's right momma!!
dehoog. i believe that was a royal burn via the ansloos fam!
alex fear. thank you for the electronix ocean man.
That is funny. I am not a big fan of emergent stuff. There has only ever been and only ever will be one way of doing church. It is important to keep up with culture but that doesn't mean we should change theology. Stick to your guns I always say and the guns being the truth of the bible. I have admit I have a lot to learn about it is and involves but I don't know do I really want to?
Emergent, IMO has become an all encompassing LABEL for any church/movement/person supposedly seeking to minister to a largely postmodern generation. Or rather, to become 'untraditional' in a way. I did a whole paper on this in Bible College... some of it seems ok, some of it is alarming. I completely disagree that there has only every been and ever will be 1 way to 'do' church... The method is pretty much adiaphora, but its message and the belief in the ABSOLUTE TRUTH of the Bible has to remain the same. I applaud people like Miller for getting the church thinking. Why should we do things as we've always done it? It might be a waste of time and completely out of touch and ineffective to the world around us.
I would not label you as an 'emergent' thinker, but I prefer to label you (ha ha) as a progressive thinker. Some things you have written, or consider are largely ignored by the church at large for the sake of tradition.
Or maybe you really are an Electronic-Ocean-Man.
Emerging...emergent...emerge...
If you think about it outside of the context of church the words draw for me a picture of someone crawling out from under the rubble of a disaster. Do you catch the image.
Emerging thinker is somehow different. However, could be emerging from traditional confines, but definitly thinking on a new plain.
People often use "outside the box" which is dumb, because even if a person is an outside the box, they often have just stepped outside the box to think about a box in a new way, maybe a nice lace border on the box, or some cool signs.
Emerging thinkers should be concerned w/ the things that concern God, aka, loving God and loving people. Emerging thinkers drop the distractions and are consumed by these things.
I like Electronic Ocean-man, myself.
Emergent sounds like a tulip bulb. There's the bulb, buried in fall - kinda looks like an onion - what new beautiful thing would ever grow out of THAT?
Then spring, and little tiny shoots of green poke out. They are "of" the bulb, but in a different way. They become flowers, then they fall off, and you snap the heads off, when the flowers fall, in order to give the bulb more with which to grow more powerfully next year.
Cycle starts again. Dormancy/incubating/thinking, then growth and blooming, then change to the original "emergence".
Sorry for the bad analogy, and lack of knowledge of those things "churchly". I'm probably way off base, here, eh? :-)
A
With that analogy you have 'unearthed' several thoughts that I think very important that IMHO are very key to what is emergent... Namely
1) Being 'of' something but in a differnt way. An unexpected life out of something that can appear dead
2) Living in a rythym/cycle - many churchly people have lost this ... people get so consumed with 'Churchianity' that they kill or stifle the very things that bring life. Church has become bionic [robotic] instead of biotic [organic].
3) 3/5 of the cycle is unseen and uncomfortable - Dormancy/ incubation and thinking [all internal and unseen] Growth, blooming ]and I woudl also add multiplication] are the results of the internal processes that we remain committed to.
thats my two cents
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