Spring is here! Life is emerging from the earth as flowers push their way through from underground. Emerging…growing from the dark dank soil and the work of winter. Everywhere I look, bulbs planted years ago are reproducing- multiplying until the landscape is bursting with blossoms, and an emerging cacophony of sight and smells, colors and textures… This is not unlike the emerging church that we are just beginning to name out loud. It have been growing, underground so to speak, quietly and slowly in the winter’s quiet—a winter of struggling with the paradigmatic shift from a modern mindset and worldview to a postmodern one… and now as it is spring—as the convergence of post feminism, post colonialism and post-evangelical require attention and action from a much larger audience, the questions and issues of the changing milieu of spirituality are straining to be heard…
These words, questions, and issues stream forth with meaning… like a dandelion whose flower has faded and its new life waits to be scattered when the deadened seeds are blown by wind, or a child’s breath--the expanding of possibilities with each seed blown into a new direction or location. I muse that it is so often only the children who have eyes to see dandelions and not pass them over as weeds, and I am profoundly aware that it is in this posture that we must come to the conversations about the emerging church, and the shaping of things to come.
We need to learn to see like children see. They look at a field of grass and dandelions and they see the possibilities of flowers to pick…many dandelion bouquets have graced my window sill, and walks with my children were often interrupted by dead dandelions that ‘needed to be blown’ both for fun and to scatter the seeds, that they might reproduce. As adults, far too often, we see weeds-- obnoxious and bothersome, pushing through the carpet of grass that we have worked so hard to cultivate…our carpet of sameness-uniform in texture and length, edged and pruned and fertilized that it is soft on our feet and easy on the eyes…
While this comfortable and well cultivated carpet may be great for grass, it is death for a community-- sameness breeds contempt, and we become spoiled, oversensitive and ingrown as our spiritual feet never hit the thorns that cause us to pause in potential wounding, of ourselves or another, or encounter the soul stretching textures that come from encountering difference in viewpoints and in reading of the Text.
A child reads the grassy field so differently than we do as adults; far too often we cannot see the beauty and wonder that is so obvious to them, until we listen to their reading and try to see through their lenses. It is similar with the spiritual journey-- encountering the Living Word and the Risen Lord. Do we pause and linger and listen and wonder, or do we mow over or weed out that which is different and difficult?
The emerging church is an “is.” The culture is shifting and the lens of the current generation is one that differs dramatically from that of the previous one. We, of the older generation, must stop and listen and learn and consider or we will miss the beauty of the coming spring, and we will trample the blooms of new hybrids of flowering thoughts and visions and ways of engaging with Scripture and community. To pause and be open to new life, new ways…especially and intentionally to/with ‘the other’ is what it means to be emerging…to engage in opening Ways, just as the spring flowers create pathways to toward the light. I believe that this is what is happening in the emerging church, not limited specifically to being part of the Emergent Friendship/Conversation, although it is a great platform for engaging in thoughtful and provocative discussion… it is A way, not The way. The emerging church is far broader, and been growing and forming far longer than the currently news worthy Emergent Conversation. Those proponents and critics who limit themselves to this venue, miss the breadth and depth of voices and experience...even the leaders of Emergent, caution against such a limited viewpoint. (Andrew Jones has a great criticism history)
Emerging means to be willing to leave the comfort of our own worldview and enter into the unfolding theological dialogue teeming with questions and ideas that are relevant to today’s culture experience and spiritual quest. The emerging church is happening all around us whether or not we acknowledge its birthing…
Emergence is happening as an older generation awakens to the possibilities in a postmodern mindset and listens to the spiritual experience of those who grew up in a different milieu than the rational, logical modern one…and it multiplies as the postmodern youth, acknowledge and engage in receiving the wisdom that years of life on earth inevitable bring, regardless of world view or mindset… there is an intersection and intercourse of ideas that is emerging.
Emergence happens when the Indian woman walks from the ESL class into the small chapel set aside for quiet contemplation…removes her shoes and lights the candles, and sits on the floor pillows next to an anglo woman of position and privilege, and without words they share a moment of holy communion.
Emergence happens as women begin to question issues of power and position, and have men asking questions about how to understand the oppression they have contributed to….
Emergence happens as a daughter hands the cup of wine to her father speaks the words, the blood of Christ, shed for you…regardless if the ‘sanctuary’ is a warehouse building room, illumined by candlelight in an old lit by candles or a formal cathedral…
The church is emerging, whether we become part of the growth or not. It has been changing and growing in its nature since Jesus walked the dusty roads and said the kingdom of god is at hand…change is the only constant, and our desire to cling to old ways, absolute dogmas and doctrines contradicts the way of Jesus as he challenged all the religious and social mores of his time…introducing instead the only law or absolute… the greatest commandment to love…
New life springs from love…love between people becomes incarnate and brings forth a child, a vision, an action, a word… Incarnational Love is the force behind Birth… and emergence is a birth that is in process… labor pains are just that-- pains! They are intense and overwhelming at times, stall at other, false and misleading at times…but part of the process of bringing forth. Having both given birth and labored alongside another as she brought forth new life, I see this as an excellent metaphor for what is happening as the church emerges. We need those who will face the pains and sacrifice of pregnancy, labor and delivery, as well as those who will walk along side and support and coax and care for those amidst the intense process. We need to understand the journey is a sacred and holy process that is emerging as the 21st century begins and the first generation of those, raised in the postmodern mindset reach adulthood and question everything… There is such possibility and potential in attending to the process and beauty of spring, of new life …of the changes in a life of faith that is emerging in our midst.
What does it look like for you and for me to be part of this birth in ways far broader than the current controversy and attack surrounding Emergent? Those who are attacking Emergent often ignore the reality of the emerging church as a phenomenon and focuses on this small and increasingly popular part of the movement. How do we engage our communities in the process of growth and embrace, in conversations that address both the theological and practical issues related to the emerging church rather than let the balance focus on theology without practice, or practice that is not born from theological thought and dialogue? What theological questions are unavoidable and must be addressed in assessing how we practice and live our spirituality and life of faith? What do our current practices reveal both overtly and covertly about our theological principles that we are aware of/not aware of? These are the questions that keep me up at night and haunt me as I go about my daily life…of Be-ing, in my ministry, in my community, in my deep desire to live an incarnational and missional life after the way of Jesus. What are your questions and hauntings? And how do you think we can begin to address in community driven manner, one that marries theology and practice in the daily-ness of life?
I just got back from hearing one of my favorite musician, 
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