We are emerging

“I’m going shopping later with my sister, I wonder what I will buy. I love driving fast. I can’t stand it when people don’t use their cruise control. Ugh, I hate it even more that they cause me to cancel mine. It looks so beautiful out, but man, it’s so stinking cold. We are the emerging church. I…..WHAT?"

I was driving home from work today when that thought intruded my glorious i-Pod inspired thoughts. What ensued was as follows.

“We are the emerging church.”

I admit, I’m sick of all the emerging church critiques. I’m sick of all the misunderstandings driving it all. I wonder if we have forgotten that the word emerging had meaning before it was paired with church. You see, emerging means rising, forthcoming, becoming, not yet but will be. Whether you agree with it or not, if you are part of my generation you are emerging. We are not yet, but we will be. Right? And the question of the day is, then, what will we become?

It reminds me of way back when when the scientists of the day were being challenged by an emerging thought and discovery that the earth was not flat, but round. And whether people agreed with it or not, the discovery emerged and the earth was no longer flat (even though it never was. reality is collectively what we make it). And people had to reorient themselves and their belief system to this emerging idea, which we all know now became proven fact.

Throw away all the opinions for a moment. Would you just wonder for a moment? Whether you like it or not, and whether you agree or you don’t, we are the emerging church. The question isn’t whether you agree with “the emerging church” or you don’t. The question is what kind of church will we (you) become? We might become just like the churches we grew up in, the way we are taught to do church in our schools because it’s the way we’ve always done it. Or, we will become a church that looks more like Christ than it did in past years, and a church willing to follow Christ in the way like we haven’t before, a church defined by Spirit-led improvement. I daresay that you don’t disagree that our goal is indeed to improve, and become more like Christ than we were before. Why then is it wrong to want to improve on the way we think about and do church? Geez, I’m passionate about improving, changing, and becoming like Jesus. I have found, as I imagine the round earth people found, that it takes a large amount of energy and creativity to innovate and explore endless possibilities of what will soon be, not just can be. It takes an even larger amount of courage to be willing to change the way we think about and do church, if indeed we have been given the freedom to change, and perhaps, we are truly listening to the whispering of the Spirit. I’m not saying that it is a list of new facts that we have to accept. It’s mystery that we must be courageous enough to embrace as we ponder what it is that God is asking us to become today as His people who are to be living out His mission for the world (or more eloquently controversially put, becoming a greater expression of the kingdom of God).

I’m sick of all the crap that we throw around about emerging-church-this or Brian McClaren that. If you aren’t willing to emerge into something better, more like Jesus, then what is your desire, if any? Only true followers of Jesus have what it takes to listen for the voice of God and hear the whispering of the Spirit. Are we willing to embrace the unknown and lean out into the future without holding on to tradition for the sake of, tradition? And just like the people had to reorient themselves to new realities of a round earth, we will together follow Jesus into the changing world He sends us to rescue from darkness and destruction.

So, if you’re looking for something practical, here’s what I got. The truth and the facts don’t change. (it is Truth). It’s our understanding and expression of it that must continually change. Will you harness the creative energy and potential to dream about a new expression of what it means to be Christ followers on a 2000 year-old mission upon a round earth? (um, you have to cross the line, no?)