Mainline Emergent/s – Day 1

Day 1 at the Mainline Emergent/s event included hearing from, among others, Brian McLaren, Karen Ward, Tony Jones, Holly Rankin Zaher and Dixon Kinser. It is an interesting mix of being an event in which there is a main speaker for plenary sessions, but also conversation is encouraged as the primary means of learning and growing.

Brian McLaren spoke about possible paths ahead for the mainline church. It was part of a similar presentation which he gave at Leadership Institute 2006 at Church of the Resurrection. The paths which he suggested were… The path of:

• Repentance – there are obstacles in many churches (fear, pride, hate, greed) which prevent the kingdom of God coming more fully to earth.
• Mission – Does Christ’s church have a mission or does Christ’s mission have a church?
• Spiritual formation and practice – What you focus on determines what you miss.
• Adaptation – liturgical and otherwise
• Re / Formation – Non-modern world – table centered; modern world – book centered; emerging world – screen centered.
• Deep ecclesiology – recognizing the value of the church from high hierarchy to house church and beyond.
• Emergence – shift in what is considered to be the civil religion and other societal changes.

Karen Ward responded to Brian from her particular context at the Church of the Apostles. Karen presented a picture of the mainline church as a large cruise ship – one that has many decks and is takes a long time to turn. The picture of emerging congregations was that of speed boats that are lowered from the side of the cruise ship to take off into unknown territory and be scouts for the future that are still connected with the mother ship. I found this picture to be particularly useful – the small boat is able to be more agile in reacting the water (surrounding culture), but cannot exist on its own without the cruise ship.

Tony Jones addressed emerging practices in Christianity.

• Those in the emerging movement are striving to be authentically who they are without apology.
• One of the foci of Emergent Village is Christocentric friendships.
• Presented ways of knowing from Aristotle and Plato
• Aristotle’s understanding of phronesis was presented as particularly useful in engaging the current culture. Phronesis is the idea that mental information and practical knowledge are experienced together for most people.
  • For example, one can learn information about driving a car from a manual, but it is a different thing to actually drive the car. At some point, the information that is learned in the book is transfered to actual practice without thinking about – stopping at a stop sign without thinking about what the rules were for seeing a red octagon sign.
• What would a virtuoso Christian look like?

I particularly appreciated Tony’s assertion that the emerging movement is striving to be authentically who they are without apology. This can be applied to any congregation or individual. There is danger when a congregation tries to be a people which they are not or when an individual puts on masks for others that hide who they truly are.

Getting ready to head to morning worship. More thoughts and responses later in the day.