Why I'm emerging

Before I continue on my stated quest, an aside about the emerging church, which has made this journey possible . . .

For the first time in my life, I am part of a church where I feel wholly comfortable. I never feel the need to be any different at church or with church friends than I am anywhere else. My church is part of the "emerging church" movement. This describes a diverse group of churches that are Christians as part of the postmodern world. There is no way to comprehensively describe the movement as a whole, but this article in Christianity Today is one attempt: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/february/11.35.html

Not all the things in the article describe my church, but it's a start at getting the idea. The one biggest reason I think my church is great is that no one is treated as a second class citizen. I can question Christian theology or even God without any putting me on some special prayer list. My church is a good supportive place to do this where people will engage me and make me think. Everyone's dignity in their spiritual journey is respected, not just on the surface, but really. This has made me comfortable enough to be honest with myself about what I believe and what I'm really not sure about. It's helped me start the journey that I'm documenting in this blog.

As with all new and interesting things, the emerging church movement is controversial. There is no better way to express the controversy than in the Poster Wars. The first link below goes to a series of spoof motivational posters that are critical of the emerging church. The second link goes to a set of posters that was created in response, and is more supportive of the emerging church. I think being self-critical is the only way for good churches to avoid getting off track, as so many have done in the past. So I embrace both sets of posters, not as "wrong" and "right", but as a great way to provoke thought about what we should really be about.

http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/posters.htm

http://emerginggrace.blogspot.com/2007/07/more-generous-view.html