so i am now reading "the emerging church." i pulled it off my shelf after getting consumed in some readings on other blogs. for the most part, i have a pretty good understanding of emergent church, but what i was reading threw me. so far, not impressed with "the emergent church" as a book that carries the label of this movement. the first chapters bring little new information too me, and sorry dan, but many of your references and research seem to always center around your small community of santa cruz.
what i do like is redefining "church" that is not new, especially for someone who has read "missional church." (for those who have read neither: "we are the church", not a place or thing we do.. we are the embodiment of the Church of Christ).. it's a shift that Christians should take, but are they ready for it? i think that warrants discipleship, therefore a process.. and from what i seem to understand process and forms come strangely close to look like a current "church" structure.. hmmm
i like the observation about Christian subculture being it's own cult (that's my term) with it's uber consumerism. i think we all have laughed at the soccer Jesus or karate Jesus statues that you pick up at various shops, internet, or maybe you saw them on the conan. certainly one can't disagree that we have become consumers of our faith...... is that all that bad? would we rather consume relics, art, literature, that is not of our faith inorder to not disgrace our Lord? i would like to note that a "Christian supercenter" came and went twice down the road from me.. i might have seemed like a solid business plan to have a coffee shop and ultimate book store with music, videos, books & magazins on everything.. the first shop went under, was bought by a successful business from another town, tried again and failed again.. maybe what we see is that people want articles to nourish their faith, but they don't want it to look consumer driven... hmmmm :: this was a big complaint i heard from the emergent convention earlier this year in my home town:::
"My God, I frankly do not understand Your ways with me." Thomas Merton
