'emerging vs. ancient-future vs. missional'

i often go to one of the groups on yahoo groups called postmodern christianity. the debates and discussions are usually thoughtful and real. there was a posting there that went by the name 'emerging vs. ancient-future vs. missional' in which the writer discribed them each as separate movements. i responded from our own experience with saint benedict's table...

steve,

thank you for the overview. i think your definitions of the movements are accurate and your warnings of the various 'sighted-ness' dangers is real and wise.

my own personal experience with this has been in the context of an anglican community here in winnipeg, canada. we struggled for awhile around being called a 'post-modern' church because we aren't post-modern...we are a people who finds itself embedded in a time that is reflected in it's tendancey towards "individualism, experience, and "non-narrativism". we believe that as a church 'emerging' out of this bog, we still need to present a counter-culture perspective.

we have found that many of the young adults that have been participating in our body have appreciated and even called for some of the ancient symbols that our protestant forebearers tossed out with the iconoclast bathwater. our priest even uses robes that aren't used among the clergy of the anglican communion. we have icons, and we burn incense, and we have dimmed lights - you know, all the things that the books at the beginning of this movement suggested to do :)

although the missional part of our church is the least practised, it is not the least thought about. we have many people who have come from 'evangelical' churches and want do distance themselves from the things in which they felt trapped as members of those churches. the fear is that we have a new batch of bathwater that needs to be checked for babies before being tossed.

anyway, thanks for the clear presentation. i would just like to suggest that a worshipping community doesn't have to pick one or the other of these 'movements'. we need to learn from the problems of the evangelical movement (not the least of which is being sucked into the dominant culture) and we need to figure out how best to live as 'counter' to that culture. this is going to take many shapes. i'm looking forward to seeing what this will mean for the future of the church.

God's good gifts

“we don’t really create anything. we work with what has already been created - arranging the good gifts we receive in ways that are unique to us...our best work, my best work, grows out of the soil of someone else’s work and life.”

this statement found on steve bell's web site seems to fly in the face of the sentiment that our "creativity" is a reflection of having been created in God's image. to some degree it may be a matter of semantics. but all too often, when someone is making the point that we are creative because we are in the image of the Creator, it sounds too much like someone trying to hold on to some modicum of worth. it sounds like the squabbling disciples arguing about who would sit closer to Jesus in His kingdom. Jesus comments at that point should be instructional for us.

we seem to have lost the sense, as christians particularly, of recognizing that we have our worth because we are loved by God. this is not because of anything we have done.

john the baptist considered himself unworthy to even untie the sandals that Jesus wore. the apostles were joyful that they were counted by God worthy enough to suffer for the good news. the writer of Hebrews in 11:36-40 talked about the prophets whom the world was not worthy to hold. but they were found to have worth because of lives lived and lost in dedication to their creator.

as i read novels and thoughtful books that speak eloquently about deep matters of life, as i begin to enter the cyberscape of blogdom, i'm amazed at the wisdom handed down of faith/doubt. i will draw on those thoughts and struggles often as i live and grow. and as i do, it will be "out of the soil of someone else's work and life" for which i will be eternally grateful.