Emergent Cohort of Central Jersey: Thoughts
November 19, 2004
Tony Jones, the man behind the plan with the cigar (Theoblogy), organized a wonderful little Emergent Cohort for us Central Jersey folks. It was a great group of 20+ who showed up throughout the evening. I showed up around 10pm and conversations were already in full steam. There were some bloggers there (LT, Tony, Todd and Jake) and others who decided they’re going to start blogging (as soon as y’all go live, send me the links and I’ll get ya linked here).
Princeton professor Darrell Guder (in the above photo & author of The Missional Church) came and spent quite awhile down at Charlie Browns with the group. There was no large group discussion, no real agenda, no “leader” per se, just a group of people coming together. Most were from Princeton seminary, but there were some pastors, others who are involved in other ministries (church, Young Life), some Ph.D. students, a very good mix for the group.
It tends to be a bit of a different conversation about emergence when you’re with a group of seminarians - those who, in some sense, are in fact going along with jumping through certain institutional hoops (ordination, paperwork, doctrinal statements, etc). There is a lot of good discussion on about whether Emergent is going to be possible within the present denominational & institutional structures or whether we need to just say “screw the denominations” (I think Tony has some very good things to say in this post, so don’t read this as I’m against Tony. I just think we’re coming from different perspectives). And that is my honest response sometimes as well. I do want to say, “You know what? It’s just not worth it. It’s not worth me having to have someone tell me they’re not going to support me or my ministry because they can’t handle the use of incense in an alt.worship service. It’s not worth dealing with people who fundamentally view the world differently than you do. It’s not worth getting into these theological & methodological arguments that just leave both sides upset with one another. So let’s just get the hell out of here!”
But there is part of me, a greater part, that feels wrong about saying that. There is part of me that things there is something wrong with pastoring a church of only 20/30-somethings, where you lack the beauty and wisdom of a multi-generational congregation. There is part of me that thinks it takes away some of of the ’spice’ of life to be doing ministry where everyone agrees with you and you don’t have to argue, support and think about why you want to do things differently. There is part of me that wants to see the church emerge from within itself. Will that take longer? Yes. Will it be harder? Yes. Will it be better (ahh, the modern mindset kicks in!) — I don’t know.
There are some exciting ministries emerging from within the PCUSA traditional denominational structures. Nanette Sawyer is doing some really exciting things down in Wicker Park Grace in Chicago, and Rodger Sellers is getting The Portico launched down in Charlotte, NC. Al Roxburgh, who is now blogging with Chris Erdman at Odyssey, gave a seminar at the last Emergent Convention and he called it “God is Always Found in the Most God-Forsaken Places” (I have typed out some of his lecture here, go read it, it’s fabulous stuff) - and he says the most God-forsaken places are the local congregations today. Here is just a short excerpt:
God’s future is found in the temporality, materiality, locality, specificity, of particular people in particular places. In other words, there is no big answer out there that big people bring, even at these conferences. There is a confused people, and in the midst of those confused people, is God’s Spirit and God’s future, waiting to emerge.
The Spirit is waiting to emerge. Are there people who are going to want to squelch the Spirit (knowingly and unknowingly…)? Yes. Are there people who may not understand that some changes in the church could, in fact, be the movement of the Spirit (and not just our desire to accomodate to today’s “secular/postmodern” culture)? Yes, they may not see that. Is it our job to say “Screw you then!” and let them continue to be comfortable within their paradigms? I want to say no.
Let us become passionate about our desire to be committed to one branch of the great diversity of Christian expressions. Let us say that we care so much about the Body of Christ that we are going to suck it up, stick to our convictions but love those we disagree with in our church’s structures and desire to change the church from the bottom up. And let us realize it’s not going to happen overnight (no matter how much we’d like it to!). Could I be wrong on this? Sure. But for now, I’m willing to stick it out, jump through a few hoops, so that I can get out there with the people, with the Body of Christ, and help create a new vision within the current church of what being a Christian might look like…
Tags: Church-Planting, Ecclesiology, Evangelism
Posted in 
Adam Walker Cleaveland: 
November 19th, 2004 at 6:23 pm
I like what you’re saying. A lot of what you and some of the Emergent people (I think the excerpt of the lecture is a good example) seem to be talking about the idea of being a prophet to the Church in America. Which I definitely agree that it needs…The thing that I don’t see the prophets doing in Scripture is saying “screw it”, or “I’m outta here.” Instead, their calling as prophets is to be in the midst of the very people that they are exhorting to change! So, I agree, it will be difficult and maybe even horrible, but are we ever called to say “screw you, I’m outta here” to brothers and sisters in Christ?
November 19th, 2004 at 6:49 pm
The first and foremost problem I see is being a prophet in our own towns. While the movment is growing. It still seems that our words are falling of deaf ears or heardened hearts. We are walking into an unknown. A place that has not been modeled for us. Yet while we do not want to stray into “a single-minded” church as Adam points out. The question remains how do we caringly come along side the church of today with it’s blue-haired, middle-aged, missing 20 somethings, hymn-singing, emotion feeling, old school way of thinking and introduce them to what the Spirit may be doing to the church in America. I understand that what the church is doing is “working” but are we being as effecitve as we can be? Obviously the Emergent answer is NO.
I don’t want to leave tradition behind, just because no one is able to see that we are not reaching as many people as we could. But at the same time I really want to push towards a society that is obviously ready to look deeper and is not being reached out to. I’m a Presbyterian, and I cringe at the fact that I could be alienating myself from all that comes with that, but more and more I find myself stuck behind the traditon that I love and the people who are the pillars, unable to bring a model for doing thing different. Where have we gone wrong in the last 50 years of theology that is priming the church for a new schism? Not denominationally but culturally and theologically (I fear the church is no longer Christo-centric, in the sense of the Emergent church is trying to do). I don’t mean to say the church no longer loves Jesus. But it is far more concerned with loving Jesus a certian way.
November 19th, 2004 at 6:57 pm
Amen, Adam. Can a northern New Jersian come to a central Jersey cohort meeting? If so, let me know next time yous guys get together (that’s Jersey talk for you plural).
November 19th, 2004 at 7:55 pm
amen adam - a fellow seminarian like me finds much hope in your post
November 20th, 2004 at 11:16 am
Brother…
You and I have had a couple of talks. Thank you. You know what I mean…
Blessings
November 21st, 2004 at 4:00 am
i’m right there with you, bro.
it would be so sad to me to see you say forget it and go on your own way.
i love what alan r says on this topic, too. no one wants to hear that.
doing your own thing is great, too, but too often the people who break out on their own just end up doing something only mildly more original with a lot less accountability.
shining exceptions (like my buddy rachelle in seattle) occur often, i’m sure.
November 21st, 2004 at 1:40 pm
Adam,
Wonderful post. Just a small comment on one phrase :) You say the Spirit is “waiting to emerge.” I believe a better way of saying this would be to say that the Spirit is alive and moving and we need to seek out where that is and jump on board. Unfortunately I think that some groups who try to revolutionize the church think they must do it themselves, and I worry sometimes, at least from some conversations I have had, that some people are more concerned with what they are doing than finding out what the spirit is doing and getting on board. I do not believe that the Spirit is waiting, but rather is already at work and our job is one of recognition and response.
Peace!
November 22nd, 2004 at 8:27 am
as one who wants to do something with the ecumenical movement, i say that’s a great idea. in fact, i’d say it’s the ONLY idea.
November 22nd, 2004 at 10:38 am
damn– that’s a lot of white…
with a healthy dose of testosterone
November 22nd, 2004 at 5:04 pm
Yeah, maybe they should pay some black people to be their friends. Do people REALLY believe we don’t want to dialogue with anyone except white people, middle class people, etc.? The segregation in our society sucks. Emergent wants to do something about that. Do you? Are you just gonna complain about it?
November 22nd, 2004 at 10:40 pm
seems emergent is for urban “hip folk” only??..
November 23rd, 2004 at 12:30 am
thanks for the pictures and the reflection … I’d love to continue eavesdropping in what you all are doing over there!
November 24th, 2004 at 9:42 pm
Nice post. I think a lot more people would take Emergent more seriously if a lot more Emergent people took the questions you ask here more seriously.