We had our third Central Jersey Emergent Cohort last night, and I think it went really well. We had a good-sized turnout, one that worked much better than the previous meetings we’ve had. Four new friends from New Brunswick (graduates of Rutgers) joined us, including Vanessa, Palak, Tanya and Brandon. First of all, we watched Brian McLaren on Larry King Live (transcript is here). I didn’t hear everything Brian said, but…I DID have to sit through and listen to the shit that Beverly LeHaye said about homosexuals (“We would like to rescue them from dying at an early age of diseases prevalent…well, it’s not killing off the population like it is with the gay community. Having children gets the AIDS and it just goes on and on and on…”) Thanks Beverly…way to score the Christian community some points with the gay community. I didn’t catch much more than that…apparently Tony called Brian later that night from the bar and everyone said “Hi.”
We talked about some business stuff re: the cohort, and then talked about a theodicy for the emerging church. Our topic for the night was “Was God swept away by the tsunami?” and On the right, you’ll see the John Drury actually even got us going with a little chalkboard action. Tony reminded us that the evening was not about trying to look at various theodicies from ages past, and simply “pick” which one worked best. Rather, in our goal for a new theology for a new world, we needed to ask new questions and seek after a new/different theodicy for the emerging church. Unfortunately, I had to leave at the beginning of the discussion, so hopefully those who were there will comment here and let me know if y’all figured out a theodicy for the emerging church.
I’m encouraged by the cohorts. I know there are still questions about “What exactly IS the purpose of this group? Do we want to just get more people to ‘become Emergent?’ Are we providing places for people to get together and talk about emergent-stuff…? What is it?” I’m encouraged by people getting together and sharing their lives, their ministries, their questions. Do we need to come up with real answers…? Not right now…let’s continue to enjoy the fellowship and the chance to be together.
So, what were your theodicies you came up with?