A New Imagined Reality

The following quote is from New Zealander Mark Pierson, in response to his observations he made while attending the Worship Arts and Liturgy Conference in Kentucky two months ago.  Posted by the Prodigal Kiwi(s)

“…I remain convinced that the future of the Church in the West doesn’t lie in the Emerging Church movement. The value of this movement is to influence and provoke the inherited church forms into change rather than to replace them. Still a vital role…”

Paul Fromont writes, "Good point. I think Mark is right; however I think the other vital role of the so-called 'emerging church movement' is in its permission-giving; permission to dream, to imagine, to innovate, to explore the missional/cultural matrix, permission to challenge notions of what church is and what church is for…the merging church movement agitates, challenges, experiments, and innovates – that’s the emerging church at it’s best; at it’s worst it’ll be a superficial trend that never addresses the ecclesiological and missional heart of church reform."

I have been saying this for more than a year now along with statements like... Emergent, the Emergent movement, however you want to describe it, will probably not be around thirty years from now.  It will have fulfilled its prophetic mission of creating a new imagined reality that will impact much of the broader church ethos.  The Methodist, Presbyterian, Assembly of God, Baptist, Catholic, etc., churches will still be around.  Hopefully, because of Emergent and the Emerging Church movement they will look and be quite different than they are today.  I am reading The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann which is a great book for this conversation.  He writes, "The task of prophetic imagination and ministry is to bring to public expression those very hopes and yearnings that have been denied so long and suppressed so deeply that we no longer know they are there." 

We have heard the testimonies over and over again, "Church is not working for me,"  "Is there a church somewhere that takes the message of Jesus seriously?"  "I love Jesus, it just seems the church has sold out to another agenda, what can I do?".  And then they were swept up by the Emergent conversation which in actuality offered a new imagined reality of what church could and should be.  We have been awakened, we are being delivered from the domination of "official" Christianity and we have caught a vision of the Freedom of God loosed and accessible to all, no longer constrained by the static ecclesiological order of the day.  We have a vision of singing a new song about a church that looks more like Jesus and less like maintainer of Empire ideology.  You know, on second thought, maybe Mark Pierson and I am wrong to say the existing church structures and denominations are here to stay.

Comments

[timsamoff]

I'd agree that while Emergent/emerging church movement may not be permanent (I mean, it is called "emerging" -- verb -- isn't it?), it is vital. There are far too few people investigating the boundaries of our faith. And, there are far too few people open to experiencing other traditions within our faith. At least Emergent, et al, are shifting our focus a little. Maybe through that we may become a little closer to our Creator. Who knows? I'm in a babbling mood today. :)