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I have to confess to a touch of aversion to the "emerging church" tag. Sounds a little too institutional to be put into such a box...
But I realise that the key issue for our community, as we seek to model spirituality and community in a dynamic way, is that we are often shaped by the institutional church - at least in a distinctive and "other" way.
There are those who are shaped by the institutional church from the inside: they are comfortable with its models of faith and mission. Then there are those who have moved out because they are not comfortable with those models. In this place it is easy to be affected by the institutional church inasmuch as it models what one is not trying to be - we are defined 'over-against' the institutional church.
A third place is the one where faith and community is worked out without any reference to what the institutional church is doing. Rather than reacting to or against it, one proactively shapes community and faith in the immediate context. In some aspects it may look like the institutional church. In others, it bears no resemblance at all.
Having my faith formed inside the institutional church, the last place is a difficult one for me to be. It is not "emerging" from the traditional church, but organically (and one suspects, somewhat spontaneously) growing in different places.
It is from those who don't even know the institutional church that I have much to learn in this regard. And the lessons often make me feel uncomfortable.
Posted by gary at January 31, 2005 01:42 PM
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