Finally Amazon managed to deliver my copy of Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs book "Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Communities in Postmodern Cultures" ... OK, so I'm behind the pack here, but... reading it this morning while the hairdresser went mad with my hair (just 5 colours this time).
I'm only a third of the way through but already there have been some "YES!" moments... the first one is simply the way they have put the book together! One of the thing that winds me up about the EC conversation is that people are always looking for a Leader and a Label... I guess this makes the argument easy... "Oh so and so, your leader said this..." but this book makes it clear that you just can't do that with the "Emerging Church" conversation. Ryan and Eddie have interviewed a large number of pioneers from across the globe and what 'emerges' is not a top down structure but a 'swarm' of entrepreneurs busy learning and adapting to their history, their cultures and their God! There is a spectrum here, many colours, one rainbow! Good thing is I don't agree with everyone all the time... but I understand their journeys and I feel a connection with all of them. Wonderful guys, thanks!
Second, moment is when they begin to explore 'Deconstruction'... not a revolution, but a rethink! not a 'volt face', but an evolution... welcome to the reformation!
Third, they are already identifying what for me are key elements of 'EC' ... that it is a 'quest for a holistic spirituality' - Sensory and Thinking, Individual and Social, Active and Contemplative, Ancient and Future, Creative and Participatory, Inclusive and Missional!
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Good to read your comments. I just finished the book and am trying to put some thoughts together. I have actually only posted the negative so far but will post the positive as well. Like you, I liked the structure of the book and I resonated with basically all the descriptions of what people are doing.
Posted by: Andy Rowell | 06/03/2006 at 03:07