24 hours of Emerging Church

[new update] - great post on the gathering, concerns and conclusions from Matt of hOME

[update] - the comments over at Andrew's are beginning to show an interesting side to the whole ECC... one which I for one think we need to be acutely aware of... if we don't listen to all voices regardless of 'significance, 'credentials' etc. we are serious danger of repeating the mistakes of our 'Fathers'!

So... last week I was elitist ...now I'm a grunt!... along with around 30 others ('pioneers, 'leaders', 'behemoths' or maybe even 'dinosaurs' of the EC???) I am at  '24 hours of Emerging Church'  get together... the time has two aims 1) to engage with Ryan and Eddies Book (Emerging Churches) Ian Mobsby and Doug Gaye responded to the text from a UK perspective... and 2) a conversation about the nature of the/an 'Emerging church Leaders' network... what is the nature of networks (Steve Collins presented an excellent breakdown of Network Theory (which I hope he will make public on Small Ritual soon!), how much do we need an intentional network etc. etc.

Andrew bemoans the lack of concurrent posting on the conversation... everyone waiting for everyone else???... in a conversation with Jonny; about the need for one person to be a 'grunt', to be the blog voice... etc. Jonny seems to have suggested me... I don't know how I feel about that, especially as one of Andrews thoughts were that it needs to be a person with "no credentials"!    The other perspective (the one I prefer ;-) ) is the one where Jonny regards me as a content creator... I'll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions!

Anyway... I'm not going to blog re. the content of the gathering, because; it would be out of context, it would only be my view of the conversation and many of the folk reading this will have connected with Ryan and Karen on the Blah tour, etc. etc.  Suffice it to say I have really enjoyed spending a few days with our US cousins... Karen is an inspiration; so many ideas and so humble - willing to share, committed to the 'gift economy' (or as Jonny calls it 'the theft economy', Ryan has also carried himself with a huge amount of humility; he is a very wise fellow... and has an incredible spirit of humour... neither of them come across as 'up themselves' or their 'credentials' !  Thank you to you both for giving of yourselves, and thanks to Jonny and Ben for the organising etc.

My concern about any 'network', more specifically a 'named network' is that it become elitist and about kudos not about the 'Emerging/Missional' conversation and not a place of learning/struggle... I sense there is no will for this, but honestly I think it will be a struggle not to become exclusive in the wrong way.  I am personally struggling with the whole idea of a professional class of ministry in the Church per-se... even more so when it comes to 'Emerging/Missional church'!  The other danger for me is that we fall into the trap of defining a 'movement' for the needs of others...they need to capture E/M church in order to quantify/qualify etc.  to set a position that they can judge/orientat themselves in relation to.

... just the thoughts of a 'grunt'!

Technorati Tags: Blah: Church: Emerging Church

Comments

[alexander]

Yes, for God's sake don't start a named network!!

[andrew (tall skinny kiwi)]

well it took you long enough to take the BAIT

i thought you would have complained much earlier

as i said to you at high leigh, if you were not such a great blogger and one who is now a TRAINER of missions bloggers for a highly recognized mission organisation, i would not have targeted you for my humorous out of context paragraph.

some people are just more fun when flamed up.

[Mark Berry]

LOL... Like I said... I know your a wind-up merchant! You missed my 'Dinosaur' jibe tho' ;-)

Seriously though... the vibe that you were joking about... is evident to me in the conversation (not from you) particularly in regard of post-grad stuff! What worries me most is that there will be nothing about the EC left to research ;-)

Good to see you... even if you were trying to wind me up... and really cool to meet Karen and Ryan!

[beth]

was nice to see you last week
was interesting to be there as a bit of an outsider, thanks for pointing out who was who.

i did get lost in that whole diagram thing but was interested in the comments about named networks becoming elitist. i'm caught on the problem of inclusivity. generally i find church intimidating, hierarchical and elitist and EC hasn't stood out as being particularly different, but i think this 24 hour thing was maybe the best i've felt at a church leaders type thing (so nice not to be the only eve).

i feel connected both to what you've said about the danger of named networks and also what others said about naming/intentionality actually making the conversation more inclusive, but as i've processed it more i don't think it has to be one or the other. there isn't really any reason why inclusivity can't be organic, maybe it just is that the people who naturally network with 'the other' aren't interested in networking with hubs - could these be the random monkeys the unofficial/illusive network needs?

[Phil Rankin]

Correct me if I am wrong, but surely this network already exists? Otherwise how do people know of Blah, or your blog, or even go to the 24 hours?
In my view this network is largely unnamed and should remain this way. To name it is to automatically invite people in to it and thus be exclusive of others.
I think that the network is also largely web based. At the moment there are a number of websites and blogs that people can connect with. These places have individual voices that allow anyone to engage and thus maintain a conversation. Even if it is not intended, with the naming of a network and creating specific roles within it, the professional class will be created and this will begin to create a separation between the professional and ‘ordinarys’. Surely this is just to start down the path of the type of institution that many in the emerging movement are discontent with?

[LauraHD]

In the light of all the 'family talk' around the subject - has anyone checked the Wikipedia entry?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_church