neurotribe is a new blog from stephen said who is one of the guys in the forge network down under. he has a post about emerging church cognitive dissonance where he suggests that the definition of emerging church seems to depend on what part of the world you are from:
if i may attempt a crass generalisation, in north america it seems to be about the style of the service, in western europe, there seems to be more of an emphasis on cultural issues. of course in commenting on the australian scene i am going to be biased and say that the focus seems to be primarily upon the theology of the emerging church.
is this true? maybe there is something to it, but i suspect it might just be a bit more of a complex map….
but i do like his comments about emerging church and the danger of it being a new kind of cool. it doesn’t take long for all these terms to lose their currency i guess. but in terms of his challenge a glance at the stories on emergingchurch.info suggests that there are plenty of people who have the ‘mission impulse’ (to use his term – which of course may also end up being a new bit of jargon that sounds like a descriptor of the new cool down under rather than the real thing in a few months time!!!! o the joys of semantics and language with which we remake the world 😉 )
have added the blog to my list
I agree with his broad-brush description – apart from a few lone voices there is very little theology going on within ’emerging’ and the Kiwis seem to be taking the lead in even opening up the categories of thought for what a theological discussion might look like
just a small note – stephen said is not a Kiwi – he’s an aussie. to an english ear, the accent and tone may be hard to discern, but when aussies flog our butts in rugby, cricket, soccer, basketball and virtually every other sport, the nuance is important.
steve the kiwi – grinning
yeah – I noticed that right AFTER I posted the comment! May have to revise my view….
Thanks for this blog .. I felt more “included” as a quiet one in Malaysia. If I were to use the term ~ “Emerging Church” most of my fellow pastor friends, in the denomination as well as out would frown in puzzlement, others might indicate interest, the rest I don’t know … many of us wrestle with similar issues in different forms and a variety of intensity. sometimes I wonder especially for the Asian churches … we’ve always been “emerging”. Now it’s nice to have conversation partners from “usa, europe and oz” who might be more willing to listen and exchange ideas without having to fit each other into their mold or mindset.
Hi people! I realy interssent about Emergenc Church.I’ve never hear this on Brazil.Somebody can explain this to me? Tks, Michele BRAZIL *-*
great to hear from you sivin. i’d love to hear more about what is going on in malaysia. it would be great to add more asian voices in to the mix.
and michele hi from brazil! have a look at http://www.emergingchurch.info for a good intro to what emerging church is about. at heart it is people trying to do mission and be church in ways that relate to today’s world. lots of the ways we have inherited church seem to relate to yesterday’s world!
i am aware of some “emerging church”-ish groups in brazil, if michele wants to email me i can pass on a paper i wrote on this.
hi jonny and steve , tks for your reply . my e-mail is morangocorrea@hotmail.com . Steve , i’m interested in to know more about “emergent church” in Brazil. Tks again! Michele Brazil *-*