“After reading a bunch of Emergent Church type blogs this morning I realized almost no one is saying anything new. Not only does this make blog reading boring and pointless, but it gets a little irritating.”
Fun post by Mark and a good slam on emerging church’s disappointment to be the next new thing. Thanks AJ.
My thoughts? Mark – you are right and wrong.
Right, in that there is really nothing going on that is really new. I can track most emerging church phenomena back to 1968. Those who seek the new thing will be disappointed in us because WE are stale and boring and our blogs are a reflection of our lives.
Wrong, in that the Jesus we introduce to people’s lives is never stale and boring . . . far from it . . and when enters people’s lives and their communities, he introduces chaos and repentance and whirlwinds and tornados and healing and whispers of love and grace and acceptance and the wild challenge of a new and exciting quest that aligns all purposes and aggregates all dreams.
And it is this story of transformed lives that is exciting and never stale or boring and i am grateful that these stories are happening in emerging churches and in traditional churches and also in places not labelled as church at all.
Love your post. Keep blogging how you see it.”
Some interesting thoughts but I wonder whether there is a need to constantly be producing new ideas? Obviously we should always be questioning ‘is there a better way of doing things?’ but I don’t think we should feel the need to do new things just for the sake of it. My wondering is where is the line between consistency and doing new things? Sorry if this has already been discussed around here but I’m relatively new to the blogosphere so bear with me!
I can walk by a tulip a thousand times and passively, or decidedly, state it is uncreative and boring. If I decide to stop and engage my mind, heart and soul while looking at this tulip, it all becomes so very creative to me. Recognizing and appreciating creativity is a heart issue of mine, not a lack in others. Just my two cents…
I am continually learning from those much wiser and more thoughtful than I throughout the emergent blogosphere.
I hope that the above post playfully encourages us all to explore some new topics in this emergent conversation. But I am glad to be apart of this blogging community and this conversation.
Andrew, thanks for reminding me that Christ is never stale and boring. 🙂
glad to have you part of it
thanks for reminding us how connected we are to the long history of simple people telling the same story.
nothing new under the sun
I guess I would much rather talk just about Jesus.
not sure if this qualifies as a new thought. . . in fact it could be old and stale too [i am rather a neophyte in this world] but i was struck between connections between the underlying impulse in squatters communities and in emergent church communities. [see blog for a bit more info] – anyone done any exploration of this?
I think, perhaps, I am honoured to not have been considered “new” and “interesting” – of course I couldn’t be accused of being hyper humble, sitting here assuming mine was one of the ones read. ha! 🙂
few ideas, in good reflective fun: everyone has run out of ideas, all new ideas are being saved for a book, newbies (like me) are bothering so much with questions to catch up to speed, we are all standing in silence waiting for God to inspire our next profound thought.
well put, gavin. sometimes the best ‘new’ ideas are the same old ones, eh? out of our “selah” moments come something worth acting upon as a bridge to the next selah.
Well, I am “running counter”.
I have just discovered I am on a black list of banned sites for some evangelical and brain-blocked “mission” place for pure doctrine! ….no skin off my nose!
come and have a refreshing breeze at:-
http://boltono.typepad.com