Wednesday night I got a half dozen friends together to begin having a conversation about the emerging church start here in Denver. The project won't start officially until I get back from Luther Seminary in St. Paul in December (those denominational hoops must be jumped through), but I wanted to start the conversation now. What better way to start a postmodern, urban, nu-monastic, Christian community that with dahl and beer? So with a plate full of curried lentils, overcooked rice and just cooked tortillas, we sat down to what ended up being a really amazing conversation. Here's what I read ( pertaining to a vision of being church in the city) from Kester Brewin's Signs of Emergence: A Vision For Church that is Organic/ Networked/ Decentralized/ Bottom-up/ Communal/ Flexible/ Always Evolving: "We are the community of the Creator, so we must create. We are the community that looks forward to the city where divinity and humanity will live side by side, so we must give birth to an emergent, conjunctive, self-renewing, adaptable church that can model this in inclusivity, generosity,creativity and flexibility, welcoming the Other, providing true space for pain, and real time for carnival." (143)
The idea of providing true space for pain and real time for carnival really sparked some beautiful, rich, thoughtful, hysterical ideas from the group.
In the end I think that we all agreed that it's possible, needed and timely.
I'm so excited I can hardly sit still.
Dear God,
Make your presence known in this weird little project. Without your guidance we're sunk. But with the Holy Spirit in our midst things can be so crazy beautiful and more real that we can imagine. If our pride and hurt and fear and selfishness and insecurity hinder us, as they will, be a big old carpet thrown over our brokenness over which we can scurry. That stuff is there, but in You there is a way over. Thanks for those spaces for pain and those times for carnival in both of which you are to be found.
In Jesus' name,
AMEN