emerging movements, or having already lost the church: if you read no farther, just go to this article by Wendell Berry article, In Distrust of Movements. It talks about movements, ecomonics, and conservation; all things we should be thinking about. (thanks to Brian McLaren for pointing me to it).
now concerning movements, particularly the movement variously called the “emerging church”: currently andrew jones is working on a definition (or the impossiblity of one since “defining” is overly modern), tim bednar suggests that the “emerging church” is a movement, or at least should try to be one, b/c of our potential influence on society and culture, which we should harnass and use. Alan Creech objects to being grouped into “movement” b/c there are no leaders, no enough sameness (theologically and practically). While i think this is a meaningful conversation, and many point in the direction that i’m headed, i think that our talk of “movements” already suggest a fundamental mistep (as if there is a movement into culture, politics, society which can be preconceived).
It is my contention that we only talk about movements and the like b/c we have already lost the revolutionary nature of being the church, the subversive economics of the Eucharist, the political intrerpellation of Baptism, and the radical constition of community in forgiveness and love. Talking of different movements within the church already forgets this (mega-church, seeker-church, pomo-church) unlike the movements of the church like parts of the Civil Rights Movement which did something, and let everyone else define it. Let us talk about churches and forget about movements.