The Paris Project

These are a few of my favorite things

John Bradley linked to Jason Clark, who lists several articles about Emergent, two from Brian McLaren and one from Andy Crouch. (Who says I'm not a good writer - I just squeezed four white men into one sentence!) I enjoyed the articles, and reflected on what Emergent means to me.

First off, I'm not really part of Emergent. I've not been to a conference, I've not blogged criticisms about conferences I haven't been to, and I didn't finish A New Kind of Christian. I don't have a tatoo, and both me and my husband has uncool hair. The veneer of emergent, and even the veneer of my church - lots o' hip style - is not my style. But I've appreciated so much about this kind of Christianity over the three years I've been a part of it. And I heard that Kathleen Norris was at a conference, so that makes me feel attached. And I go to an emergent church, and I read one theology book ("Beyond Foundationalism") about postmodern evangelical theology or postmodern postevangelical posttheology, or whatever it's called.

Brian McLaren discussed numerous aspects of emergent with a great deal of self-awareness and self-criticism, so that diffused my One (enneagram) need to critique and reform. I am not much of a joiner or a movement hag, and my inclination is to critique before complimenting in order show that I'm not a blind sycophant. But look at all the compliments I received yesterday about my blog colors (thank you!!) - I'll return the spirit of complimenting by writing a few good things about emergent Christianity.

My favorite parts of this new form of Christianity are that we say anything and ask everything.

Say Anything
A few things I've heard from church people: I'm an alcoholic. I struggle with mental illness. I'm depressed. I come to church without my husband. I'm depressed. I'm on psych-regulating medications. I'm depressed. I don't know who I am. My children are driving me crazy and I wish I could get away from them. I didn't mean to get pregnant. I'm depressed. I don't have any money. S*&#. F*&#). D*&(#. H(*#@ (said in the context of talking about all the other listed things).

For me, this ethos of 'say anything' has resulted in authentic friendships in which I know and I am known. I don't run into the taboos and boundaries of many churches, and I don't experience pressure to pretend my life is other than what it is, both the good parts and the bad parts.

Ask Everything:
A few other things I've heard: I don't like this part of the Bible. What if other religions are true? What does biblical behavioral morality really mean for us? I don't believe that. I question that. I wonder about this. I don't agree with what Doug said. I don't agree with what you just said. Why do we do it that way? Could we try this instead?

For me, the 'ask everything' climate is intellectually stimulating. I've never been my whole self at a church, because being intellectual at church is sort of like farting loudly during prayer. It draws attention to yourself and it just doesn't fit in. I enjoy thinking about possibilities, both orthodox and unorthodox, and seeing what other people think. I enjoy the complexities of postmodern theology because it's new and has lots of unraveled edges. Asking anything at church reduces my fear of God. We can be in God's presence and say anything, and ask anything, and He is with us while we try to sort things out. It's as if God is just among us in our daily lives, and we don't have to dress up and play roles in a church building to try to get His attention.

I won't critique, but I can't resist a few caveats. I'm sure that these good things could be said of many conventional churches. When we came to MN, I wanted friendship and authenticity, and to pursue Jesus with a group of similarly committed people. If I had connected with that at a conventional church, I'd be there - I didn't go out in search of an emergent church. The second caveat is that both of my favorite things have drawbacks, especially when they are taken to extremes. Such is the nature of favorite things.