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{"id":2794,"date":"2007-07-24T00:20:56","date_gmt":"2007-07-24T05:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/24\/analogies-to-church\/"},"modified":"2007-07-24T00:20:56","modified_gmt":"2007-07-24T05:20:56","slug":"analogies-to-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/24\/analogies-to-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Analogies to “church”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

What is the best analogy to \u201cchurch\u201d? In Kester Brewin\u2019s newly-republished book, Signs of Emergence<\/a>: A Vision for the Church that is Organic\/Networked\/Decentralized\/Bottom-up\/Communal\/Flexible {Always Evolving}<\/em> (Baker, 2007), the analogy of an organism that emerges is preferred. In this book \u2014 with a cute title \u2014 we have a theory of emergence that lies behind the way many are using the word \u201cemerging\u201d in the emerging movement today.
\nThree quotations might put the whole book in view. What do you think of these comments?
\n1. \u201cTo blame the demise of the church on personal holiness is a dangerous and wrong position. I believe that rather than focusing on changing our individual lives, we need to change our corporate practice. New wine is currently being wasted by ruptured wineskins\u201d (21).
\n2. \u201cIf the people who built the railroads in the United States were actually interesting in transporting people, they would now own the airlines\u201d (21).
\nThe first quotation explains the real problem at the systemic level; the second explains the current problem on being stuck in an old system where we are simply trying to revive it rather than realize that we\u2019ve moved on.
\n3. \u201c\u2026 rather than trying to import culture into church and make it \u2018cool,\u2019 we need instead to become \u2018wombs of the divine\u2019 and completely rebirth the church into a host culture\u201d (92).
\nHere are some central theses at work in this book:
\n1. Overall, he contends we need to get to a \u201cConjunctive Church\u201d as outlined in James Fowler\u2019s stages of faith where we learn to hold truth as something that is expressed in a number of ways. [He uses Fowler too much for me \u2014 and because he does the brief discussion of Fowler is not enough.]
\n2. We need to wait as emergence happens; we need to let God give birth in us to a new vision and new emergence of God\u2019s work in our world; we need to let emergence grow from the bottom up. [I kept saying to myself: \u201cGive me something concrete, brother.\u201d]
\n3. Emergent systems are open, adaptable, learning systems, have distributed knowledge, and are noted by servant leadership.
\n4. Finally, he seeks to see the church emerge in cities, where \u201cgift\u201d is central rather than a consumer culture (\u201cI got something out of the service\u201d), and where \u201cdirt\u201d is present \u2014 that is, the boundary between the clean and unclean is no longer observed.
\nWell, if you want a good grip on what \u201cemergence\u201d means in the wider emerging movement, this is the book. It explains why the word \u201cemergent\u201d is the central word. I wish more critics were aware of how important this word is to the movement. There is something going on, at the grassroots level; it is not known what it is entirely and where it will lead \u2014 but something is emerging. That idea is important to the movement for many.
\nThis book was published in England a few years back with the title The Complex Christ<\/em>.
\nI have some issues with the book:
\n1. I\u2019d like a rationale of why Brewin thinks we need to change \u2014 or at least I\u2019d like to see that rationale expounded more completely.
\n2. For some odd reason there is little attention to the \u201cemerging\u201d church called the Early Church and how it emerged out of the kingdom movement of Jesus. So why not some attention to Acts 1-15? Or to how someone like Paul or Peter pastored \u201cemerging\u201d churches?
\n3. I\u2019d like to see some attention to the Pauline church with its radical emphasis on spiritual gifts and body life and evident lack of some hierarchy, esp as seen in 1 Cor 12-14.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"