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I'm converting

I've been reading up on the emerging church movement quite a bit lately, and I'm finally at the point where I can say that I fully identify with it. I used to have some reservations based on my conceptions about emerging worship expressions, but I'm past that. To me, in essence, the emerging church is Christianity interpreted through the lens of postmodern epistemology combined with a missional ecclesiology. Expressions are varied depending on the community, but you find those characteristics in lots of interesting places. It's where I ended up naturally as an ex-(missional) evangelical who found myself captivated by Jurgen Moltmann's postmodern and biblical theology. I've probably been destined to end up here since I left Asbury.

Oh, and I also really like U2, coffee, "urban living", simplicity, religious orders, community, vegetarianism, environmentalism, and lots of other trendy things. I'm still prayerfully considering whether I prefer Macs to PCs though.
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Anonymous said…
Tim,

I found your blog doing a Technorati search for "emerging church"...

I see myself in this post. It took a little bit for me to get "comfortable" with the emerging church movement, but I feel at home in the conversation... like it's voicing things for which I haven't had the words. And I laughed out loud at your final paragraph. You should check out "Everything I need to know I learned from the emerging church"... same things you're saying ;)

http://www.jakebouma.com/2007/09/19/everything-i-need-to-know-i-learned-from-the-emerging-church/

Peace
November 25, 2007 at 7:08 PM
Kyle said…
Ah, but it is the nature of the beast, that those are some aspects of some emerging churches. Mark Driscoll leads an "emerging church," remember?

Ex-missional? Does that make you post-post-Evangelical?

:0)
November 26, 2007 at 2:50 AM
Tim Mathis said…
Believe me, living in Seattle, I'm well aware of the diversity of emerging churches--Mark Driscoll's brand on one end in our local community (though he's tried to disassociate himself with the movement in recent years) and Karen Ward at Church of the Apostles on the other. I don't think that makes it any different from any other brand of Christianity though--liberal, evangelical, Catholic, Anglican, High-Church, whatever you want--they're all simply groupings of ideas and people, rather than easily definable movements.

I do like the idea of being a post-post evangelical though. I think it's a pretty appropriate designation. I was reacting against my evangelicalism for a period, as a post-evangelical, now I'm moving to a different type of faith. I'd like someday to be post-postmodern as well.
November 26, 2007 at 5:04 PM
Kyle said…
...wouldn't we all!
November 28, 2007 at 1:34 AM
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