twenty-three

Today I began "An Emergent Manifesto of Hope", the first book released by the "emersion" partnership between Emergent Village and their new publishing partner, Baker Books. I heard about this book as it was being put together last summer and I have been excited to get my hands on it and catch up with many of the contributors to this conversation.

My hope is that as I read, I can have a chance to reflect on many (probably not all, but who knows) of the chapters, giving some of my own thoughts to these new ideas and views on faith, ministry, and the conversations this group of people are having. I should say, we’re having. I feel like I’ve become a part of this conversation with my small contributions to the Presbymergent group, an outgrowth of some of the ideas in this book. Presbymergent is a community of Presbyterian members and pastors who are engaging the emerging church conversation within their PC(USA) churches and trying to embrace the tension of living as what some have described as "loyal radicals" within this mainline denomination.

So, I’ll start with my thoughts on Tony Jones’ introduction, a good primer to what I’m hoping will be a very interesting book and challenging conversation. Jones traces the history of his involvement with Emergent, the "friendship" of people from varying church backgrounds and denominations who have steered the conversation since the late-90s. Tony talks about this idea of friendship being central to this group, a binding piece that holds together many different perspectives and ideas with faithful relationships. He describes the first meeting of young pastors in Arlington, TX back in 1998:

The room positively crackled. I think that’s because we had the feeling, even back then, that we were on to something. Even as we struggled to determine what that ’something’ was, we talked about an element of the connection that was seemingly even more important, and surely more elusive, and that was and is friendship.

As I have wrestled with this first year of ministry, I have been struck by the need for community and friendship with people who are willing to discuss and work through the concepts and experiences I’m having with me. I see the desire to have these friendships of faith, where we can discuss the way we see God working in our lives, talk about the challenges we face as we see him interacting with the people we are serving, and work towards a better understanding of how we do our ministry and live our lives in light of what we learn. I’ve found this in my small group of post-college, post-INN guys that I meet with every week. I have found something like this with my former roommates, when we have a book discussion. I’ve experienced a deeper "friendship" in faith with Stacy, as she and I work out our questions about faith and life and marriage together. And I’ve also experienced this "friendship" within our unique staff at the INN, where we are always talking about the questions God is confronting us with and the challenges we face in our work.

It’s exciting to know that there is a wider circle of friends who are willing to step out and try new things, work through new challenges, and engage fresh perspectives on where God is leading his people. If it’s not clear, I’m excited about this book and about what Emergent is doing to help people learn and work out their faith in their own settings. I’ll look forward to sharing more thoughts as I read through.

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