Monday, January 31, 2005

jet lagged among the emerging church

The first (and last) time I spoke in the US, I was heading up a flight of stairs to a seminar room. I was tired. I was jet lagged. I was withdrawn.

This young emergent guy was walking behind me. He began “paying me out,” muttering under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear – hurry up, haven’t got all day – come on.

I suddenly realised,in my tired funk, he was talking to me. I turned to look at him and the young emergent, cast me a disdainful look and surged past, beret cool. It is a memory I still carry with me, that awareness of being fragile, alone and an outsider in a very different space.

Posted by steve at 11:04 AM

7 Comments

  1. Steve, remember the man’s slogan: “finding God/self/other in new spaces” maybe s/he will get there first!

    Comment by tim — January 31, 2005 @ 2:03 pm

  2. Wow! this young emergent must really get around. I think I got in his way a couple of weeks ago on a different escalator.

    Comment by ron — January 31, 2005 @ 8:05 pm

  3. he must have fallen asleep and missed the – God walks at three miles an hour thang – somewhere in his emergence 101 class ((;-))

    Comment by paulT — February 1, 2005 @ 2:28 pm

  4. Hi Steve, nothing for you to be intimidated about matey, just the petulence of youth. Truth is, we are mostly alone and fragile, we just forget it sometimes…. :>)

    Comment by Ian Mobsby — February 2, 2005 @ 9:51 am

  5. In those situations my wife and I like to imagine why the person is in such a hurry. Perhaps he was meeting an internet girlfriend for the first time at the seminar and didn’t want to miss her. Maybe he needed to use the restroom really bad. This helps in traffic too! Perhaps it is good to give them the benefit of the doubt, so Satan doesn’t get the benefit of tearing you down. Besides, Jesus was with you in that moment, perhaps reminding you of a “very different space” he has prepared for you to enjoy as an “insider” some day.
    God Bless you. Tim

    Comment by TimMiller — February 3, 2005 @ 7:40 am

  6. Thanks a lot for coming and speaking with our class today, thank you for providing hope that there are others out there reaching the people that God cares about! I am the “emerging young guy” who asked, “Is seminary worth it?” Keep fighting for others! Be blessed!

    Comment by Drew — February 4, 2005 @ 3:28 pm

  7. thanx Drew – it was a fun class, lot of energy and great to have so many questions and interaction. i am hoping that emergentSD seminar attendees are as receptive as you and your class.

    Comment by steve — February 5, 2005 @ 10:24 am

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.