e~mergent kiwi

recent emerging church web articles that I appreciate

Excellent response by Jordon Cooper to the consumeristic Ooze article "Behold I make all things stale and boring" and the provocative statement: After reading a bunch of Emergent Church type blogs recently I realized almost no one is saying anything new.

When talking about the future of the emerging church I often show an Adbusters video, supplied to me by Stephen Garner. In a bid to find identity, the person accessorises, seeking to be hip and cool by adding toys and gimmicks and new things. We live in a society which is based on selling the new. So in one sense it's totally natural to see the same consumerism at work in a person's approach to the blogging world.

Thoughtful article by Alan Roxburgh (sent to me by ProdigalKiwi) on the emerging church in the context of the April Consult at Fuller. (At which a statement I made - ‘I’m not sure we are really as creative as we think.’” - became a context-less soundbite on quite a number of blogs - here, here, here and here).

As I read the article I reflected on my hope that the new of the emerging is not a panacea for stale and boring, but is the missional Image-ining of Christ . Such image-ining must take time. Such image-ining will search forward, backward and sideways, to our wired world, to our ancient roots and among cultures unlike ours. And such image-ining will often be found in unexpected crevices. Such is the kingdom.

My book has a postcard/chapter on creativity. It is positioned after a postcard/chapter on birth and midwiving. That's deliberate - creativity emerging from the active image-ining breath of God.