The emerging church

"You killed my favourite word. Prepare to dialogue." On the cusp of you-may-as-well-admit-it-now, you're-a-grown-up 30, I find myself with a low-key identity crisis. My more academic secular friends would be unlikely to associate me with a postmodern viewpoint; would think the suggestion laughable most probably. I presume many people would consider me conservative; certainly I'm morally conservative compared with my peers. (Do not confuse this with fundamentalism.) I've without apology (attempted to) employ the scientific model professionally, so can hardly claim to have thrown off the shackles of modernism. Yet I find myself quietly disinterested in structural church. I am determined to place myself in relationship with Christian leaders I respect and can learn from. My experience to date has still been to find these people within church buildings.

The quote in the first line of the above paragraph is from Andrew Jones, who blogs at tallskinnykiwi.com, and who wrote recently about Charles Colson's dismissal of Postmodernity in a Christianity Today article. Andrew's blog, and life, is about exploring the emerging church that is growing outside church walls around the world. I find myself drawn back to his blog time and again, a fascinated child peering out into the garden though stained glass windows during the sermon. I've never experienced a worship installation with VJs mixing multimedia inspiration while I lounged on inflatable prayer chairs, and I'm not sure I would personally find it a freeing experience. Please don't confuse that last statement as dismissal or belittling of alternate worship... perhaps words are my multimedia. [ahh disclaimers.] More attractive for me though is an apparent focus on the infiltration of genuine Christian community into the 24/7.

I feel I am on a journey. I can't see a path under my feet, but every so often the foliage changes so I must be being led somewhere.