Ecclesial Dreamer…

Today I read the great article from Next-Wave called Ten Years Out: A Retrospective on the Emerging Church in North America that got me thinking about my own participation in the conversation among friends. There was a lot of great info in the article and I suspect it is about as fair and short a summary of things emerg(ent/ing) as you will find. But my own recollections of this whole party have always been slanted (just like everything else) by my own perspective. As I arrived late to the party and was never much more than a fortunate guest I suspect my own opinions don’t carry a whole lot of definitive weight about what emergent has accomplished or how it will be remembered as it transitions into the next stage of the journey. But I can tell you this.

My exposure to the conversation came at just the right time. I was actively involved in the last church I probably will ever be a part of. We were doing what I thought were some good and creative things but the writing was on the wall that there was a storm brewing. There were plenty of people in our church who were not comfortable with some of the theological direction our leadership was going. A couple of years earlier a good portion of the church, including all the elders and deacons left the church and it was in the rebuilding that I came to be part of the leadership team. It was a dream come true for me in many ways as I had left the church plant that I had co-pastored about a year before and was convinced that I would never be able to serve in a church again. Yet there I was. But there was a lot of tension in the air. I was in desperate need of some one or some thing to help me realize I was not going crazy.

Through a long string of fortunate events including contacts from some fine folks in the UK and various parts of Europe I heard about a group called Emergent that seemed to be successfully navigating the waters we were trying to enter in our own part of the world. So my wife and I signed up to go to a convention in San Diego to try and meet some of these people. That conference was one of the best experiences of my life and made me realize that something substantial was going on. I was able to meet with a few people and get introduced to some new names of people who were pastoring, writing, teaching and creating a fresh new way of embodying faith without being novel.

All of that was good but for me, the best memories I have of those days were the original emergent village website and their on-line bulletin board. It was on that board that I found the real substance to the conversation and it was through that site that I met a bunch of great ecclesial dreamers that most of the conference going/book publishing world will never know. Learning from people like Brother Bozano and fighting with the anonymous Too August would get the blood pumping. But it was through that website that I also met local people like Harlan S., Dwight and Rebecca S., JR., Jason and Emily S., and Scott and Emily H. For better or worse these people shaped my faith at important times in my life (like being displaced from my church!). But more importantly –especially when it comes to Scott and Emily–they continue to shape my faith and in many ways continue to be for me the last handhold to a visible community of faith.

And while the conferences and national events continued to draw me from time to time (who in their right mind would pass on a theological conversation with Miroslav Volf!!!) it was not the “headliners” that created the draw as much as the warm hugs and handshakes from friends, the laughter around a table of food, or the sharing of good cigars and REALLY good brandy, that made you want to gather and hate when it was time to head for home. The people in the conversation were a gift from God and I cherished them all. I remember driving to Fort Collins to spend a morning with one and hearing one of my favorite and funniest stories while trying to find a souvenier Starbucks cup and not being able to find it. I remember finally finding the cup a year later and being able to give it to my friend in New Haven! I remember sitting in hallways with 20 other people trying to listen to a conversation in a room that was too full for one more person. I remember talks and email exchanges with people about what to do with our children. I remember sharing a hotel room in Minneapolis with a brilliant person who I had only read about that morning in one of the “headliners” books and being excited to meet him and later hearing how he had read about me earlier that day in a newsletter written from that same “headliner.”

I remember all those things and more but the one thing that really stands out to me is not covered in the article at the beginning of this post. And you won’t find any of them in a book or magazine article. In fact, you won’t find them recorded anywhere because they are things that cannot be recorded in a blog post or a podcast. They are things that can only be embodied in an ongoing conversation among friends. And even while the organizations that host these conversations go through normal and natural change and some of the “headliners” explore new paths the relationships and conversations among friends goes on. I will be lucky enough to participate in one one such conversation this coming Thursday and I cannot wait.

The conversation continues. And I have been fortunate to be a part of it, even if it was from the fringes. The best is still ahead and there is still room at the table for other people to participate in the conversation. I am looking forward to the days and years ahead. I suspect they will surprise all of us.

Thanks to Ian Wrisley for the tip…

Walter Brueggemann is going to be at an event that has portions free and open to the public. I am already making plans to go and would love to see some other Colorado Emergent Village Cohort people make it to the Friday night event (May 2).

More info can be found at www.knowtown.com