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The Emerging Church - Thoughts on Postmodern Christianity

kuranes

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Joined
Apr 20, 2007
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1,067
MBTI Type
XNXP
I often get a sense fairly quickly ( when meeting a new person ) if they are more oriented to ( A. ) either seeking or continuing to work with what they already believe to be ANSWERS and ( B. ) people who feel that we may not even be asking the right QUESTIONS yet, and who certainly wish to explore more thoroughly some of those which have already been asked.

In the case of people leaning more towards ( B. ) than ( A. ) they often do not have "easy" answers ( or even complex difficult ones for everything ) and consequently are less likely to "part of a movement" except in the sense that they may be iconoclasts in general. Unfortunately this can often mean a loss of political power and a voice not easily heard/noticed.

I would equate ( A. ) with many aspects of the traditional church and ( B. ) more with this "emerging church", and I hope that the emerging movements ( whether they be church or secular ) are allowed the opportunity to actually blossom into a new renaissance, instead of being squashed by the vast numbers of people who "judge" themselves to be "already complete", as it is undoubtedly much easier ( in many ways ) to opt for the mirages of incumbency, not to discount any real oasis there.
 

Apollonian

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Jun 24, 2007
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121
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Bingo.

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” - Bertrand Russell

"Mirages of incumbency" - I like that.

One of the interesting characteristics of the emerging movement is that many people don't really consider it a "movement" so much as a "conversation". This is not a political group out to enact social change. Rather, this is a group of people who have suddenly realized that social change has happened and are discussing what to do about it. They set aside the 'mirage' and seek to build the 'oasis'.

But how do we know what is a 'mirage' and what is not? If it looks real, feels real, and a person has lived much of their life with the same mirage encircling the horizon... is it so easy to dispell the illusion? Once dispelled, is it so easy to build this mythical oasis amidst the desert we suddenly find?

I deplore postmodernism which attempts deconstructionism which leaves us wandering in the desert without even a pleasant mirage to keep us sane. I prefer reconstructionism which seeks to keep the essense of the mirage as a template upon which to build our oasis.
 
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