Since New Years Day, the focus of this blog has been transitioning to something different - locating and equipping missional entrepreneurs around the world that God loves. Its a movement that doesn't really have a name but its good. I will not be using the emerging church vocabulary and this blog will be more geared to covering the wider mission, church and social enterprise scene as well as resourcing people - like you - to leave a lasting impact on their world. I wont be carrying the emerging church conversation or daily tracking its ups and downs, even though many good things will continue to happen under that label.
Right.
Also over is any official relationship I have left with one of those emerging church groups called Emergent Village. EV is a hard group to leave because its a flat structured organization and there is no one to inform that you are de-friending yourself, or getting de-friended, from this "generative friendship". Also hard because there are so many wonderful people still involved.
The EV website stated last year, "Those who started emergent were at the National ReEvaluation Forum in 1998; those who will take it into the next chapter will be at Christianity21." I wasn't at Christianity21 but I have been watching as new theological emphases and sectarian attitudes towards church emerge (well described by Wikipedia's North American Emergent Movement) and it is just not something that I can lend my name to or my time. In the early days, I joined the leadership of the Young Leaders group (that eventually became Emergent Village) because it was more about uniting churches around mission and equipping people to reach the next 'postmodern' generation. I hope they can shift it back again to its origins.
Best memories of Yl/Emergent? See the next post.