Emergent Church Track at IMPACT 2006
Bill Sloat and I have been asked by the esteemed J Lance Finley to lead an Emergent Track at this year's IMPACT, the CGGC's national ministry conference. It is in Cincinatti, July 27 (Thu) to July 30 (Sun). Bill and I are supposed to come up with three or four sentence description and our focus to begin to describe what Emergent is as opposed to deconstructing what currently exists.
We are scheduled to do four one-hour sessions. I haven't talked with Bill but here is just an off the top of my head four sessions. (It can definitely be changed).
1. What is emergent? I would actually start with chapter one of The Present Future, which talks about the "church bubble." Emergents have popped that bubble and have looked into the broader spectrum of Christianity, but for sure, we have become more Christ centered rather than less.
2. How Emergent are you? Based on the categories of this post.
3. Brian McLaren's Generous Orthodoxy -- This seems like a good intro some of the theology of Emergent.
4. Bill Sloat's Breakdance Party -- We won't actually discuss anything, but Bill will teach us how to dance to rap music. Actually, I'm really open to changing this one.
Any ideas? Any help with three or four sentences for Lance's brochure?
posted by Brian at 11:24 AM
6 Comments:
Brian and Y'all,
I like the first 3/4 of Brian's outline. However, in place of "Bill Sloat's Breakdance Party," why not try, "Emergent Idol?" It works for Fox. Perhaps this could be our path to greatly increasing involvement in IMPACT. Was it 92,000 who auditioned this year?
Maybe the event should be promoted as "This session will be led by our own denomination's Brian McLaren and Stanley Grenz" -
Joking aside, I think you two add a level of credibility to the conversation that hopefully will connect with a broad spectrum of participants.
One other thought -
I would encourage one of the segments to consider how postmodern philosophy and postmodernity provides a cultural background for an emergence of a "new kind of Christian."
In many ways this is a very academic discussion. I realize that most who attend will probably be interested in practical applications. But, if the discussion of the emergent church is separated from the cultural and academic currents that provided space for it to occur the conversation could simply become one person's opinion of effective ministry versus another's.
Brent
In discussing 'emergent', do you think it would help to go over the emergent order? Or at least touch on some of the things covered on the emergent villate site?
Oops. The correct link from my previous comment should be: emergent order. And the other link should read: emergent "village", instead of "villate".
you might want to check out Dave Fitch's blog The Great Giveaway and his post about theological issues facing the emerging church...
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