Deeper shade of grey | em church

watching who you emerge upon

I

am genuinely attracted to the emerging church scene. I love the creativity. The freedom. The connections that they make are good for me but I’m discovering that many em. church expressions may like the ‘missional incarnational’ tag but in all reality some are as attractional as the institutional church from whose clutches they suggest they have escaped. The irony remains that while some emerging concepts of church model themselves as being incarnational because they meet in public places - their motive remains to ‘attract’ people to their alternative ‘non-embarrassing’ means of doing church - which still seems pretty attractional to me? There are some healthy looking exceptions to this - not intentionally critical - analysis.

It could be that a group of disenfranchised believers meeting under a new emerging ‘missional franchise’ with video loops, ancient-modern icons washed down with Coldplay and Moby actually in terms of incarnational influence in their community are as removed from community as how they perceive the institutional churches they left for their new adventure. And actually the label they hang on to and like to buzz and bound around in slick HTML leaves them more an oxymoron than the missional incarnational church they crave to be.

So what is the measure of incarnational influence? Perhaps it is more a ’state of mind’. Perhaps more a question of motive than a question of substance. An attitude. Perhaps more a question of the reality of mission than simply rhetoric. Essence over form?

• So you are a missional incarnational expression of church - who would miss you if you weren’t there anymore?
• So you are a missional incarnational expression of church - who is it you find yourselves ministering to… people like you?
• So you are a missional incarnational expression of church - what point has there been to your existence - for whose benefit?
• So you are a missional incarnational expression of church - How dirty have you got trying to be a transforming influence in your community?
• So you are a missional incarnational expression of church - Why do you do what you do - to embody the gospel by standing up for true love, justice and grace?

The picture above is one I snapped a few years ago. When emerging it is well worth looking to see who’s or what back you are emerging upon! Sometimes it is too easy to remain content and bask in the sunlight! Dangerous!

Deeper shade of grey appears every Wednesday on theRubicon. Find past posts and a bio of Capt. Gordon Cotterill here.

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