I just discovered these videos of Tony Jones (whom I'd never heard of before, but is apparently an "emerging" type. Or is he an "emergent" type? I forget) and the very cool cucumber Trucker Frank. Here's episodes 1 through 3, each are around 9 minutes long. Their conversations are interesting and lead me to ask, "What are we (the church) so afraid of? Afraid of controversy? Afraid to be questioned? Afraid to ask hard questions? Or in Maria's case (episode 2), afraid of people's sin or struggles? Why are the people of God so afraid?" Well, maybe when we (relationally) get to know God, we aren't afraid anymore. We are free.
HT: Glenn
Friday, May 09, 2008
Trucker Frank, Can You Give us a Ride?
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6 comments:
Sarah, thanks for posting these videos. I had not seen them. Tony Jones is Emergent. He is one of a group that includes Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt, et al who started the Emergent Village. (www.emergentvillage.com.) Tony has a blog at http://tonyj.net. Basically, the Emergent Village are a group of folks who are part of an endeavor to reform the institutional church. All of these guys are pastors or former pastors of institutional churches, although some of their churches are quite different than a traditional institutional church. Some, like McLaren and Jones, have gone on to being writers and conference speakers as a way to earn their money, instead of pastoring a church.
To me, the term 'emerging' would include 'Emergent' but is broader and would include people who are less/non-institutional. In other words, a much broader spectrum of ideas and people.
When people think of 'emerging' most often they think of these folks because they are high profile. If you look at Amazon.com you will see that some people comment to the books of McLaren and Jones that they are heretics, of the satan, etc.
Thanks, traveller. So, do you know what specific basis others call them heretics on? I'd really be curious to know. (Sounds like more fear...) :)
Sarah,
McLaren is called a heretic because it is claimed he is universalist. He has some leanings that way but I would not so characterize him. These guys, like other emerging folks, do not use the same words, the same rituals, the same anything...plus, they are deconstructing the existing institutional church. They are labeled as "postmoderns" who do not believe there is any truth.
You get the picture......Most of it, in my view, is as you stated....fear. One of the things that critics miss is that emerging/Emergent are asking more questions than they are providing answers. This bothers people who are uncomfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty. As Mark Lowry likes to say, "Fundamentalist may not always be right but they are never in doubt."
Tag! yer it:)
Workers banned from talking to a guy in a bookstore. That's just weird.
I gotta wonder about the girl who dropped out, though, was she really rejected? It seems like she assumed she would be, so she just quit going. She refused to go inside, the Sunday after she got in trouble at school. I have a tough time believing everybody would reject her. It seems to me that she rejected people, deciding to not give them a shot, just like some of them apparently decided to not give her a shot.
MB
Traveller, thanks. Ya, I'm finding the term 'emerging' somewhat helpful, but still sooo broad as there are so many variations within that it's limited as a defining term.
MB, it's difficult to know what happened. She just said that no one would talk to her and people were looking at her funny. Did this happen Friday night, on Saturday, or just as she sat in the car on Sunday morning (and was just her own perception?). Perhaps. There is always more than one side to a story, thanks for bringing that up. But I don't know either way what happened here... But I know a lot of people that don't find her story difficult to believe since they've seen this sort of thing happen before.
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