Week 9: Wednesday

In today’s class Ryan hammered out the details, myths, and criteria surrounding conversations about the Emerging/Emergent movement. This was interesting and helpful for us as we enter into this dialogue as future pastors, leaders, etc. and that we dialogue both intelligently and passionately, but also doing so with charity. If we begin to analyze the words and motivations for many of those within the Emergent Movement, we quickly discover a spirit of charity, charity in the appropriation and inclusion of both new and old ideas. One also discovers this lack of charity oftentimes in the critiques surrounding the Emergent movement, critiques lacking charity, and oftentimes intelligence. These vitrolic responses serve only to strengthen the resolve many opposed to the Church in general, and the traditional church specifically, due in large part to the lack of inclusion and charity in dialogue. This is why many refuse to discuss spirituality in our current contexts, because we as Christians don’t really desire to listen, and if so with motivation only to refute.