Next gathering...

Our next gathering will be... Wednesday, April 13 @ 10:30 a.m. - at The Bite

reflections from March 9

From Rich Correll
"In our group we discussed the changing view of scripture as troublesome for many. I've tried to show how the different views of scripture influence practices and other facets of our Christian faith, concluding that the right hand column is where we sense we would like to be."



From Joel McClure
The perspective on salvation and gospel that we have been talking about over the past few months will make a significant impact on many other areas of our faith in practice.
--"Evangelism will look more like journalism than sales." (George Hunsberger)
--issues of how the scriptures are authoritative. (see my initial thoughts here)
--ecclesiology:: how we are to be (or not to be) as the church
--eschatology:: the already & not yet of the reign of God
--the language of heaven (shedding the Platonism so rampant in the church)
--pneumatology:: how we cooperate with the Spirit
--discipleship:: not just moral self-enhancement, but learning from Jesus how to be truly human.
--cosmology:: how we understand the heavens and the earthin the present in light of God's future

Of course there will be much more, but you can see how significant this shift will be for how we do things--in addition to how we talk about them.

"What does emergent think about women?"

by holly rankin zaher

I must admit, I'm usually baffled when I see the last one. I know the intent is to ask, "What does emergent think about the role of women in ministry."

But I'd rather answer the obvious, "Well, I'm pretty sure emergent thinks lots about women. Many involved are women and, well, many are men who are married to women. I'm pretty sure almost everyone involved knows at least a few women. I assume that means that they think about women alot."

But the fact of the matter is that for many people, the role of women in leadership in the church is a huge issue. I received yet another email today detailing a painful story of a women who was working in the church and hit the glass ceiling. This is reality. This is still an issue.

Just what does emergent think of women? I want to answer that they don't, meaning that the hope of emergent is that this would become a non-issue so that we can continue to push into the dreams of the kingdom.

I also want to answer that they do: this is still an issue. Because of that, emergent is also committed to creating space for women to be included into this conversation.

We need women in this conversation. In our current context, where there is lots of talk about those who have been previously excluded from the conversation (whether it be women or many other neglected groups) being included, it is imperative that women are part of this conversation.

...read the rest of the article...