Living Journey

Emergent quotes:

The body of Christ is likened to the brain, a parallel is drawn on how your brain needs to sleep so it can proccess information — So the church is in need of sleep??? I have never heard of such a thing!

This kind of information processing is simple for a music system such as iTunes, dealing as it does with perhaps 12 tags per song. For the brain, on-line for hours each day, constantly importing and dealing with huge amounts of complex visual, sound, emotional and sensual information, it is impossible to ‘complexify’ it - make appropriate horizontal links between things - in real time. So it does it at night. And we call it dreaming.

This is why dreams can appear such a mish-mash of random images and thoughts. It is also why so many ‘eureka’ moments come during or just after sleep, rather than in the hours of sitting ‘thinking’(…)Like a brain, we will see centralised knowledge devolved into networked intelligence. Like a city, we will see strong, centralised leadership become less visible and less powerful, exerting less control but existing simply to resource those involved in communities, economic activity and industry on the ground. And like every one of us, we will see the body of Christ accepting its need to sleep, to wait for things, to dream. As Descartes proposed, if we are to be, we must think. But more than just existing, if we are to evolve, we must dream.@emergingchurch.info

Rom 11:8 according as it hath been written, `God gave to them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes not to see, and ears not to hear,’ –unto this very day,
Rom 13:11 Also this, knowing the time, that it is now the hour for you to be aroused from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we believed.
1Co 11:30 For this reason many among you are weak and feeble, and many sleep.
1Th 5:6 So then, we should not sleep, as the rest also do, but we should watch and be sober.

Ancient traditions and iconic worship mixed with symbolism and mysticism is the way forward for the emergents.

I long for a church that recognizes the value of ancient traditions. I’ve long been saddened by the iconophobia in many evangelical circles, discomfort with symbolism, suspicion toward any type of mysticism, and the ignoring of rich faith traditions from Advent to Passover.

I long for a church that is not uncomfortable with mystery or with the sacraments. The evangelical understanding I’ve been taught on the Eucharist is anemic, and the standard baptism explanation of “an outward symbol of an inward faith” misses the spiritual act, which still has an element of mystery in it.

I long for a church that recognizes the value of story. Scripture is story, and so are the lives it touches. One cannot presume to talk about relationship without recognizing the importance of personal stories. @emerginchurch.info.reflection

Mat 15:9 But in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” Isa. 29:13
2Ti 4:4 and they will turn away the ear from the truth and will be turned aside to myths.

An empty womb like space is the survival kit for the emergents!!!

What would your ‘emerging church survival kit’ contain?
An empty space… really. I think that if you want to survive Christianity, and I am not sure if its possible yet, you need one of those cartoon tunnels, something that can create a womb-like space in the being of your beliefs and religious services, a virgin space where the word of God can impregnate you - the problem is that theo-logy (that’s a term that refers to Western Metaphysical theology, the stuff of apologetics and evangelicalism) closes down space, that is why at Ikon we are developing a theology which derives from the mystics, a theology without theology to complement our religion without religion. @emergingchurch.info

Eph 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for through these things the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience.
Col 2:8 Watch that there not be one robbing you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.
1Ti 1:6 from which having missed the mark, some turned aside to empty talking,
1Ti 6:20 O Timothy, guard the Deposit, having turned away from the profane empty babblings and opposing theories of the falsely named knowledge
1Ti 6:21 which some asserting have missed the mark concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.
2Ti 2:15 Give diligence to present yourself approved to God, a workman unashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.
2Ti 2:16 But shun profane, empty babblings, for they will go on to more ungodliness,

Jer 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their hands; and My people love it so. And what will you do at the end of it?