(e)mergent Voyageurs

I hadn't anticipated that my previous post "Redemptive Taxonomy In The Emerging/Missional Divide" would inspire so much great conversation in the comment section. Neither could I have predicted how it would have been picked up at other sites. I really appreciate many of the very gracious and constructive voices who have weighed in here. However, I have also realized that I might have failed to communicate my ultimate point clearly enough. So, here is my attempt to clarify.

My intention in writing the last post was to try and formulate an approach to the increasingly common "emerging or missional" question that could be mutually affirming while acknowledging and celebrating the very real differences that do and should exsist in the Body of Christ. If these differing categories are being used to bring division in the Body, whether through intentionality or irresponsibility, it needs to be addressed and dealt with (if and when possible and appropriate). If our differences are ignored, whether through ignorance or sentimentality, this is equally dangerous.

So let me clarify my own position:

I am Missional. While I will not try to fully define what missional is here, I would direct you to the excellent resource of Friend of Missional. This great site was never intended to divide, compete or replace anything, but is rather a very humble and generous attempt to serve the whole Body in exploring our developing understanding of what it means to be missional.

I am Emerging. The emerging church conversation and those who have been leading voices in it have richly blessed my spiritual journey. Whether it was through allowing me the say and giving me the courage to ask difficult questions or offer a network of people who shared those questions, the emerging church has offered me hope that there are many other people seeking to be faithful to God within their various contexts and traditions.

I am Emergent. While I am no longer a member of the Emergent Village Coordinating Group, and while there are aspects of that organized friendship that I have concerns with, I see this group of women and men as genuinely seeking to serve God and His Church within their given spheres of influence. Despite our differences, I have no fear identifying with them as faithful sisters and brothers in faith.

Let me put it another way.  My wife is Australian, a culture that is very different from my own Canadian/American citizenship. One of the greatest threats to our relational unity is ignoring or denying our differences. It is downright destructive for either of us to try and convert the other in an attempt to overcome those differences. The truth is that it is in those differences, in the joys and the challenges that they bring, that our marraige finds its greatest wealth. In the same way, as we resist branding, labelling or making camps that divide us, our strongest "weapon" in that battle is to explore and celebrate those differences.

In closing I want to clearly state that the emerging and missional dynamics, whether they be values, movements or conversations, are too young to close the book on final definitions. It is perhaps a North American impulse to turn general categories into definitive labels. I don't know. That being said, let's have the patience and grace to allow these and others dynamics develop naturally while mutually investing in the other.

Emerging Church Missional Emergent Village