Emergent Church. Musings at Soularize

So here I am at Soularize. I’m pretty stoked. Just met the creator of GINKWORLD and saw Spencer (The Ooze Leader) walk by. I’m star struck.

How funny that as soon as you sell your tv and stop seeing movies in theaters, you get star struck by very different people. On the opposite end of that, I used to work at a bookstore where celebrities bought books so the real stars were the writers. I would be rude to Meg Ryan one minute and go dumb at the sight of Elmore Leonard the next.

Here’s a good place to say, “Sorry, Elmore. I really had something clever to say, I just had to stare at you for three full minutes with that weird grin until it came out. Too bad you walked away before I said it. Your loss, dude.”

Uh. Tangent.

So back to point. Barry Taylor (my main man on the pastor level) is singing. Christians are rocking. Emergent Christians don’t really go crazy on the rockin’ out. That’s too bad, cuz the music is so much better than those churches where everyone is completely swaying and going crazy clapping and dancing around. Maybe if we got a mosh pit or something.

Barry is British. Not to generalize British musicians, but he’s so Pink Floyd –sad Roger. And as he sings (imagine Sid Vicious survived his drugs and insanity and found God and is now in his early 50’s), there are about 70 of us rockin’ back and forth. You know, concert style. About fifteen of us are on laptops. Two have webcams for the people watching from home. I’m looking for a waving lighter. Huh, no lighter.

Barry just pointed at us and sang “And you say…” How Christian cool can we be?

Okay, drinking a redeye so focus isn’t happening just yet.

What was my point? Oh yeah, I haven’t found it yet.

Emergent Church. I think we’re taking over the world and then I talk to a random person and realize no one knows who we are except us. I once popped my head into the backstage before a matinee and I said “I’m gonna marry a pastor.” (I tend to say random things like that to my cast when I enter. It’s my schtick.) And an actress said “A pastor would never marry you.” Wah? Because why? “Because you’re a bisexual atheist.” Dude, an emergent Christian pastor would get past that. Er, right? I mean, I’m more than a bisexual atheist. I’m a monogamous Christian..uh…atheist.” Well, she may be right, but I think I could snag an open minded emergent pastor if they saw the whole me. And maybe more likely if the pastor were a woman.

Oh here’s Dominic Savio. Poet. I hate poetry. As a genre. Just like abstract art. I so don’t get it. But I get Dom. “I’m insecure. I lost my security yesterday when a pretty girl called me fat. I hate that.” I think my point is there. Not the line. But the line he was going to say. “..I lost my security yesterday when I saw my girl getting ***** from behind.” He asked me before going into the church if he should use that.

Let’s say the whole line first, so you get the point. “I lost my security yesterday when I saw my girl getting **** from behind. Oops. Rewind. Sorry Jesus I cursed. Do you see me different? Am I still a Christian? Because I make mistakes everyday.”

Awesome.

I said “Wow, great. Not today. Better for a blog. You know, because that’s um, huh. Well, not today.”

So here I am writing about it because really, that is a good point. I mean, it’s not quite the point to make at 9am. We barely got caffeine in us, let alone “God’s open eyes.” And second, this weekend is about trying to pull Christianity up. Not creating more schisms. So really, we can try the baby steps for a while and then go for the shocking way of saying things.

But here is where I wish he did do this. Emergent church is finding their voice. And we’re gonna have to step on some toes to really find our most resonant tone to speak to the world with.

Well, he said the fat line and I think it made some great resonance. So there we go. Back to Barry’s music as I continue on my point about the voice of emergent church.

What is emergent church? Some say that it’s just like any other Protestant or Non-denominational church but less evangelical. Others say it’s just like any church but okay with the fringe. I should go back to ooze and ginkworld to check it out more. It’s like this greased pig I’m trying to catch. And I’m getting mighty muddy because I fall down every time I tackle that thing.

A few months ago, I went to a gay church in Long Beach. Not emergent. VERY conservative. But gay. All gay and lesbian. If not for the controversy of gender preference, they would be the church I grew up in. Well, better music. But other than that, my childhood church. The sermon was good, but down the middle of the road. The New Testament was read with a very literal interpretation. Oh wow, I just realized what a reaction many Christians would have to that. How literal could it be if…but that’s not my post today cuz I could open a whole can of whoop ass on that.

Dominic just leaned into my monitor and chuckled “You said whoop ass. Nerd.”

So anyway, is this gay church emergent? Why? Because it’s gay? Nope. It’s a non-denominational church that is gay friendly. So emergent isn’t just a wider door.

Okay, how about less evangelical? No, emergent Christians evangelize. Many may see how the old way of evangelizing doesn’t work as well as it once did, but there is still a desire to witness.

I would make the disclaimer that emergent evangelizes by example instead of soapboxes.
Or I would venture that emergent wants to evangelize from within the church instead of to the outside.

Spencer just said something amazing. Is church about who you invite to your table or about who you don’t invite to your table? Is it about who you invite in spite of who will judge you for making this your table? Wow. It’s close. It’s almost a definition.

The speaker, Heater Reynolds, just mentioned Christianity being about forgiveness. But so beyond the typical message. She said, we are afraid to call ourselves Americans because we’re not forgiven. Mandela brought a country together to forgive and be forgiven and now they’re free. Spiritually free. As in the oppressor is only free when he is forgiven.

Ugh, this is hard to define. I can’t even summarize what I heard this morning. And it wasn’t even definitions. It was just related anecdotes I’m trying to communicate.

The sinner is free when forgiven. But the sinner isn’t “the sinner.” The sinner is the oppressor, the judge. The Christian who wants to be good but isn’t what a church says is Christian…is free. He’s free because he struggles and seeks faith. The oppressor. The Church (capital C) is not free. Emergent church is about freeing the Church with forgiveness. About freeing the people with acceptance.

Ohhh so close.