Monday, June 30, 2008

First Meeting

We had a great first planning meeting tonight. Seven people attended and my experience exceeded expectations. We had an eclectic group of men and women, 30, 40 and 50 somethings, including homeless shelter directors, a Christian rocker/Law professor, a Librarian, a Marketer, a Mountain-biker, a Romanian Baptist Pastor and a Government Administrator. We had honest, lively and in-depth discussion about our views of the modern and post-modern church, the Emergent Conversation from the views of both advocates and healthy skeptics, and what we hope to gain from and contribute to the discussion. We planned future Meetups, what books and articles to discuss, and how we can be missional in our community. Best of all, I genuinely felt that both those who already knew each other, and newcomers to the group, grew closer to God and to one another. Our next meeting is Monday, July 28th, at 7pm, at the Moonlite Diner in Hollywood. We decided to use Scot McKnight's "Five Streams of the Emerging Church" (posted on the left under "Friends, Resources," etc.) to start our conversation. Here is an excerpt, "Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger, in their book, Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures (Baker Academic, 2005) define emerging in this way: Emerging churches are communities that practice the way of Jesus within postmodern cultures. This definition encompasses nine practices. Emerging churches (1) identify with the life of Jesus, (2) transform the secular realm, and (3) live highly communal lives. Because of these three activities, they (4) welcome the stranger, (5) serve with generosity, (6) participate as producers, (7) create as created beings, (8) lead as a body, and (9) take part in spiritual activities."

Additional information about the next meeting is posted on our Meetup site: http://emergentchristian.meetup.com/29/ If you are interested, join the group (its free) to get notices about upcoming meetings, events and service opportunities.

Babylon's fallin'

Steve

No comments: