Mark Calhoun

Origin of Terms Part 1 and 2

For a couple of weeks I have been thinking about posting on what "Emergent" has come to mean to me, and I thought this would be a good way to start....

Dan Kimball wrote two blog posts, in April, that dealt with the terms "Emergent" and "Emerging" as they serve illuminate current conversations about engaging mission and ministry in the 21st century... Both posts contain a great deal of historical information, and both serve as one persons attempt to articulate the current use and recent evolution of the terms...

Origin of the terms "Emerging" and "Emergent" church - Part 1

Excerpt... "I was inspired to take a few moments from reading Marko's post this morning called "This is Emergent" which is great as it expresses some of the metaphor of the meaning of the actual word emergent.

However - since I get asked this so incredibly often "Where did the term 'emerging church' start?" or what is the difference of "Emerging" or "Emergent" that I thought I would continue Marko's wondering of where the terms originated and also have a post I can then refer people to who ask me this a lot. To some you may not care at all about things like this, but for me it will help putting it here and then referring people to it who ask me." ....

Origins of the terms "Emerging" and "Emergent" church - Part 2

Excerpt... "I started writing what I understand as the origins of the terms "the emerging church" and "emergent" or "the emergent church" in the previous blog entry which was Part 1.

With all the wondering about the origins of the names and even web sites, I was motivated to look up web sites to see when they were first started in figuring out the time period when these terms were being used. Tony Jones suggested I post these dates here for those wanting to know more about timing and origins." ....

Circuitrider Article

Barry passed this along... looks like the E-word made it into a UMC publication.

Click here to read an article by District Superintendent, Susan Cox Johnson.

My Worldview

Mike led me to this... What's your theological worldview??

Me...

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern.

You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

Emergent/Postmodern 93% Classical Liberal 64% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 61% Modern Liberal 57% Roman Catholic 50% Charismatic/Pentecostal 50% Neo orthodox 46% Reformed Evangelical 43% Fundamentalist 14% Here's Julie...

Emergent/Postmodern 79% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 75% Roman Catholic 61% Neo orthodox 43% Charismatic/Pentecostal 43% Classical Liberal 43% Modern Liberal 29% Reformed Evangelical 21% Fundamentalist 7% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

The theologian(s) I am most like... here

You scored as Martin Luther.

The daddy of the Reformation. You are opposed to any Catholic ideas of works-salvation and see the scriptures as being primarily authoritative.

Friedrich Schleiermacher 67% Anselm 67% Martin Luther 67% John Calvin 60% Karl Barth 47% Jürgen Moltmann 40% Charles Finney 40% Paul Tillich 33% Jonathan Edwards 33% Augustine 33%

SPST Emergent II

Lunch Converesation... (bring a lunch or eat off of the buffet, $7)

"Orthodox Prayer Postures" led by Sr. Nonna Harrison 

Wednesday May 11th ~ 12:00-2:00

Saint Paul School of Theology ~ Holter Center (park between Cannon Hall and The Holter Center)

Please post a comment if you plan to stop by.

SPST Emergent

Today was a big day at Saint Paul School of Theology...

Registration continued, Student Council officers and reps were elected, and a student led group to support GLBT folks was established.

Beyond that, the biggest news of the day was the SPST Emergent lunch gathering. Today, we had 14 people join us for lunch. The last few times it has just been Jon and me. I suppose it helped that I sent out an email, hung up a few fliers, and invited one of the wisest humans on the orb to visit with us on the topic of leadership in the postmodern context. Dr. Robert Martin delivered the goods and challenged us to consider the following image... What would the church look like if we were to immerse ourselves in the practice of "Divine Life" and emerge out into the existence of that reality??

Mark your calendars now... May 11th we'll explore Orthodox Prayer Postures with Sister Nonna Harrison ~ 12:00 noon at the Holter Center.

Blogging 101

Jason Clark on blogging, go here.

Interesting...

Images

I had an opportunity today to share Jason Clark's image of emerging ministry with a few friends over a turkey burger at Red Robin. Now, I can't get the dang thing out of my mind. Jason mentioned that he was going to add a third axis and I wish he would get after it because I keep wanting to add a temporal axis right down the middle to indicate fluctuations or variations over time that might indicate growth of the Kingdom of God. My esteemed colleague continues to hammer my temporal desires, we shall see where master Clark lands with his 3rd axis. I think his image does well to articulate a grid that we can find ourselves on and perhaps even the ministries that we are a part of. It seems to me that we would do well, in the 21st century, to press both the theological and sociological perspectives for the sake of the Kingdom. Do we have the holy boldness to press on???

From Jason's Blog...

How are you engaging with Emerging Church?

A - Lots of theological deconstruction but still doing church in the same ways, same places and same mediums, but with a new message.
B - Same message, and same places and mediums
C - Same message but doing church in radical new space and with new mediums
D - Radical theological deconstruction new message in new places and with new mediums
-----------------------------

Jason...

"I have mentioned before that many who see themselves as part of emerging church see each other as not so. There are many descriptions of emerging church - tables and charts - and I don’t want to add to them. So this chart is not a guide to emerging church, but a process chart. I am in the process of adding a third axis, but for now have compressed mediums and locations into the title ‘sociology’.

By theology I mean re-thinking the very nature of what we believe and how people form beliefs in our culture. By sociology, I mean using mediums and spaces that are part of our culture." more here

Brian McLaren Remembers Stan Grenz

Go here...

Propositions

Fairly deep theology from Princeton. Check this out!!

Kronk, this one is for you. (allow 30 minutes)

Ordination 101

Click here to read Tony Jones' thoughts on ordination.

Bravo!!