Tim
e for another happy dance (pause for jig Balki style). A cyber friend (and Jersey resident–three cheers for Jersey, land that I love), Thomas Turner, is involved with a new journal, Generate Magazine.
"GENERATE exists as a forum to retell the stories of the grassroots communities and individuals who are finding emerging and alternative means to follow God in the Way of Jesus . . . We/you are the conversation; our art, our lives, our hopes and failures all meet up with God’s approaching dreams for creation."
Three reasons to be excited about Generate:
- They incorporate art and theology to tell the story of our lives, not to illustrate them.
- Their website quotes one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes: "We read to know we are not alone." (When I read that quote, I thought, I’m not alone in thinking that! And, in fact, this is why I write. So that others may know they’re not alone.)
- And, drumroll please, their inaugural issue (which ships Oct. 1) contains a piece by yours truly.
What? you say. You’re not emergent.
True dat. I belong to an Anglican Church that is not emergent.
However.
I find much of the emergent conversation to be good and healthy not only for the group of people who consider themselves emergent but for non-emergent churches. Think of it this way: The Reformation spurred the Counter-Reformation in the Roman Catholic Church. I agree with many of their points, including a return to a Story/literary approach to the Bible (although, yes, many non-emergents had been doing this before emergent emerged), their emphasis on creation care as part of our God-given human responsibility, and their embracing of the arts as one means of being fully human.
Nothing is new under the sun. I don’t think the emergents came up with something we’d never seen before (in fact, many emergents remind us of our historical roots), but this group of people observed that certain things had been missing from a great number of American churches (not all, mind you–in fact, I know of a great number of churches who had been incorporating many of the "emergent elements," if you will, before emergent emerged).
This does not mean I agree with all emergent churches. (Let me be blunt here and say that I disagree with numerous points in the Acts 29 movement.) But "emergent" is not a denomination with a doctrinal statement. It is a movement, a conversation. And Generate exists to document that conversation.*
All this to say, this is why I submitted to Generate Magazine and why I’m honored to be included in their inaugural issue (which ships out Oct. 1–go here to subscribe).
*I wonder if they suspect what I do, namely that "emergent" is not necessarily something that will last. It acts as a catalyst for change, but just as we moved out of the Reformation into churches that embodied principles from the Reformation, I suspect we’ll move out of the emergent conversation and embody principles we learned in our churches. The Reformation came at a cultural shift as does the emergent conversation now. Perhaps that’s why it’s important to document this process.
(Side note: I do not think our churches need the same type or caliber of reformation as the Church at the time of the Reformation, although, let’s be honest, aren’t we all frustrated with the shallow, consumer approach to Christianity?)
