What does it mean to follow Jesus ion the Emerging post-modern culture we find our selves in?

What does it mean to follow Jesus in the Emerging post-modern culture we find our selves in?
I have wrestled with this question for quite some time now... I found inspiration (in a book, big surprise for those of you who know me) from Phyllis Tickle’s extraordinary new thoughts in "The great Emergence."

Let me take a stab explaining at a new incite I gained from her...


What is Emergent? It depends on where you are comming from, or rather what your perspective on following Jesus is.

Lets start with a picture of concentric rings (five circles ones inside the other like a bulls eye) and a metaphor of inheriting a house:

There are some folks, on the outer most ring, that will not change anything ever. the furniture and even landscaping will always remain the same. to even suggest that there is anything wrong with the house they inherited from their grand -parents is tantamount to treason.

The next group of folks, on the next ring in, are willing to redecorate, get new furniture, plant new flowers and maybe pave the driveway but nothing to extensive. They view the house as fine just a little dusty and dated.

The next group of folks, on the next ring in, are willing to gut the house and do a total remodel. The house and land are an important inheritance, and they have fond memories, but they also recognize that the house is not functional (because it was built by their ancestors and added on to by several successive generations).

The next group of folks, on the next ring in, are going to bulldoze the house! They see the land as a heritage and have a firm grasp of their roots. But they know that the house is not the treasure but the land is. They will build new structures and seek new ways to use the land.

The last group of folks in the center is going to burn down the house and walk away from the land. They will become nomads, because they only remember the abuses and negative things that happened in the house. They will carry with them their inheritance in their hearts and minds.

Now each group sees everyone else who is farther inside of these circles than they are as emergent (which is just a way to describe a new form of Christianity).

So the question has become where are you?

That will help you discover how you can follow Jesus in these new (some would say ancient) things he is doing.

Does that make sense?


http://being-the-body.blogspot.com/