House Church Talk - Thoughts on emerging

[Scott Dowlen]

Bob,

Thanks for posting the link below.  I read that entry, plus some of the
stuff on another blogger's site that linked from the one you gave.  I would
hope that what is 'emerging' is the heart of God and the mind of Christ.
Some folks are just looking for a new system under which to operate, but I
think the real issue is finding a place to be real with God and real with
other people so that God can manifest himself, his presence, and his power
to change the world. I think part of the process of getting real involves
throwing out all the old comfortable ways at least long enough to evaluate
whether it is something that really works or if it is just something that
feels good.

My wife had an old pair of house shoes that she dearly loved. They were old
and worn and had little strawberries all over them. She liked them because
they were familiar and part of her past. They were really ugly. When she got
rid of them, we got some that were better. The new ones looked better, and
did a better job of keeping her feet warm.

I look at my spiritual journey that way, too. Sometimes I hold on to the
rattiest, nastiest old beliefs and practices because they are familiar. God
has stripped me of much of that old garb and now we must see whether the old
things have value, or whether God has something better in His storehouse.

Since this part of my journey started, I've grown in unexpected ways and
started asking unexpected questions. I am a long way from having the
answers, but I am holding the hand of the One who has those answers and
more...

Most of us here can see that the contemporary 'church' does little to change
the world - and rarely really changes individuals. The change that is
happening seems to be happening when people get personal with God. That's
what it means to me to get away from buildings and programs - we fall back
into a simpler condition of relationship. If we start walking with God,
we'll start to seem really radical to the world around us. When we really
hear his voice and get our leading from him we will be doing things that
haven't been seen much in almost 2000 years.  It all starts when we stop
what we have been doing and seek God's perspective to see if maybe he has
something better.

We get nit-picky about the details of the 10 commandments, and Jesus said
they boil down to just two: Love God and Love people.  Not that the details
are bad or wrong, but they are meaningless if picking nits is the
motivation. So we need to put ourselves in places to grow in love with God
and pour out love on other people - and have love poured on us!!  The way
that people will know we belong to Him is not in how and where we meet, not
in whether we can write our doctrines in neat poems, not in whether we are
good upstanding citizens. The one unshakable mark of a child of God is the
love that flows out of that child.  If we can grab onto the idea that love
is under and in everything we do, we won't be an 'emerging' church, we'll be
an exploding church! And the work will be his and not ours.



Signing up for God's course: Love 101,
Scott Dowlen


> -----Original Message-----
> From: House Church Talk -bounces at housechurch.org
> [mailto:House Church Talk -bounces at housechurch.org]On Behalf Of Bob Bowen
> Sent: Monday, 29 December, 2003 11:14 AM
> To: House Church Talk  at housechurch.org
> Subject: House Church Talk -  Thoughts on emerging
>
>
> There's an interesting dialog on a web log about the
> "emerging church".  Go to
>
> http://www.vbcc.net/alancreech/index.html and check out the
> post and associated comments regarding the "emerging church".
>  Just click on the "comments" link at the end of this blog post.
>
> I'd love to hear you guys thoughts on all this.
>
> God bless you guys.  I pray blessings on each of you in 2004.
>
> Bob Bowen