Emergent church

Today I attended Clergy Day at Fremont Abbey in Seattle. The speaker was Ian Mobsby, a priest from the Church of England who spoke about his work with the "emergent church".

The emergent church is an attempt to make the Gospel accessible to people living in a psotmodern age. Ian reminded us how many people say, "I'm spiritual but not religious". That's a classic expression of postmodern society. People today are skeptical of authority and institutions, and they reject church structures. People in a consumer society think they should be able to shop for their spirituality, and so they create their own spiritual practices with a grab-bag attitude - a little of this, a little of that.

People today want experience over doctrine, and the emergent church tries to reach back to earlier forms of Christian worship that were highly experiential, like chant, incense, candles, and sung prayer. They try to live close to their neighborhoods, bringing social change close to home. They do their theology in coffee shops and bars, not in classrooms. Building community is a high priority for them.

I like the ideas I heard expressed. The Church of the Apostles, based at Fremont Abbey, is composed of twenty-somethings, and it's exciting to know they're finding new ways to follow Jesus. I think I may be too old to really understand the emergent church, but I'm glad someone's doing it.

After lunch I went outside and made a sketch of the church (above).
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