Mon 20 Nov 2006
Right now my podcast feeder is downloading last night’s program of The Spirit of Things (ABC Radio National), which I haven’t listened to yet. The title of the program is Emerging Church: Small Boat Big Sea. Must be a look into the small Manly community. I’ve got some shopping and housework to do, so can’t listen to it now.
Go get it yourself at: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/sot_20061119.mp3
Update: I’ve just listened to the podcast. It was a breezy sail through SBBS, and offered a thorough and warm illustration of daily life in the community. While the preliminary focus was on community life, it finished with an in-depth interview with Mike Frost about his book, Exiles. I’ve always thought Rachel Kohn (the program presenter and interviewer) to be a little warm to evangelicalism (not that there’s anything wrong with that), at least the Sydney version of it, and her presentation seems at some instances to place the emerging church, and SBBS as an example, against it. But she did it positively and warmly, as always. Good to hear Frost’s passion for social justice come through.
It’s not the first time the emerging church has been discussed on the ABC, and in nearly all stories I’ve heard it’s described as the new church for Gen Y, or X. Or it’s the christianity for post-christians. Are these descriptions fair? If you need to describe the emerging church in a five-second sound-byte then power to it, but there is so much more to it, I think.
Technorati: Emerging church, Spirit of Things, Mike Frost, Small Boat Big Sea.
November 20th, 2008 at 16:31
Thanks for your accurate and straightforward take on the missional/incarnational church movement, which you referred to as the “emerging church.” The latter title carries a great deal of ambiguity, referring to a movement so wide it is losing meaning. Moreover, the traditional church is so angry at the “emerging” church that it fails to engage in conversation with anyone labeled as such. Frost has clarified a component of the church culture which is more in tune with “social justice” (borrowing from you) and living out Jesus’ story seven days a week. This contrasts with the Christian tradition that manifests itself in a Sunday morning theatre and not much during the rest of the week.
November 20th, 2008 at 17:07
Hey no probs TC. Thanks for commenting. I totally agree with what I read in your comment, though there are parts of the traditional church that are open to the growth of missional/emerging. Many groups, such as the ones in Sydney, are even dependent of it financially.