Article: "The Emerging Church Is..."

A friend gave me an article from the Patriot News written about the Emerging Church. While the article itself was quite interesting and a great topic of discussion for us, I thought one of the most interesting parts was the following sidebar description:

The Emerging Church is...

• Not an act of preservation
• "Missional," serving the community
• Human. "It matters who's in church."
• Young
• Open, often undefined by statements of faith
• Integrated
• Experimental
• Familial
• Holistic
• "Much more about living the way of Jesus than believing the right thing."

This, and much of the content of the article, is attributed to Doug Pagitt, pastor of the Minneapolis emerging church Solomon's Porch.

A few of these descriptors might evoke some deep feelings in you...or some deep thoughts, forcing you to either say something like "right on!" or "you must be crazy!". Either way it's good to think, huh?! I must say that it's hard to find such a list of descriptors from many Emergent sources as it's not really a defined movement (as many say, it's more of a conversation).

I find myself really pulled toward this...conversation. I couldn't agree more with the last descriptor...that this life isn't about rules, philosophies...dogma. It's about becoming more and more in every way like Jesus. When we are doing this so many of the other descriptors found above might even begin occurring naturally.

Anyway, just wanted to share this tidbit for anyone out there finding themselves wondering "what is this emerging church thing?".