Words

As the "postmodern" or "emergent" church develops, there is this recurring conversation about what we call ourselves. Andrew Jones recently blogged about Emergent Vocabulary This is a needed conversation, but I hate the way we grasp on to words. This has frustrated me to no end. I sometimes feel that there are those of us who have a desperate need to label what we are in order to gain some kind of legitimacy. The fact is that many emergent churches don't follow a prescribed way of doing things. I have viewed words in this context as fences. They tend to be placed around a concept and then the concept has to be defined by the words used. Postmodern church,in many peoples minds, must involve candles, Lecto Devina, and ancient/future worship. That is not and never has been true. Fences are for management. They are a way to manage what is in and outside of them. I have never liked fences. I do not want to build a fence around what God is doing.

However, yesterday, I was having coffee with some like-minded souls and one of them suggested another way of looking at words. He suggested that we treat words like vines, rather than fences. If you are Tarzan, swinging from tree to tree, you use one vine to get from one tree to another further down the line. Then you switch vines to go further. The Vine/word we are on now, will, down the line lose its relevance and we will need to change. If we don't, we will end up swinging back. This whole picture appeals to me, however, the challenge will be helping people to understand that we are using words as vines, not as fences. The big problem here is, we like our fences.

Peace,

K