Suspicious

So maybe I should write a post of my own for a change. Not that I haven't. But I haven't rocked the blog in quite awhile. A lot of it has to do with swirling thoughts (tho that usually doesn't stop me). Swirling thoughts about things very close to my heart, especially the church. It's a love-hate relationship sometimes. At times elating, at other times completely frustrating. And I'm not just talking about one particular community. It's just the way it's always been, the opposing feelings. Up in Kingston a few weeks back, I had a great chance to chat with my friend Trevor. Trev was one of the central people in my life for quite awhile. We had this group of friends. Artists. Performers. Musicians. Promoters. Someone always had a show, or knew of a good show, and we all banded about together. We supported one another in our art, and we brought each other to explore new things. It was about more than art, though. It was about community, primarily, and a Christian community. No matter what church we attended (or not), no matter which campus group we affiliated with (or not), there was always an underlying spiritual dimension. We were always chilling in the QP, talking about faith, theology, and how that all interacted with real life. We had so many great conversations in the pub. In some ways, I guess we were a mobile church - a mobile gathering of similarly focused people who wanted to see worship and faith take place multidimensionally. To our experience, and to our peers, Christianity was this one-dimensional thing that people did. It wasn't about who you were, or where you were going. It was like a one-day-a-week stopover in an otherwise disconnected journey. It's funny to think that what we were doing back then has now been labeled, packaged, and marketed as "emergent." Talking to Trev the other week, it was really interesting to think of what we had been doing as "emergent." We certainly didn't think of ourselves that way. We were just this organically formed community of people concerned for one another, and for the good of the broader community. That's why I'm suspicious. I'm suspicious of becoming "emergent." I think I'd much prefer to engage in community with people. People with whom I can live, people whom I can love. A group of people not only focused on what's going on with us, but with our surrounding community. Seeking to transform it (albeit slowly) with the love of Christ. I wonder how or if this same thing would operate now that a bunch of us have moved to the big bad city. Tags: Community Building, Emerging Church, Toronto