Missional-emerging church - the divine uncertainty
OK - so it's over a year since I wrote anything. And (again) this won't be a long piece. It arises from meeting with several leaders in UK missional-emerging-somewhat-trendy-but-all-very-dedicated church communities over the last fortnight.
And while my summation of that experience will wait until I have had more time to reflect, one short phrase occurs: "divine uncertainty". In the midst of all that has been good, and passionate, and wonderfully godly, in the people that I have met, I have detected a (sometimes unacknowledged) uncertainty that I have found beautifully healthy.
Frankly, no two expressions of church among those I have met with have been the same. Occasional similarities have arisen - and some common themes. More on those later. But generally, among the six or seven communities that I have engaged with (however briefly), flux is the common factor. Some with a greater anxiety about change might even term it chaos.
But I have come to wonder whether this is not, in fact, an essential component of true community as it needs to be expressed in our current age. I will never come to the place where I am willing to state that "nothing is certain". My long-term experience of a relationship with Jesus negates that possibility. But I am left with the view, that in the current state of church, very few things are able to attract the appellation of certainty.
I consider this a God-thing. My sense is that this journey of "divine uncertainty" may be just what God is doing in our midst, and it may just lead to faith communities that find their source, and inspiration, and continuing dynamic, in the ever active breath of God, as the Spirit engages with our changing world and seeks to create new paths to the divinely desired ends.
And while my summation of that experience will wait until I have had more time to reflect, one short phrase occurs: "divine uncertainty". In the midst of all that has been good, and passionate, and wonderfully godly, in the people that I have met, I have detected a (sometimes unacknowledged) uncertainty that I have found beautifully healthy.
Frankly, no two expressions of church among those I have met with have been the same. Occasional similarities have arisen - and some common themes. More on those later. But generally, among the six or seven communities that I have engaged with (however briefly), flux is the common factor. Some with a greater anxiety about change might even term it chaos.
But I have come to wonder whether this is not, in fact, an essential component of true community as it needs to be expressed in our current age. I will never come to the place where I am willing to state that "nothing is certain". My long-term experience of a relationship with Jesus negates that possibility. But I am left with the view, that in the current state of church, very few things are able to attract the appellation of certainty.
I consider this a God-thing. My sense is that this journey of "divine uncertainty" may be just what God is doing in our midst, and it may just lead to faith communities that find their source, and inspiration, and continuing dynamic, in the ever active breath of God, as the Spirit engages with our changing world and seeks to create new paths to the divinely desired ends.
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