Emerging Africa

It seems that we are in the process of a shift in how we define church once again and as Phyllis Tickle so clearly shows in The Great Emergence - this is a phenomena which occurs every 500 years. Does it have to take that long for us to work out that we need to change ?
How do we find ways to reexamine our faith and explore again the ways in which we do things and then adjust if necessary and if not we'll need to open up to opportunities?

It is always interesting to see the conversations developing at this time around our purpose as a people. What is encouraging is that we are at last talking to each other and that creates sparks of opportunity.

When Jesus came and instituted the church as a part of His body, it was clear that He saw an emergency and hence what I would like to call the "Emergency church" as opposed to just emergent, although I am thrilled and exstatic, that "emergent" and "emerging" are part of our time.

It seems that we have the unique opportunity of working within the creative and vibrant arena of Africa, with its mash of history and its full of beauty. It is within this context that I'm exploring the enormous challenge of bridge building between what we have always done as church and what will take us into the future world. What will bridge that gap is the question and what does that gap look like ? We have so many interesting recourses at our disposal and I would enjoy some conversation on the topic if anyone is interested in this ?

When identifying yourself as a Christian it may well be that you need to get into the context of Antioch and the first time that people were called "Christians" Acts 11:26. It was a little like "jerk"or "methodist" or "nerd". Heh what a pleasure to begin to identify with this glorious title of humility.

It's great when you hear stories of people being jerks for Jesus in a way that the world would think they are crazy but heh the good Lord just smiles. I have a person like this in our church who has planted a vegie garden near Diepsloot for children who don't have a square meal every day. She just does it 'cause she is compelled by God to be a jerk. Others will watch and say why ? And she will say WHY NOT???