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?

Recently I read two sections of the Old Testament that challenged my understanding of the person of God and the notion of "covenant". I refer to Genesis 16 and 21. In these chapters, God reveals His compassion in ways that even then should have made the authors of scripture consider carefully their position in relation to God.

I am a newcomer to the ideas of the Emergent Church. When I first encountered references to the Emergent Church I must admit that I was most concerned. This was before I had really encountered the element of dialogue and conversation that informs Emergent discussion.

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.

Last month (July 2008), evangelical Christian magazine Joy featured an article on the Emergent Church.

Graeme Codrington responded on his blog post called "Lies about truth", which I recommend, but I wanted to add my voice to his, because I think the general view as put out by publishers such as these are distinctly one sided. I feel full of hope and excitement at what the EC movement is bringing to us, and I can't watch those with the media say-so simply dominate the "debate".

Modernism: The predominant worldview of the 20th Century, comprising of:

1. The culmination of the Individual as Ideal, at the expense of Community.
   
2. A belief in "Progress": Man's indominitability and superiority in the Order of Things, as represented in his unsustainable exploitation of the Earth.
   
3. A faith in technology - abstraction from nature - to provide man's needs.
   
4. A hope in a final, universal, and therefore static, solution to mans problems.
   
5. A denial that the creative process is ongoing, and that we will forever be faced with the unknown.
   
6. An epistemology (theory of knowledge) based in rationality at the expense of emotional intelligence and intuition.

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 ?

I am becoming aware of a tension between 2 strands of Emergence - the postcolonial and the postmodern.

This tension provides us not with a problem to be solved via a bosvergadering or an ecumenical council, as in politics, but rather an opportunity. I have been noting various grumbles from either "camp" towards the other; the postcolonials suggesting the postmoderns are theorists, out of touch with African issues, and the postmoderns suggesting that there is a good reason to theorise, deconstruct and analyse, as well as to take the lead of European philosophical and church movements.

Over the last couple of weeks there have been some discussion on the fact that the "emerging conversation" in South Africa has been predominantly white.

Cobus van Wyngaard has blogged about this. Reggie Nel has responded. I have commented on this in my Khanya blog.

As many of you know, I’ve been writing a book on gender and Christianity for the last few years. Having read too many academic books written by foreigners, I’d really love it if some of you could take the time to answer some questions on my new blog to give me more of a first-hand perspective.

I'm looking for comments on:
1. When did you become aware that men and women were treated differently within society? What was your response?
2. When did you become aware that men and women were treated differently within the church? What was your response?
3. Has your view on gender changed over the years? Why and how?