Emerging Africa

In his book A new kind of Christianity Brian McLaren poses 10 questions that he thinks Christians should be asking.

1. What is the overarching story line of the Bible?

2. How should the Bible be understood?

3. Is God violent?

4. Who is Jesus and why is he important?

5. What is the Gospel?

6. What do we do about the Church?

7. Can we find a way to address human sexuality without fighting about it?

8. Can we find a better way of viewing the future?

9. How should followers of Jesus relate to people of other religions?

10. How can we translate our quest into action?

Roger Schroeder, well-known missiologist, Professor of Intercultural Ministries and co-author of the influential “Constants in Context” visits South Africa.
The Department of Science of Religion, in co-operation with Communitas from Stellenbosch, invites you to a day conference on the 24th March 2010 with prof. Schroeder, prof. Nico Botha (UNISA) and dr. Marius Nel. The theme will be “Missionary by its very nature”. Prof. Schroeder will lecture on the book Acts and the church emerging in mission.
Where: NG Gemeente Doornpoort, 841 Boababst. 841, Doornpoort, Pretoria See www.ngdoornpoort.co.za
Cost R100

Navrae/Inquiries
Daleen Kotze
Tel. 0124202348 (Kantoor ure)
Daleen.Kotze@up.ac.za

Prof. Nelus Niemandt
nelus.niemandt@up.ac.za

Program

Some time ago some people said they would like to know more of the history of the apartheid period and Christian responses to it. So I've been writing a series of "Tales from Dystopia" for anyone whose interested in that sort of thing, and the latest in the series is Tales from Dystopia V: Sophiatown and ethnic cleansing on my Khanya blog.

May 3 - 10 sees the 4th Amahoro Gathering take place, this time in Mombasa, Kenya. I've been to two Amahoro Gatherings and have found them immensely significant, since Amahoro is on the other side of the coin to the emerging conversation (taking place in Western contexts) as it looks at the impact of the colonial narrative on the Gospel, and where that leaves us now.

Here's an mp3 of Brian McLaren taking about "Post-modern and post-colonial": two sides of the same coin, which helps me frame Amahoro nicely.

This post is very much like the original purpose of a blog -- an annotated log of web sites visited. This one is copied from my Khanya blog

When I first encountered the Emerging Church movement about four years ago I was puzzled about what it was. Today I encountered one of the best descriptions I've seen: Some thoughts on the definition of 'emerging church':

Reclaiming the Mission: Why is the Emergent/Missional Church So White?:The lack of diversity in the Missional Church (and for that matter the Emerging Church) is a main topic at this year’s Missional Learning Commons coming up here the first week of January in Ft. Wayne.

That blog post is well worth reading, and I think it could lead to some discussion here, if we ask how true it is of Southern Africa, and what it means in this part of the world.

So here's my comment on that post - what do others think?

Heh all you special people. I am wondering as to whether the time has come to set this space up in a place where it is more accesible - like facebook - although there may be some or many who find that quite invasive. I am struggling to keep up with all the conversations and wonder whether there is worth in combining it a bit into something we all open daily. What do you all think ?

Matt Stone has just been reading Scot McKnight's summary of the Three Central Missional Conversations according to Alan Roxburgh and M. Scott Boren. Matt's transliteration:

Conversation 1: Understanding the West is now a mission field

Conversation 2: Rethinking the gospel in terms of God's mission

Conversation 3: Recasting the church as a contrast community

And Scot's addition:

Conversation 4: It's home brewed nature

And my response:

I suppose I'm sufficiently postmodern to want to question 2 and 3. I don't understand 4.

Concerning 1 - when *wasn't* the West a mission field?

My blogging friend Matt Stone of Glocal Christianity tagged me: Summarise the Bible in five statements, the first one word long, the second two, the third three, the fourth four and the last five words long. Or possibly you could do this in descending order. Tag five people.

My answer is on my blog at The Bible in five statements, and I've tagged five specific people there, but since no one has posted anything in a fortnight, I thought it might prompt some action if I posted it here with an open tag and said anyone can have a go.

Why does this site does not engender much enthusiam? Has it had its time, and we need to move onto another platform, or just get on with it in the real world?

Any comments (still) welcome...