In the past few days I have attended a "town hall meeting" with our church to discuss the direction it should take and I dropped in a few times at the pastor's conference held at the camp.
After experiencing and talking with these people I think the emerging church cannot be based on the support and finances of the establish church. It must be established through the people whose hearts are being led in that direction. We must sit down in conversation and stories with the olders but not expect them to change. We must use grace and love in our sharing with them this vision that God seems to be giving us about our worship and meeting. I don't think it is possible to expect them to change, nor should they. But our heart must be of love. If we approach them as Moses approached pharaoh to let his people go (whoa baby...) they with the power and the dollar, we will never go anywhere. I was listening and talking to these two groups and there is such a cloud of fear that we don't need to add this weight on to these fragile people. We can criticize or we can organize. They are not holding us back. We are. They don't get it because there experience is different therefore their culture is different. We should honor their culture as we would any other instead of rebel against them. Also, if we leave and start something new and they have lost us, there is a good chance they will open the dialogue and welcome the input.
Peace
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