Emerging Africa

The emergents and emerging church has been accused of heresy, sometimes this is explicit and at other times it is in the subtext of what people are saying and writing. I propose a synchroblog titled "emerging heresy" for Friday 18 April. The invitation is completely open and anyone is invited to participated regardless of whether you thing the emergent conversation is the best thing since sliced bread or the greatest scheme ever invented to uproot the church.

Though the online conversation is stimulating I'd like to suggest a Face-to-Face get together for all Capetonians interested in the emerging church.

I'm suggesting a braai and some drinks up in Constantia along with some conversation around what we're all doing. Understandably our visions vary, with some focused on community worship, others focused on social impact, and yet others concerned with evangelism of one sort or another. This can lead to some focused conversations around each other as people with vision and/or calling.

Any thoughts?

Any takers?

I've been watching BBC's Planet Earth a 5 disk series exploring our world. It is beautifully shot. The last disk focuses on the future and on the environmental issues sparked off while producing the series.

A powerful statement is made in these programs: nature puts humanity in its place because humanities place is in nature.

Do my fellow EA contributers consider environmental issues high on the agenda or are these viewed as equally not of African concern? Do those who consider "homosexuality" a "sin" equally consider our living and being in the world itself "sinful"? Are there any emerging church practitioners who're involved in environmental issues? If so, how could an emerging church embryo grow a green limb?

I've recently started working through using Nia (usually understood to be a new-agey dance experience) as worship. One of the things Nia focuses on is "energy" akin to how martial arts and the complementary healing practice do.

Traditionally Christians speak of "God" in the masculine and consider feminine references to lean toward Paganism or Goddess worship (aka Ishtar and company) and hence a charge of being syncretistic or heretical. Pagans and many spiritual seekers understand Christians to worship a male God. Moving beyond that...

Where do my fellow emergents stand on 1) women and leadership in church and 2) language usage arising from the notion of humans as image of Godself and hence becoming comfortable with reference to Godself in the feminine - Goddess and She?

I've recently posted an article on language usage with reference to "God" at timvictor.wordpress.com and welcome some comments there.

There's a synchroblog happening on halloween with a number of people participating. The title is "A Christian Response to Halloween". Seems like most people are looking toward redeeming the event for themselves or making use of the event to connect with others.

Two of us (at least but I'm not sure who esle) are part of emergent, so why not start with our blogs and let us see what you think:

http://timvictor.wordpress.com/
http://soundandsilence.wordpress.com/