emerging and methodists
it might be best to start out with a disclaimer, i attended a umc seminary called drew and pastored a few umc churches in my day. now, that being said i still think a great deal of my theology is based more on the wesleyan traditions and less on other traditions. wesleyan theology connects for me - it allows me to develop a flow on information in my walk of faith that keeps me centered on Christ. I like that, and i think i know why -
the "wesleyan quadrilateral"
scripture - the Holy Bible (Old and New Testaments)
tradition - the two millennia history of the Christian Church
reason - rational thinking and sensible interpretation
experience - a Christian's personal and communal journey in Christ
for me, those allow me to develop a solid emerging walk that calls me to action, prayer and vocation. it allows me to see a christ-centered community of faith seeking to be a missional reality to the world we live in. it speaks to me of a ative and living faith where i can express a narrative theology, with an honest expression of a generous orthodoxy. it allows me to find an authontic community where people, all people - even the broken - can find a home and reach the face of God. in that community i can see to be in conversation and dialog with all people, regardless of where they are in their faith journey. i have found it to be a place where the community can express themselves in creative and dynamic ways.
are they perfect? no, but i can say that they are accepting of others - and that is cooler then being perfect.
2 comments:
A number of us emerging United Methodists have been connecting and conversing at the emergingumc blog. Joe Hazen from your site just put me onto ginkworld, and I've added a link to our blog.
Feel free to contact me if you'd like to explore ways we can collaborate on common projects.
Peace in Christ,
Taylor Burton-Edwards
Director of Worship Resources
The General Board of Discipleship of
The United Methodist Church
worship at gbod dot org
The issue of "authority" came in recently in a discussion group of which I am part (Clumsy sentence, but I had to avoid that villainous ending preposition.) I guess the Wesleyan Quadrilateral is about a close as I could get to a standing model.
That being said, I wonder if the emphasis on the whole idea of decision making in the light of authority might be too individualistic. I figure I do what I see before me, the next "right thing" (with a very healthy sense of my own fallibility) in the context of community, and then pray God works out the details. I guess the best way to describe it is like vectoring in physics. You can get something to move to the upper right by exerting two forces on it, one to the right, and one up.
I allow God to adjust my path through other community members and what they see and do, and pray that He can use me to do the same for others that I'm in community with. (Damn, there goes that preposition.) I guess I see Truth as something that exists outside me and just beyond my reach, but its certainly not beyond God's reach.
I seem to remember an instance, I think it was the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus tells the disciples to head for one city in the boat, but after the storm they put ashore somewhere else entirely. Maybe the storm caught Jesus unaware (shrugs) or maybe he knew where to aim them to get where he wanted to go when the storm pushed them somewhere else. (If I wasn't so lazy I'd look it up and put the reference here.)
Hopefully this is a bit more intelligible than word salad. I'm tired after a long day and my eyes are slightly crossed. :)
Peace John.
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