I remember learning the song soon and very soon when I was a little kid coming up in the church. I remember discovering the sentiment in it was used by white Christians to placate blacks during slavery telling them that their reward, their release from oppression, would come soon, in the next life, at the end of eternity.
Now I hear it again from the emergent conversation. Scott McKnight has an interesting post about conversations he is having with emergent leaders types (all white and male with the exception of a spouse) at the National Pastors Conference. He reports from his conversation that they are serious about theology and the intersection of
All this group of folks care about is theology …..They’re really into the intersection of theology, culture, and praxis.
When someone (Rick of new life emerging) commented as I have that the conversation was lacking
“conversation” from minority voices– like African Americans or the feminist perspective. (Yes, I know how white dudes roll their eyes when confronted with this reality) This seems mainly like an evangelical group who is “high” on the next best thing.
He was tagged as griping. Can you say "shut down the conversation." Another commenter said this
I can understand the frustration with the seeming fruitlessness, the overemphasis on talking, the lack of diversity, etc. But things take time.
I remember hearing this just wait two years ago when I first started raising these questions. Soon and very soon. Now I’m not trying to take on Scott or any of the other emergent leaders he mentioned. They are clearly more theologically sophisticated than me. But as person of color trying to emerge into Christian practice beyond the modern and postmodern hoopla I am stuck with these questions:
How long before it isn’t griping to call the emergent conversation to account for its stated values?
How long before we see real evidence of the intersection between theology and praxis? I mean beyond candles and worship stuff.
How long before it is time to expect something more than talk?
I hear a rising chorus of Soon and very soon and I say
How long emergent? How long?
Tags: Brian_McLaren, church_leadership, emergent, emerging_church, neophilia, scott_mcknight
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2) to Andre Daley, who’s website is now one of my favs to read, mainly b/c he is the kind of critic that emergent really needs but hasn’t had yet. Check out his comments on being “post-emergent,” on “neophilia,”,the slow-to-develop praxis of emergent,and the conversation’s lack of diversity, among others. He also was how I found the Driscoll apology, which he linked.
I read the post and comments as well and noticed how the conversation was shut down. I posted over at my site and linked back to your post about being post-emergent. I had so much hope for the ‘conversation’ early on and how it could benefit my family and our faith. Now, I am not so sure…
Hey Rich, You’ve got some interesting posts on your blog. I’ll be referencing some of them soon. I appreciate your willingness to raise the tough questions and allow people to disagree and not shut down the conversation. For the life of me I don’t understand why some in the emergent conversation get so defensive when we raise hopeful questions urging the conversation into being more that it is. I’m glad I can be emerging and post emergent.
Thanks for stopping by an commenting. I appreciate the link.
I have really begun to wonder what OrthoPraxis is without orthodoxy…To me the whole thing isbegining to look like a good idea gone terribly awry. I think it is time to confront the factthat alot of the ideas bandied about by the movement have ceased to be Christian.
Dave,
I don’t think it is an either or proposition. We need both a generous orthodoxy and a generous orthodoxy. I’m not comfortable with the direction some of the theological conversation has taken either. But I’m not willing to dismiss the whole movement because some people are pushing the theological envelope. Ideas are just ideas. If there is covenant accountability involved then there are checks and balances to see to some of your concerns