A Twitter Theology

This post is cross-posted today from Adam Copeland‘s blog, A Wee Blether. You can comment here on this post or follow the conversation happening on this site.

A Twitter skeptic and a Twitter user (who we’ll call a “Tweep”) sit drinking delicious locally-brewed adult beverages. The Skeptic asks the Tweep, “I think Twitter is a bunch of hooey. You’re on Twitter all the time, explain to me why I shouldn’t write it off as completely tangential to the Church.”

The Tweep responds, “No problem. In fact, I’ll take you one step further and explain how Twitter helps me understand the Church and live more faithfully, but first, you have to help me out. Can you explain to me what you understand “the Church” to be in the first place?”

Skeptic: No problem, the Church, as you surely know is the “body of Christ” as we find described often in the New Testament. Some form of this phrase is in Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Hebrews. By using the “body of Christ” phrase, I don’t think Paul means the Church is Christ’s body in a literal sense. Rather, he was using the metaphor of a body to explain the connections in the Church. Of course, that’s not all, scripture also refers to the Church as the people of God, as the new creation, and lots of other images, actually.

Tweep: Ok, sounds good so far. But, what does that mean? Or to put it another way: how do you tend to think about the Church? I mean, do you think “body” when you think “Church” or what?

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Greetings to y’all and a request…

Hey there! I just registered on Presbymergent and wanted to introduce myself. My name is Sarah and I am an MDIV at Harvard Divinity School. I am under care with San Jose Presbytery and am about to go up for candidacy. Anyways, I found presbymergent after my experiences within the larger emergent movement, particularly in Boston.

Anyways, I was so excited to learn that there is such a thing as a presbymergent movement… I love everything that emergent is about but sometimes feel sort of like an outsider at Boston, because despite everything I still feel quite tied to my denomination and called to ministry within it. It can be frustrating I guess, this love-hate relationship, but I would rather struggle with PCUSA and create something new and meaningful in the process than give up on it.

So that’s a bit about me. If anyone wanted to know more, here is my blog: deeperinmethani.wordpress.com.

I also have a question to ask of this forum. As many of you may know, part of being under care includes field work. I have been working the past year in a more traditional setting for a church that I care for dearly; however, I am now starting to look around and see if I can find something to do for the summer to finish that requirement. My dream is to find a placement that would allow me to cut loose, to influence and be influenced by the emergent movement in my internship. I had started to look for places and had been interested by a few, such as Broad Street Ministry, but what I came to realize is that it is really difficult to find places if you don’t know where to look. So I thought perhaps maybe some of the folks on this site might have some suggestions. Generally speaking, I was hoping to find a placement in the Northeast somewhere, either in Boston area or Philadelphia would be nice but I am not limited to those places by any stretch. I was also hoping to see if anyone knew of a place that is really involved in local community initiatives and social justice. Anyways, I hope I don’t sound needy or anything, I just don’t even know where to begin to look.

If you have any suggestions, I know that I would certainly appreciate it. I am so excited about the prospect of ministry and would love to find a place to belong, if only for a summer, that could help me keep that fire burning. Thanks again

What’s in a name?

I’ve just come from a visioning committee meeting, a gathering of folks interested in starting a “new faith community” (Is that what the kids are calling it these days?) in a growing part of Santa Fe, NM. Many on the committee are retired PC(USA) clergy; I’d say the average age of those doing the visioning is around 60 years including me—a thirty-two year old.

As we were envisioning something new, discussion came up regarding a flyer/mailing to be circulated to the target communities announcing an initial information session for any would-be interested community members looking for a new faith community. As we considered focus and direction for such a faith community, I noticed that there was a phrase on the flyer saying something like: “Sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Presbytery of Santa Fe.” I asked: Do we have to say that?
Subsequent discussion commentary such as: being “up-front” about who we are, about liability of all things, and not being deceptive. A vote was taken and the majority felt it important that this new church plant have Presbyterian written on its advertising.

So I’m throwing it out there. Do we, in this—according to Nishioka and others—post-denominational age, have to announce we are Presbyterian when doing new church plants? If so, why? (and please don’t tell me for liability…good-grief). Would it be disingenuous not to say our denomination on advertisements? If a group of new church planters opts to “conceal” denominational identity, when would/ should this information be revealed? What would be the reaction when this information is revealed to those who didn’t know?

In very simplistic observations, it seems that those “denominations” that don’t advertise their denomination when doing a church plant have had good “success,” and perhaps recognize that people just don’t care so much. But this “success” doesn’t just come from them not advertising their denomination. So the question, I suppose is, can we be Presbyterian without having it written on our advertising? (Ironically, the PCA seems to have accomplished this.)

Oh, by the way, in case you are wondering who I am, I’m a recently ordained Presbyterian MWS, serving a small church in Santa Fe. This is my first post to this blog. We’ll see how it goes.