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Philip Clayton on Big Tent Christianity

August 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Philip Clayton recently wrote about Big Tent Christianity on Patheos.com. Here is an excerpt and you can click below to read the entire article. We highly recommend giving it a read.

More boldly, “big tent” is also a prophetic challenge to the rancorous debates and condemnations that are the church’s public face today. Christians on the Left and on the Right look more and more like Washington: you are on one side or the other of that great aisle or chasm; everything you say and do plays to your own party. Unity hardly exists, even as a goal. Even Patheos has to offer separate “portals” so that evangelicals and mainliners don’t have to enter through the same door.

Read his entire article here.

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A Brief History of Presbymergent

May 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Over on my blog, Pomomusings, I just completed a 3-part series entitled, “A Brief History of Presbymergent.” If you’d like to read the entries, you can begin here with Part 1.

Below is an excerpt from Part 3 of the series, and offers some thoughts and hopes about the future of Presbymergent.

I’m not entirely sure where we go from here. But I’m confident in the amazing group of folks who self-identify as part of the Presbymergent community. I’m hopeful that there will continue to be ways that people find to “hack the Book of Order” and be able to do new and creative ministry in a time of mainline decline. I’m hopeful that the denomination may begin to realize that they need the loyal radicals and work harder to find ways to support those of us who want to try new things. I hope that there will be groups who are not afraid of failure and committees who are not afraid to put their trust in younger pastors. I pray that more and more seminarians will feel confident enough to continue asking “WHY?” when professors at our seminaries teach us the same old things and tell us what worship is “supposed” to look like.

“Welcome to Presbymergent. What’s the first rule of Presbymergent? You do not talk about Presbymergent.”

Sure there will probably be some organization at some point…sure we’ll have to talk about our goals and discern more what our purpose is in the church that is emerging. But for now…maybe we don’t need to talk about Presbymergent – maybe we just need to be Presbymergent…maybe we just need to be out there, engaging the world, being the church and perhaps the rest will follow.

I’d love for you to check out the series and let me know your thoughts.

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What wisdom can be found in the intersection of emergent and mainline?

April 5, 2010 By 3 Comments

A core value that Presbyterians hold is that of “connectionalism”.   The discovery or rediscovery the nature of this connectionalism is, I think, at the heart of the matter.

Previously held models of connection were based mostly on local initiatives, small story contexts, and homogeneous conversation partners.  The glue that held the PC(USA) together has been mostly institutionally based polity and judicatory structures.  This seemed to work pretty well until the middle of the last century when the world began to shift.  The scaffolding of this structure remains intact but the building that it once supported is going through a major renovation.  Like the anonymous poet said, “I thought the fire was out.  I stirred the ashes and burnt my finger.”  This core value of connectionalism can be a wonderful gift to the emerging world, IF we can find a way to change the scaffolding to fit the emerging structure.

This new structure, or emerging structure, is the gift that can be offered to the PC(USA) institution.  Here are a few aspects of a new connectionalism that I think can once again become a core value and gift to the wider church. [Read more...]

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