The people formerly known as ….
There are two brilliant posts going around bloggosphere at the moment. The first is by Bill Kinnon called The People Formerly Known As The Congregation it is well worth the read. Here is a little bit of what Bill writes:
“You offered us a myriad of programs to join - volunteer positions to assuage our desire to be connected. We could be greeters, parking lot attendants, coffee baristas, book store helpers, children’s ministry workers, media ministry drones - whatever you needed to fulfill your dreams of corporate glory. Perhaps you’ve noticed, we aren’t there anymore.
We are The People formerly known as The Congregation. We have not stopped loving the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Nor do we avoid “the assembling of the saints.” We just don’t assemble under your supposed leadership. We meet in coffee shops, around dinner tables, in the parks and on the streets. We connect virtually across space and time - engaged in generative conversations - teaching and being taught.”
The next post doing the rounds is found on Emerging Grace and is called The Underlying Issues this is widely seen as the follow up to Bill Kinnon’s. An excerpt from Grace’s post:
“This is not a simple case of “for or against.” There are specific issues that we are convinced have been a hindrance to growth in the maturity of the church and the advancement of the kingdom of God.
Do we have a better way? Oftentimes not. However, we have placed ourselves in a position of learning and experimenting. We will boldly or perhaps foolishly go against the status quo in our attempts to follow the direction of God’s movement.”
Do go and read both posts - you will benefit from it.
Bill Kinnon, Emerging Graceabout
Posted on April 6, 2007
Posted by lynhallewell
[...] Following my post yesterday, this morning I came across The People Formerly Known As The Pastor by John Frye. It is an honest and painful post which highlights the experiences and disillusionment of those in church leadership. Do read this along side the links I posted in the people formerly known as … It would be great to hear your thoughts and comments. church leadership, disillusionment, emerging church, john frye Cat: [...]
I had some doubts about Bill’s post which i blogged about. I have come across this post by jamie arpin-ricci which i think is a brilliant follow up building on Bill’s post and taking it forward by trying to imagine the future rather than being defined by the past, the community becoming to be known as missional
http://emergentvoyageurs.blog.com/1664695/?page=last&msgsuccess=1#cmts
Agree, Jamie’s post is great. It is everything I think of in terms of Christianity. I blogged about it above. There have been a series of good posts. I think Bill, Grace and Jamie should get together and write a book!