The least of these...

Now that I'm safe and sound back home in Winnipeg, I can return my attention to the blog...

James Mills, a self-described 'ecclesial dreamer' from Colorado, recently wrote a thought-provoking piece (July 8: 'Opening the Friendship Circle...') on whether or not some emerging groups might actually look more like exclusive cliques instead of the Body of Christ (my interpretation of his words; I'm not sure he would've used "clique"). His basic premise was that the glue that seems to hold some emergent gatherings together was that they consisted of people who were already friends and had many things in common -- in other words, there was a basic 'same-ness' to the members of the group, with little variation or variety.

Newcomers into such an ethos have a difficult time breaking into the existing group; in fact, in some groups, they simply don't try and drift off, and nobody seems to notice because at least the 'core members' are still together.

Karl Thienes, in his response to some things that Justin Baeder wrote, commented on his blog that:

"There is a closeness, a deep connection that is made when there is a common purpose--it is in sharing in the same worship, the same way of life, the same prayers, etc that we *truly* form the foundation any true friendship requires."

To me, these two themes are speaking to the same question, namely, are emerging groups about creating a safe place for enjoying already existing friendships, or are they about creating the kind of shared experiences that provide the ecclesiastical soil where deep, spiritual friendships can grow and flourish?

In other words, have our existing relationships become idols, or are we continually 'widening our tents' to make room for those who are different from us, who disrupt our nice little pomergent gatherings with their lack of 'sameness' to us, and who will probably change the dynamic of our groups -- permanently. Are we willing to pour ourselves out for the least and the last?

James Mills received a very strongly worded comment from a friend of his, saying "where the @#$% is my church"? When I read his friend's comments, I thought of some friends of ours here in Winnipeg, whose emailed thoughts are reflected in the following image (personal details have been omitted for privacy, and the girl in the picture is not the girl who sent me the email). They are representative of many people that I know who do not attend anything resembling 'institutional church' or 'emergent house group' after bad experiences in both. It is for the sakes of these hurting people that we need to give some careful thought to the question I wrote in bold letters above.