The Emerging Grace Chronicles

This was originally started as a response to Emerging Grace's comment on the Brethren Hang Loose post, but as has happened once already with conversations between Grace and myself, it morphed into a post, and then became a series of posts.

I've divided this into sections for two reasons:

1. Posts that get too long don't get read, and
   
   
2. I wanted to make the comment sections specific to each part, in order to keep the flow of thought on each question/answer separate, because I'd really like to hear peoples' reactions.

Grace's original comment to the Brethren, Hang Loose post is as follows:

"That is incredible. It is amazing that it was written 35 years ago. I wonder what has happened in his life during that time. I sure hope I'm not still asking all these questions 25 years from now.

"Do you see church happening apart from the organization? Or is that not realistic considering our culture and the natural tendency to organize and institutionalize. Or do we each just go live our ministry apart from the institution?

"Still looking for answers oh wise one."

Grace, Bob Girard is the "wise one", as he's walked the whole detoxing road many years before us, worked hard at de-institutionalizing the church, seen the thrills, the fruit, the struggles and disasters along the way, and still has a vision for the church being the Body and not what he called "the glorious evangelical status quo".

When I spoke to Bob on the phone, while I was working on the Detoxing from Church article, we were discussing some of the destructured house churches that I was aware of that had not survived, and his comment was "I love house churches; I'm still committed to them, but they die so very easily."

"If they died," I asked, "does that suggest to you that they were a waste of time, or perhaps planted for the wrong reasons?"

"Not necessarily," he replied, "although sometimes God allows unhealthy house churches to die off before they poison others."

"But if they've done their job right -- equipping, releasing, building each other up -- then if they only last for a season, why is that a problem?" (Which got my mind turning in the whole area of asking Is Permanence a Value?)

Having read all four of Bob's books, which chronicle the whole journey including the dissolution of his church and the months it took him to recover from everything, I felt compelled to ask him if, knowing what he knows now, would he do it again?

"In a second," was his immedate response.

(Thus endeth Part 1 of my response to Emerging Grace)