be-musings

With a title like that, I better come up with something good, hey?
First of all, I would like to preface this by saying that if you have recently written an article on either of these topics, I haven't got a clue. If you think this is about you or your blog, sorry to say that it isn't. Unless you're Darryl Dash.
Over a month ago Darryl wrote a piece that talked about postmodernism in the church and the journey of it's advocates. It has set me to thinking. And that's a physically stressful, dangerous thing. If not for me, for you readers.
It's not a new thing for me to be around people who question methodology of traditional church or traditional thought. When I lived in the states I attended the church whose pastor was writing a book on the divergence of the church structure from the original New Testament church. He encouraged an intimate church format with an open mic, no pulpit, less formality. He wrote a manuscript on the subject, which he was looking to have published.
A year after knowing him, I began to associate with people who were involved in the "grace movement". To be honest with you, I have difficulty with such titles, but I suppose to some people definition is important. It makes it easy to categorize or pre-determine a set of beliefs. I didn't hang out with people because their beliefs alligned with mine. Circumstance just made it so...but I did come from a similar viewpoint.
One thing I noticed is that the phrase "They don't get IT" was often used about "non-grace movement" people. Like "it" was the arrival at something or the right thing to believe. I understood the frustration of forging what seemed like a change in thinking/understanding, while being met with resistance. And I was a quiet participant, so my frustration was not near the same as that of others who had felt the life-changing revelation of God's love and acceptance.
As I think about the foundation of what I learned then, it seems to be the first stone in the emergent church. Deconstruction of what we have been programmed to think and feel. Not that church has brainwashed us all. But we have in some ways taken what we assumed as the only way to behave and believe and peeled away the layers. We are deciding what is necessary and what is superfluous.
When I think of my perspective of the grace movement I remember the freedom of being reminded once again how much God loves and accepts me. The emergent church seems to say the same thing. They perhaps share that foundation. It becomes not about what we do, but what we don't do. It becomes about simplicity rather than protocol, if I may use those words.
The danger is the propensity to look at traditional believers as people who "don't get it". Like emergents have arrived. This is obviously not a new situation, because even I am smart enough to see the pattern from the other reformation groups. Now don't think I'm criticizing either the emergents or the traditionalists. Neither group has the answer. They have the right answer for them.
Perhaps in the forging of a new way what has gone before needs to be peeled off. Freedom and forum for expression of thought is essential to bring together those who are growing through the same process. As we do so though, respect for the diversity of all Christians should be paramount. And those who become so easily offended or yell for the defense of their beliefs need to recognize that there is room for all of us in the Kingdom. For now we see through a glass dimly. Sometimes it also clouds our view of each other through our intolerance. That's not grace.