Currently, I am 29. I am a rather mature student doing a degree in theology at a small, friendly, conservative evangelical theological college. This is my second degree, my first was in maths.
I am also a Christian, a useful attribute for a theology student. I was brought up in the methodist church and, even though I've tried to leave a couple of times in my life, I never quite made it out of the door. I'm quite happy about being a methodist now even though the unending bureaucracy and inflexibility really gets me down.
I am a preacher, I have a certificate to prove it. That puts me in the position of being seen as a church leader without any of the having to visit sick people in hospital (I never know what to say in those situations). It certainly has the unexpected (to me) effect of people giving my opinions more weight. I'm not sure that's a good thing at all, I don't want any special treatment but it does mean that I have to take full responsibility for anything I say - I know it will be listened to.
So far this all puts me firmly in the camp of the traditional modern church, not the fun and funky, free-flowing, postmodern emerging church, so you may well ask why I think I have anything at all to say about it.
About this time last year, I went to hear Jonny Baker talk about what he and his colleagues do at grace and about alt.worship and the emerging church. I realised that there were many points of contact with what we do at my church in worship. Once every few months, we do something called No Compromise which is team planned and led, uses music, video and all sorts of other media with the aim of connecting people with God in a new way. More frequently, we also have cafe church. In my mind, cafe church would be more effective if it were actually held in a cafe rather than the church coffee lounge. Nevertheless, for a methodist church it is quite radical to have a monthly service with no music and no sermon.
My church does dabble in alt.worship in these ways and both expressions of worship are accepted, appreciated and welcomed. They do not make my church into an emerging church though. It appears that to be accepted as an emerging community, an alt.worship congregation should distance itself from the background that nurtured it. My church, as is, wouldn't be an 'emerging church' unless some people broke away, started meeting in a darkened warehouse and called themselves 'fr3sh' or 'ambient' or something. Perhaps that is what needs to happen, I don't know, but I am interested in ventures that emerge from within the church, not necessarily just alongside it.
My other interest is in the internet. I've worked as a website developer for quite a few years. One of the projects I've been involved in is generation cross, a website that aims to provide community and support for Gen X christians. Over the year it's been open, I've come to the realisation that, at its best, such a community is as legitamate an expression of church as any other. We do need to work out the finer details, how to encourage real world links as well as virtual ones and how to worship corporately online, but it's a start and it's one I'm very excited about.
There are probably more factors that are relevant to my journey but I think these are the most pertinent.
On balance, I think my position is not one of being firmly entrenched in the emerging church camp, but I'm not so far away that I can't relate to it.
I came across this article (What (again) is emerging church?) yesterday when I was looking for another definition of emerging church. Here's a snippet:
Many, of course, feel that they are not so much emerging as barely escaping with their lives, with the chariots and horsemen of Egypt hot on their heels. Others are cautiously venturing through the gaps that have opened up in the rusting border fence that has confined them for so long. Some are coming empty-handed and desperate. Others are bringing much of their past with them, loaded on to handcarts, and it remains to be seen how much will survive the journey.
I thought that in this context, I'm one looking at all the people in front of me who are already so far away, but I'm not willing to rush off and leave the people I am journeying with behind me.
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