Writing is happening!

Woo, I have written something! Ok, it's not so exciting so far. I have some definitions of both alternative worship and emerging church and I'm trying to explain what they are to people who don't know and most importantly, how those two terms overlap but don't quite mean the same thing. That's not that easy, mainly because it is a very hard thing to define, being so fuzzy and emerging and all, but also cause even people who write about it draw back from making any firm definitions. Nevertheless, if you're doing something about emerging church, people would like to know that you've at least got some idea of what you're talking about!

here's one definition of emerging church, or one aspect of it at least, from Micael Moynagh's book emergingchurch.intro:

The big difference, at least to emerging church in its mission mode, is that many New Churches continued to operate on a “you come to us” model. Members liked their new way of being church and used evangelism to encourage non-churchgoers to join them. They “souped up” the model of church but not the underlying approach: “We’ll get a group of Christians together, express church in a way that we enjoy and invite others to come along.”

and ... for alt.worship we have steve collins on alternativeworship.org:

Alternative Worship is not a style, but an approach whose stylistic implications can be very various.

It is what happens when people reinvent church for themselves, in forms that fully reflect the people they are and the culture they live in. That's the people they really are and the culture they really live in, not sanitised Sunday-best versions!

It's an attempt to make spaces where people can be real, and relate honestly to God and one another without 'religious' masks or imposed forms of behaviour. In practice this involves a complete reappraisal of what a church service actually consists of - what it's for, how it's led, what kinds of things can happen, what kind of language is used, where people sit and what the space looks like.

and finally ... dan kimball in emerging church (the book) who says emerging generations ...

Want fluidity and freedom rather than a neatly flowing set program. They want to see the arts and a sense of mystery brought into the worship service, rather than focusing on professionalism and excellence. This will shape how a worship gathering is designed.

This organic approach could be called a “vintage-faith” worship gathering. It resonates more in a post-seeker-sensitive culture and really goes back to more of a vintage way of expressing our faith during worship as believers have done throughout church history.

Are they good definitions? Or are there better ones out there?

Sanctus 3

My third visit to Sanctus 1 and I remain very impressed with this group of christians (of course I have to say that now cause I know some of them have found this blog). Again it was a very good service, there is so much work that must go into it and I'm impressed how well everything runs together, the music and video clips fit in, and they all just work without any messing around. Whenever I've been involved in something like that - using music and film and other bits and pieces in services, it's always involved people running around like mad things trying to get various bits of tech working and the end result has been a little chaotic.