I've just had a very nice weekend and because I worked till after midnight on Saturday I didn't go to church on Sunday and it felt really nice not to go. This got me thinking, there's often a lot of talk about emerging churches and I tend to spend a lot of time on this blog talking about theology (an emerging theology if you will) but what about emerging Xns? What would post church or emerging Xns look like?
My overwhelming thought is that we would be able to survive as Xns without a church and that we'd responsibility for ourselves and our faith. I think would an emerging Xn would...
My overwhelming thought is that we would be able to survive as Xns without a church and that we'd responsibility for ourselves and our faith. I think would an emerging Xn would...
- Be responsible for themselves and their own spiritual growth and walking in our faith unassisted.
- Have a self clarity about their faith and healthy boundaries about their relationships.
- Be interdependent on other Xns and not dependent.
- Energising to meet with rather than draining.
- Feel that Church and Church leaders owed us nothing.
- Mean that a Healthy emerging church would be a loose affiliation of autonomous individuals.
Hebrews 10:25 (not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching) is the only command about church attendance in the New Testament, as far as i know. When it comes to meeting together even given the spectrum from traditional Catholic to radical emerging churches these different types of meetings still make for a pretty narrow band. I'd love to see the day when not belonging to a church is about as unlikely to stop someone from being a Xn as not belonging to a running club would stop someone from running.
At the moment the statement "I'm a Xn I just don't go to church" is usually met by Xns with a "Oh you're a nominal Xn who doesn't take your faith seriously" or "You're a fruit loop who is so weird you can't find some small fringe church to hang out with" kind of stare. Not only would it be cool if people knew Xns by their love rather than their church attendance but that Xns felt comfortable as this being the sign of their Xy and everything else is secondary.
At the moment the statement "I'm a Xn I just don't go to church" is usually met by Xns with a "Oh you're a nominal Xn who doesn't take your faith seriously" or "You're a fruit loop who is so weird you can't find some small fringe church to hang out with" kind of stare. Not only would it be cool if people knew Xns by their love rather than their church attendance but that Xns felt comfortable as this being the sign of their Xy and everything else is secondary.
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