Emergence

It's been a while since I blogged through a book. Last time, it was "They Like Jesus but not the Church" by Dan Kimball. Great book. That was almost 3 years ago. It's about time I step it up.

I've been really challenged in my thinking when it comes to the term "missional". It's something very hard to define. We define it a number of ways at Emergence. Most of them have to do with living life intentionally on the mission Christ has called us to. One thing is sure, though--it all starts with a right understanding of Jesus--who He was and is.

That is exactly the reason that Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch wrote their newest book, "ReJesus". They make it clear from the introduction that the Church needs to be all about Jesus because "we must constantly return to Jesus to authenticate as well as legitimize ourselves as His people."(p. 8) The very term "Christian" means "Little Jesus". If we, as believers, are to be known as the physical presence of Jesus on earth, we need to have a clear picture of who it is we represent.

I'll be sharing some thoughts from the book in a series of blog posts over the course of time. I'll also do my best to comment on those thoughts in the context of where we are in the Church.

I had better do a decent job, too. Mike, the Emergence elder, is pretty decent friends with Alan (or "mission-AL" as we call him). If I'm not careful, I'll tick Hirsch off. He's a pretty small Australian dude, but he could probably take me.