Reflections on Nascency

Over the weekend, I did a lot of thinking about the nascency, or birthing, of Emmaus Road. In all honesty, it's a bit intimidating thinking about beginning this "new" thing. It's intimidating because I feel like it's resting on my shoulders to a certain extent. Now obviously, God is the One who grows His Church, but being one of His agents in a task whose path is unclear and whose outcome is certainly even more unclear, can fill one with a bit of trepidation.

Because, by its nature, postmodernism doesn't lean toward pragmatism, there aren't a whole lot of books out there that give step-by-step details about how to start an "emergent" church or worship service (not that I would want to create a copy of some church in southern California or something, that's been done enough by the church growth movement). In fact the more I think about it, the whole idea of being a culturally relevant "church" never really has had a proven plan book (other than the Bible). When one does a cursory look at Christian history, it's obvious that those who led new liturgical, ecclisiological, and even theological movements didn't really have a pattern to follow. Certainly their movements didn't spring up in a vacuum, but they were often the ones to provide the synthesis from the polyphony of ideas ringing in their recent histories and cultures.

I don't see myself as one of them, writ on some grand scale. Still somehow, venturing out into new territory, be it merely a heretofore unvisited spot in one's own backyard, can lead to some uncertain experiences. By that I mean that although what we're attempting is taking place here in little ol' Lafayette, Indiana at a little ol' church of 240, it's still a little scary. In fact, although Barb and I have been a part of something like this before, each instance of the Church incarnating Christ in a particular area means that it must needs be particlar to that area.

The question is always both new and old at the same time: What does it mean to faithfully be the Church, the Spirit infused body of Christ, in any given, particular area? For that matter, what did it mean for Jesus to be the Messiah in His given, particular time (aka: the Scandal of Particularity)? The wisdom of God meant that came as one who was first of all human, so He could relate to and, more importantly, redeem human kind. It also meant that He came as a 1st century, Aramaic speaking Jewish carpenter and not a 21st century mega-church pastor. It simply wouldn't work.

So, then, to be the Church faithfully, we must do so in a way that incarnates Christ in an particular location in a manner consistent with the character of that particular area. To wit, what does it mean for Emmaus Road to be the Church in the particular setting of Lafayette, Indiana?