April 7, 2003

Leaders of emerging church urged
to seek harmony with past & future
___By John Hall
___Texas Baptist Communications
___AUSTIN--Leaders of the emerging church called for unity with the traditional church and ecclesiastical history at wabiSABI, a conference sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Brad Sargent, a futurist, believes many emerging church leaders have a "Frodo syndrome," named for the main character in the "Lord of the Rings" saga who bore the burden of carrying the ring of power to the place of its destruction. Similarly, Sargent senses emerging church leaders need the support of the fellowship of Christians to carry the burden of explaining their work.
___Many emerging church leaders have been subject to "toxic systems" that have not served them, Sargent argued. I

Emerging church leaders are fighting on many fronts, including sex, age and thinking patterns, to find a way of doing church that meets the needs of contemporary people, Sargent said.

nstitutions and schools have criticized what some Christians view as s

PARTICIPANTS in the wabiSABI conference, a Baptist General Convention of Texas-sponsored meeting on the emerging church, sing praise songs during an interactive worship experience in Austin.

ocietal outcasts as dumb, lazy and incapable when they could flourish in another system that empowers their gifts, he said.
___Emerging church leaders are fighting on many fronts, including sex, age and thinking patterns, to find a way of doing church that meets the needs of contemporary people, Sargent said.
___They even are struggling to come up with a name for the emerging culture they see. Many consider the term "postmodern" outdated. Young people who seem to be working on the edge of the culture no longer say they are working in a postmodern setting. However, there seems to be no clear consensus of terminology for the culture.
___The monumental task of forging into this perceived new paradigm shift has weighed some leaders down, Sargent noted.
___"I find a deep sense of grief over what we're having to overcome," he said. "It's more than any one person can figure out."
___Sargent encouraged the young leaders to "lean" on more experienced Christians who can help other believers understand what the emerging church is hoping to accomplish.
___He believes a partnership between the "wabi," the young and fresh, and the "sabi," experienced and wise, would benefit both parties. That partnership will help the emerging church better communicate with traditional Christians and quell the misunderstanding that the work is generational, Sargent suggested.
___Mark Thames, pastor of Lower Greenville Baptist Community in Dallas, urged unity throughout denominations and church history, calling it the "indispensable groundwork of Christian evangelism."
___Non-believers find it difficult to believe people would come together for any reason other than personal benefit, Thames claimed. If they can discredit the unity of Christians, they can deny the existence of a unifier.
___Unity can bring people closer together, but it allows Christian to relish their individual gifts and missions, he said.
___"As we get to look more and more like Jesus, we don't get to look more and more like each other," Thames said. "We get to look more and more like ourselves."
___Andrew Jones, who has been called a Texas Baptist apostle to emerging cultures, called for a "re-estimation of the past." He compared today's cultural situation to the beginning of the Renaissance, when leaders revitalized ideas from the past to improve the present.
___Emerging church leaders need to "remix and reintegrate" aspects of the past into the church, Jones said after a short liturgical worship service that included a Franciscan prayer and a reading from the Book of Common Prayer.
___But reconfiguring the past is not enough, Jones said. Emerging church leaders also need to improve church where it has historically been lacking.
___"God's calling us to do something better." Jones said. "We've got to do it together."
___
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