It is almost impossible to believe that it has been six weeks since we had the privilege of hosting Phyllis Tickle in our presbytery. Since that time, I have found more and more evidence of The Great Emergence around us. Perhaps it is simply being more “plugged in” or aware of those moments where God is at work. Perhaps it is that with changes to our constitution as a denomination we have all been forced to reexamine our beliefs and values. Perhaps it is a hopeful glimpse into the possible from the often frustrating perch of the real. Whatever it is, it has been a marvelous six weeks of exploration.
What we continue to ask ourselves, those of us who gather to think about presbytery, is how all of this matters in the local congregation. I would be hard-pressed to think of even one congregation that adamantly refuses to notice the changes swirling around the Church and insists that everything is just the way it should be in the Church. However, there are many places where I sense people are a bit overwhelmed and wonder how to be in the world but not of the world.
I think that there are lessons in the emergence for us all. One of them may be that more people care about, think about, and work for God than are present in our churches. Learning to tap into that quest for the divine, while offering the resources of the traditions of the church, is not an easy journey, but it may be a necessary one. Some of the questions that have divided us, and will continue to divide us, may not be able to consume as much energy as they have in the past because of the overwhelming need to be in mission with God’s people in the world. Regardless of our theological position, a shared sense that Jesus calls us to follow him into the world, living out the Great Commission, may be met in the emergence with a stunning cry for justice, peace, and the real fruits of the Spirit at work in the world for God’s sake. As has been said before, perhaps the emergence leads us to major in the majors, not the minors.
While some have struggled with Phyllis Tickle’s assertions, there is evidence that we are called into a time where we are redefining our morality as a society. This is a local question, and a global one. In conversation with one another, it will shape our lives going forward. I continue to think we are brought back again and again to the place of relationship. Whether in virtual, spiritual, or covenant form, the longing for community is evident. We are stronger when we are in relationship with others. That is what this presbytery is all about. I like to believe that we are, at the most basic theological level, attempting to reflect what we believe about the one, triune God, the three-in-one, a relationship.
Thank you to a couple of colleagues who graciously agreed to add their own perspectives to our conversations with Phyllis Tickle. We invite you to share your reflections and comments below, especially as it relates to your local congregation. As always, I send you blessings…for the journey. –Joelle
James Moore:
Before May 2011, I had the opportunity to listen to Phyllis Tickle on two different occasions: in April 2004, at a spirituality conference at Montreat, and in Advent 2007, when she visited our church. Each time I’ve heard her, I’ve been surprised at how much stuff this woman knows! She is able to draw from a variety of disciplines, in an apparently seamless fashion. She and others have noted the (roughly) 500 year historical cycle. The current Great Emergence, as Phyllis noted, was sensed by some prescient souls as early as 1900, and even before.
I am a bit uncomfortable with how quickly hard-and-fast lines are being drawn in the emerging-emergent-missional-whatever church movement(s). I won’t pretend to know all the names and books she referenced, but it seems that something like the Great Emergence, which can be observed in all aspects of life, isn’t so easily divided up and labeled. As Phyllis said, she would love to see how all of this shakes out.
I appreciated her comments on the spiritual practices and how they intersect with time—even the fabric of reality itself. Fixed hour prayer, Sabbath, the liturgical year…these are ways of hallowing this fluidic construct that we call “time.” I also welcomed her call for theological training to embrace emerging science. With my very non-scientific grasp of cosmology and physics, who can say what would “emerge” from understanding the worlds and universes at the sub-atomic level, as well as seeing our universe as an atom in a larger universe?
David Kilgore:
Wow! What a tour through the last five hundred years we had when Phyllis Tickle spoke to the Presbytery on May 11. Our elder delegate sitting beside me was taking notes, and her pencil was just a blur!
I especially liked the image she used of the rummage sale, perhaps because our PW group had just finished its spring rummage sale. Every five hundred years, it seems, the church has a giant rummage sale, where we get rid of a lot of stuff we don’t need and make room for new stuff we do need. The Reformation was the last rummage sale, and the new post modern era (although I don’t think she used that word) is the time for the current rummage sale.
The problem is exactly what I feel when I’m standing in the attic trying to fill the box that will go to the rummage sale: how do you part with your beloved stuff? I’m working on it – both for real rummage sales and for the intellectual rummage sale.
Especially appropriate was her discussion of authority in light of the announcement that morning that a majority of presbyteries had voted for amendment 10-A. In the Reformation we replaced the authority of the pope, with the authority of scripture. But the way we read scripture has changed. She led us through the last few centuries as we learned to see certain social and religious issues in a new light: the issue of slavery, the place of women in church and society, divorce, and now ordination of gays and lesbians. In each of these we have had to struggle to read the Bible with fresh eyes.
Thanks to the Presbytery leadership for bringing to us such a lively, humorous, and engaging speaker!
Rev. Joelle Davis is the Executive Presbyter for the Presbytery of Geneva.