Leadership Institute – Emerging Colloquy

Posted on October 10, 2006 by Jim Walton

Within the Leadership Institute was the Umerging Colloquy – An emerging church conversation.  For me personally, I have been fascinated with the emergent movement for quite awhile, but have never fully understood it.  I had the chance to observe part of one of their sessions on Thursday evening, then at some point, I heard that there was a group of emergent bloggers.  That got my attention, because it’s always cool to meet other bloggers.  Finally, Friday evening, I had the chance to meet a few of them and talk for a few minutes, just after dinner and right before Brian McLaren spoke.  It was great and I’m glad to have met them.  If you are interested, the Umerging site has a list of bloggers here, plus Jay Voorhees has a list of emergent bloggers here.  Check them out, I met some of these guys and they are good guys, with hearts for Jesus.

I can’t personally vouch for all the links, but I have met Jay and Gavin and a couple of other guys whose names I don’t remember but I am really interested in reading what these guys have to say and learning more about emergent.  Something I learned at the Leadership Institute is that there is more to Christianity than what I know in my sheltered little world.  I’m not Methodist or Emergent, I’m just some Christian guy that happens to be a part time consultant, to a very large, Methodist church, yet I was able to see God’s hand all around me over those few days.  My realization is that there is good and bad in every denomination, movement, group, whatever, even in my own.  We can sit where we are and complain that a certain denomination is not doing it right or a certain movement is off base.  You know what?  Get over it!  You and I have very little right to criticize what we do not understand, take some time and learn what others are doing in the body of Christ.  You might actually see something good and you might see people being reached in a way that you never could.  I see Church of the Resurrection and the Emerging church reaching people for Christ that I could never reach.
By the way, for a good summary of Adam Hamilton’s talk, The Case for the Mainline Church, check out Jay’s post here.

For a good summary of Brian McLaren’s talk,  Recapturing the Center, check out Gavin’s post here.

Good job, guys!  Your notes were much more thorough than mine.

Here’s some good pics too.  I forgot about the dancers, they were very cool.  Since all I had was the camera on my phone, not all of my pics came out too good.  (I will post some more pics soon.)

If you are at all curious, check these things out.  If you don’t have a clue about what they are doing but you still want to criticize their theology or their approach, just get over it!   There’s no reason not to be informed.
By the way, do you know what Colloquy means?  I didn’t, I had to look it up.  It means conversation or dialogue and it also means a high level, serious discussion.  So, join the discussion and ask questions, it won’t hurt, I promise.

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