Wiki

This paragraph caught my attention in an email that I received yesterday from the Emergent Village Network. The EV seems to be going through a metamorphoses as they move from gatherings that are planned to ones that are more organic.

Here is the paragraph taken from their email....

The National EV Gathering might rise again next year as a reinvented event with new leadership and new structures -- let us know if you want to be one of the inventors. And in the mean time, do-it-yourself. Cohorts, put up wikis and find ways to be together. You don't need to have a conference with published speakers to shape and change Emergent, in fact, it is quite the opposite. Get out of your church conferences and blogs and into each other's fridges and back yards and national reserves and museums and inner-cities. Gather, mix, invent.

Now, I read their weekly emails with interest so that I can keep up with what they are thinking and doing, but this one really grabbed my interest.

Here's a few definitions to help you get the drift.

Cohorts...that's just groups of people having similar interests and experiences

Wikis...a collection of collaborative web pages in which anyone can make comments, additions or offer advice.

Emergent...it would take a collection of cohorts and many wikis to fully explain this....Suffice it to say, this is a movement of people who see the world differently and long to experience the Kingdom in ways beyond how many of us define church. It is not a generational or age issue as much as it is a mindset about what Jesus said and did.

But the thing that really grabbed me by the throat of consciousness was this phrase....Get out of your church conferences and blogs and into each other's fridges and back yards and national reserves and museums and inner-cities. Gather, mix, invent.

Allow me to reflect for a few moments....

Church conferences....Doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.

Blogs...I got one and it helps me to put things on the screen that I feel in my heart, even when I don't often have the courage to say them out loud.

Each others fridges....you gotta be in someone's home to get into their fridge. I long for relationships with people that are comfortable enough for me to get into their fridge and they wouldn't think that I am "Freddy the Freeloader."

Back yards.....well, hmmmm....that's the opposite of front yards.

National Reserves....I think this means "ivory towers" and "palaces of pomposity."

Museums...the way I understand it, these are places where you can go see relics from the past.

Inner Cities...I really feel comfortable there and feel rejuvenated when I am on the streets of inner cities.

Gather....mix....invent....Now if I have ever heard a great definition for church, there it is! What would happen if instead of saying, "I am going to church" we would say we are, "gathering....mixing....inventing?" Sounds like child's play....then the scripture that I will share tomorrow at the place of "gathering...mixing...inventing" says, "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

I am getting ready to gather with other pilgrims

I am going to mix with fellow travelers

I am going to invent new rhythms to keep my heart in tune with His.

Sure beats "just going to church."

What do you think?