Presbymergent

A new Presbyterian/Emergent website has sprung into existence courtesy of Adam Walker Cleveland and others: Presbymergent. (Frankly, I would have chosen the name "Emergyterians" but I digress.) Here is how the site is described:

Presbymergent is the online community for those who live in both the Presbyterian and Emergent/emerging church worlds and want to try and find a balance between the two.

We are pastors, lay people, seminarians, theologians, youth directors and people who generally care about both the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Emergent and the emergent conversation.

Feel free to join and post articles, questions and thoughts to the community. Grab the RSS feed and stay updated with information about presbymergent news. Post, discuss, share and support those who are working in and thinking about ministry in the margins.

Check it out!

Comments

[RonMck]

Lev 19:19

[Michael Kruse]

Hehehe...

You know, the Presbyterian credo is "With decency and order." Sort of makes me wonder if this combination isn't like combining matter and anti-matter in Star Trek. We could blow up the universe. :)

[Adam Walker Cleaveland]

Michael - thanks for the post. Lev 19.19 - ;) True, true. We may be entering into dangerous grounds. I guess we'll wait and find out. I like Emergyterians as well -- I've just heard others use the term Presbymergent more often so that's what we went with...

Thanks for the post too! Who knows if the site will take off or not, but at least we're giving it a try. Thanks!

[Michael Kruse]

You are most welcome Adam. We won't know unless we try.

(PS: I am just joshing about the name.)

[neil]

I'm not sure that the two go together!? Can you limit a part of the emergent conversation to Presbyterians? There is somewhat of a disconnect for me with this one.

[Michael Kruse]

Actually, I think the conversation is a good one. We are "the Church reformed always reforming" and I think conversation with people who are struggling with being the Church in a postmodern era. There are congregation from a number of mainline denominations that call themselves "emerging." When I attended an Emergent/YS (Youth Specialties) event a couple years ago more than half of the the 300 or so people I was grouped with were from mainline denominations. When I went to the Emergent Gathering in October of 2005 I met several mainline folks there. So in a sense, the conversation is already happening.

What I do share some concern about is the distinction between "Emergent" and "emerging church." Emergent is an entity that represents a slice of the "emerging church" conversation and it is a slice toward which I have considerable ambivalence. (I think I may do some posts about this.) The “emerging church” conversation is much broader yet many people who are suspicious and ambivalent about Emergent keep showing up at Emergent discussions so I continue to keep one foot in the water.

I highly recommend “Emerging Churches” by Gibbs and Bolger for any one wanting to get a handle on this stuff.

[neil]

I agree, Gibbs and Bolger's book is excellent, as is Robert Greer's 'Mapping Postmodernism.' We do have to distinguish between 'emerging' and the organization known as Emergent.