Rip-Off: I got to admit to all my regulars. As my blog emits highly potent jabber throughout the world I need to make one thing clear, most of my thoughts that I post on this blog are my own but the original idea came from someone else. Whether in a book I’m reading, a conversation I’ve had, a blog I’ve read or from falling down the stairs; the thoughts are mine but the origins are not mine. I do make sure I note when I am quoting and my source.

Emergent: I have never professed to my emergent status or my being the pomo hoe we all secretly hope to be. So I’m not defensive I just see the horrible slippery slope of being trendy rather than starting a movement. I have fallen upon further conviction or further conviction has fallen on me, I think the latter to be true or both, heck, I don’t know!

So regardless of the path this stop on the journey has brought me to the fact/conviction that we don’t need to give ourselves a label. Sure for conversations, dialogues, monologues, books and magazine articles we need a label, people need to call the wackos that are stuck between conservative/liberal, right/left, Jesus/church(…Did I just say that?) us something. But when talking with ourselves when attempting to broaden the thinking of our brothers and sisters in ministry, those in our churches and those in our neighbor’s houses, we just need to say we are relevant. After all the whole world is not postmodern. All of America is not post modern. All of the mosaic generation is not postmodern but all of the above people mentioned DO hunger and thirst for several things

1. authenticity (hence the ability of our church predecessors to hang on to life for such a long time even when totally culturally relevant, people still value authenticity or perhaps desire it more than ever)
2. cultural relevant (speak my language and say stuff I care about, Jesus did a good job at this)
3. truth (in our pluralistic society truth is still wanted)
4. service (to serve and be served)

I know the lingo won’t change because of a blog entry made from a dell notebook in the Dulles-Washington terminal but perhaps a few thinkers will glean something. In a world filled with labels we should refuse to be labeled and yes, being emergent is a label and one I am afraid of. People can build defenses against labels but have a much harder job when we give them tangible characteristics that are scripturally grounded and relevant to them!