Since the beginning of September members of Morningside gathered every Sunday after worship for about an hour to discuss Emergence Christianity based on Phyllis Tickle’s recent publication. All of this emerged after, Kathleen Johnson and I attended Annual Conference in Idaho. There are many questions that continuously plague religion, its current state, progression, and the future. This class was to do precisely that. The fabulous part was that it would be done so from various perspectives, children who grew up in the church, those who joined at a later time in their life, some coming from other denominations, and we even had two generations from the same family, all of this was a prescription for juicy dialogue.
We began every lesson with a word, which members would describe in a word, phrase, sentence or so. Space. Spirit. Hyphen. The list went on. This structure allowed for everyone to start of participating in a easily facilitated way. With the word of the day in mind we would watch 5-15 minutes of a video, where Phyllis Tickle describes the movement. During the discussion is when things got interesting. In these moments we began to see the acceptance, attempts being made at understanding and discoveries. We had one instance where one of the youth asked what was the difference between, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit; the Trinity which is a prominent concept within Christianity. Instead of laughing off what some would call a “silly” or “stupid” question, Betty Funk confessed that there is no one answer. People’s perspectives of these roles within Christianity vary from person to person and since it is history, no one can truly be 100% sure of what occurred at the time. Having an elder verify the mystery that comes with religion yet they have faith gave the youth some ease. Lifelong members do not have all the answers and continuously encourage questioning of what and how things are.
Technology, pub churches, house churches, Hyphenateds, Trinity, Liberation Theology, authority, hierarchy, structure, buildings, spontaneity versus consistency along with many others were all discussion points. The environment of the class was so open-minded that everyone felt comfortable stating their views even though they were in opposition to others. The love was very well captivated in the expression “I do not agree with my sister…” showing our relation to each other within the Kingdom of God.
Repeatedly this is why I feel blessed, because no matter what I believe, do not believe or question, Morningside is open to discussing and allowing my self exploration to find the answer that suits me. This is what the class allowed all of us to do, while learning about the past and how Christianity continues to expand. The comrade that was established during these lessons was priceless.
Members of the congregation whom I did not truly know or had held conversations with were now people that I was discussing some of my deepest questions and opinions with. This went for all of us to a different extent. The bond that was created is only the beginning. During our last lesson we expressed our emotions towards each other, the countless discussions and empowering conversation allowed each of us to gain knowledge on the past, present, and future.
The primary component, “Emergence Christianity is a human conversation among human conversant” was entirely what we practiced most prominently. The class was centered on people speaking because Emergence Christianity is about exploration. We plan on continuing this exploration and developing a Mentor Program in which an older member of the congregation will partner with a youth. This will help them develop a relationship but additionally possibly once a month, have one of those partnerships host a gathering where we will continue to engage in dialogue and continue to seek answers to questions that plague our minds.
And as one of my favorite persons in the world said, “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.”
Yajaira Hernandez 