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The Richmond ConversationLast Thursday, Mike Lewis and I facilitated a helpful discussion in Richmond, VA about CBF church planting with an Emergent ethos. We had around 25 people in attendance and the crowd was diverse. We joined with Bo Prosser, Coordinator for Congregational Life at CBF, to converse a bit about how the emergent conversation is connected with the missional church movement. I explained that every emergent church is by definition missional, but not every missional church is Emergent. We had other members of CBF leadership in attendance as well, including Rick Bennett (the associate coordinator for congregational life), Phil Hester (the coordinator for new church starts) Jeremy Lewis (the program manager for the CBF rural poverty initiative), Rick Clore (coordinator for Virginia CBF), Frank Broome (coordinator for CBF of Georgia), and Linda Jones (the missions coordinator for North Carolina CBF). We also had many potential and burgeoning church planters there.Based on the initial feelers we put out, we discovered that an overview of the Emergent Conversation was necessary; both to clear the murky waters and to help curb misconceptions that some had espoused. Throughout our week in Richmond, Mike and I had heard Emergent compared to the Willow Creek/contemporary model. We tried to explain that Emergent is not a model, theres no kit one can buy to plant an emergent church. Rather, those taking the initiative to plant indigenous, organic, missional communities of faith who are also a part of the emergent conversation do so in culturally particular ways to fit their host community. Some people present at the Richmond conversation expressed some of the standard worries expressed by evangelicals who are afraid that EV doesnt believe in absolute truth and that we are universalists. When this started, a beautiful thing occurred: the CBF leadership engaged these dissenting voices with vigor. While our digression into topics of soteriology and epistemology were lamentable, I was proud to be a part of a fellowship that had already significantly wrestled with these concepts and were able to offer a response. I think the title of one of Brians books, More Ready than You Realize, is apropos for CBF. It was a good talk and I look forward to the next venue for good beer and good conversation. BTW: As I was exiting the Capital Ale House after our gathering, I heard a familiar voice call my name. To my surprise it was Corey Widmer, a colleague of mine at PTS and an all around great guy. He is serving as the Associate Minister for Outreach and Evangelism in Richmond. Small world! posted by Jake at 8/30/2006 09:13:00 AM  
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 Previous Posts Pete the Binary Slayer ------------ CBF Emergence Coming to Richmond ------------ Back to Work ------------ Ahh, Vacation At Last ------------ Chattanooga Gathering ------------ 15 down, 5 to go ------------ Atlanta Cohort Conversation ------------ Momentum ------------ Inner-city Living ------------ CBF Emergence//First Gathering ------------ Archives November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007
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more ready than we realize..indeed..
mark
wish I had checked your blog to see this was in the works. wish I had been there. would have driven from charlottesville. maybe next time. thanks for the update and summary.
peace,
eric