It feels as if I have lost touch with the world of Christian literature. Somehow, the entire Emerging Church thing (if it deserves capital letters?) passed me by over the last decade or so. This is my blog, as I try to catch up.
I'm nearly 40, raised in a loving Evangelical family and church community, baptised as a believer, aged 15; saved by the grace of God! I've always seen my gifts and ministry more in support than up-front leadership, but as I have grown up and moved around the world, have found myself progressively more and more involved: in music, in various help and administration, in leading worship, in preaching. I've just joined the leadership team of the church I've belonged to for 7+ years. For a job, I'm a lecturer in Software Engineering - in American-speak that would be Associate Professor.
Where did all this emerging stuff come from? A little over a year ago someone - Dad, actually - showed me a Nooma; Rob Bell's Bullhorn, to be precise. I was intrigued. I started clicking around on the web, and the parcels from Amazon started to arrive.
So I'm starting to form a picture. And, as you may guess from my thirst to find out more, there's something here which resonates for me. Quite a lot, actually. I had reached a point where a nagging voice was starting to say "do you really believe all this stuff which has been the main normative influence on your life?" God, in his grace, stepped in and pointed me at all this ... random, unorganised stuff written by people who seemed to believe things a bit like I did.
So this blog is likely to be a mix of personal reflections, and reviews of books and media I encounter in my attempt to catch up with what's going on out there. The list of unread books keeps growing: but a holiday is coming up, when I plan to read lots. If I get time between now and then, maybe I'll write up some comments about Velvet Elvis, or A generous orthodoxy, or A new kind of Christian, or even the Ryan and Bolger book.
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