The title is supposed to read with that deep echoing voice you hear on the cheesy sales commercials, "GLOBAL EMPIRE OF WANTONESS!!!!" Anyway I was inspired by temporarily Spanish friend, Tito, to the following observations.
Our parents, most of them, seem to obsessed with the idea of their kids, all of us, graduating college and going on to high paying jobs. We, for the most part, seem to be quite upset by the notion and don't want to comply.
Our present generational culture reminds me of the elites of the Enlightenment Period. If you're a literary fellow, we remind me of a rising nation of Pierre Bezuhovs. Pierre was a rich bastard son of a dying political God of Tolstoy's Russia in War and Peace. Pierre enters the epic returning from his educational travels that many rich kids were sent on and partook of many times in their lives. These trips were born of education, need for adventure, and curiosity. Pierre came back unsettled by the state of things and wanted to change everything wrong about the society he was in, which consisted of anything he didn't agree with. So he went on some adventures and changed a few obvious things that were related to him. Now imagine an entire country, like the US, full of Pierres. Creepy.
Except our need for adventure and curiosity is constantly being side tracked by entertainment; TV, movies, video games, overpowering culture shifts. So some of our generation are starting to grow old with that unsatisfied need to be righteous and make a difference. Some of us though are taking our chances and going for it. Traveling, studying abroad, grad school, for many christians in college station they get there adventure from marriage (i may have to explain that later, i'm sure some people will be pissed at that one, hehehe). Ultimately though it's only the Pierres, or the rich that get to take those chances. You won't see any ghetto kids traveling the world.
You see we're no the first world empire. We just happen to be the only one that is truly global and truly in control. The travelers and educated of the Roman's were from Rome or at least the Italian peninsula. During the Enlightenment it was Europe the headed the World, Thus the sophisticates were all from Europe. Now it's America. We are so lost in the middle of the richest of the world that we don't even know it. We are the elites, and we don't see it. Imagine how many people would be driven to action by sheer boredom if we lived with out all of the entertainment we are constantly bombarded with.
Our age also plays a factor. We're at the point where we want experience more than anything. We have this notion that there is so much more in the proverbial "out there" than we've got here. Which in a way is true, but ultimately I think it's all the same stuff just with different frosting (culture and setting). I could be wrong though, I've never really been in the proverbial "out there".
The "church", on the other hand I think is going through this awful "pubescent" stage. It's basically making an ass of itself and all the while thinking it's getting cooler and cooler. The body of Christ is always maturing so the growing pains will be consistent until we reach that blessed day when Christ presents us to the Father as a mature man. I think this "pubescent" stage is stemming from a few things:
1. Our culture is obsessed with being young, so the "church", being extremely cultural, is constantly having to stay young.
2. Our generation has an unsatisfiable hunger for something unknown, so the frustration with the church, and it's need for solidarity, is understandable. Imagine a pregnant woman's frustration at her blind and deaf husband's inability to acquire that perfect food that satisfies that elusive craving that she herself can not identify.
3. Our generation doesn't know what church is so it really doesn't know what it wants. It wants church but doesn't know it. We've seen from our parents that money doesn't get happiness and that the hippie lifestyle isn't the best either. Then we turn around and are faced with the boredom and constraint of "church" life that comes after college church life and, all of a sudden we see the next eighty years of their life laid out before us and it scares us. The "emergent" church is, from my view point, continuation of college service for people who just can't get over it.
Our country has a rich history of adventure and change, not so much a rich present though. I think it comes somewhat with the rising global economy, some with the elite world status that Americans are born with, and the separation between plebs and the government that has taken place over the past twenty to thirty years. Do college students have as much impact on the government today as our parents did in their day, no.
In short our parents see in us the chance to live all the dreams they fought for and believed in, and all we see is the staleness of living someone else's dreams. We've seen all the world has to offer and know there's no lasting fulfillment there. We think we've seen what the church has to offer, and nothing. But oh that blessed day when the church is tested with fire and all the shit burns away. We will be left with very little gold and a great many trials. I think that day is approaching.
Also I think it's important to realized there is a chronic satisfaction in our generation with surface knowledge. We have this tendency to learn something for twenty minutes and claim we know it. This comes from the History and Discovery channels, among other stuff of course. Man (clutching chest) that one hurt, I love those channels. We tend not to ponder the deeps of things. How many married couples have I heard of being mentored by a couple that's been married for ten or fifteen years. How about being married for fifty years, that's the guy I want advice from.
Whew!!!! this is long. I think I'll stop. I'm starting to sweat. You guys let me know where I went wrong and I'll try to explain. Or I may just say "touche good sir/madam, touche." I'll close with some song lyrics by Mike Doughty.
"What is my life without my heart at risk?
When will I love someone
When will someone be mine
Forty grand in the hole
I'm gonna open it up and
Let my yearning, shine"
10 comments:
Felix,
Can't say I agree with your assesment of emergent in most cases, although I suppose that there is that aspect in some of the manifestations of the movement. It's very hard to put any label at all on emergent becasue so many people are claiming to be emergent nowadays. But I didn't post to talk about emergent, I posted because David Holland told me that I played pool against you in CS back a couple of years ago at the Fairfax rock and roll show at some bowling alley/ fun center. So, we've met. I thought that was funny to know.
flex,
it's true. but then again i am against all movements. Ok, not really, but sometimes i feel like i am. Spot on assesment with the pubescent observation. This is kind of sad, but also, kind of.... well, sad but with big brother towards little pubescent brother mentalities.
I have had fun spreading this posted goodness around. Genius. Did you make that caption your own self?
Wunderkind, I know you and your ilk. I like them both. Still, I will disagree with emergent.
The captions are not my own tim, sorry if that disappoints. Wunderkind, my assessment of the "emergent church" may have been harsh. but i can't shy away from the glaring similarities between it and the collegiate christian life, at least the way it goes here in College Station. However I will admit that on occasion I am wrong. Also I think I may remember playing pool with you, at Time Square I think. If that was you I may say that you are not only taller but better looking than pictures give you justice for.
Tim I love you and miss you. I am going to Whataburger and shall think of you. I will let lose with one of those Dr. Evil laughs as I tear into the first of a few taquitos. HEHEHEHEHEHE. MUWAHAHAHAHA.
Flex,
I just had a thought or idea for your blog. A weekly installment called "Picture from the Collage". Anyways, pretty self explanitory but you could also put up a pic of whataburger.
Tim, I don't know what you said to me up there. No matter how long I look, I can't make sense of it. I'm not down with the jive I guess. What's my ilk?
[Middle English ilke, same, from Old English ilca. See i- in Indo-European Roots.]
Word History: When one uses ilk, as in the phrase men of his ilk, one is using a word with an ancient pedigree even though the sense of ilk, “kind or sort,” is actually quite recent, having been first recorded at the end of the 18th century. This sense grew out of an older use of ilk in the phrase of that ilk, meaning “of the same place, territorial designation, or name.” This phrase was used chiefly in names of landed families, Guthrie of that ilk meaning “Guthrie of Guthrie.” “Same” is the fundamental meaning of the word. The ancestors of ilk, Old English ilca and Middle English ilke, were common words, usually appearing with such words as the or that, but the word hardly survived the Middle Ages in those uses.
Word of the day toilet paper. who knew.
Basically, i know you and dave. I like you guys, but disagree with both on the subject of emergent church -- although not real sure what dave thinks about emergent per se. To me, and this is horribly short generalization, emergent is new paint on an old building. It is nicer though. just me
I can't say I know much about the emergent church, but what I have seen I have liked. It seems to me that each new movement has a bit of truth in it and I tend to notice that part the most. I guess that makes me somewhat optimistic about each movement. The cynical side of me says to run away from the trend and I have thus far. I wonder if a lot of these new emergent "church" buildings popping up are really advancing anything or have they just struck the right chords with the already believing laborless Christians. Has any advance over the enemies territory actually taken place? If I am gonna be a part of any movement, then I want to be part of something that doesn't just shift a culture but alongside advances a Kingdom.
Another thought for Felix: When you mention the church being prepubescent, how can you really make much of a judgement? I'm not asking rhetorically. I really want to know. The church consists of people all over the planet. Some pockets known and some unknown. It just seems too hard to make any kind of evaluation when so much of the church is unknown.
Yeah Tim, I still don't see where we differ all that much. Again, I don't think "emergent" means anything at all. I think there are ideas in there that are revolutionary in my own level of freedom with the LORD, but that's all. And, I guess I can't call myself a part of the emergent thing since I'm not really connected to anyone else who is aside from the blogosphere. I enjoy your blog and I think it made me dream of spain, a dream which I blogged about today.
to rugbar,
good insight. while i do think that the emergent movement is nothing more than clever marketing, you may have a point about the prepubescent thing.
let me clarify. the church must eventually be presented to the father as a whole and mature body. I think that the church is growning and changing at a rate more quickly than seen before. that just seems to be what the spirit is saying. also they seem to be painful akward changes. a sense of "seeing for the first time" seems to be prevalent. but i can only speak for what i see here. i get the sense from the spirit, but maybe He's just talkin about College Station. love you mike, thanks for the comment.
What happened to my comments here?
And am I missing something on my blog? I think I am being censored. Don't know why, since i am not all that confrontational. DOWN WITH EMERGENT!!! Just kidding.
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