Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada Emerging Spirit @ The United Church of Canada

So, here I am at GC40.

The 40th General Council for The United Church of Canada.

I get to help elect a new Moderator.

I get to discern well over 100 proposals.

Specifically, I will be spending time on Palestine and Israel, dangerous dump sites, support for Canadians in prison...and, Emerging Spirit.

Yes, I will part of the group that will try to discern the future for Emerging Spirit - our programs like WonderCafe, advertising campaigns and congregation training seminars. How did they ever let me in?

Although I clearly have a bias, even a passion for Emerging Spirit, I will listen, I will share and I will do my best to hear the voice of God as we make our recommendations.

But before, I get properly objective - let me say a couple of things.

I hear from some folks that Emerging Spirit hasn't included the Aboriginal congregations or context in their programs. They have a point. Although WonderCafe has been very inclusive, our ads may not have been, and our teaching events have not been specific to the Aboriginal context. We have failed to be everything to everybody. But it would be my inclination, rather than to damn the program for its weakness, take the strengths and grow intentionally into doing things relevant to the First Nations experience. And look at other groups that we have not properly addressed and do so. Emerging Spirit is a very young program and it's just now beginning to really show its strengths and benefits (actually since they invited me on board... nah, just coincidence).

I hear from others that we simply can't afford Emerging Spirit. I would say that we simply can't afford to not have Emerging Spirit. As you may have gathered from earlier blogs (mine and others) we are living in the midst of great change - some of that change has happened and we've simply not realized it; more change is happening as I write, and even more will come next week. (Do take a moment to read at least Phyllis Tickle's "The Great Emergence.") There is a great opportunity for us to embrace change and really hear God's voice, share God's love and be a vibrant church in the world. But not if all of our models belong only to our grandparents. There are other ways to worship, to connect to community, to lead and shape church policy and functions. Even if we choose to stay the way we've always been, we should do so after really looking at alternatives, really challenging our ways of doing things - it's not necessarily change that makes us vital, but it is the openness to change, the willingness to be challenged and consider innovation that makes us vital, vibrant, and relevant. It's nice to stay in port, especially when the winds of change are all about - but God is inviting us to set our sails and journey out in the water.

(This refreshing ocean breeze allusion brought to you by your friends at Emerging Spirit.)

I also hear that we should be spending our money on the people who are most vulnerable: we should feed the poor rather than inspire churches to invest in flat screens for the sanctuary and clever pictures for the newsletter. I hear it... and it makes my heart ache. Jesus' ministry was to, with and in the midst of the most vulnerable, the most marginalized - and we should more actively throw in our lot with those in the most need. But who's going to do that in the next generation?

How do we share with those on the outside looking into our church, the importance, the power and the joy of sharing with the hungry and the naked; who will be visiting the prisoners, advocating for the oppressed when we are gone? How are those on our spiritual margins going to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and be inspired by the Sermon on the Mount, if we don't learn to speak to them in a language they understand; welcome them into a community that reflects their ways of doing things and inspires their dreams of the Kingdom of God? I'm not saying that only Christians are charitable or that without the church there is no kindness or attention to the needs of others. But we do have a tradition, a calling and a Word that has offered a lot of love to the world. In this increasingly introspective, insulated, and often callous world, the need for Christian charity should not be disregarded. Who's going to do it when we are gone, or simply too tired to carry on? Again, I'm not saying that the church will die without Emerging Spirit, but without the kind of thinking that Emerging Spirit can inspire, without the kind of invitation that Emerging Spirit is trying teach, we will be smaller and smaller as the years go by and our ability to affect society in a positive, charitable way will diminish.

Money spent on Emerging Spirit is an investment - not only in The United Church of Canada, but in the lives of those in need today and tomorrow.

Having said all of that, I will spend the next week listening, praying, sharing, and discerning. I have faith that this General Council will heed the sometimes gentle, but always persistent tugging of the Holy Spirit into the future and if we make decisions that shrink or even close down Emerging Spirit, I trust that God will help us find another way forward. Because, I truly believe, with all of my heart and soul that the times are a changin' and God does not expect us to sit this one out.