Bread Breaking

I hear a lot these days about emergent, and some of my friends align themselves with the Emerging movement, I just don't know what it is.

We react to it, respond to it, critic it, argue with it, argue over it, read about it, confront it, disagree with it, and resent it. We also admire it, resemble it, agree with it, talk to it, wonder about it, wish we were it, and a whole host of other "its". I just wish I knew what it was?

Oh, I've read the books. I know what they say. I just don't hear anything that new. I really don't. Sometimes I'm amazed how we become so enamored with "their" churches, thinking they are so perfect. They aren't perfect, they're just young. Young things always have their advantages.

Marriages, children, franchises, stores (Walmart Grand openings, please), restaurants (can't wait for the new Culver's to open here); see what I mean. New smells different, looks different, tastes different, because it's new.

But I really don't hear anything coming from this segment of the Church that a lot of us haven't felt for a long time, we just weren't eloquent enough to write about it. I see new churches popping up in the name of emergent, but they're trying to figure this out like the rest of us. Tell me, how is that different?

I mean, come on. Haven't a lot of us been frustrated with the church for a long time. It's unwillingness to even allow a certain type of song to be sung. I remember when I was growing up, we weren't allowed to sing choruses, not because they were too fast or too loud, or we couldn't have "those" instruments in the church, but it was because that's what the Charismatics sang. Ridiculous, I know, but true. Am I the only one that remembers this.

Back to the Nazarene history, "Pentecostal" was dropped from the name because that was beginning to refer to the group that spoke in tongues. We've been isolating ourselves from each other for a very long time, long before you or I were on the scene.

Maybe what emergent is, is a way to actually get us all in a room talking. Maybe it's a way we begin to major in the majors again. Maybe it's a way for me to appreciate that the Roman Catholic church has something to offer the greater body, that the Baptists can teach us a thing or two about security in Christ, that we can learn from the Episcopalian's that those in the homosexual community are humans too, a place where I learn that Democrat's aren't sinners, a place where I realize that God transcends government, politics, economics, and gender. A place where we can learn to love each other again.

I remember something my dad used to do, "back in the day". He wouldn't announce it, because I think he was afraid no one would come. But when they got there, they knew what was up. They'd see the loaf of bread (one loaf was enough, we were a small church) sitting in the front, and they knew we were in for an interesting evening. Ever been a part of a "love feast", like my dad used to call them.

The object was this; everyone would gather in the sanctuary, and once the initial formalities were taken care of, my dad would announce that we were breaking bread with each other. The purpose was reconciliation. My dad always had a sense when his congregants needed this most, and he'd say something like this.

Maybe there is someone in here that you need to seek forgiveness from. Maybe there is someone in here that needs to seek forgiveness from you. Maybe you haven't talked to someone for too long because of a grudge, or maybe you just need to tell someone you love them. Then he'd turn them lose, and it was always a beautiful thing. I, as a child, never fully understood what was going on, except there were a lot of tears, hugs, and back slapping. We guessed that was a good thing.

If emergent can be our "love feast", so be it. But I'm just tired of us thinking it's an either/or proposition. Maybe emergent can help our churches, in their present form, experience a healing as well. Maybe it's not just for the macro church, but it's for the micro churches as well.

I say it's about time we break some bread.