Christianity, emerging part III

Whew! What a run on one subject, eh? Glad that’s over!  He, he. Seriously, though, it was a good set of interviews and I made a couple of new friends along the way. I thought people were very candid and fair. During the series I also got some calls from old friends around the area, mostly of a more conservative ilk, who were eager for more on traditional churches. I hope that part III satisfied.

My only concern, after reading the final draft, is that a person might read it as saying that the only way for traditional churches to survive is to adopt missional characteristics.  That wasn’t my intent, but it might read that way.

My readers know I’m Catholic, which I don’t hesitate to name as perhaps the most traditional church of all. So, I’m still sorting out how I feel about the whole missional movement. Regardless of how I feel about it (which I tried, as best I could, to leave out of the article) it really seems to a phenomenon that’s gaining speed.

I should give a little background here. About 3 months ago I attended a conference in Memphis. It was about the emergent church and Phyllis Tickle was the featured speaker. I really enjoyed it, and I knew that was a local story there somewhere, but I wasn’t quite sure how to tease it out. I talked with David Eldridge at Calvary, who’s familiar with Tickle’s work, and with Bryan Collier at the Orchard, long before I started writing the article. They helped me sharpen my ideas and sort out the language. It became clear that the way people in this area talked about “emergent” or “emerging” Christianity was the language of “missional.”

This week in Hernando, in between episodes of the Simpsons and Flight of the Conchords, I’ll be writing up the interview I had with Bishop Joseph Latino of the Catholic Diocese of MS. I’ve got that on tape.

I’ve spent the last two days on the phone gathering interviews for a piece I want to do on Lent. That will run 2-28. Lent, with its emphasis on self-denial and almsgiving seems like another of those teachable moments, particularly in this economy. I’m using a couple of articles that recently named Mississippi as the most religious and the most generous state in the country. I’ve tried to include academics, financial people, as well as ministers in this one. It seems like every story these days is about the economy, doesn’t it?

I’m sure I’ll get some emails about my column this weekend. Sometimes you just have to call things out the way they are. Bishop Williamson’s comments were inexcusable. I haven’t hesitated to call out Pat Robertson and John Hagee, so, what’s good for the goose, right.

Oh well.