by Tony Jones
Tonight at the Emergent Convention in San Diego, there will be a meeting for all present who are interested in being officially a "contributor" to Emergent. From the beginning, Emergent has not existed for the sake of itself (we have no budget or staff), but to provoke and promote a conversation about the emerging church. Tonight will be a major step in continuing that conversation, inviting people who want to play a part to do so, and thus Emergent will become even more diffuse and disorganized than it already is! Hurray! (For those of us not there, this invitation is open to all, and there is information here.)
There will also be talk in San Diego and Nashville about cohorts. Those are regular, local gatherings of people who want to talk from an emerging perspective about life, ministry, church, and theology. I'm involved in two, here and here. I think we all agree that nothing we will do as Emergent will ever be more important that encouraging these cohorts.
Geoff Holsclaw and Tim Conder are currently working on the language for the Emergent-US website. This is what they've got so far. If you've got suggestions, leave comments here -- Geoff's looking for feedback:
One of Emergent's dreams for the next several years is the development
of local/regional learning communities in strategic locations around the
country, which we call cohorts. We hope to do this
because:
- We are eager to identify and assist a new generation of leaders.
- We desire to promote and enhance the local participation and the grassroots nature of the emerging church conversation.
- We hope to encourage and continue this kind of theological dialogue in many different strategic locations.
- We hope to utilize these cohorts through the hosting of local/regional mini-conferences.
What are Emergent Cohorts? They are local/region
Learning Communities.
a. What is a learning community?
While being a place of connection and support, an
Emergent learning community (cohort) is primarily a place of communal
exploration, theological and professional reflection, honest connection, and
strategic collaboration. These
learning communities are geared toward post-critical, constructive
conversation, rather than deconstructive rants about the current state of the
Church.
b. Why learning communities?
Local-
(Intrinsic)
1) To enhance the local
participation and the grassroots nature of the emerging church conversation.
2) To generate new
forms/ideas of the Church.
National- (Extrinsic)
3) To identify/support
a new generation of leaders.
4) To host regional
gatherings.
c. How will learning communities
function within Emergent?
Within the four emphases
of Emergent (Explore, Belong, Resource,
Communicate), cohorts have one foot firmly planted in
“Belong” with the other foot dipping into “Resource”
and “Explore.” Learning
communities are primary space for belonging to Emergent on the local, face to
face level. Beyond the books they
have read or the conferences they have attended, cohorts are places where
people can gather who desire to continue this conversation. Yet, the effects of these learning
communities will be felt within the areas of Resource and Explore. Our hope is that these local learning
communities would begin to hold larger regional events (Resource), which might
showcase some of what they are reflecting upon (Explore). These types of exchanges will create a transfere of ideas from the local to national level, and
will also assist in identifying and raising up a new generation
of leaders.
Where will cohorts be?
In Strategic locations
a. What is a strategic location?
1) A metropolitan
center,
and/or…
2) fairly
dense with emerging populations/churches.
3) fairly
dense with institutions of higher education (and/or seminaries).
b. Why
strategic locations?
1) Because,
unfortunately, we can’t do everything everywhere. So, while our hope and eventual goal is to
establish cohorts in every location, for the next 6-12 months we are focusing
on larger metro centers.
2) We want to emphasize
and encourage the development of ‘thought/practice’ leaders within
the emerging church, which means these learning communities, while functioning
outside of official institutions of higher education (universities and
seminaries), would also work alongside and with them in metro centers.
3) We desire to have
locations (monasteries or sanctuaries if you will) to send people who are
training for ministry within the postmodern context.
So, if…
- You are already in some sort of learning community or friendship (e.g., a loose network of emerging pastors, a group of seminary friends) which
would like to consider collaborating with Emergent to farther your current
conversation.
- You are in a strategic location (a major metropolitan center, or location with several emerging churches) which would benefit from the creation of this type of
learning community and you would like to work toward developing a regional learning community.
