footloose and the emerging church

last night I had the privilege of leading some worship for a young life leaders gathering here in Sydney, it was a great time.. I also got to catch up with some friends from Sydney that have decided to come check out Breathe, as I spoke to them about some of their reasons for leaving their last church the all to common story came through.

“We feel like we are different because we want to be “missional” we feel “different”

I thought back to my feelings in the “institutional” church and I have felt the same.. I have always felt… well I felt like Kevin Bacon in Footlose. (stay with me this is going somewhere)

it just happened that footloose was on TV late last night so I decided to watch it, and it is a good parable of emergence. (not that I think emerging church is all dancing and screwing the pastors daughter) but here we see a town controlled by a church structure that is forcing the “kids” into its mould and the “kids” rebel and run their own dance…

now surly the motivation for emergence is different but the feeling is the same, when you feel the structure your in needs a shake up and you feel like everybody is against that change, now sure that change might be a bit scary, it might seem to be immoral (perhaps having church where lots of non-ers feel safe to attend, but that teen angst that we have all felt has grown up, it is turning into a movement, the dance party is coming.

as more and more people move away from traditional church structures we start to realise that we are not “different” but many like minded people are willing to journey with us. I spoke to another friend just recently who has just started being a part of a missional emerging church and he was like “I can never go back”

Kevin bacon was able to dance his way to change in a small town suffocated by religion I pray that those with a healthy dissatisfaction with the way things are will also “move” into action and seek change or band together with other like minded people.

emergent’s unite!