I have been thinking there is a link between our need to label church and the laziness of labels and how that post (labels) this links with the last post on painting over the cracks. I have been reading another Susan Howatch novel and in this one, one character refers to Jesus as the bloke, because as you read you have got to know the character Gavin, and you have got see his construct of Jesus, the bloke label fits perfectly – you understand Gavin’s worldview, and because of the process it becomes useful as a label rather than lazy shorthand. The Bloke language is also outside our names for Jesus so only works if know the process – maybe there is something here about re naming church. I always liked the names like Vurch as it resonated with the past label but was clearly something else. The issue/problem maybe when we go to the next stage to explain Vurch and use labels like emerging church
SUNDAY PAPERS – THE SUPPLEMENT
A CO-OPERATIVE LOOK AT LIFE, MISSION, EMERGING CHURCH AND ALL THAT
Miz said…
Labels… well let me see! I think the very nature of human thought can define language. Sometimes this can be releasing and at others very constraining. The preoccupation with the need to define ourselves with language is flawed as often the activity within is not well represented by what it says on the tin.
The fact that you mention the need to “label church” means that there is still a foundational element of “churchiness” underlying it. In my mind the issue is not relabelling church… i mean how many times can we cope with the “same old-same old” being marketed in new and more costly ways! The issue lies in the praxis where language and action meet… perhaps the only way to describe the people of God, fulfilling God’s purposes for His world, motivated by the love and compassion he has for it is actually the “church!”
I think the redeeming nature of the church could start with the non-intellectual redeeming of the term/concept/phrase the church. This change requires a clear demonstration of adherents to a powerless (in worldly terms) revolution. Maybe then the baggage of the word church in these times would be dropped.
I could be wrong… i usually am!
8:44 AM