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Emerging Church in the Brazilian Context |
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Por Gustavo K-fé Frederico
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27 de março de 2008 |
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Página 2 de 9
Regarding this respect for the other, I like the path the emergent conversation is taking in the northern hemisphere. Many of these emphases apply directly to the Brazilian context. Instead of proselytism I see an emphasis in the formation of communities that demonstrate in practice what it means to be disciples of Jesus. The respect for the other also generates a preoccupation with justice. Instead of arrogance and presumption in assuming that one has all answers figured out I see respect and interest in the other person's story. Instead of different categories of believers, believers more blessed than others, holier or more preeminent I see a preoccupation to include all in the conversation. Instead of super-believers and, worst, super-pastors I see distributed and humble leadership. Instead of pitching the big-salvation combo/deal, people seek to develop relationships with the most varied tribes. My parents were raised with the television pushing information one way. Today blogs, forums, chats and SMS make dialog the norm, along with the Internet and cell phones. Instead of pre-built sermons people seek "sermons" in the midst of interaction and companionship (see the book "Preaching Re-Imagined" by Doug Paggit). Instead of pre-processed judgments about behaviour I see people walking together with shared responsibilities and honesty. I also like the path that the emerging conversation takes in Africa. Brian MacLaren's book "Everything Must Change" records the words of Claude Nikondeha, from Burundi, in May 1994 in a meeting of leaders from Burundi, Rwanda, Congo and Uganda. Nikondeha speaks of hearing the same one sermon inviting the audience to “get saved” time after time, while very acute problems with poverty and violence escalated in the region. They speak of reconciliation and an integral gospel. Tony Jones stated in the Emergent Village podcast: "There's no such thing as 'Emergent's belief: fill in the blank'". This, in my view, resumes one characteristic of the emergent movement: the apparent lack of beliefs. For the record, this is one of the most debated characteristics and taken as detrimental by many. Maybe the most popular interpretation of the characteristic can be described more or less like this: we can't define what the emerging church is because the moment we did so she would stop emerging (that is, evolving). Or even: to prescribe statements of faith would amount to list a series of logical propositions that explain everything we believe. This is what the church did in modernism with the presumption that it would be able to conceive everything including God itself. Such declarations, concepts and prescriptions would fundamentally create limits of theological interpretation, besides being intrinsically biased according to the semantics of those who created them. And even if we compiled a list of propositions, it wouldn't make sense to port over definitions from one local church to another because each community is unique. Communities are encouraged to discover and explore by themselves expressions of the gospel that make sense, often recovering and reconstructing the historical traditions of their denominations, in case the community has such historical tradition. For example, many emerging communities compose their own liturgy creatively, including their own music. Instead of emphasizing only orthodoxy (right belief), emerging communities emphasize (also) orthopraxis (right practice). Another interpretation of the apparent lack of beliefs would be more of the historical kind. The transition from modernism to postmodernism and the end of Christendom naturally took the church in the northern hemisphere to rethink many concepts and practices. Since the transition is a social phenomenon, these new communities ended up adopting similar values, emphasis and practices in parallel, independent from each other. These communities come from a wide spectrum of denominations. While the term “emerging church”, which was artificially created, is large enough to include such communities and common characteristics, the theological holes would only be apparent since each community ends “binding” its own theology to practice. I think that this portable characteristic of the emerging ideas allows us to better think about the paths the emerging conversation may take in the Brazilian context. Our perception of the world and our theology are always seen with the eyes of our own culture. They shape and give meaning to language. They associate language with our lives and experiences.
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Última Atualização ( 03 de novembro de 2008 )
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