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Results so far...
So far, what the results indicate is that most people who visit this site are primarily interested in theology. No surprises there. I guess it’s a good thing that the negative motivation (‘it’s not traditional evangelicalism’) has not scored highly. Does that mean we’re growing up? But why so little interest in the renewal of worship and spirituality?
Longing for a renewed spirituality
I have to admit your question has flummoxed me, Andrew.
I know that ‘Diversity in worship and spirituality’ was the category in which I was least likely to place a vote and yet I cannot help admitting that it has been certain experiences of what we tend to now call ‘alternative worship’ (the old candle burning, incense smelling, hold a rock, “what does it mean?” type thing) that has aided my conviction that emerging theology must become more creative.
I mean this in both a positive and negative way. There have been times where a rich alternative worship experience has deeply moved me and I have felt, almost intuitively, that something has to change as a result of this experience and my theology plays catch-up, or rather finds a greater creativity. But then there have also been so many experiences of alternative worship which have been so unutterably rubbish that I beg to not have to speak of them! :o)
I guess I am longing for a form, or manner, of worship that both makes sense and is powerful in the 21st Century consumer culture which I cannot escape. I equally long for a relevant spirituality that can flow out of that worship.
I guess I would sum up by saying that while ‘Theological integrity and creativity’ fascinates me and enlivens me, and definitely got my vote, I would have loved to have been able to genuinely vote for ‘Diversity in worship and spirituality’ or in fact as you put it, Andrew, ‘Renewal in worship and spirituality’, but I just couldn’t have done so with any integrity. I simply do not have it… yet.
Does anybody feel the same way?
theology and creativity
Normally my preference would have been to click worship and spirituality, but I feel that the theology and creativity category is all-encompassing. The theology of the emergent church isn’t changing the content of Christian theology (as far as the fundamental, dare I say traditional, loci are concerned). We’re still talking about Christology, ecclesiology, pneumatology, the Trinity, mission, worship and so on, but we’re doing it with more freedom, more openness, more “creativity.” What is changing is (some) of our willingness to consider a broader spectrum of theological expression while reclaiming the original goal of telling the good news.