At the final session of the Emergent Convention, we read the following statements out loud together. By posting these statements here, I’m both affirming them and declaring my intention to live them out in my context. You can read more about them here.

1. Commitment to God in the Way of Jesus:

We are committed to a “generous orthodoxy” in faith and practice ? affirming the historic Christian faith and the Biblical injunction to love one another even when we disagree. We embrace historic spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation, contemplation, study, solitude, silence, service, and fellowship, believing that healthy theology cannot be separated from healthy spirituality.

2. Commitment to the Church in all its Forms:

We are committed to honor and serve the church in all its forms ? Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal. We practice “deep ecclesiology” ? rather than favoring some forms of the church and critiquing or rejecting others, we see that every form of the church has both weaknesses and strengths, both liabilities and potential. We believe the rampant injustice and sin in our world requires the sincere, collaborative, and whole-hearted response of all Christians in all denominations, from the most historic and hierarchical, through the mid-range of local and congregational churches, to the most spontaneous and informal expressions. We affirm both the value of strengthening, renewing, and transitioning existing churches and organizations, and the need for planting, resourcing, and coaching new ones of many kinds. We seek to be irenic and inclusive of all our Christian sisters and brothers, rather than elitist and critical, seeing “us” we were used to see “us versus them.” We own the many failures of the church as our failures, which humbles us and calls us to repentance, and we also celebrate the many heroes and virtues of the church, which inspires us and gives us hope.

3. Commitment to God?s World:

We practice our faith missionally ? that is, we do not isolate ourselves from this world, but rather, we follow Christ into the world. We seek to fulfill the mission of God in our generations, and then to pass the baton faithfully to the next generations as well. We believe the church exists for the benefit and blessing of the world at large; we seek therefore not to be blessed to the exclusion of everyone else, but rather for the benefit of everyone else. We see the earth and all it contains as God?s beloved creation, and so we join God in seeking its good, its healing, and its blessing.

Internet access has been hard to come by, so here are some accumulated notes and observations from my time here so far.

Most pastors struggle with either “super-pastor” (I can do it all) syndrome or “struggling pastor despair” (Look at me, I?m broken). Both are masks we hide behind to conceal our true selves.

What expression do you imagine on God?s face when he looks at you?

God?s grace is mediated through the face of the “other.”

LeRon Shults is wicked smart. I want to read more of his stuff.

We should emphasize salvation in terms of relationship rather than substance.

Brian Walsh and Brian McLaren?s session on scripture was awesome. I want to get Walsh?s commentary on Colossians. Lots of talk about allowing the overall trajectory of the scriptural narrative to inform our reading of individual texts. I could listen to these guys talk about this all day long.

Todd Hunter and John Franke?s session on Truth started off slow but finished strong. The challenge of a non-foundationalist approach to truth is finding practical ways to demonstrate it and talk about it. Hunter was really good about showing how to do this in evangelistic conversations. He refused to let the discussion veer away from the practical.

In each session, there has been at least one person ask a question or make a comment that goes something like this: “I?m really appreciate what is going on in the emerging church discussion. I find myself wanting to embrace it. I would feel better about it if emerging leaders would affirm their belief in ?absolute truth? or their belief that Scripture is God?s Truth revealed to humanity, or that Jesus is the only way to the Father, etc.” In other words, if you?ll just say that you still believe in these things, then I can feel ok about you and what you’re doing. The presenters (especially McLaren) have been really gracious and very careful as they?ve answered these questions. McLaren usually answers by pointing out how much baggage the term “absolute truth” carries with it or by asking the questioner what he means by “salvation” or whatever. They?re not dodging complex questions, but they?re not giving simple answers in response to them either, even though it would get their critics off of their backs if they did. I really respect that.

Peter Scazzero?s session “The Emotionally Healthy Church” was excellent. His basic thesis: Emotional health and spiritual maturity are inseparable. It is not possible for a Christian to be spiritually mature and emotionally immature.

The implications of this statement are huge. Most churches do not include emotional maturity in their discipleship strategy. Our churches are full of emotionally immature people, including leadership at all levels. He?s on to something here.

Yesterday, at the Bloggers forum, the American Bible Society treated us to a great lunch. Thanks guys.