Giving attention to emerging theology as we missionally engage with the emerging culture

The TREK team sincerely wants to explore particular theological issues as they come to the surface out of a listening posture with you in your community, but here are a number of emphases that have proved helpful recently. We approach them as questions to engage with rather than conclusions to be accepted.

1. What is the Gospel? Missional communities are rightly concerned to demonstrate and verbalize the good news, while emerging culture compels us to be clear as to what we mean by good news and what good news means to us. Biblical ideas of salvation and conversion need to be explored.

2. How does the Spirit of God relate to a Renewal of Imagination? The imaginative life in the midst of imaginative communities suggests the presence of the Spirit and is in sync with highly creative trends that are now emerging. A biblical focus on hope becomes pertinent.

3. What difference does mission make for marginalized people? The Incarnation has serious implications for all that happens at the margins of society. Perhaps missional communities need to deliberately demonstrate downward rather than upward mobility. Is there a biblical priority for the poor?

4. What does spirituality look and feel like in the context of an emerging church? Perhaps we should not be limited to ecstatic, cognitive or ascetic expressions of spiritual devotion. How does discipleship relate to issues of justice, care for creation, militarism, sanctity of life, etc.?

5. Does God as Trinity have any bearing on the shape and behaviour of missional communities of faith? Relationship and movement inhere in God himself. We may need to wrestle with the implications of this in terms of the focus and direction of communities that imitate the sending, giving and caring God.

6. What role does Scripture play in emerging communities of faith? Perhaps texts need to be read again with their narrative purposes in mind. If so, how do we deal with emerging ambivalence toward the larger plot or metanarrative in the story that Scripture tells? It may be that we need to give special attention to local stories, while at the same time relating them to the broader narrative.