I was in Calgary recently to attend a few presentations by Richard Rohr. His work has had a strong influence on me ever since I first heard him at a Sojourners event a few years ago. He is an American, a Franciscan priest, and a renowned teacher of spiritual development, especially for men. Rohr was in Calgary at the invitation of the Franciscan community.

One of Rohr's presentations was on the Emerging Church movement. He calls Emerging Church a "movement" in order to distinguish it from the later stages of evolution he calls "machines, museums, and monuments." As a movement, says Rohr, the Emerging Church defies definition and analysis to a certain degree. His attempt is an early one to identify some common threads in the movement.

The four themes of Emerging Church that Rohr identified are:

1) Honest Jesus Scholarship - that is, a connection to the scholarly revitalization of last 20 years that has not only looked at the historical Jesus, but also the Jewishness of Jesus, the reading and interpretation of the gospels by women, laity, the poor, the developing world.

2) The Contemplative Mind - an alternative consciousness in which the whole notion of dualistic thinking is rejected - people cannot approach faith 'looking' for right and wrong, in and out, superior and inferior, etc.

3) Reviewing Issues of Scripture Usually Ignored by Churches - naming simplicity and non-violence as central to the gospel; the tenth commandment as equal to the others; a consciousness for the poor; openness and freedom.

4) Recognition that we need Structures for the Vision - This movement retains the idea that God's people should gather together (church) but seeks to create systems that will change those who belong. I interpret this theme as "intentionality."

More could be said, but this was the outline and much of it resonates with the Emerging Spirit presentations made at the Living the Hope learning events and other places. The critical point to recognise is that this "movement" always seems to take place in one of two ways, neither of which is the transformation of an existing functional Christian community.

One way an Emerging Church seems to be created is organically, grown free from the restrictions of existing church structures and therefore unburdened by historical expectations of what a church should be. You might recognize this in Solomon's Porch, Church of the Saviour (Washington), Church of the Apostles (Seattle), and the British alt.church movement.

The second way an emerging church arises is within the framework of a historical church or denomination. It is, however, usually in a context where that community has essentially died and the Holy Spirit has freed them from fear before they expired all together. I think this is a fair assessment of Hillhurst United Church (Calgary), Zion United Church of Christ (Kentucky), Ginghamsburg Methodist (Ohio), and Glide Memorial (San Francisco). It is not surprising that a feature of all of these communities is that they are inherently ecumenical in composition and practise, something that does not generally go down well with either liberals or conservatives.

Rohr says that Emerging Churches draw from tradition but are also free from it. You will find that Hillhurst "bends" a lot of rules. These churches are attracting people who share a consensus about what Jesus was about and not what a denomination is and has been about. How often have you heard questions that use the phrase United Church theology as though that mattered more than Christian theology or the theology of Jesus?

Rohr did not discourage me even as he helped me see the magnitude of the issue. He simply helped me reframe it as an issue not of institutional transformation but as one of spiritual transformation. He talks about how the individual may go through two halves of life, the second a deeper expression than the first. The first half of life is ego-driven and is shaped by self-identity, the need to say how unique and special we are. After 80 years we still call ourselves the "largest protestant church in Canada", the most progressive church, the first to ordain
women, the first to welcome homosexuals into the ministry, and so on. We are a "first half of life church." The second half of life is marked by soul, looking for that which is shared and that which is common; free-to-be and accept who we are rather than who we were or who we want to be.

In the Emerging Spirit program we are challenged with the unenviable task of infusing excitement for change in communities that are neither free to grow organically nor suffering from a near-death experience. How do we speak of transformation in relatively stable communities of faith that not only don't want to change but are perhaps built to avoid it?

Michael Wilson is a minister at Charleswood United Church in Winnipeg and a presenter at Emerging Spirit's Living the Hope congregational learning events.