emergent spirituality

i've been asked to teach a master's course on emergent spirituality. it's for the leadership in spiritual formation course at spring arbor university, and i think it'll be a lot of fun.

but it does raise some interesting questions for me...like why i tend to understand christian spirituality so differently from many of my peers (even "emergent" ones), and why i understand spiritual formation so differently as well.

i fully embrace the ancient/future ideology so common to people from my tribe...but, if i'm honest, it seems like most of us are more enamored with the ancient than with the futuristic.

this is ok.

i'd rather we loved the ancient than loved the nearly recent. the nearly recent, after all, has kind-of kidded-down discipleship, maligned art and beauty, and altogether abolished the necessity of a rule of life.

so, yeah - ancient is good.

but so is future...and there are very few voices on what future-spirituality looks like. in the past, i've experimented a lot with web portals (like prayground, for example, or vurch) and their worth in this regard.

they're worth a lot...but they're not the whole deal.

instead, i've come to focus my understanding along a few spirtual bearings. i'll likely share them later, but this post is really just about their prologue in my thoughts.