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Emerging characteristics

Andrew Jones (who wrote one of my most favorite reflections on the house church movement, My Gripes About the House Church Movement, posted over at Third Day Churches) has listed 11 Characteristics of the Church Emerging on his Tall Skinny Kiwi blog (which you really should visit--more than once--if you haven’t already) as suggested by pastor and author Doug Pagitt (for more on him see an interview with Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal). Here they are:

1. A Kingdom of God focus - join the Kingdom of God wherever it finds it.
2. Pursue faithfulness to God through new practices, structures and understandings.
3. Tend to have a hopeful and positive view of God's engagement in the world - we should find the activity of God in the world and join it.
4. Committed to loving God and loving neighbor and loving enemy in real ways in this world.
5. Deeply connected to the story of God and the Bible.
6. Living with the guidance of the Holy Spirit - not culture or understandings
7. Theologically active - thinking deeply about these practices
8. Openness to the "other" - outsider, foreigner, doesn't get freaked out
9. Want the good news of God to change the world and be the good news for all creation.
10. We understand community to be an essential part of the Christian life.
11. We are interested in the future more than fighting the battles of the past - we are people who are trying to live the story of Jesus in our world in ways consistent to where we have come from.

Again, Jones' blog is worth visiting if you haven't been there (and go again if you have). It's a wonderful source for understanding and keeping up with the emerging movement and conversation. I’ve got that blog (among others) on my FeedBlitz, which then sends me a daily e-mail with the posts of each blog on my list. A nifty way to keep track of what’s what. You should try it. (You could even add my blog, heh.)