Tag, You’re It

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs this week about “post modernity” and “the emergent church.” Some are for it, some against it. Personally I hate the tags. I’m not sure what I am and I’m not sure I know what either tag means, but I am sure that I don’t care. Maybe I’m just stupid, but I just want to do church in a way that makes folks, Christian and not, feel comfortable enough to seek God. I want to explore the Scriptures with boldness, calling truth, truth. Maybe I will post my statement of beliefs so others will know if I am “orthodox” or “evangelical,” “conservative” or “liberal.” I’m not sure I understand any of those terms either. There are a lot of guys I like from all camps and some I question from all camps.

Here’s my list of guys I listen to and read:
· Erwin McManus
· Mark Buchanan
· Rob Bell
· Mark Driscoll
· Dallas Willard
· Ravi Zacharias
· John Ortberg
· Steve Sjogren
· James Merriot
· Jenzen Franklin
· Chuck Colson
· Alan Nelson
· Ed Young, Jr.
· Doug Pagitt
· Thom Rainer
· Leonard Sweet
Are these guys post-modern? Emergent? Liberal? I really want to know!

And theses are the guys that intrigue me, I just haven’t gotten around to checking out their stuff:
· Chris Seay
· Andy Stanley
· John Burke
· Randy Frazee
· Tony Jones
· Dan Kimball

Here are some guys that just confuse me:
· Brian McLaren
· Tony Campolo
Now I know those 2 guys are post-modern icons but I just don’t get where their heads are on some things. And that is OK, we don’t have to agree on all things. So does that make me… not post-modern?

So what is my tag? I don’t know and I don’t care. I know what I want to see in the church and I think I have made that pretty clear so far on this blog. I know that the people I hang with at my home church and on the colleges that I serve love the concept and can’t wait for it to get off the ground. That is enough for me. It seems that God has struck a nerve in the 20 – 30 crowd (and in a few of us old guys too). So we need to get busy about the Father’s business and hang the tag! What I need is support personnel who what to jump into the muck of our world and sacrifice to raise up this church with me. I have to be honest, so far, there is a lot of good talk from people around me, but when you get down to really throwing in on this venture and risking it all to follow the call, no one is willing to commit. No one. Is that because I am a poor leader? God’s timing is not yet? I don’t know, but I am still looking for a team to make our what-ever-it-is church happen. The field is ready, we are not.