Stuck and loving it

This post is from the defunct blog “Dying Church”

I haven't posted in quite a while because I've been preoccupied. I just returned from my first residency of a D.Min. program at Gordon-Conwell. A few things happened there that gave me a lot of hope. We were sitting around the room the first day introducing ourselves. I met all kinds of people – an Anglican pastor from Ontario, pro-Bush supporters, even someone who was just ordained a prophetess to the nations in a charismatic group. Oh yeah, there was also a pastor of an emerging-type church from Portland. I wondered what we were all doing in the same room. We tend to gather in tribes, and view others with suspicion. This even happens in the emerging church. I've been disappointed as I've sensed the same type of exclusion-ism take place there, no matter what the issue. But for two weeks, I was stuck together with people who believed and acted differently than I do. How refreshing to be forced into it. And how refreshing to find that it was a joy to be stuck together. Part of what I need to die to, I'm sure, is my tendency to see what God is doing only in those who resemble me. The Kingdom is much bigger than I realize.