I mentioned the other day about Andre Daley being post-emergent, and it turns out he’s caused quite a little stir in ec-blogdom. He continues the conversation a little further over a few posts. There’s some interesting further thought there, but the overall tone seems to be a kind of “Hold on a minute, we’re not quite done with the emerging church just yet.” As I had indicated, it seems the real sentiment has to do with being weary of talk because the call to action is getting so much louder.

This evening I flipped open the pages of Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures and read on page 15:

There is a lot money for the postmodern game. Anything can be sponsored and fed money to. The modern church will pump money into church planting, books, and movies. But the sun burns brightest before it sets. They are trying to reach young people. However, they will realize that they were wasting their money and walk away. After this, there will be people who apply the gospel in postmodern culures.

Spencer Burke, Newport Beach, CA

I’m likely stretching Burke’s original context, but I think the sentiment is rather similar, and speaks to the notion that those who are truly emergent-minded are growing weary with those who merely change the veneer (arranging the deck chairs, using another metaphor) and are about to just get down to business and ignore the veneer discussion. To clarify my earlier comment, this is what I’m quite hoping for from the emerging church in the coming year or so, as it’s part of the maturing process. Others will come along and further define the conversation, the theology, and so forth… but this is a season for the emerging church “doers” to step up and do some doing. If this fails to happen, maybe we should all bail. Either way, the conversation will continue to describe what’s going on and further refine the theory, but without the doing, the conversation is going to become fairly pointless.