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The key phrase Begbie uses is 'Freedom-in-relation-to-constraint' (186) through which we gain new personal identity. The danger today is that many seek to be original and creative, but regard freedom as unrelated to the past and tradition. The unease with temporality makes the new mission 'mediocre'(219), the antithesis of freedom. Contingency[i] and constraint allow the church in mission to relate to the particular context in such a way that failure and error can be incorporated. It gives the space to fail without complete disaster, as constraints help carry you through and in this risking new things are learned. The cadence therefore required is a restful restlessness(244) which saves us from activity as busy-ness that leads to lifeless monotony. On the one hand then, the structures give form and meaning to the improvisation; we don't have to make it happen. Yet equally these structures free us for mission and new fruitful possibilities. Significantly, it means identity is found in the repetition of the Eucharistic practice, rooting the community of faith in God's newness and to participate in His mission. From this restfulness comes the restlessness to be willing to give and give back.[ii] This removes a focus on technique and strategy or programme and means in terms of freedom, that we take more seriously the others identity as a person.[iii] The church therefore, does not exist for itself, but for the sake of passing on the Gospel. The mission praxis here too recognises there is no longer a need to have control over others, that power is relinquished. Indeed, music's contribution to our understanding of God's mission and that of the church is a reframing of present roles and responsibilities. With regard to the mission of God and of God's people, the shape of freedom, as restful restlessness, will have a gentle rhythm that is to be learned continually. This frees us from a having to get it right or to happen and so recover the cadence in mission – a provisionality which helps define the church less in terms of building and more in terms of people. It means letting go of traditional organisational and structural baggage; seeing ourselves less a part of a fixed institution and more participants forming the mosaic of an eschatological community. I think that is something of what it is to be emergent in the Spirit today.
The key phrase Begbie uses is 'Freedom-in-relation-to-constraint' (186) through which we gain new personal identity. The danger today is that many seek to be original and creative, but regard freedom as unrelated to the past and tradition. The unease with temporality makes the new mission 'mediocre'(219), the antithesis of freedom. Contingency[i] and constraint allow the church in mission to relate to the particular context in such a way that failure and error can be incorporated. It gives the space to fail without complete disaster, as constraints help carry you through and in this risking new things are learned. The cadence therefore required is a restful restlessness(244) which saves us from activity as busy-ness that leads to lifeless monotony. On the one hand then, the structures give form and meaning to the improvisation; we don't have to make it happen. Yet equally these structures free us for mission and new fruitful possibilities. Significantly, it means identity is found in the repetition of the Eucharistic practice, rooting the community of faith in God's newness and to participate in His mission. From this restfulness comes the restlessness to be willing to give and give back.[ii] This removes a focus on technique and strategy or programme and means in terms of freedom, that we take more seriously the others identity as a person.[iii] The church therefore, does not exist for itself, but for the sake of passing on the Gospel. The mission praxis here too recognises there is no longer a need to have control over others, that power is relinquished. Indeed, music's contribution to our understanding of God's mission and that of the church is a reframing of present roles and responsibilities. With regard to the mission of God and of God's people, the shape of freedom, as restful restlessness, will have a gentle rhythm that is to be learned continually. This frees us from a having to get it right or to happen and so recover the cadence in mission – a provisionality which helps define the church less in terms of building and more in terms of people. It means letting go of traditional organisational and structural baggage; seeing ourselves less a part of a fixed institution and more participants forming the mosaic of an eschatological community. I think that is something of what it is to be emergent in the Spirit today.
In eschatological perspective, the church is the end-time community, called to life by the Spirit, … It is a community, travelling from context to context, emerging in different cultural spaces, putting up signs of the coming kingdom and providing safe environments for people who try to make sense of their world with the aid of the gospel. It lives on the basis of the pneumatological contextualisation of Christ.
(Kirk and Vanhoozer, To Stake a Claim, 225)
I like that! I think that's what we are seeking to do.
[i] See p184. Importantly, contingency has the force of newness.
[ii] See chapter 9.
[iii] A useful image of this and the learning process in relation to discipleship is provided in p227/8
