Emerging Poster Boy

I'm sure that you've noticed, but I added advertisements to my blog a while back to see if there was any monetary incentive to doing so. Predictably, I have seen no kickbacks of any kind and will be removing them from my blog. I knew that I would not like them, but sometimes you just have to step out and do something you know you won't like to prove to yourself that, indeed, you don't like it.

This morning, I saw this ad and got a kick out of it. This, they suppose, is the poster child for the Emerging church. A white male in his late 20's/early 30's, facial hair, multiple facial piercings, earings that appear to be scales, sporting somewhat untamed hair, and let's not overlook that he's not smiling. We get all of this from nothing more than a head shot. This guy probably has a balanced look and has some tattoos, some visible in short sleeves, some not.

What seems to be the obvious interpretation of this ad to me is that they are establishing two ends of a Christian spiritual spectrum and saying that their curriculuum caters to everyone in between much like Centrum's slogan "from A to Zinc." But, if that's true, then being on the opposite end of 'anchored' suggests that you're un-anchored. Is that what the term 'emerging' means? Emerging circles do talk a lot about deconstruction and anti-foundationalism. From my conversations with emerging-thinkers, I would expect that anchored is probably an adjective that they wouldn't like too much in describing themselves. So maybe this is correct.

Or maybe it's not two spectral ends, maybe they are just saying that they're anchored in Christ and that they are also teaching in an emerging format. But, a close look into their website lists many doctrinal statements without being vague at all, which isn't much like the emerging format that leaves very little room, if any at all, for certainty about any knowledge.

From what I can tell from their website, I'd like to think that really what they are attempting to do with the advertisement is to make it known that they are not anti-emerging. They want to reach these so called emerging thinkers, because, like a good Christian organization should be, they value the people and all the good aspects of a typical emerging-minded individual and want to give them a place for training to equip them to do the work of Christ Jesus in any setting whether domestic or abroad.

Regardless of the intent of the ad, I found it funny. I wonder who the poster boy would be for my categorized beliefs and Christian praxis.

Posted in: belief,observation