{"id":49,"date":"2007-06-17T10:42:05","date_gmt":"2007-06-17T10:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emergentchurch.info\/?p=67"},"modified":"2009-06-11T15:33:59","modified_gmt":"2009-06-11T15:33:59","slug":"what-questions-are-you-asking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/2007\/06\/17\/what-questions-are-you-asking\/","title":{"rendered":"What Questions are you asking?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I had the opportunity to present at a session of the Kentucky Annual Conference of Methodism this past week.  During one of our lunch break out sessions, I was a part of a conversation on &#8220;Emerging Ministries.&#8221;  With our denomination in its fourth decade (!!) of decline, people are worried about the future and the near complete lack of 20-30 year olds shows there is reason for concern.<\/p>\n<p>So what is the answer?  I will submit to you this:  We need to be less concerned about the answers until we start asking the right questions.  That is where I believe the emerging church holds promise: not with answers, but with questions.<\/p>\n<p>If church ask the question &#8220;How do we get 20 and 30 somethings into our doors?&#8221; I believe we will fail miserable.  Instead, we should inquire &#8220;What questions are these new generations asking?&#8221;  This generation is no longer primarily asking &#8220;How do I get to heaven when I die?&#8221; or &#8220;What church is best for me?&#8221;  Instead, we find a generation who is asking things like:<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/emergentchurch.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/question.jpg\" alt=\"question.jpg\" align=\"right\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What does salvation look like here on earth?<\/li>\n<li>How can we experience holistic worship and restoration?<\/li>\n<li>What does it mean to pray &#8216;Thy Kingdom come?&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>Where can I find authentic community?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These questions are more than just a shift in focus, they are a shift in thinking.  This postmodern generation now thinks narratively in a non-lineal fashion and approaches issues holistically.  Spiritual restoration cannot happen apart from physical and emotional restoration.<\/p>\n<p>To say these things is not to deny the importance of other&#8217;s questions.  I am convinced that disagreements in the church are less about different answers once we realize the questions we each are asking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had the opportunity to present at a session of the Kentucky Annual Conference of Methodism this past week. During one of our lunch break out sessions, I was a part of a conversation on &#8220;Emerging Ministries.&#8221; With our denomination in its fourth decade (!!) of decline, people are worried about the future and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,21],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-thoughts","tag-questions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/98"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}