The Cohort Table

We had our first NYC Emergent Village Cohort gathering last week. It was a great group of people, and as we expect here in NYC white males were in the minority!!

Brian McLaren is often asked whether EC is just a conversation, or a movement. He says that he does not want to see it become a movement until all the parties are at the table - that we need to hear from the leaders of the churches in postcolonial countries and from more groups other than white suburban evangelical males in the US.

Well, here in NYC we are urban, we are from pentecostal, mainline and evangelical churches (hoping for some Catholic's soon), we are decidedly multi-ethnic and of both genders, we are even multi-national - we are all here.

I've heard people say it's important to invite others to the table...that is true for those in the institutional center...the ones with power....but for us on the fringes, we have to build our own table.

So, we're all here in NYC, and we are going to build the table together and sit at it. No one's inviting anyone to this table, we're building it together like the Amish. It's a barn raising.

So, come meet your Amish neighbors once a month at the Cohort if you live in NYC. You may need a barn one day.