I have been reflecting on the emerging church movement and noticing all the places where I really resonate with these folks (lots of them by the way). But there is one area where it seems like I shake out differently than the emerging types (I am generalizing of course, but bear with me).

Most of the emerging folks hold to an anabaptist view of the Kingdom of God. I read a lot about how if one is committed to the Kingdom, one will not get entangled in government, culture is suspect, etc. I am not frustrated that some hold this view. I am frustrated that the rhetoric treats this one view of the Kingdom as the only view. But hey, there have been other understandings. My take is that all of life is God's - even governments, corporations, hippee communes and video stores. The Kingdom is present in and through all these realities. It is also not present in and through all these realities. By the way, the same is true of the church - the Kingdom is both present and not present in and through the church. Now, this one way of reading the biblical data about the Kingdom - at least in relationship to government - is probably a more constantinian view. I hesitate to use that term though because I am not a monarchist, etc, and nasty things have been done by governments in the name of Christ (and Christians have done nasty things in the name of Christ). But, for example, I think one can have a Kingdom vocation to serve in government, say in the senate. This does not mean that I think the eschaton will be ushered in by legislation, but I think legislation can be more or less just - i.e., more or less a manifestation of God's reign.

I take the view that the gospel penetrates lives and cultures and governments, etc. and that in all places and persons it is never fully manifested until the eschaton. I do think in North American culture we are at a place where the church needs to be on the margins - but I do not think that because I believe that it is the only place for the church. I think the culture needs to be re-evangelized and the place to start is by re-evangelizing the church.

Read stuff in First Things to get a sense of how I see it. Anyway, my real and only point is that we should be more clear about our presuppositions about what the Kingdom is and where it can found and not take one model and treat it as the model. When folks write stuff like, "we should be committed to the kingdom rather than the government," it would better (I think) to write, "as an anabaptist, I think we should view the Kingdom as something seperate from government, culture, etc." Of course, I can write, "as a triumphalist, constantinian I view the Kingdom as...."(that last sentence was meant to be funny, tee hee)

Anyway - it would be fun to argue and dialogue about this stuff. Probably won't get us anywhere, but I love a good debate!!

Pax