Back again after a baby arriving. Not best described as an interlude, the blog is more an interlude with life as the main attraction. What continues to pre-occupy me about church, when church is problematic and not agreeing on basics, is the amount of theological (popular in particular) hot air generated around the postmodern context. The notion of a journey is critical to an understanding of church as a dynamic thing, that implies movement, change, etc. The issue is - where are we 'journeying' to? The other problem with the journey metaphor is that it is incomplete without a balancing metaphor such as body or society or priesthood of believers. In our church expression (local church, or maybe not church depending on your view of church etc, etc.) we talk rightly about sharing and journeying, and more and more about 'intentional community'. I am really keen to know where we are going and what we are sharing. I am also keen to 'intend' to do it together, not alone. we are still expressing anxiety about provinding even the most basic definition of church. We are in danger of being distracted and isolating one another from the tradition. In all the search for a 'postmodern' church paradigm we are failing to agree at a level sufficient for even the most basic ecclesiology, while we look elsewhere at what everyone else is doing, we don't do it ourselves.

The question of definition at a local level stands on the matter of leadership'authority. This will be where the biggest debate will be had. I fear we have been to level for too long to submit leadership. Our charismatic individualism and bourgeois liberal values giving us to much trouble in this most fraught of areas.