emergent outliers: "distance emergent" community without geography

Out of the blue this morning Gideon, Blake, and I began discussing an online reading group and we had agreed that Caputo's short book On Religion would be a good start. With all the tools at our disposal, why not have weekly gatherings via Tokbox or some other live video streaming means to meet and have a discussion.

That "emerged" into an idea to meet a need we had brought up a few months ago. Why not form a virtual Emergent cohort as a means for those of us who are outliers to Emergent who have not found a critical mass of participation in our own communities to gather. Rather than have a lifestream of chats via Twitter and Facebook among others, why not have a purposeful and intentional community that while we cannot meet regularly face to face, why not meet virtually using all of the tools that are at our disposal? It does not just have to be a video conversation, but with discussion boards, chatrooms, and other media we can find both synchronous and a-synchronous ways to make this work. If it works for distance education, why can't it work for "Distance Emergent v. 1.0"?

So I am pleased to announce that Emergent Outliers has formed! This is not only as a group intended to capture the conversations of those people who persist with the emergent conversation outside of stable communities that have formed more often than not in urban centers. This is also for those of us who have kids, jobs, and all of the other life commitments who have difficulties participating in yet another gathering of people with yet another thing to do. Sometimes it takes a solid interest in doing one thing to make a group grow. Starting with this initial book reading, it is a great way to foster community.

Of course it would be ideal to have more than 30 something white guys from suburbia to participate! I always hope to hear as many cultural voices as we can muster so please jump in and represent! It often might not happen that way due to all sorts of social constraints including the very word "emergent" which might foster misplaced animosity among some. But as someone who has been critical and supportive of Emergent and so, kind of on the margins of the mainstream conversation, I think this has great potential as an open space for dialogue and to nurture faith through knowledge and friendship. Why are you still reading this? Go on over to Emergent Outliers now!

N.N: Thank Gideon for rocking the website in about 20 min. after we Tweeted the idea back and forth this morning.

Related posts:

1. emergent christians missed the memo that their movement is dead.
2. us religion: post-secular, more secular, post-christian?
3. go where god is, not where you believe god ought to be.
4. god is revealed where god is hidden