Yesterday morning, I listened to the latest Emergent Village podcast (actually only 2/3 of it, as it was 90 min. long) featuring a presentation by Diana Butler Bass at the 2007 Emergent Mainline Conference. Brian McLaren introduces her and says about her latest book, Christianity For The Rest of Us, ...will go a long way in helping the people in the pews who know something isn't working to start to get a vision for a good future, that instead of thinking about change meaning terror and chaos and anxiety, they can say "Wow. There are a lot of changes that could be for the better." On her website she says: Although many people have not yet noticed, there is a quiet revival going on in American religion in its least likely quarters—among moderate and liberal “brand name” Christian congregations, folks like the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Lutherans, Methodists, the American and Cooperative Baptists, in peace churches like the Quakers and Mennonites, and in independent and alternative Christian communities gathering around the “new monasticism ” or “emergent village .” These Christians practice their faith with renewed enthusiasm, are experimenting with new forms of worship and service, and are, by their insistence on friendship, justice, and diversity, reforming the structures and traditions in which they find themselves. ... —a new, generous, practicing sort of postmodern Christianity, a kind of Christianity that is embracing and redefining tradition while enacting justice in the world—people and communities that escape easy characterization or precise definition. I know about this quiet revival for two reasons. First, I’ve been part of it for the better part of my adult life. I am the kind of Christian I’ve described above. And second, for the last dozen years, I’ve been studying it. Trying to figure out, to understand if there is any sort of spiritual pattern to seemingly episodic reports of renewal, following threads of new vitality across the nation. And, after research and writing, I can say with great confidence that something new is happening in American religion, all across the country, people with a similar vision of practicing faith in community, of re-engaging tradition, and seeking wisdom is coming into focus. This kind of Christianity stands outside that old “right-left” divide of American religion and is trying to create a new theological language, new structures of leadership and community, and a responsible, peace-filled, and just global Christian (and Jewish and Muslim and Buddhist, etc…) vision. It doesn’t really have a name yet—although most people seem to be calling it “emerging,” “practicing,” “transformative,” “missional,” or “progressive” Christianity. People trying to describe it use these names somewhat interchangeably but are speaking of different aspects of the same phenomenon. I simply refer to it as “Christianity for the rest of us,” a way of saying that this generous-sort of faith has its arms wide-open. It needs no name—for any single name could become a party-label—because it is a disposition of faithful people on a different kind of journey, a journey with friends toward some undiscovered country of being God’s new community. That’s what I write about: Christianity for the rest of us. For those who are tired, bored, dissatisfied with “business-as-usual” faith and are doing—or want to do—something about it—forming new communities, dreaming new theological visions, embracing new spiritual practices, reaching out and making new friends across old boundaries, speaking new faith language, and striving to enact God’s justice in our lives, our congregations, and our world. I have not read any of her books, but I wonder if she might be another who has travelled this path on which some of us find ourselves. Diana Butler Bass | 
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