The Dawn Of An Expected New Day

They say, “You can never go home again.” And science is proving this adage true. We’re rapidly approaching a moment in technology from which we will never return. Few realize, though, the same thing is happening in every part of life—including our spirituality.

Like the earliest believers, we can see "a rare and momentous alignment of forces." This Spirit-birthed age is birthing spirit! The very dynamics that define the emerging church also define the first century Church: a new community—a new communication—a new reconciliation—a new creativity—and a new power.

Yes, the "Word" remains the "Word," but the "proofs" of old dogmas are fading. The apologetics of old "experts" are failing. And the arguments of old beliefs are falling. As past leaders try making the future more "thinkable," future leaders are trying on the "unthinkable." For no theology can tame the wildness of the spiritual frontier.

It's an emerging church. Yet, it's also a "singularity" church. This strange term begins with the gravitational singularity of a "black hole"—a boundary in space beyond which no "light" can reach the observer, or a moment in time from which nothing can return. More bluntly, this "event" represents the end of modern physics as we know it and the birth of something new.

Then soon, we saw a similar "singularity" among the amazing trends in technology. And, now, it's no surprise that today’s church has become the obvious spiritual parallel to "Technological Singularity": Normal "change" has become abnormal, linear change has become exponential, and expected change has turned unexpected. Increasingly, our world is a "Sorcerer's Apprentice" world where powerful changes are moving beyond our ability to understand, predict or control.

This looming crisis is more than the apocalypse of rampant technology—more than the drunken indulgence of a new paganism—more than the demonic quicksand of secular spiritualism—more than the virtual insanity of virtual reality—more than the nihilist networking of global guerrillas. . . . It's the critical mass of all these!It is the ending and beginning of something totally Other. It is the fault line of the future. More important, it is a creative mutation driven by God.

So today's leaders rightly fear being left behind. Unfortunately, there is no way they can become tomorrow's spiritual leaders out of today's context. In fact, their future roles will prove just opposite of what they expect. For we are rethinking thinking. . . . The future no longer belongs entirely to cold and calculating brains—the guys who know only "sequence," "literalness," and "analysis." It belongs, increasingly, to creativity, artistry, and empathy—metaphor, meaning, and emotion—pattern, synthesis, and the big picture. We are changing, in other words, from charted logic to uncharted "logic"—from a literal world to a metaphorical world—from facts to phenomena. We are changing from dead metaphors to live metaphors—from proofs to paradox—from common patterns to juxtapositions. And, we are changing from exaggerated control to controlled exaggeration—from rhetorical flair to transcendent revelation—from a "real" world to a virtual reality world.

Indeed, we are no longer "thinking" in the old sense of the word. Instead, we are projecting a new world—our thinking is becoming incarnational thinking. In the world of quantum and string theories, for example, we are participants more than spectators. We are co-authors more than bystanders. Our world is more a "Creating" than a "Creation." When whole systems and their parts—including us!—mutually determine one another, the role of divine action takes on an entirely new dimension.

So a new body of believers is emerging in this epic moment. Yet, this "Body" is not an organization, it's an organism. It's not an institution, it's a living system. It's not a structure, it's a spontaneous response to the hastening of history.

And this future belongs to the faithful who seize this moment.