Tim Samoff // Weblog (old)

November 08, 2004

Rules of Pinky...

Despite my weariness of the word, postmodern, John O’keefe has come up with some pretty cool “Rules of Pinky” (as opposed to “Rules of Thumb” — get it?) that any emerging churches — no, make that all churches — should think about:

1. A postmodern/emerging community of faith needs to have a willingness to encourage it’s participants to extend the self to the world around. As a gathering, they need to have a desire to see “community” as something more then a collection of small tribes, and they need to be able to see past their own tribe to that of others. They need to move from inside the community to a place of “uncomfort” and be in mission to all.
2. A postmodern/emerging community of faith needs a willingness to move past what is, and redefine what will be. While we would never ask them to be innovators, we would expect them not to be imitators. If what the community is seeking to do is imitate another community, then that is not seeing what can be – but only living what is. When people “imitate” that tells us they see this as another “church program” and not a true expression of community and self.
3. A postmodern/emerging community of faith needs a willingness to treat all people as equals. When we say “all people,” we mean all people, regardless of age, race, gender, belief system or any other “box” we can think of, are equal in the eyes of God.
4. A postmodern/emerging community of faith has a willingness to hear the voices of others. The idea that we accept people is cool, but if you are not going to hear them, we are simply speaking empty words; it is not just “hear” it is “listen.”
5. A postmodern/emerging community of faith has a willingness to not be driven by programs, building or budgets. It does not center on what it has but on what it can do with that it has.

Posted at 10:49 am

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