Nanette Sawyer's chapter in Emergent Manifesto of Hope had much that was worth thinking through:

About being In or Out of the Christian community...

"(Speaking with my childhood minister many years ago), I was taught that there are good people and bad people, Christian people and non-Christian people, savd people and damned people, and we know who they are.

"Thinking back on (those) pivotal interactions...I believe the whole conversation missed the mark in a big way. He was defining Christian identity as assent to a list of certain beliefs, and he was defining Christian community as those people who concur with those beliefs.

"This didn't leave any room for questions, doubts, or growth in faith. It made community acceptance of each other completely conditional on having already arrived at a particular intellectual destination."

About advice given by the Presbyterian Church (PC USA), which sent her into the neighbourhood as pastor and said,

"Rethink church for us. Drink a lot of coffee in neighborhood hangout places; get to know the people; take the church outside the building; start something new; and report back to us what you find."

About the Jesus Way...

"Being centered in a generous Christianity, we are committed to finding ways to love and serve the world as Jesus did. This is based on a belief that generosity will not onyl help the world, but it will deeply change us.

"Generosity is a direct challenge to the cultural forces that would isolate and make us fearful... and) encourage us to hoard what we have or attend only to our own needs.

"A generous Christianity is a more holistic Christianity because it acknowledges how integrally interconnected we are with each other and with the world. We are striving to be with God and with our neighbors, as Jesus was and is with God and neighbor."