I’m in, but I’m turning the list upside down (call it the liberationist in me):

Purpose:

1. Justice/Righteousness: in the synoptic sense (dikaiosyne); in the Hebrew sense (shalom), in the Johannine sense (eternal life), in the Pauline sense (what’s a Romans equivalent here, "righteousness of God" perhaps?).  I don’t believe there is a renewal of creation without this purpose.  And it is God’s purpose first, before it is ours.

2. Worship: any activity towards God and towards neighbor done with a pure heart.

Theological method:

1. Practical theology (or a fascimile) - I don’t think any method is possible other than this one.  Here’s why: Emergent, to this point, is mostly about a bunch of white, male, middle-class, Protestant, neo-evangelical, North American, post-modern, above-average-educated people.  If we stay like this we are toast.  A practical theology grounds us in the reality of God’s world.  Take what we believe to be true (theory), put it on the ground (application), talk to others (feedback/correction), come back to theory.  Eventually this method will correct all of the other social-locked categories I mentioned. BUT,

2. Humility - we can’t do any of it without a humility that is costly.  It must take into consideration our own socio-theological locatedness and be willing to sacrifice our sacred cows knowing that God’s mission will always be a *surprising* corrective as we go.

3. Public Prophetic Ministry - Surprising?  It shouldn’t be.  I would hate to see Emergent turn out to be a social club or exercise in theological mind-stimulation.  If we believe anything, if we believe justice has any place in what we are doing we must be prophetic (in the not-priestly sense).  We MUST oppose the powers that be in the church and without if we are to participate in God’s Reign.  Jesus was the Son of God come in the form of a poor, marginalized, non-priestly class: in other words, much like Amos.

That takes me to Content:

1. The Reign of God - How can this NOT be front and center?  Take it away and you have 300 years of history that are testimony to the marginalization of the person of Jesus.

2. The renewal of ALL creation.  We can’t be anthropocentric here.  This, I think, echo’s Richard’s brilliant comments on the Life and Death thread.  Creation wasn’t ex nihilo: the "Spirit hovered over the waters" is our introduction to creation.  Humans were created, not on a special day just for them, but on the sixth day with the rest of the land animals.  And the birds (fifth day) were blessed just the same as humans and animals (on the sixth).  God’s creation must be cared for in anticipation of its renewal.  I think we need to start here when we speak of new creation.  Nuancing further tends towards anthropocentrism and neglect of our responsibilities toward the earth.

3. Lastly, you make Jesus explicitly front and center.  The whole Jesus.  And you start with the gospels — not Paul — and work your way out.

4. Here is, in my opinion, the most important point of them all.  Pneumatology: without the spirit, none of these things are more than nice history lessons.  The Spirit teaches us…and in whatever way it feels appropriate.  We cannot testify of the spirit’s authority (through the authority of Jesus) if we make the scriptures the first teacher.  Using the old method of sola scriptura, Peter never would have been able to leave that rooptop for Cornelius’ house.  Paul would have never been able to leave the desert after two years and reinvent the whole of Hebrew scriptures. 

And the whole of Christianity never would have advanced to the most dominant religion on the planet, despite our textbooks that tell us it was the priestly class that *created* Christianity through the centuries.

God matters.  Jesus matters.  The spirit matters.  Justice is our calling, prophecy our method, new creation our hope.

I want to start here.