Sorry Virgil but the Western ascetic tradition does not in any way correspond to what we see in Acts and the expectation that Jesus will imminently return is always a part of our eschatology - even for most Preterists!

The early Christians would no more remove themselves from the world than Jesus had done for they were all first and foremost followers of Jesus. Living communally does not equal communism and voluntarism is absolutely required or we make a mockery of the gospel itself. What we see in Acts is the spontaneous response of the first believers. What will the emerging church of the 21st century spontaneously do?

Let’s at least try for a major rethink. I do believe that we have to explore getting rid of categories like communist/capitalist as far as christian living is concerned. The question really should be, in the light of Jesus’s teaching how should we live?

These are questions that have been asked most notably by Francis Schaeffer, Ron Sider and more recently by Chuck Colson. I found some good stuff in Colson’s work but the focus is not on kingdom teaching and the philosophical framework that they propose is not convincing either (Plato vs Aristotle). Concepts quite foreign to the biblical narrative are taking precedence and driving what looks suspiciously like a soft neocon agenda.

The emerging church has an opportunity to really break the mold and try to integrate a way of life that is based on kingdom principles without regard to present systems of philosophy, ethics and politics. I would expect that there should be a diversity of experimentation based on how local fellowships rethink and apply. Some PoMo tools will be very helpful in this endeavor, especially deconstruction, but it’s how we reconstruct that will be most interesting!

Live to serve : Serve to live