humbled. confused.

Today I began my ethnography... well, not officially. I met with the Pastor of Terra Nova Church (Ed) who indulged me in my incessant chatter about how interesting and exciting I found the new trend of alternative church communities. Obviously, he agreed. He made it fairly clear that what I was speaking of was nothing new to him, and that he preferred to defy labels (which is fine with me as long as he doesn't mind if I make up a label for the purposes of analysis!). It was humbling to say the least to find that the ideas I think of as groundbreaking, he informed me his staff may be "sick of talking about". But let me start at the beginning and try to actually describe what occured today.

I walked into Terra Nova Church- which is actually a storefront in downtown Troy positioned next to Revolution Hall (where their Sunday worship takes place) and Brown's Brewery (a restaurant and pub where one of their Bible studies takes place). I knew a small amount about this particular church from nosing around their website, gathering what I could from audio files, blogs, and self-descriptions. as I walked in to the church offices, I was slightly confused about where to actually go and soon found a man in an office who introduced himself and asked what I needed. He directed me to Ed's office where Ed told me to have a seat and tell him "what I was about." Slightly confused and intimidated by his directness I gave a basic biographical sketch of myself- PhD student, ethnography class, interesting phenomenon, and so on. He laughingly says to me "So is this why you mentioned that you go to church in Cohoes- to tell me youre safe?" And I sheepishly reply "Yeah, I guess I didn't want you to think..." Before I even finished my sentence he began to tell me that he is not scared of anyone, asking if I had read the Metroland article they were featured in (I had, thankfully). Humbled, again.

After fumbling around trying not to use labels or tell him what I thought he was or what I thought he was doing, he says to me "So what is it that you want from me, from us?" I decided that using generic academic terms would serve me best in not asking too much, telling him I thought his church would work well as a pilot study... "You want us to be guinea pigs?" I am not completely sure how to respond to this, so I say with some hesitation, "Well in a way, I suppose". He replies with a simple "Great!" And he then changes the topic. Actually, he tells me he needs coffee asking if I would like to walk the half block to Brown's brewery. I agree, we sit down and both order a cup of chicken orzo soup (it was cold and rainy) he orders coffee and I order a Diet Coke. He tells me about his personal history, telling me about being raised a good catholic boy, being an angry wanna-be atheist (agnostic) in his teens, eventually becoming a Baptist Fundamentalist, and somehow coming to be a part of the ACTS29 network sponsored by Mars Hill Church and planting Terra Nova 2 years ago. We exchange Baptist Fundamentalist horror stories, talk about the local people and places we actually both know, and become somewhat acquainted to eachother's background. He draws me a picture of a 3-part theology that includes the gospel, culture, and church (maybe? I will have to ask him to draw me my own personal drawing that I can take home with me next time!). He then explains to me, using the theology of an old church father, whose name also escapes me, the problematic way that para-church, evangelical, liberal, and Fundamentalist movements have bifactored, picked two of the three parts of this cycle, and that Terra Nova attempts to incorporate all three into their most foundational belief.

Our conversation continues causally, he tells me about how the church planting process works, how their church has managed to offend people from every corner of the spectrum, and so on. He asks what the next step in the process is, and promises to send me what he thinks are key sermons and texts as well as talk to his leaders and members about the possibility of speaking with me.

Mix in with all of this strange references to both Marshal Mcluhan and Neil Postman (what? could this guy have read my undergraduate papers in preparation for our meeting?!) and some more biographical information and you have what was our pretty productive meeting.

The most interesting part of the whole conversation for me was when I asked him about whether their church is required to ascribe to any particular belief statement in order to be sponsored by the ACTS29 network. He explained to me that yes, they all do have a a statement of beliefs that is followed, including Male Eldership/Pastoring. Aside from this, most of the beliefs stated seem to be very similar to that of any Evangelical church minus the Right-political undertones.

This all led me to the all important question- Is this anything?

Is this a new movement, a moment in history that deserves all of my attention for the next 4 years. Or, are these just Evangelicals who are okay with smoking and drinking while doing Bible study? I suppose that is what a pilot is for, and what this semester is for... to discover whether this is something. Something worth studying. Whether on its own or as part of a network of many churches who see themselves as new and different in different ways. Can there be some way to define them all as part of a major movement?

I guess this is what I am supposed to find out.

And don't worry, I told him that anything he told me today he would have to be okay with resaying once I could formally record his words!

kaitlyn.