Many Jesus-followers today find themselves, relative to the established church, grappling with the
paradox of both needing to belong but of also realising that in the end it’s impossible for them to
fully belong. They inhabit the “margins” of what’s been and what is, while all the while deconstructing and reconstructing with an eye to what might be needful up ahead. They explore, as Theologian Terry Veling writes, “relieved of taken-for-granted conventions” and the need to unquestioningly perpetuate established models, values, and practices. Instead, they will question; they will engage vitally and meaningfully with lived-in-contexts and their notions of what it means to follow Jesus, individually and corporately. As poet T.S Eliot has written, “With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling [they] shall not cease from exploration." Exploration in all its dimensions. They will experiment. They will find out for themselves what faithfulness to this Jesus-following life means in practice. They will feel for themselves the meaning and significance of this crucified and resurrected God. They will renew connections with the past. They will construct new parables – new stories – new ways of forming authentic identity, of nurturing meaning and purpose in the interplay of the sacred and the everyday. In any church these persons will ‘work’ the edges; they will lovingly subvert; they will extend in new directions the old fabric of church identity and praxis.
An excerpt from an article in The Ooze 03: "Belonging and Not Belonging: The creative margins." by Paul Fromont
