We were going around the room introducing ourselves at the monthly meeting of Emerging Phoenix, the emergent cohort in Atlanta. A twenty-something still in business casual dress from a day at work, said, “I’m Dave, and I’m a heretic.” No one batted an eye or registered surprise at his introduction. As a devotee of Pete Rollins, founder of Ikon, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, everyone in the room was familiar with the expression and knew what Dave meant.

Though Belfast could hardly be further removed, culturally, from Atlanta, the influence of the experimental community, Ikon, is palpable. Ikon uses five words to distinguish itself from conventional churches, and many emergent communities are fully on board. These five descriptors, below, are followed in each case with an explanatory sentence from the Ikon web site, http://wiki.ikon.org.uk/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Iconic

“To treat something as an icon is to see it as that which draws us into a deep contemplation of that which cannot be reduced to words, images or experience.”

Apocalyptic

“The word ‘apocalyptic’ simply refers to the incoming of a singular, unrepeatable event that is absolutely inconceivable, an event that could not have been predicted in advance of its coming and which defies all expectations. At Ikon we wish to reclaim and celebrate the apocalyptic nature of God. . . .”

Heretical

“Each revelation of God requires interpretation and these interpretations are inevitably limited by such things as language, intelligence, cultural context, tradition and psychological makeup. By recognising this we endeavour to hold our current understanding of God lightly, allowing both the Spirit and other people to challenge what we believe.

“In addition to this we acknowledge our heretical stance in relation to the larger Christian community. . . By doing this we also endeavour to be a place of refuge for those on the edges, or outside, the traditional church system, yet who desire God.”

Emerging

“. . . We would prefer to call ourselves a community becoming Christian rather than a community of Christians. . . We embrace the idea that re-reading, critiquing, constructing and deconstructing are all processes which remain vital for our spiritual development.”

Failing

“Finally Ikon acknowledges that it constantly fails in its desire to be an icon of the invisible. . . Our attempts at forming a community of individuals who radiate divine love are, at best, the forging of a poor icon through which people can dimly perceive God and, at worst, an off-putting mirror that simply reflects our own limitations.”

No marketing consultant would ever recommend that a church describe itself to the public as heretical, or failing, and the other three words would only seem abstruse to the outsider. But for the worldwide emergent community, these are attractive and engaging concepts around which to shape the community of Jesus in the post-Christendom era.