Descriptive vs Prescriptive

I recently returned from the Emergence Christianity Conference or EC13 subtitled a salute to Phyllis Tickle. Phyllis could be described as a ball of energy. She opened her mouth and facts, figures, names, dates, and places poured out of her nonstop for an hour without notes. Most of us preacher types who labor for hours over a manuscript listened with amazement. According to Phyllis, Brian Mclaren is the theologian of Emergence Christianity, which would make Phyllis its historian. At the conference Phyllis, was more descriptive than prescriptive of Emergence Christianity. She does see Emergence Christianity historically as a part of the Great Emergence that is occurring globally. She also sees it as a movement. Then there are the subsets or labels of the groups within Emergence Christianity-such as Emergent, Emerging, Neo-monastics, House churches, Missionals, and the Hyphenated; such as Presby-mergent. Nothing like swimming in a bunch of labels with many folks who resist labeling period. In her recent book and in the lectures Phyllis sees the necessity to label because these group are not all birds of the same feather. Some of the distinctions between Emerging and Emergent have the look and feel of the Berlin Wall. Most of those present for the conference were of the Emergent, Neo-Monastic, Hyphenated, Missional type. The fact that Brian Mclaren was present was probably enough to keep some Emerging folks away. According to Phyllis' labels I find myself a sort of Hyphenated, Emergent, Missional, type in sympathy with Emerging folks. How about that for being ambiguous. What I do find is that over the past 10 years or so, my paradigm of the Christian faith and the church has shifted, and once the shift hits the fan, there is no going back. Sadly some folks do not acknowledge any shift or fan. In hanging around with other like minded folks I felt encouraged to keep finding fresh expressions of the faith and practices of Christianity. What exactly those will be, I do not know, only time will tell.