One of the churches profiled in this fascinating NYTimes piece on emergent Christian churches

The piece puts the movement in a very interesting context that I’ve not seen before in other articles, but that strikes me as very accurate: a reaction against megachurches.

Expanding his ministry, Mr. Kimball brought in candles and crosses from garage sales, and began reading long passages from the Bible, inviting people to talk back to him or discuss what the stories meant to them as a group. In contrast to the bright and cheerful big churches, he said, “younger people want it like a dusty cathedral.”

“They want a sense of mystery and transcendence,” he said. “Anything that sniffs of performance turns them off.”

I read stories like this, and I try to figure out how the Catholic Church fits into this picture. What is described here are young people who are seeking stability, strength, and, as Kimball says, mystery and transcendence. But they do not seem to be seeking that through means that are easily or initially mediated through institutions that could be identified with human authority (although, being human institutions, that will evolve as the emergent churches evolve because it always does.) And they may want mystery, but they don’t want stuffy or stiffly formal. Obviously:

At Spirit Garage in Minneapolis, in a small theater, congregants can pick up earplugs at the door in case the Spirit Garage Band is too loud. At Solomon’s Porch across town, a crowd of about 300 takes weekly communion “house party”-style, chatting with plastic cups of wine and pieces of pastry before one announces, “Take and eat the body of Christ.”

Don’t have any brilliant conclusions. Too tired. You do it for me.