Move over, "Emerging Church" - it's time for "Deep Church 9"!

Just when I thought I was up on on the latest in church marketing lingo and slogans I found out about a new movement, or wanna-be movement called "Deep Church". What is "deep church"? It is some approach to churchmanship that is on the one hand not quite as traditional as "traditional church", and on the other hand not quite as postmodern as "emerging church". It has all of the accouterments that one expects from such wanna-be movements these days: a website, Facebook page, a Twitter page, beautiful trendy people, and a leader who is I guess on en route to becoming a "celebrity" pastor/writer like Brian Mclaren. I heard about this in (of course) Christianity Today, which ran an article on it.

I have four words to say: Are you kidding me? "Deep Church"? It is pretty sad that in some traditions the sacred liturgy of the Church and the Gospel and the Catholic faith which it expresses is treated as nothing more than a commodity to be re-imaged, repackaged, and twisted and contorted at will to serve the latest perceived cultural needs. It's in part because of this slogan/wanna-be-celebrity mentality that the church is so weak and anemic today. All of these trendy names, and hip "concepts" (e.g. "shalom") really make church much more difficult and confusing than it is. I know that we continuing Anglican parishes have their fair share of problems - there's NO doubt about that. But I am so glad that our parishes are free from this goofy "slogan" mentality. It frees us to do what we have always done which is proclaim the Catholic faith in the Anglican tradition.