Why UUmergent?

I was introduced to the idea of the Emergent (or Emerging) Christian movement sometime this summer in one of those wonderful synchronicities that flag something for me as important: or, put another way, important things always come in threes. First, I saw a book titled something like "why we aren't emergent (by two guys who ought to be)" in the Seminary bookstore...picking it up, I quickly decided that whatever "emergent" was,  if the authors were against it I was for it! The next day I saw the "emerging church" mentioned in a news article with a quote from some guy named Brian McLaren. Interesting. The next time I was in the Seminary bookstore, I happened on a copy of Peter Rollins' How (not) to speak of God  on clearance. I picked it up, quickly read the first two chapters (amazing for me) and decided I was an Emergent Unitarian. 

Soon thereafter, a series of conversations with new friend and fellow seminarian Mike Clawson convinced me that there is a tremendous synergy between what the Unitarian Universalist movement is trying to do and what the Emergent Church movement is trying to do. We come at it from opposite angles, perhaps -- Mike, from a post-evangelical perspective of working to broaden the scope of conservative Christianity, and myself, from a post-liberal perspective of trying to remind Unitarian Universalists that the Christian message is at the heart of everything we believe and do. But we find common ground, I think, in three principles (correct me if I'm wrong, Mike!):

1. Nurture the Spirit / Heal the Broken. Provide a home for the religiously damaged to rebuild a positive faith in community with others who are on the same journey.
2. Heal the World / Be the Change. Build a just, loving, and sustainable world community one small step at a time.
3. What you believe is less important than how you act out your faith, and how you let your beliefs be in conversation with those of others.

Sound like a good description of Unitarian Universalism? Turns out it isn't a bad description of the New Christianity, either. Imagine that!