Transmergence
Don’t go reaching for the dictionary. You will not find the word there. It is new - a brand new word. While struggling last week to craft a way to describe how followers of Christ in North America could or should interact with, crossover to, and learn from brothers and sisters in the majority world Church (Africa, Latin America, and Asia), I felt the necessity of a new word. So, here it is - transmergence. The prefix ‘trans’ means spanning across, going beyond narrow interests, or crossing over, “mergence’ carries the sense of bringing together, integrating into, or submerging with.
trans·merg·ence\trant(t)s-’mər-jən(t)s\n : the crossing over to another person or perspective that is radically different, in such a way that transformation occurs for both parties.
My experience is that words such as partnership, cooperation, and collaboration do not carry the weight of what is required for the global encounter between Christians. While such words may convey the necessity of a two-way encounter, the aspect of mutual transformation is missing. When a church is transmergence, it is actively and intentionally seeking transformation in the process. This, I believe, is what missions in the twenty-first century must look like - because people are transformed by people who are continually being transformed.
Thus, the transmergent church will do more than pray for believers in India, make trips to Africa, or fund the church in Cuba. The transmergent church will exist in solidarity and love with Indians, Africans, and Cuban brothers and sisters in the hope of being transformational and being transformed.
Transmergence! Remember that you first heard it here!
3 comments
I like it, Doc!
A sister word to transmergent and maybe less sophisticated of a word could be “transmingle.” “Transmingle” would mean to mix, to combine, to blend, to unite, to merge, to join, to come together, to jumble (I like jumble!). We could all benefit from a little mingling. Maybe missionaries should just go out and transmingle or transmerge! What a concept.
Does the word transmergence bring in an aspect of equal unity? I sense that in your pharagraph:
“The transmergent church will exist in solidarity and love with Indians, Africans, and Cuban brothers and sisters in the hope of being transformational and being transformed. ”
And I believe that it is an important aspect of how cross cultural churches should interact.
It is even stronger when you say:
““mergence’ carries the sense of bringing together, integrating into, or submerging with.”
Perhaps you should expand the formal definition to include more of the “merge” part of the word.
Good word.
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