I experienced mixed emotions when I heard that Tony Jones was stepping down as National Coordinator of EmergentVillage. First there was a foreboding that my declining years would contain a lot less laughter.

And I won't deny that I was more anxious than Phil. 4:6 permits me to be: never has such a slap-dash, impromptu collection of religious dropouts ever been less well coordinated, and the last thing this world needs is a well-organized collection of religious dropouts. What if fate begins to play fast and loose with this arrangement and a leader emerges?

Just think about that the next time you feel drowsy while driving. You won't blink for the next 20 exits.

But I will miss Tony's lectures on Church History. From his interviews with Marie and Pastorboy to his sins against the mandolin, no one was ever tempted to confuse Tony Jones with a thoughtful person; there was an absence of gravitas in everything he did. He was amusing to watch: Tony made Barney the Dinosaur look like the Beast of Revelation.

(He even reworked his website to make himself appear more intimidating. Gone is that dorky image of a boy looking up at you from a sandbox. Now he looks like he wants to be confused with a logger or a soldier of fortune.)

Going also is this promising movement.

The "vibe" and the "ethos" have gone. Cohorts have already split. Disputes over the meaning of words have arisen. Some advise us to abandon the word emergent. Some people are already blacklisted.  Spokesblokes are becoming dissatisfied with the ethos, and they begin showing an inordinate interest in karpos.

(This is especially interesting to me. These people claim to be not Christians but "followers of Jesus", but to read St. Mark's account of the man, fruit was an important element in Jesus' ministry. Jesus said very little about water systems, "fair trade" and "gender equality", but what he said and did in connection with fruit-bearing strikes me as intriguingly portentous.)

Trucker Frank has vanished as a rôle model for church planters, and to my knowledge no seminary has hired him to chair any pastoral theology department.

Doug Pagitt is setting up a blogtalkradio schtick in his run for office in the state of Minnesota. Gone is the trombone abuse and The Roadshow That Bombed Everywhere. In fact, I will miss that gimcrack ad campaign/book tour/self-promotion scheme that made Tammy Faye and Jan Crouch look like such classy dames.

The movement has given us nothing in the way of art, goodness, experience, love of narrative, community, or humility, and the only mystery connected with the movement is what the word eschaton really means.

But our readers ought to take heart.

The going of Tony means the coming of a successor, and there are all sorts of people ready to step up and take ownership of this religious calamity. This is probably my favorite so far: Troy Bronsink (with knit cap, requisite glasses, soul patch and malfunctioning equipment) looks like he's serious about continuing the high standards of leadership Tony set during his administration.

Be on the lookout for further developments.