a cautious enthusiasm

Here's the deal. . . I really love the academic side of most things. I mean, back when I started college, I was dead set on going into Physics and working at NASA, so that gives you some insight into how some ways my mind thinks (although at the same time you need to realize there were some good reasons I didn't end up in that profession). So it is easy for me to go on websites about the emerging church (like The Ooze) and participate in the forums and learn the new linguistics of the whole movement, and resonate with what's being discussed and sift through all the different perspectives. And then I was looking at Mars Hill Graduate School's website, and it all seems so fresh and exciting and revolutionary, and I want to keep jumping in and moving ahead along with the whole thing.
However, as with any movement, there is the set of people who will only adopt the cerebral and image aspects of the movement, while inside they are the same people in different clothing playing a part.
I think I just get scared sometimes that I will become an intellectual hipster but not a disciple of Christ. . . that I will keep learning about all of these ways we are growing and being challenged as a community of faith and never live that outwardly in action. I don't want to just learn how to talk differently, I want to live differently.
I am not making a comment on any of these websites or on the emerging church, I am just commenting on my desire to guard my heart from living a deceptive existence. Doing something like church planting is a good reality check, because you can't live well in that context if you truly don't believe in what you're doing, or you end up finding out what isn't in sync with "God's rhythm" and change accordingly when the need is exposed. However, there is still that potential within all of us for the image change vs. inward change. Gotta watch that.
Anyway. A musing.