Thoughts on the Emergent Church
On her blog, http://jointheconversation.blogspot.com/, Amber shared about exploring the emerging church online. Knowing Amber, I was not surprised that she is attracted to what she found in that search. But what is the emergent church? I am certainly no expert, and I do not attend a “real” emergent church, even though I believe my pastor’s messages and approach are very emergent. It was my pastor who exposed me to the emergent church. He gave my older son, with my permission, a copy of Brian McLaren's book, "A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey". I am currently reading this book together with my younger son. He and I then discuss the different concepts about Christian spirituality which Brian McLaren raises.
There are so many names for the emerging church: the post-modern church, the pomo church, the emergent church, the ancient-future church. There are even people who are now calling themselves post-emergent. There are far more definitions and expressions of the emergent church. I have a bunch of links to various emergent church-related websites on the right, under "emergent stuff". Take a look if you want.
So what is the emergent church? Let me quickly talk about the modern age, which gave birth to the modern, traditional church, and the post-modern age, which is giving birth to the emergent church. I’ll summarize and paraphrase some of Brian McLaren’s thoughts on the change from one age to another.
The fuedal age slowly gave way to the modern age over a period of decades, primarily in the early 16th century. The transition was characterized by dramatic changes in communication, scientific understanding, transportation, political and economic systems, and military technology. There arose new ways of understanding the world and reality which threatened the authority of the existing religious establishment. The worldview held by people of the fuedal age was being challenged and surplanted by a new worldview, shaped, or even driven, by all these rapid changes. The same thing is happening in each of these areas again, with just as profound implications to our own systems and institutions.
The modern era was characterized by conquest and control. There developed a basic approach to life which said, "we can dissect and solve every problem." If it’s a disease, we will study it, experiment, and develop treatments and/or cures. If it’s the fact that being a Christian is a disorderly process and the God we worship is mysterious, then we will develop doctrine to guide our lives and organize a systematic theology to explain God and His universe.
The modern age has also been an age of individualism and consumerism. It has come to the point where we seem to say that if there is a solution for my every problem, then I shall buy those solutions, for my happiness is my God-given right. At it’s worst, the modern age is cold, and mechanical, where everything must be controlled. The emptiness of life in such an age drives us to seek solace in many lesser gods of pleasure. Even as Christians, all too often we seek control in our lives, hoping that this will bring us peace. But that emptiness can also drive us to God. However, the god which the modern church presents is often emasculated, caricaturized, truncated, fossilized, or worse.
One of the characteristics of “moderns” is the desire to define or dissect everything. We have this desire to “know” something in a way which we can handle. But God is so much bigger than all of that. That is one reason for the emergent church; a return to respecting the mystery of God and a rejection of the safe, conservative view of what it means to be His disciple.
The modernist approach: attempting to nail things down and deconstructing them so that we might understand them, is like being fascinated with a hummingbird, then catching it, pinning it down and dissecting it so that we can understand how it flies. We may discover something about the mechanics, but we totally disregard and destroy beauty and other intangibles. We treat life as secondary to knowledge. I think the modern church has a tendency to do much the same thing with faith. That is why the emergent church has arisen.
There are many who are extremely threatened by the emergent church, claiming that the post-modernist eschews all ultimate truths, and automatically tosses the Bible out as just another religious book. I think there are some in the emergent movement who do feel that way. But the emergent movement is not bound by any organizational boundaries, guidelines, or definitions. And the movement is constantly evolving. There are so many different voices. If you want to find something that is worthy of concern, you will find it. But if you want to find people who are genuinely seeking to find authenticity in their faith journey, who hold God in highest esteem, and respect His Word as His Word, and who seek to join together in community with like-minded people, then you will find that too.
One last thing. This is not about the emergent church vs. the modern/traditional church. It is not a competition. It is about one part of the Body of Christ adapting its approach to the realities of a new age. That does not make it New Age. It does not necessarily mean compromising the message. You can even find "emergent churches" that take hard positions on moral issues, and stand firm on traditional truths. Again, if you are looking for something to criticize in the emergent church you can find it. But the same can be said of the traditional church. What appeals to me is the grace that I find there, the hunger for authenticity, the desire for true communion and community. I am not looking for the church fad of the week. Candles and celtic crosses do not an emergent church make.
Below are some quotes about the emergent church.
the emerging church of the 21st century may have more in common with the church of the apostolic era, than with the church of the 20th century. many ancient practices of faith and ways of being communal are being re:booted and morphed for the needs of the future church. as leonard sweet writes, “our faith is ancient. our faith is future. we’re old-fashioned. we’re new-fangled. we’re orthodox. we’re innovators. we’re postmodern christians . . . today’s mission context provides the church with a chance to: 1. shake off any residual “leave it to beaver” orientation and begin swimming (even with a paddleboard) within the postmodern culture.
2. really trust the power of the gospel and learn to communicate it with authenticity, because for postmodern people, authenticity is primary. http://www.emergingchurch.org/
“If there’s one single thing that characterises emerging forms of church across the western world it’s that they are networked. There is no one leader or format or theology, nor is there likely to be. Instead there is a thriving mess of cross-linkage without regard for conventional church structures or channels of communication. It’s the context and lifeblood of the emerging church, the arteries of the Body so to speak, and yet it’s largely invisible to the existing institutional forms of church.” http://www.emergingchurch.info/reflection/stevecollins/index.htm
“We seem reluctant to name the emerging church. Perhaps our naming yet lacks an alphabet. We need some A, B, C’s before we can spell the word. So in a spirit of Genesis 2, and in partiality;
A = artistic, and so the emerging values the creative, the visual, the non-rational as essential to communication and being.
B = blogging, and so the emerging tell stories and learns from the stories of others. We listen, we ask, we grow through the wires of the internet
C = culturally sensitive, atune to the rationalising tendencies of modernity, we speak of a new landscape, a new missionary terrain in which God wants to be enfleshed as the Body of Christ
C= community loving, and so we thirst for deep, honest, emotional, vulnerable relationships with God and each other.
The alphabet continues at this website (it’s worth a visit): http://www.emergingchurch.info/reflection/stevetaylor/index.htm----
Peace, Michael
There are so many names for the emerging church: the post-modern church, the pomo church, the emergent church, the ancient-future church. There are even people who are now calling themselves post-emergent. There are far more definitions and expressions of the emergent church. I have a bunch of links to various emergent church-related websites on the right, under "emergent stuff". Take a look if you want.
So what is the emergent church? Let me quickly talk about the modern age, which gave birth to the modern, traditional church, and the post-modern age, which is giving birth to the emergent church. I’ll summarize and paraphrase some of Brian McLaren’s thoughts on the change from one age to another.
The fuedal age slowly gave way to the modern age over a period of decades, primarily in the early 16th century. The transition was characterized by dramatic changes in communication, scientific understanding, transportation, political and economic systems, and military technology. There arose new ways of understanding the world and reality which threatened the authority of the existing religious establishment. The worldview held by people of the fuedal age was being challenged and surplanted by a new worldview, shaped, or even driven, by all these rapid changes. The same thing is happening in each of these areas again, with just as profound implications to our own systems and institutions.
The modern era was characterized by conquest and control. There developed a basic approach to life which said, "we can dissect and solve every problem." If it’s a disease, we will study it, experiment, and develop treatments and/or cures. If it’s the fact that being a Christian is a disorderly process and the God we worship is mysterious, then we will develop doctrine to guide our lives and organize a systematic theology to explain God and His universe.
The modern age has also been an age of individualism and consumerism. It has come to the point where we seem to say that if there is a solution for my every problem, then I shall buy those solutions, for my happiness is my God-given right. At it’s worst, the modern age is cold, and mechanical, where everything must be controlled. The emptiness of life in such an age drives us to seek solace in many lesser gods of pleasure. Even as Christians, all too often we seek control in our lives, hoping that this will bring us peace. But that emptiness can also drive us to God. However, the god which the modern church presents is often emasculated, caricaturized, truncated, fossilized, or worse.
One of the characteristics of “moderns” is the desire to define or dissect everything. We have this desire to “know” something in a way which we can handle. But God is so much bigger than all of that. That is one reason for the emergent church; a return to respecting the mystery of God and a rejection of the safe, conservative view of what it means to be His disciple.
The modernist approach: attempting to nail things down and deconstructing them so that we might understand them, is like being fascinated with a hummingbird, then catching it, pinning it down and dissecting it so that we can understand how it flies. We may discover something about the mechanics, but we totally disregard and destroy beauty and other intangibles. We treat life as secondary to knowledge. I think the modern church has a tendency to do much the same thing with faith. That is why the emergent church has arisen.
There are many who are extremely threatened by the emergent church, claiming that the post-modernist eschews all ultimate truths, and automatically tosses the Bible out as just another religious book. I think there are some in the emergent movement who do feel that way. But the emergent movement is not bound by any organizational boundaries, guidelines, or definitions. And the movement is constantly evolving. There are so many different voices. If you want to find something that is worthy of concern, you will find it. But if you want to find people who are genuinely seeking to find authenticity in their faith journey, who hold God in highest esteem, and respect His Word as His Word, and who seek to join together in community with like-minded people, then you will find that too.
One last thing. This is not about the emergent church vs. the modern/traditional church. It is not a competition. It is about one part of the Body of Christ adapting its approach to the realities of a new age. That does not make it New Age. It does not necessarily mean compromising the message. You can even find "emergent churches" that take hard positions on moral issues, and stand firm on traditional truths. Again, if you are looking for something to criticize in the emergent church you can find it. But the same can be said of the traditional church. What appeals to me is the grace that I find there, the hunger for authenticity, the desire for true communion and community. I am not looking for the church fad of the week. Candles and celtic crosses do not an emergent church make.
Below are some quotes about the emergent church.
the emerging church of the 21st century may have more in common with the church of the apostolic era, than with the church of the 20th century. many ancient practices of faith and ways of being communal are being re:booted and morphed for the needs of the future church. as leonard sweet writes, “our faith is ancient. our faith is future. we’re old-fashioned. we’re new-fangled. we’re orthodox. we’re innovators. we’re postmodern christians . . . today’s mission context provides the church with a chance to: 1. shake off any residual “leave it to beaver” orientation and begin swimming (even with a paddleboard) within the postmodern culture.
2. really trust the power of the gospel and learn to communicate it with authenticity, because for postmodern people, authenticity is primary. http://www.emergingchurch.org/
“If there’s one single thing that characterises emerging forms of church across the western world it’s that they are networked. There is no one leader or format or theology, nor is there likely to be. Instead there is a thriving mess of cross-linkage without regard for conventional church structures or channels of communication. It’s the context and lifeblood of the emerging church, the arteries of the Body so to speak, and yet it’s largely invisible to the existing institutional forms of church.” http://www.emergingchurch.info/reflection/stevecollins/index.htm
“We seem reluctant to name the emerging church. Perhaps our naming yet lacks an alphabet. We need some A, B, C’s before we can spell the word. So in a spirit of Genesis 2, and in partiality;
A = artistic, and so the emerging values the creative, the visual, the non-rational as essential to communication and being.
B = blogging, and so the emerging tell stories and learns from the stories of others. We listen, we ask, we grow through the wires of the internet
C = culturally sensitive, atune to the rationalising tendencies of modernity, we speak of a new landscape, a new missionary terrain in which God wants to be enfleshed as the Body of Christ
C= community loving, and so we thirst for deep, honest, emotional, vulnerable relationships with God and each other.
The alphabet continues at this website (it’s worth a visit): http://www.emergingchurch.info/reflection/stevetaylor/index.htm----
Peace, Michael
4 Comments:
Outstanding post. This is the most informative piece on the emergent movement I have seen. Have read bits and pieces about the emergent church primarily through the links listed on grace' blog, but I really haven't delved into them much. As with anything I am weary of new fads which seem to come and go.
I suppose one can say that the evangelical movement was "emergent" of some sort when it was new. Out were things that characterized the traditonal church - choir, pews, sunday school clothing, - and in were casual clothing, youth oriented culture, etc.
Now it appears that the evangelical church has become part of the establishment.
Great and informative. I think I will follow the links and read up on it more.
Thanks, David! I appreciate your comments. I'm very glad that it was helpful.
I just came across another name for the emergent movement: "radical orthodoxy". The site where I found it recommended googling that term. Perhaps I shall do just that. :)
If it’s the fact that being a Christian is a disorderly process and the God we worship is mysterious, then we will develop doctrine to guide our lives and organize a systematic theology to explain God and His universe.
Michael, I meant to tell you that this is one of the most astute and succinct observations about today's church I've seen.
What we have today is a paradox. We do not have a sense of mysticism any more. We attempt to explain everything often in simplistic and cheesy Christianese terms. But at the same time, there is a very strong anti-intellectual bent within the Church. Can we say the worst of both worlds?
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