Nov 20 2006
emerging church dead end?
It may be self serving but I am encouraged when I see others speaking out for a post emergent future for the emerging church. Here is a snippet of a review from a talk given by Jason Clark titled The Emerging Church: Another Dead-End or the Hope of the Church?
First, it must become a deeper church by valuing old, new and even Christian faith.
Second, following the example and work of such theologians as Stan Grenz, Jon Franke, Scott McKnight, and Ray Anderson, it must become a theological church by developing a theology robust enough not to be either threatened or co-opted by postmodernism.
Third, it must become a Biblically-informed church by reading and re-reading the Bible as the church- and culture- critiquing set of authoritative texts that it is.
Fourth, following the ancient church on the road to depth, it must become a creedal church, checking the individualistic impulse towards fashioning the church in the image of ourselves.
Fifth, it must become a confessional church, not to celebrate sectarianism, but to show the richness and vitality of a deeper church. “Maybe then,” says Jason, the emerging church’s legacy will be that it was “the response of the church catholic to our emerging culture … known for it’s vibrant ecumenical depth, with a life giving theology, rooted in a new Biblicism, growing counter to our individualized culture, as it affirms the creeds, with a plurality of local confessions from communities growing in faith, with new Christians handing their lives over to the way of Christ.” We can only hope the emerging church will have such an impact.
I couldn’t agree more with Jason’s assessment of an emerging future for the church. His observations address the tendency of many in the emergent conversation to act as it they are inventing the church all over again. Furthermore that re-invention tends toward the image of those who are doing the re-inventing that is to say white, liberal, male and academic. While there is nothing inherently wrong with any of that it has not created space for the richness of the church which comes from its history and the diversity of its members.
That has unfortunately caused some to step out of or beyond “the conversation” having become frustrated with perceived the intransigence of the emergent hierarchy, (yes there is a hierarchy) around these issues. Thanks to Jason for being a bold and prophetic. Maybe his voice will be heard and stimulate where others have not.
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3 Responses to “emerging church dead end?”
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Interesting thoughts. I do not mean this to be critical, but I see much of the post-emergent stuff being relevant to the American expression of the emerging church (with some cross-over, but not as much). Any thoughts?
Jamie,
I think you are right. It is very much an American animal. I think because American Christianity has been so culturally distorted. Also because race and post colonial issues have never really been dealt with in American Christianity. The Us emerging church still has that residue to deal with and hasn’t seen its way to deal with it yet.
It strikes me (from my limited experience) is the way that the emerging church is expressed outside the US is much more diverse, much less reactionary, and much more functional in terms of an emerging church. it feels like it is less about proving a point to the modern church and more about living out what it means to be the church in this new emerging context.
The flavor of our churches are a response to our culture. If America is 20 years behind Europe then we might lose the war of American Christianity. I think we feel this in our bones, "We’re losing ground fast." People are leaving the church. So we respond by finding new ways to create church that meet the needs of people who have decided that traditional Christianity is outdated. So we create new churches to meet people’s needs. A church for each culture. Some like Mcdonalds, some Burger King- but everyone can "have it their way." This might be at the heart of the lack of diversity in the post-modern church. As long as we create "niche" churches, we will find only a dead end in racially reconciled churches. There are white churches that feel more like John Mayer, and African-American churches that feel more like Kirk Franklin. Then there are some Wal-mart churches that try to do everything. I think this is moving towards the heart of our issues. churchtogether.blogspot.com