As my ordained ministry begins, I am pretty well entrenched within an institutional church (The Episcopal Church) and within an institution (St. Catherine's School) that falls within the governance of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. So, I am, I guess a "part of the system." As a long-time teacher, I tend to like some sense of order, and as a nearly life-long Episcopalian I tend to appreciate the benefits of tradition, hierarchy, and an ordered ecclesiology. However, I am fully aware that the way we've been "doing" church does not necessarily reach the majority of people today, and I am fully aware that our Episcopal Churches are (generally) not doing a good job of attracting and retaining members (otherwise known as Mission and Evangelism).
In seminary, my friend Steve was one of the folks who introduced me to The Emerging Church, and a course I took with Diana Butler Bass more fully introduced me to some of the aspects of The Emerging Church and also introduced me to the idea of the "Practicing Congregation" as one way to help move a congregation to deeper faith and community.
My task here, in the third post on The Emerging Church is to begin to find a way to define what The Emerging Church is, that is, to seek a definition. Part of the reason for this effort is because I have heard from several people their resistance to what they feel is "The Emerging Church" because it is "too conservative," or "too liberal," or "without a tradition," or "evangelical" (as if that was a bad thing...)
(The two other posts here on The Emerging Church were videos by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams on the Emerging Church, here and here)
As a starting point, I offer this introduction from the Wikipedia page on The Emerging Church as (perhaps) a beginning working definition. I hope to offer other definitions, and then to consider how The Emerging Church might interact with/intersect with The Episcopal Church, in which I am a priest. Already, there is an effort within The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion to find a connection with the Emerging Church, and a group of people call themselves "Anglimergent" - and I recommend checking out their network which you can find HERE.
From Wikipedia:
The emerging church (also known as the emerging church movement) is a controversial 21st-century Protestant Christian movement whose participants seek to engage postmodern people, especially the unchurched and post-churched.
"Emerging Christians" deconstruct and reconstruct Christian beliefs, certain culture norms, and methods in ways which will accommodate postmodern culture. This accommodation is found largely in this movement's embrace of postmodernism's postfoundational epistemology, and pluralistic approach to religion and spirituality. Proponents of this movement call it a "conversation" to emphasize its developing and decentralized nature as well as its emphasis on interfaith dialog rather than verbal evangelism. Some of the predominantly young participants in this movement prefer narrative presentations drawn from the biblical narratives over propositional, biblicist exposition.
Emerging church methodology includes frequent use of new technologies such as multimedia and the Internet. Emergent blogs are quite numerous, as are blogs of their opponents. They have not neglected more traditional means of communicating their ideas, however. Many emergent books and articles have been written, and leaders in the movement often conduct seminars. Parallel books, articles and seminars have been generated in opposition to the movement.
Critics of the movement are found mostly in some academic and evangelical circles. Some academics critique the movement for being without legitimate theological, historical and philosophical roots. Other academics like John Franke, Scot McKnight, F. LeRon Shults and the now deceased Stan Grenz have been vocal supporters of the movement. Conservative, evangelical theologians and pastors believe the movement's embrace of a postmodernist philosophy leads to unorthodox theology, relativism, antinomianism, universalism, and syncretism. These critics frequently equate emerging church theology with the liberal theology that has historically been at odds with Christian fundamentalism and Evangelicalism. Other evangelical leaders embrace the missiological insights of the movement.
Read the entire entry HERE.So, what is YOUR understanding of THE EMERGING CHURCH?
